Iwan Pylypow

Iwan Pylypiw or Ivan Pylypow (Іван Пилипiв, September 28, 1859 – October 10, 1936) was one of the first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada in 1891–93, along with Vasyl Eleniak.

Pylypow was born in the village of Nebyliv in Kalush county (povit) in Austrian Galicia (today Kalush Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). He was a peasant logging contractor, and after falling on hard times considered finding a better life abroad, like many other Galicians of the time. Pylypiv had heard about free lands in Canada from German neighbours, and after corresponding with former classmate Johan Krebs, who had initially settled near Medicine Hat, North-West Territories, he set off for Canada with his friends Eleniak and Tyt Ziniak in the fall of 1891.

Ziniak was turned back at the Austrian–German border, but Pylypiv and Eleniak traveled via Halifax, Nova Scotia to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they met several ethnic German loggers who had worked for Pylypow. They visited the loggers' homesteads near Langenburg, North-West Territories, and went as far west as Calgary. Unimpressed with the land near the railway, they went back to Manitoba, where a visit to a Mennonite settlement at Gretna convinced Pylypiv that Canada was a viable destination. Eleniak, out of money, stayed to work for the winter, while Pylypow returned to Galicia for their families before settling in Canada permanently.

When he arrived back in Austria-Hungary his account of vast, unsettled lands prompted both excitement and skepticism. When some learned that Pylypiv expected to receive a commission from a Hamburg steamship company and accused him of swindling, he was arrested for sedition, soliciting emigration, and fraud. After awaiting trial for three months in jail, on May 12, 1892, he was sentenced to another month. Although Pylypow's efforts at promotion were doused, his arrest and trial had generated publicity, and seven families led by Anton Paish and Mykola Tychkovsky set off for the Canadian Prairies. A few stopped to work briefly with Eleniak in Gretna, and then continued on to meet the rest in the District of Alberta. With the help of Krebs, the families found homesteads 12 mi east of the Galician German settlement of Josephburg, northeast of Edmonton.

Pylypiv and his family finally caught up with the group in 1893, settling at Edna-Star, then in the District of Alberta, east of Fort Saskatchewan, where he farmed and became very active in the co-operative movement. He died a wealthy man in 1936 at the age of 77 years.

The last farmhouse he lived in, the third one he built in the Edna-Star area, is now a part of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, located east of Edmonton, Alberta. The "Pylypow Industrial" subdivision of Edmonton is named after him.

Mistakenly, some people believed that Pylypow Lake in Saskatchewan was also named after him. It was not. The Province of Saskatchewan honoured the memory of those who gave their lives in preserving ideals of free men during World War II by naming northern topographical features after them. Pylypow Lake was named after Pte. Steve Pylypow.

A letter, dated September 26, 1956, from the Minister of Natural Resources (Province of Saskatchewan) to Steve's father (Michael Pylypow) read:

Mr. Pylypow, GLASLYN, Saskatchewan.

Dear Mr. Pylypow:

I am pleased to advise that Pylypow Lake has been officially adopted as a Canadian map and place name and will honour for all time the memory of your valiant son Steve who gave his life during World War II to preserve the principles and ideals of free men.

Pylypow Lake will appear on future revised maps of the Foster Lake area and will be associated for all time with the service of your son.

Yours sincerely,

A. G. Kuziak, Minister.