Iwan Pylypow

Who was Iwan Pylypow?

Ivan Pylypiv or Iwan Pylypow and Vasyl Eleniak were the first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada in 1891–93.

Pylypow was born in the village of Nebyliv in Kalush county in Austrian Galicia. 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 settled near Medicine Hat, Alberta, he set off for Canada with his friends Eleniak and Tyt Ziniak in the fall of 1891.

Ziniak was turned back at the Austrian border, but Pylypiv and Eleniak travelled via Halifax to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they met several German loggers who had worked for Pylypow. They visited the loggers' homesteads near Langenburg, Saskatchewan, and went as far west as Calgary, Alberta. Unimpressed with the land near the railway, they went back to Manitoba, where a visit to a Mennonite settlement at Gretna convinced Pylypow 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.