We are a family business operating in Saskatchewan, Canada. We specialize in recreating customized family favourite board games from quality wood products.
Our Story
What started as a hobby in 2018, quickly grew into a small business. We primarily sold our games in our gift shop Sous Sol – Gift Boutique, Hair Salon and Coffee Shop, located in Debden, Saskatchewan.
In mid-2019, we made the shift to selling online, using the Etsy platform, and have since shipped games to all corners of Canada and the United States.
The next step was to start our own online store where we could offer our games at the discounted price that we charge in our Debden shop.
We look forward to fulfilling your orders,
Armand, Stacey, Jozie & Jacques
Zepherin Games
Zepherin Games – The Story Behind the Name
Many of our customers are intrigued by the name and ask us how we came up with it. I initially started this woodworking business as a hobby that my son, Jacques, and I could work on together. When brainstorming names for our father-son business, I liked the idea of somehow naming it after Jacques, since the intention was that he would help out and eventually take over when he was able. Jacque’s middle name is Zeph, inspired by my great-grandfather, Zepherin Tetreault. Thus the name Zepherin Games came to be.
So who was Zepherin Tetreault?
Zepherin Tetreault was born in St-Sebastien, Quebec on April 18, 1878. Sometime after his birth, the family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Zepherin Tetreault was 28 years old when he married Arzelie Breault in 1906. They had two very young children when Arzelie died of tuberculosis in 1909. Devasted by the death of his wife, Zepherin left his two children in the care of relative and succumbed to the call of Father Philippe-Antoine Berube who was recruiting French-speaking people to help settle Western Canada.
Father Berube arrived in Prince Albert, SK. in mid-April 1910 accompanied by 50-60 French immigrants, mainly recruited in the Quebec and New England States. Monseigneur Albert Pascal, the bishop of the Prince Albert Diocese, welcomed the new settlers by ringing the Cathedral bells as the train rolled into the city. The railway only went as far as Shellbrook, so the rest of the journey had to take place by foot. The immigrants loaded their belongings on carts and headed through the wilderness, led by a guide hired by Father Berube. This guide got lost on the second day and many of the disgruntled recruits ended up heading back and settling elsewhere. Zepherin was one of roughly 15 settlers who made it to their original destination, the Shell River District.
Zepherin was considered an educated man since he had attended school as a child while living in the United States. He was competent in both French and English. In the Shell River District, his new home, he was known as the local veterinarian, the optometrist, the auctioneer, and the local barber. He was also an exceptional marksman and a talented artist. He would often send drawings to his two children depicting life in the wild west.
Eight years after Zepherin’s arrival, my grand-father, George Tetreault, joined his father in the West. Accustomed to living in the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, you could imagine the shock for a 10 year old boy having to move into a log house with a sod roof accompanied only by Zepherin, a dark-bearded stranger who always carried a gun on a holster. But, like many other pioneers of that time, they prevailed and the rest is now history, our history.
The Zepherin Games Family