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
Repository
Reference code
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
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
A finding aid is available at http://southpeacearchives.org/herman-trelle-family-fonds/
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
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Level of detail
Partial
Language of description
- English