Chapter 12 - 1914 Agata Wroblewska Comes to America

Chapter 12 Version 4

1914

“Mama!” shouted the excited eight year old.

The train had just come to a stop after travelling through Springfield up beside the Connecticut River past the flooded spring fields around the oxbow to Brattleboro Vermont. It had been a year and a half since Leokadia Glinka had left for America to claim her husband’s remains and his personal goods. Her husband had come to Pennsylvania and found work in the mines until he was killed in a mining accident.

After spending some time with her brother-in-law in New Hampshire, Leocadia moved to Brattleboro rather than returning home to Russia Poland. Because eight year old Waclaw was too young to come to America by himself, Leocadia wrote to her sister back in Strzemietzna near Warsaw asking eighteen year old Agata Wroblewska to accompany her younger nephew to America.

“Waclaw! Agata!” Leokadia waved and her son Waclaw ran and jumped into her arms.

“I am so happy to see you! Waclaw, you have grown so much!” hugging Waclaw with a grip that was not going to let him go for the foreseeable future.

“Agata, you are still my pretty petite sister!” said Leokadia with Waclaw still attached to her neck.

“My size was an advantage in getting the child’s fare on the ship” beamed Agata flashing a mischievous smile to top off her diminutive five foot and zero inch frame. The Dutch in Rotterdam did not question her age when she gave the ship’s manifest information on the Noordam bound for America.

“How old did you say you were to get the child’s fare?” asked Leokadia giving Agata a sideways glance.

“Apparently I can pass for a ten year old” said Agata not knowing that in the distant future her age would be questioned using the ship’s manifest as a reference document when she applied for social security benefits.

“I am sorry you spent nearly a week at Ellis Island but I did not receive word on which ship you would be arriving on” explained Leokadia. After a few days, workers at Ellis Island noticed that the two Polish children were not leaving. The workers assisted the two in making contact with Leokadia and arranging transportation to Vermont.

“So you have decided to stay in America?” asked Agata knowing that bringing her son over the ocean just about finalized that decision.

“There are many good Polish men here in America. I have met many new friends here” replied Leokadia.

“Any special friend?” Agata asked fishing for information.

“Well, there is Mr. Potocki in Connecticut who is a dear man.” Leokadia offered up as she was a widow who was not ready to retire from the pool of marriage eligible women. This piqued Agata’s interest.

“You are welcome to stay as long as you want with me” Leokadia offered. “At your age our mother will be selecting a suitable husband for you upon your return. She will prefer someone who will be courting you in a carriage with matched white horses as our father did with her. Someone who could afford a grand clock as our father provided.” Leokadia paused to let her comments take root in Agata’s mind. Their father designed and built churches and fine cabinetry.

“In America, you can marry for love, or work for a few years and marry when you have found the right man, or never marry at all. It is your choice. As I said you are welcome to stay or to go as you choose.” And so Leokadia ended her pitch to Agata. The offer was so open ended that Agata actually did not need to make a decision right now.

"Who is Ludwik Borsuk who wrote the letter for you asking me to bring Waclaw to America?" Agata asked. Agata had seen his signature on the letter that she herself could not read. As soon as Agata saw his signature she knew this is the man she was going to marry. 

 In fact, Leokadia was doing some extracurricular match making herself on Agata’s behalf. She had shown Agata’s picture to this handsome young Polish man working in a chair factory in Brattleboro named Ludwik. Ludwik was about two years younger than Leokadia and five years older than Agata. He looked carefully at the picture and after what seemed to be much more than a casual review of the petite blue eyed girl with light brown hair exclaimed: “This is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. I am going to marry this girl.”

Chapter 11 - 1963 Habits: Good and Bad

Chapter 11 Version 1

1963

“There are good habits and there are bad habits” John’s sixth grade teacher at Sacred Heart School explained to the class of over 50 students some of whom were actually listening. Sensing that she was not getting the attention of the entire class, the nun turned slowly and picked up the wooden pointer with a black rubber tip on one end and a metal screw eye on the other end so it could be hung from a nail in the oak boarder surrounding the black slate chalk board. Without hesitation or warning, the pointer banged down on her massive oak desk with such force that the pointer shattered into multiple splinters that bounded into the classroom until all of the pieces lay lifeless on the floor and the stub was still held firmly in her vein bulging hand. She made eye contact with each student before proceeding.

“As I was saying, there are good habits and bad habits”.

The students began to breathe again.

One habit that Joe adhered to was on Sunday after Mass, he would “make the rounds”. This involved visiting his Zywar relatives to catch up with events of the week. Before the family problems with Stanley’s handling of the Zywar Brothers construction company, Joe would visit brother Mike at 112 Ferry Street. By 1963, the rounds were confined to the houses that had been built on Parsons Street and Valley Lane. These houses included Aurelia’s, Frances’, Mary’s and occasionally Stanley’s along with his father Albert’s apartment.

In the summertime when the visits were held on back porches, John could stop and listen for this father’s laugh to tell where he was in the neighborhood. This Sunday John grabbed a library book of the Black Stallion series he was reading and walked off to find his father.

Joe was with John’s grandfather this morning on his first stop of his rounds. The small apartment tacked on the back of 323 East Street farmhouse was the first construction project of the Zywar brothers. Mike, Doris and their children lived there at first. Then a three bay garage was built with a workshop on the second floor. There was a cast iron potbelly stove for heat near the trap door access at the top of the stairs at the back of the garage. On rainy days, the neighborhood kids would hang out in the garage as it contained a basketball hoop and backboard. High arching shots were not allowed by the low ceiling joists but the kids were not that tall anyway. Joe who built the brick walls on the first floor of the garage explained to John one day that the toughest thing to build was a chimney that was straight as it has a tendency to twist as it went up in height. But Joe never elaborated on how to prevent the twisting.

The next building built on the 20 acre orchard site was a new brick house for Albert and Helena on Parsons street. Helena died swiftly there after a massive heart attack in 1953. Later the house was sold to the town accountant and Albert moved into the apartment he now occupied with Mike and his growing family moving into the farm at 112 Ferry Street.

John was not keen to join the rounds at his grandfather’s apartment. The apartment smelled of old people and cigarette smoke. His father and grandfather talked in Polish which John could not understand so having the book was a welcome diversion. As John sat down on a chair in the corner of the kitchen, Albert took out his tobacco pouch and zig zag cigarette papers. He carefully tapped out enough tobacco to roll a small cigarette dropping about half of the tobacco on the floor. As Albert brought up the paper to his mouth to lick the edge of the paper about half of the remaining tobacco fell to the floor. The depleted cigarette being mostly paper was good enough for just a few puffs in Albert’s nicotine stained fingers. Joe took out his red and white pack of Winstons and offered Albert one. Albert declined the offer as he was satisfied with his own effort.

“Was Zywar ever shortened” Joe asked his father.

“Always Zywar” Albert answered. Albert was never accused of being a great conversationalist.

“Is Zywar Polish?” asked Joe.

“I am Krakowa” said Albert.

“Is that Polish or Austrian?” countered Joe.

“Polish and Austrian – they are the same thing” explained Albert.

“Where in Poland or Austria were you born?” asked Joe.

“We are here now. What does the past matter?” was Albert’s reply.

Joe and John moved next to Aurelia’s house and then to Mary’s house working his way down Parsons street. Joe had brought along a box of fresh garden vegetables to pass out to any takers – rich red vine ripened beefsteak tomatoes carefully nurtured with 50% Sevin dust to decimate the insect population. There were cucumbers, green peppers, zucchini and yellow summer squash along with string beans and eggplant.

“I am mad at Stanley” said Mary. “He went down to the Connecticut River and caught some catfish yesterday.” John’s ears perked up as there must be more to this tale. “He put the catfish in my goldfish pond and they ate up all of my goldfish!” John smiled and went on reading his book. He now knew where there might be some good catfishing later on that afternoon in a local goldfish pond. But for now, reading would be a good use of John’s time.

In a few years John had exhausted the reading material in the children’s room in the basement of the Easthampton Public Library. The children’s librarian walked up to him and said “Come with me.” John followed her up the wide staircase to the first floor. “You need to move upstairs to get your books now” she said. John had recently ordered some books from his eighth grade book club that included Asimov’s Pebble in the Sky, T H White’s Making of the President 1960, Walter Sullivan’s We Are Not Alone and John Hersey’s Hiroshima. “Fiction is alphabetical by author and non-fiction uses the Dewey Decimal System” explained the librarian before returning to the children’s room downstairs.

John surveyed his new domain. Under the “A” authors he pulled out Asimov’s Foundation. Moving on to the “B” authors he added a book of Robert Benchley’s writings from the New Yorker magazine. On his next visit John picked up where he left off with the “C” authors with a book of poems by e e cummings. The “D” authors contributed Advise and Consent by Allen Drury. John felt at home in the stacks working his way down to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Robert Penn Warren’s All The Kings Men.

For John, reading was becoming a firmly established habit - but it was a good habit.

Chapter 10 - 1894 Zywars Come to America and Historical Roots

Chapter 10 Version 1

1894

Whether they know it or not, people rely on others. Their dependency may be either covert or overt but it is always there. We do not live in a vacuum. People impinge on one another constantly. They jostle you. They brush up against you. Sometimes we embrace them. Sometimes we push our way through the crowd. The effect of those interactions may be profound or subtle but they nevertheless are there.

And so it was that Michael Pyteraf led Wojciech Zywar to America. Or more accurately, Michael led Tekla Zywar to America and then Tekla led her younger brother Wojciech to America. Michael and Tekla were from neighboring towns in Galicia – Michael from Karczyna and Tekla from Kambornia. When Michael left for Chicopee Massachusetts in 1894, Tekla followed. On February 21 1895, they were married in Salem Massachusetts. Michael ‘s occupation was a mill operator and Tekla was employed as a weaver. It was soon after in 1896 that a son was born to the Pyteraf’s. With Tekla established in New England, she arranged to have her younger brother now 19 years old to come to New Market New Hampshire to work on a farm. Wojciech had been raised by sister Anna Zywar Zych and there is also a story that the Catholic Church had a role in his upbringing.  There was little to hold Wojciech in Galicia. His parents Pawel and Franceszka had worked on their own small farm and also worked on a large estate before they both passed on. Wojciech arrived March 9, 1899 aboard the H.H. Meier. The Meier was built in 1892 but the transatlantic trade was tending toward larger and more accommodating passenger ships and the Meier was sold for scrap in 1901 to a Spanish company who kept her in service until 1959. Information that was kept on a ship’s manifest varied from decade to decade. The 21 column form for Wojciech was shorter than some later forms which had up to 36 columns of data.

 

“Next” ordered the efficient clerk at the port of Bremen Germany. On line 13 the questions began using the standard form for this company:

Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, Steamship Company

  1.  No. on List.  13

  2.  NAME IN FULL.  “Zywar Wojciech”

  3.  Age:  Yrs. | Mos.  “19” the clerk did not care about the months

  4.  Sex. The clerk looked at Wojceich and decided he was male – ditto marks from line 9 above

  5.  Married or Single. “Single” – ditto marks from line 9 above

  6.  Calling or Occupation. “I work” – the clerk filled in laborer

  7.  Able to:  Read. | Write. The clerk put a check mark in each of these as opposed to a straight horizontal line.

  8.  Nationality. “Galicia”

  9.  Last Residence. “Komborna”

10.  Seaport for landing in the United States. “New York” ditto from line 1 everyone is going to NY

11.  Final destination in the United States. (State, City or Town.) “New Market”

12.  Whether having a ticket to such final destination. “NH”

13.  By whom was passage paid. “Self”

14.  Whether in possession of money.  If so, whether more than $30 and how much if $30 or less. “$16”

15.  Whether ever before in the United States, and if so, when and where. “No”

16.  Whether going to join a relative, and if so, what relative, their name and address. “Sister – New Market”

17.  Ever in Prison or Almshouse or supported by charity.  If yes, state which. “No”

18.  Whether a Polygamist. “No” Wojciech never thought about this as an option before

19.  Whether under Contract, express or implied, to labor in the United States. “No”

20.  Condition of Health, Mental and Physical. “Good”

21.  Deformed or Crippled, Nature and Cause. “No”

“Next”

America welcomed its immigrants:

 "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 –Emma Lazarus at the Stature of Liberty

as long as they were healthy, employable and not potential charity cases. Tired and somewhat poor was OK.

In 1900 Tekla returned to America with her four year old son on the SS Barbarossa. It was not uncommon to travel back to the old country to proudly show off new children to friends and relatives. When Tekla and her son Wladyslaw returned from Galicia, Wojciech was working in Adams as a weaver in the cotton mill.  Michael had relocated to New Bedford. So Tekla, Wladyslaw and Ludwiga Ganet  returned to New Bedford where the Pyterafs lived for the rest of their lives. People traveled in groups more often than they traveled alone so Miss Ganet who was three years younger than Tekla also traveled back from Karczyna Galicia with Tekla. She may have been a relative or a friend. Once the travel and relocation had started it became easier to make the next move and so it went. Roots were shallow and the New England soil was thin.

Roots were deep in Galicia for the Zywar ancestors. In the early 1400’s, the area to the north of the Carpathian Mountains was sparely settled. There were some indigenous peoples like the Boyks and the Ruthenians but no one controlled the lowest of the high mountain passes through the Carpathians, the Dukla Pass. New settlements were introduced under German, Polish and Wallachian law. A large number of settlers from Wallachia, a lowland region of Rumania, started settlements just north of the Dukla Pass. These settlers had surnames ending in ar like Wojnar, Boczar and Zywar. A list of those early settlers had their towns listed with Wojnars in Korczyna and Zywars in Kroscienko which was founded under Wallachian law. Kroscienko is a neighboring town to Kambornia which was founded under German law. So the Zywars stayed close to home for the next five centuries bound to the land. With the elimination of the feudal system, the Zywar’s were free of the bondage to the land but the Zywars stayed put. The Dukla Pass area was a crossroads for many countries and Wojciech spoke seven languages.

When you are far from home, local familiarity is a comfort and a reason to associate with people with backgrounds similar to yours. So Wojciech and Helena whose hometowns were about 25 miles from each other in Galicia each undertook a long journey to ultimately find each other doing the same job as weavers in Adams. They were married on November 11, 1902 so all three immigrant Gajewska girls married 22 year old husbands in the same year. They were all committed to life in America. But by the time Wojciech and Helena’s first child Boleslaw (William) was born in 1906, they had left Adams behind.

Chapter 9 - 1902 Franciszka Gajewska Returns to Galicia with Grandson

Chapter 9 Version 2

1902

Immigrants can be in a precarious position. They have one foot rooted in the old country and the other foot trying to get onto solid ground in the new country. In assuming this straddle position for their body and their mind, they are constantly out of balance – always shifting to stay upright with family, friends, employers and societies pulling at their legs. Sometimes the forces are a positive influence. Sometimes the forces are at odds with maintaining that stability that is needed in the long run.

“Helena, you have grown up!” exclaimed Helena’s mother Franciszka who was keenly aware that she had missed two years of her daughter’s life. Helena had grown up from a girl of fifteen when she left Galicia to a woman of seventeen with two years of experience working in the mill in Adams. For now, there was just an overwhelming desire to hug her daughter and reestablish that mother/daughter relationship that suffers when contact is lost for a long period of time and over such a long distance.

“Mary is taking care of the farm in Niewodna while I am traveling and she says “hi!” and that she misses you very much” said Franciszka inserting another reason in Helena’s mind for returning to Galicia. “I traveled on the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the sister ship of the ship you came over on, and come through Bremen the same as you so you already know the details of my ocean crossing. The winters get colder and the summers get hotter the older you get. How do you like America? Are you ready to come home?” she said hopefully in the please make mama happy tone of voice Helena had grown up with.

“Well mama,” Helena countered in her best adult voice , “I am a good weaver. I also like being here with Josefa and Anna. But I get to see them less now that they both were married three months ago. Anna was married by the Polish priest and Josefa was married by the Irish priest.”

Franciszka stayed until Josefa had her first child. It was a difficult birth and the family story was that Josefa was not expected to survive after giving birth to her first child, Joseph. But Josefa did survive and went on to have twelve more children in America with her husband John Wojnar. In 1905, twins were born named Helena and Marie in Adams. Son Edwin was born in 1924.

In 1972, sister Helen – one of the twins – went to England to visit relatives. “While you are in Europe, you should go see your brother Joseph in Poland because you are so close to Poland” said Helen’s relatives. Helen protested “But Poland is behind the Iron Curtain. I can’t go there!”. “Yes you can. Just go to Germany and get on a train to Poland and we can let relatives in Poland know that you are coming” said Helen’s relatives. So Helen boarded the train for Poland and met her older brother – the “baby” Joseph - who was now about 70 years old and still living on his grandmother Franiszka’s farm in Niewodna. Joseph never visited America. Helen was the only sibling he would ever meet.

“So what is keeping you here in America, Helena?” Franciszka asked with some premonition of the answer.

“Well mama, children here get to go to school and learn to read and write and do arithmetic. And I met a boy named Wojciech, Albert in English, who is also a very good weaver in the cotton mill. He is from Kambornia near Krosno in Galicia.” Said Helena as she saw that Franciszka was realizing that she might be losing this daughter to America too.

“Did you meet his parents?” Franciszka asked hoping to find another reason that Helena should come home.

“He is an orphan who was brought up by his sister Anna” Helena replied.

“Is his sister Anna in America too?”

“No, she is in Galicia but his sister Tekla is over here.”

“What did you say his name was?” asked Franciszka feeling her daughter being pulled closer to America.

“Wojciech Zywar”