Fonds 0193 - Trelle family fonds

Beatrice Trelle with her Children in her Flower Garden Kay and Marie Trelle Wembley Wheat Kings A field of stooked oats. Herman Trelle displays his wheat crop. Western Soils Products Exhibition. Chicago Wheat King Trophies Beatrice and Herman Trelle - Wheat Kings. The Trelles display three trophies. Roping horses and riders.
Results 1 to 10 of 106 Show all

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Trelle family fonds

General material designation

  • Graphic material
  • Textual record
  • Sound recording

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on contents of the fonds.

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA GPR 0193

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

Physical description area

Physical description

5 cm of textual records
626 photographs
226 postcards
2 sound recordings

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(Unknown-1945)

Biographical history

Herman Trelle was an internationally recognized grain farmer from the Peace Country who won many international grain championships and awards in the 1920s and early 1930s. His work, along with that of other award winners, proved the potential of the rich farmland of the Peace River Country and turned the agricultural limelight on the northland. <p>Herman William Trelle filed on the NW 26-71-8-W6th in 1911, when he was still in high school at Alberta College. For the next few years, he spent summers proving up his homestead and working in his father's sawmill, and winters in Edmonton where he studied physics at the University of Alberta. In 1916 he began farming full time and after he had proved up in1917, enlisted in World War I. After the war he married Beatrice Irene Burdick whom he had met while working in his father's mill. Beatrice was born in1901 to Frank and May Burdick in Fairmont, Minnesota. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was five years old and Beatrice was sent to live with her maternal grandparents, the Edward Rimmermans. In 1912, they came over the Edson Trail and homesteaded at Rolla, B.C. It was at there that she met Herman Trelle and married him on December 25, 1919. When the senior Trelles retired in 1920, Herman and Beatrice took over the family farm. <p>Herman and Beatrice Trelle farmed very successfully at Saskatoon Lake, and soon gained international recognition for growing prize winning grain in the Peace Country. Their first award was at the Edmonton show in 1922 for Ruby wheat and Banner oats, then in 1923 they won third prize in spring wheat at the Chicago Fair. This was the beginning of multiple awards. In 1928 they won a double championship in wheat and oats at that same fair, the first time in history that the two championships had been won by a single competitor. According to an article by Ina Bruns, "from 1926 to 1934 he won 135 international awards. Between 1926-1928 he and his wife entered 56 exhibits in thirteen major shows and won 43 championships, 14 were international. In 1931, Herman Trelle won not only the wheat crown, but world titles for oats, rye, flax and timothy." To achieve these distinctions during the Great Depression brought hope for a hungry world and world attention to the Trelles and the Peace River Country. Ironically, it was the Great Depression that saw the demise of the Trelle farm, which became so bogged down with debt that the family was moved into Grande Prairie. Like many thousands of farmers, the king of the seed kings had become a victim of the Depression. (Ina Bruns, 1979);<p>When World War II broke out, Herman again enlisted with the Canadian Army and was stationed first in Calgary and then in Ottawa. He was discharged in 1943 for health reasons, and the family moved to California where he was to supervise an olive grove ranch. On September 2, 1945, he was murdered there by a fired ranch foreman. Herman is buried at Inglewood Cemetery, Los Angeles, California. Beatrice died in 1960 and is buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, County of Santa Clara, California. <p>Herman and Beatrice had three children, all born on the farm at Lake Saskatoon: Marie Ellen, born in 1922; Roy Kay in 1924; and Ronald in 1933. Marie (Trelle) Baynton became a registered nurse in San Antonia, Texas, Kay an aeronautical engineer who worked in the United States for many years before returning to Canada, and Ronald an electronics engineer in San Jose, California.

Custodial history

Originally ten photographs were donated to South Peace Regional Archives by Kay and Mae Trelle in 2006 for inclusion in a display about the Wheat Kings at the Grande Prairie Museum. The personal papers and the bulk of the family photographs were deposited by Kay and Mae Trelle in 2011.

Scope and content

The fonds consists of personal papers and a large collection of family photographs collected by Herman and Beatrice Trelle. The personal papers relate to Herman and Beatrice Trelle, Marie (Trelle) Baynton, Kay and Marie Trelle and Ronald Trelle. As well, there is a collection of articles written about the Trelle family for newspapers and magazines, and a few paper artifacts related to the community of Lake Saskatoon. The photograph collection includes the Andreas Trelle family, the Zimmerman family, the Herman Trelle family (including service in World War II), the Trelle family farm, the Trelles as World Wheat Kings and on their World Tour, community photographs from the Peace River Country, and some largely unidentified photographs of the extended family.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Originally ten photographs were donated to South Peace Regional Archives by Kay and Mae Trelle in 2006 for inclusion in a display about the Wheat Kings at the Grande Prairie Museum. The personal papers and the bulk of the family photographs were deposited by Kay and Mae Trelle in 2011.

Arrangement

Language of material

Script of material

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

There are no restrictions on access.

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

Associated materials

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Alpha-numeric designations

Accession numbers: 2006.007; 2011.03; 2011.12

Alternative identifier(s)

Standard number area

Standard number

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Control area

Description record identifier

0193

Institution identifier

South Peace Regional Archives

Rules or conventions

Level of detail

Partial

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

Sources

Accession area

Related people and organizations

Related places

Related genres