Oyen’s flour mill story dates back to 1931

By Joan Janzen

Oyen’s history book “Many Trails Crossed Here” contains nuggets of history about Oyen and the citizens who lived there decades ago. In 1931 Jack Scharback and Phil and Josephine (nee Scharback) Balargeon owned a flour mill in Oyen. Phil and his wife and her brother Jack moved to Youngstown from Ontario in the early 1920s, where they farmed and did some blacksmith work.

Mrs. Busbym, Jack Scharback, with Josephine and Phil Balargeon, flour mill owners. Photo Many Trails Crossed Here

Phil also ran a flour mill in Youngstown up until 1930. He was a millwrite who worked very hard helping out his neighbours. He worked with Josephine’s brother Jack who was an excellent carpenter.

In 1931, Jack was instrumental in the building of a new flour mill one mile west of Oyen, East half Section 33, 27-44. It took three months and a total of three carloads of lumber to construct the mill. They moved the boilers and mill machinery from Youngstown using an old white truck.

During one of the trips to Oyen, Phil had a flat tire. The mill machinery was very heavy so he used a large jack to lift the truck while he took the tire to Oyen to be repaired. When he returned to the truck, the jack had been stolen. Not only did they move the machinery, but they also moved their home.

Three months after construction had begun, they began milling flour at Oyen, as well as farming near Sibbald. This continued until 1942 when Phil became ill and died in June, 1943. At that time Jack stopped milling, but did grind feed into chop until the fall of 1945. At that time the property was sold to Roy and Pauline Jacques. Jack passed away in 1953 and was buried in the Oyen Cemetery; Josephine moved to the coast and died in 1954.