After the war, Sutherland Henderson Troyer opened up a butcher shop in Magnetawan, Ontario but his business failed because of his generosity. During the Depression, Troyer always gave the villagers meat on credit and no one had money to pay him back. “He couldn’t refuse people and did not want to see children go hungry,” said Judy Modray, Troyer’s granddaughter.

When he returned to Magnetawan, southeast of Sudbury, he married Violet McMillan and they had three children—Muriel, Gloria, and James. He worked as a bus driver but they had very little money. “Life was really hard for him,” said Modray.

Troyer enlisted from Toronto on February 23, 1916, and served with the 166th Battalion. Prior to the First World War, he served in the 33rd Hurons, spending one year as a private. His uniform and medal are on display in the museum in Magnetawan, a small village of three hundred people. Donald McMillan, Violet’s father, was one of the first people in the village in 1865 and worked as the village’s postmaster and druggist. Though Troyer wasn’t religious, his wife was instrumental in starting a church in Magnetawan.

Troyer was born in Hensall, Ontario on December 16, 1890. He died in 1959.

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