Blysak
  Blysak  
 

Ed Blysak lives today with his wife Barbara in the house he was born in. Ed’s father, Joseph Blysak was born in the village of Biely Potok, Slovakia in 1874, and came to Canada and eventually Field and Golden in the 1890s working as roadmaster for the CPR.

Joseph and his wife, Veronica Kompan, had 8 children and in 1914, the Blysak family moved from the CPR house at the Golden station to the new home on 7th St. N. Carpenter James Henderson was hired to join the new house to a cabin on the property. Peter and Veronica Yurik, neighbours from

 

the same Slovakian village, lived next door. Every piece of land around the houses was cultivated for vegetables, so the wood pile was stacked outside the fence line - on Town property.

Joseph’s wife, Veronica, took ill and died in 1926. Needing a wife and mother for his large family, Joe went back to Biely Potok and brought back widow Angelina Vavrecan and her daughter Sophie to Golden. Ed was born in 1930 and as his mother spoke very little English, and all the neighbours spoke Slovak, it’s said that the pre-school Ed rode all over town on his tricycle as happy as can be -

 

 

speaking only Slovak.

Ed is holding a family portrait taken in 1911 of his father Joe, first wife Veronica and their children. Behind Ed, is an image taken by William Wenman in June of 1916 looking down 7th St. N. The house set back is the Yuricks’ and the last house on the street is Ed’s family home – still standing. Apart from flooding the town, floodwaters also tore out the fill of the approach to the Kootenay Central Railway bridge south of town. There have been four to five floods in Golden since the 1900s – the last in 1972.