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.