Background
Pylypow was born in the village of Nebyliv in Kalush county (povit) in Austrian Galicia (today Rozhniativ Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast).
Pylypow was born in the village of Nebyliv in Kalush county (povit) in Austrian Galicia (today Rozhniativ Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast).
He was a peasant logging contractor, and after falling on hard times considered finding a better life abroad, like many other Galicians of the time. Ziniak was turned back at the Austrian border, but Pylypiv and Eleniak travelled via Halifax to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they met several German loggers who had worked for Pylypow. They visited the loggers" homesteads near Langenburg, Saskatchewan, and went as far west as Calgary, Alberta.
Eleniak, out of money, stayed to work for the winter, while Pylypow returned to Galicia for their families before settling in Canada permanently.
When he arrived back in Austro-Hungary his account of vast, unsettled lands prompted both excitement and skepticism. When some learned that Pylypiv expected to receive a commission from a Hamburg steamship company and accused him of swindling, he was arrested for sedition, soliciting emigration, and fraud.
After awaiting trial for three months in jail, on May 12, 1892, he was sentenced to another month. Although Pylypiv"s efforts at promotion were doused, his arrest and trial had generated publicity, and seven families led by Anton Paish and Mykola Tychkovsky set off for the Canadian Prairies.
A few stopped to work briefly with Eleniak in Gretna, and then continued on to meet the rest in Alberta.
With the help of Krebs, the families found homesteads near a German-speaking colony, north-east of Edmonton. Pylypiv and his family finally caught up with the group in 1893, settling at Edna-Star, Alberta, in the vicinity of Fort Saskatchewan, where he farmed and became very active in the co-operative movement. He died a wealthy man in 1936 at the age of 77 years.
His farmhouse is now a part of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, located east of Edmonton, Alberta.
The "Pylypow Industrial" subdivision of Edmonton, and Pylypow Lake in Saskatchewan are also named after him.