Frank and Stella PlaqueOn this land, Frank (1903-2000) and Stella Golka (1919-2009) raised their family and built the heart of their lumber business. Their story is one of perseverance, faith, and partnership.
Frank was born in Madawaska and lived his early years there, attending school for only three days before working alongside his father on the family farm and in the sawmill. At fifteen, his family moved to a farm near Renfrew, where he continued helping his father and assisting neighbouring farmers. In August 1928, Frank and his brother Steve travelled west to Saskatchewan to work on the wheat harvest, returning the following year to cut logs at Bruly Lake in Algonquin Park.
In May 1929, Frank purchased his first sawmill in Combermere for $400, located south of the bridge. Four years later, fire destroyed the mill. Because the land was rented, Frank resolved not to rebuild unless he could buy the property outright. By 1936, he secured land from the Waddingtons and rebuilt with a new steam-powered mill. The operation employed eighteen men and was outfitted with a jack-ladder, log deck, carriage, saws, conveyors, and lumber decks. At times, the mill was dismantled and moved to Halfway to meet demand. In 1937, it returned to Combermere, where Frank began custom sawing for Murray Brothers. By 1947, he owned the largest fleet of logging trucks in the area. A second fire struck in 1950, however, undeterred Frank immediately rebuilt, while also purchasing Henry Chapeskie’s mill in Barry’s Bay, located behind St. Hedwig’s Cemetery. In the early 1960s, he moved that mill to Harvey Lake near Rolphton, sawing logs for Shaw Lumber until later renting it to M.W. Miller and Sons in Eganville.
On February 2, 1937, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Combermere, Frank and Stella Golka were joined in the bonds of holy matrimony. Before their marriage, Stella had arrived with her widowed mother and siblings at age fifteen and attended Sacred Heart School. Bright and capable, she first worked as a cook for Frank’s men, later became bookkeeper, homemaker, and eventually a loving and devoted mother to seven children—Bernadette, Terry, Shirley, Fidelis, Imelda, Raphael, and Michael. In 1941, Frank and Stella built their family home beside the mill, where faith and family life flourished. Their business was a true partnership, with Stella playing a vital role. The boys contributed by working in the mill, while the girls helped their mother with domestic duties. Stella also served for many years as a parish organist and played an active role in community picnics and bazaars.
The Pastway sawmill closed in 1972 after 46 years. Yet the Pastway legacy endured. Their son, Raphael, founded Pastway Planing Ltd., which grew into one of Canada’s leading wood treatment plants, employing many and carrying on the family tradition.
Today, the Pastway name remains inseparably linked with lumber. For three generations, it has truly been in their very family heritage—a tradition of work, sacrifice, and love that still echos from this place.
The full story of Frank and Stella Pastway is available in a printed book, obtainable locally from the family.