Chapter 8 Version 2
1900
Wherever there was a stream or river that could be dammed in
New England, a mill sprang up. Waterpower was the driving engine in
industrialization. The falling water turned waterwheels that were connected to
shafts suspended over machines. Leather belts could be connected or
disconnected from the shafts to turn the machines on and off. There were
carding machines where wool and cotton filaments were straightened. Spinning
machines took the filaments and spun them into yarn or thread. Weaving machines
then turned the thread or yarn into cloth. The cloth was then sent to other
factories by train to be dyed or printed and then sent off to other factories
to be cut and then sewn into clothes, sheets and curtains.
In Adams Massachusetts, formerly named East Hoosuck before
being renamed for patriot Sam Adams, many small mills had been built along the
Hoosic River in the first half of the 1800’s. There was an ample supply of wool
grown on Berkshire County farms as the cold winters in the hills were conducive
to the formation of heavy wool coats for the sheep. In the early 1800’s cotton
from the South was shipped up to Troy New York and carted by oxcart from the
Hudson River up Hoosic Street and the 40 miles up to the mills in Adams. Adams had an economic boom when the Hoosac
Tunnel was completed in 1875 to upgrade railroad access to the area. By the end
of the 1800’s, The Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company, the precursor to
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Company, in Adams was the second largest
employer in Berkshire County.
The sons and daughters of Yankee farmers had supplied the
mills with manpower and womanpower to the mid 1800’s and then came the Irish
immigration and then the French Canadians. But business was good in the “gay
90’s” and both manpower and womanpower were recruited from Eastern Europe, mostly
Polish teenagers, to fill the jobs.
The reunion of sisters was joyous. Helena and Josefa Gajoska
hugged and kissed their sister Anna who had come to America with their father
Joseph Gajowski a year earlier in 1899. Anna was now 18 and the two sisters that
traveled with each other to America were 20 and 15 with Josefa being older.
“It is so good to see you again! How is mama?” asked Anna in
Polish as none of the sisters spoke English and none could read or write.
“Mama is doing fine but I worry about her on the farm in
Niewodna with tata (dad) being away so much in America” said Josefa. “She may
come after next year. We will have to wait and see.”
Maryanna Bryda looked on as the reunion was taking place.
She ran the boarding house at 10 George St. in Adams Massachusetts where the
Gajoska girls would be staying. The ship’s manifest showed 14 George Street
where their father lived as the girl’s destination but it was Anna at 10 George
Street they came to see first.
“Don’t stay up too late siostry” Maryanna warned using the
Polish word for sisters. “Helena and Josefa need to go down to the mill
tomorrow to get their work assignments and they need to be there on time. I
will let your father know you have arrived.”
“Yes cioci Maryanna” all three sisters chimed in together
using the Polish word for aunt as Maryanna was their father’s sister. She had
come to America in 1896 at age 50. Managing the boarding house was easier on
her aging frame than working in the mills but the job consumed all of her
waking hours. She knew her suggestion to get some sleep would be ignored as the
girls had a year’s worth of stories to tell each other. When Maryanna departed,
the girl’s spirits again soared like the temperature when a cold winter in the
Berkshire Hills meets the first week in May. It was in the mid 70’s for the
first time this spring and her sisters seemed to float in on a breath of warm
air from home.
“At least with cioci Maryanna cooking, we get food that
reminds us of home. How was your crossing of the Atlantic? How long did it take
you? Did you have any problems getting through Ellis Island?” Anna rattled off without
waiting for answers.
“We came on a huge ship with four smoke stacks – the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse from Bremen and
it took six days going very fast to get to New York. It took some time to get
through Ellis Island because we had so many people in the big ship and you had
to be examined by the doctor to be let in. But everything was good and we saw
the Statue of Liberty and here we
are!” said Helena in one long breath happy to get into the conversation
dominated by her older siblings.
Anna again assumed control of the conversation “I am a cotton
carder at the mill. The work is hard but we get to have Sunday off so after
early Mass we can go for a picnic or hike up on Mount Greylock maybe with tata.
Saturday night there is a dance at the church and there are many Polish boys
from Galicia and Russia Poland and Germany. The church is French – Notre Dame -
but a Polish church is planned to be started in two years named after Saint
Stanislaus Kotska as there are many Polish people working in the mills. Oh it
is so good to see you both again! – I missed you so!” Anna said with her mouth
going a mile a minute which was pretty fast in 1900.
Tata Joseph, just as Stanley had said, made many trips to
America. In addition to bringing Anna to America in 1899, his ship manifest
record shows him being in America at least three years prior to that. He also
came back to America in 1905 and again in 1909 when he accompanied his 17 year
old nephew Fan to Chicopee. With many of the Massachusetts farmers moving west,
there were opportunities for immigrant families to buy farms in the Berkshire
Hills and in the Connecticut River Valley in rural towns like Chicopee,
Hatfield and Easthampton. But Joseph could not be tied down to the land in
either Galicia or America.
“Mrs. Zywar, I am from West Boylston Manufacturing and there
has been an accident” said the man at the door of 10 Lewandowski Avenue where
Joseph was living. He had been living at a boarding house at 17 Clinton Street
a few block away but had move in with his daughter’s family in 1919.
“Matko Boska. Is it Wojciech or Joseph?” asked Helena as
both her husband and her father worked for the same company.
After getting oldest daughter Adeline to watch toddler
Stanley, Helena went to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton to find that her
father Joseph was in surgery.
“How is my father?” said Helena.
“He is in surgery right now. The doctor will talk to you
after the surgery is completed” said the receptionist.
“Can I please have some information on your father?” said
the receptionist to Helena.
Age: 68
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Mill Hand
Place of Birth: Poland
Name of Father: Frank Gajewski
Birthplace of Father: Poland
Name of Mother: Mary Cibrozy
Birthplace of Mother: Poland
So the death certificate only needed Cause of Death to be
completed and filed in Easthampton.
Cause of Death: Surgical Shock
Date of Record: On or about Oct. 15, 1919
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