Dr. Jon Kristjan Austman

When I wrote my diary in 1933, Dr. Austman was practicing medicine in Kandahar and Wynyard along with his senior mentor Dr. Brawley.  Two years after arriving in the area, the Kandahar Village Council appointed Jon the Medical Health Officer for Kandahar.  He later held the post of Municipal Doctor for  the Royal Municipality of Big Quill.  Jon was married to Olof Oddsson, whom he married in 1916 at Selkirk Manitoba.  They had three children, a boy Kristjan and twin girls, Thora and Raquel.

In those days the doctor came to the patient, so Jon was always on the roads with his horse-drawn cutter in summer, or sleigh in the winter.  He sometimes took the Train from Wynyard to Kandahar or Dafoe and was picked up by family or friends of the patient.  This was the case on March 27th when my brother Clarence picked Jon up with our sleigh at the "Kandahar Grade" on his way to treat Dougherty's nine month old baby Irene who had pneumonia.  The following Sunday (April 2nd.), Clarence and I helped Jon traverse Dougherty's field in his sleigh on his second trip to see Irene, who subsequently recovered from her life threatening illness.

In the depressed thirties, payment for a doctor's services was rarely all cash, so Jon was often compensated with farm produce.  Many a time he left for home with a chicken or two, some eggs, a roast of beef or depending on the season, garden vegetables.

Today we have family doctors, but in 1933 Jon was the "District" doctor to every family living there.  Dr. Austman devotedly served our community from 1926 until he moved away in 1936 to continue his medical studies.

Jon Kristjan Austman 1890-1966    Olof Austman (nee Oddsson)
Kristjan 1917-    Thora 1922-    Raquel 1922-