Smiles in Boxes

The White Settlement of Hodgdon, ME

2010-09-20T13:28:00.001-05:00

I've been finding out a lot of interesting things about my paternal ancestors. Not least the fact that my Grandmother Hughes's family, the Whites, sided with the Loyalists during the American Revolution and wound up living in New Brunswick, Canada. After that, the Whites became important people in the hamlet of Hodgdon, Maine. This is from Edward Wiggin's 1922 History of Arostook County:

In the earliest years settlement was made in the east part of the town, many of the pioneers of that section having moved from the Province of New Brunswick. The eastern part of the town of Hodgdon has always been known to the citizens of the town and vicinity as the White Settlement, as people of that name settled in that portion of the town in the earliest days of its history.

Mr. Jacob White came from Keswick, N. B., about 1826, and first made a clearing on the lot afterwards known as the Patrick Ferry farm. He built a log house on this lot, but soon after bought two lots still further east — lots No. 3 and 4, Range 2, where he cleared up a large farm, upon which he lived for many years and was a well known citizen of the town. Mr. Wm. White came from Douglas, N, B., about the same time, and took a lot immediately north of the one upon which Jacob White first settled. He cleared a farm and lived on it until his death some thirty years ago. […]

Many of the descendants of the White and Grant families formerly lived in this portion of the town, but nearly all of them have now removed to other portions of the country and elsewhere.

My Great-Grandmother Bambenek

2010-09-05T02:04:00.001-05:00

Another emotional memory from my years-ago trip with Uncle Jim and Aunt Phoebe was visiting the grave of my great-grandmother, Franciszka Bambenek (1871-1896) at St. Mary's Cemetery in Winona. I knew that Grandpa Bambenek's mother had died very young, and that he was raised by his father Charles (1866-1937) and stepmother Anna Malotka (1877-1943) Bambenek. The only other thing I really knew about my great-grandmother Bambenek was her maiden name, and even that was complicated: it could be spelled Negowska, or Niegowska, or Nygowski, or even Negler. We Poles have some strange ideas about orthography.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Phoebe had paid to have Great-Grandmother Bambenek's grave marker restored. The cross on top and the inscription were restored. The inscription has since faded somewhat, but is still quite legible. "Here lies Franciszka, of holy memory, wife of Karol Bambenek. Died 25 July 1896, aged 25 years. Please, believers, say a Hail Mary for her soul." It so happens that I had been looking for her grave on and off for half an hour and was in fact saying a Hail Mary when I found it. Thanks to the Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne, I have since been able to trace the 1871 baptism, in Koscierzyna, Poland, of one Francisca Julianna, daughter of Jacob Nygowski and Josephina (Burant) Nygowska. Francisca Julianna joined two older brothers, Valentine (b. 1864) and Joseph Andreas (b. 1865). Grandpa Bambenek had an uncle named Valentine Negler, (1864-1949) who lived at the Bambenek home at 578 East Fifth Street in his last years, and actually died there. Again, I had an exact match.

I have also since found that Jacob Nygowski died on February 8, 1872 in Koscierzyna, aged 33. Josephina Burant Nygowska also died in Koscierzyna, aged 42, in 1883. According to a 1929 article in the Winona Daily Republican , Valentine (and, I would assume, the 12 year old Franciszka) came to the United States in that same year. Joseph remained at home and became the postmaster of Elbing, Germany; however, Joseph's children Teofil, Lucille, and Martha migrated to Winona in 1922.

Tension Makes A Tangle

2010-08-29T12:31:00.003-05:00

The one and only request I have for my funeral, when that day comes, is that this song be sung a capella immediately following the eulogy.

As strong hinges pivot On a case's door Commemorative Souvenirs from places Containers changed with each occasion The cellophane encased Displaying paper Certificate To credit years of service A tool of central enterprises The early hope For permanence The words the rings Consistency And Social security A miracle's high tragedy A thought mistaken for a memory Clear the dust From smiles in boxes Pass a patterned wall Recall their voices A local post will list your friends In order of disappearance Lawn scattered tins feed birds The portion baked For absent guests The mass edition icon God sent comfort Your salvation But who grants absolution For sins that never were committed Tension makes a tangle Of each thought becomes Inconvenience Sound never penetrates As servile edges break and feint A thought mistaken for a memory Dress lengths assassinations A fractured family tie Another christening

The music is by 10000 Maniacs; vocalist Natalie Merchant is said to have written the lyrics about childhood memories of her grandmother's house. If you like, you can listen to it on YouTube.

The Lonesome Death of Joseph Dywan

2010-08-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

According to the Winona Daily Republican, the death of Malgorzata and Wawrzyniec Dywan's eldest son Joseph (1863-1893) became the talk of the town. These clippings are courtesy of the awesome WNP:

I think Malgorzata could be excused for losing it. First widowhood and, three years afterward, her oldest son drinking himself to death at age thirty. I am sure she had the support of her neighbors, and of her family. But having the whole story plastered all over the newspapers didn't help. And she had to have been wondering when the madness would stop.

The Mysterious Dywan Family

2010-08-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

Twenty years ago, my Uncle Jim and Aunt Phoebe Bambenek were good enough to spend a whole day carting me all around Trempealeau County, pointing things out and telling me stories about the good old days. I managed to get pretty much all of it down in my journal, too... everything except the part about the Dywan family. They were relatives on Grandpa Bambenek's side, a widow and her sons, one of whom (if I recall right) was really keen on drinking milk. "Dywan and milk." I can hear Uncle Jim saying it even now. But who on earth were these Dywans?

The family tree that Uncle Jim Bambenek and Aunt Frances Rettkowski drafted 25 years ago listed one Margareta Dywan as a sister of my great-grandfather Charles Bambenek. At St. Mary's Cemetery in Winona, there is the grave of Wawrzyniec (that's the Polish spelling of Lawrence) Dywan, who died on 17 October 1890, aged 56 years. The awesome Winona Newspaper Project shows no obituary for Wawrzyniec Dywan, but does record the deaths of Joseph (13 September 1893), Margaret (2 February 1922), John (6 December 1948), and Peter (18 June 1953) Dywan. The awesome WNP also records the extremely interesting circumstances accompanying Joseph's burial - but that has to be saved for a separate post. I suspected, but could not satisfactorily prove, that Wawrzyniec Dywan was the husband of Margaret Dywan (nee Bambenek). Wawrzyniec would have been eight years his wife's junior, but then, I'm married to a cradle robber too. And very happily so. The rest of my hypothetical timeline worked perfectly. Both John and Peter Dywan are mentioned as having come from Poland with their parents around 1875, which fits the time frame of the Kaszubian emigration.

Thanks to the Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (Pomeranian Genealogical Association), I was able to find in the records from Leśno (that is, the Bambeneks' ancestral stomping grounds) the 1832 baptism of Laurenz Dywan, son of Anton and Victoria Cyszewska Dywan. Granted, that is a couple of years off from the grave marker at St. Mary's, but things like birth dates are easy to misremember during the planning of a funeral. On the other hand, the Lesno records also show the 1827 baptism of Margaritha Bembenek, daughter of Blazej and Marianna Wielewska Bembenek. That checks out perfectly with the Winona Republican-Herald obituary. I think we have a match!

Please honor us with Your presence...

2010-07-11T12:01:00.000-05:00

My future grandparents, John Charles Bambenek of Winona, MN and Laura Pellowski of rural Arcadia, WI, were married at Sacred Heart Church in Pine Creek on November 17, 1914. They first settled in the town of Dodge, where their first child, Frances Adeline, was born on October 8, 1915. Below is an invitation to their wedding, scanned from an original which is now in my possession. The Polish text reads, as best I can tell:

Please honor us with Your Presence
Together with Your Family
At the Wedding Ceremony

of our daughter
LEOCADIA
to
MR. JOHN BAMBENEK

on Tuesday, 17 November 1914 at 9:30 am
at the Church of Jesus' Heart
in Pine Creek, Wis.

You are also cordially invited to the wedding banquet, which will take place at our home immediately after the wedding.

With deep respect,
Jacob and Franciszka Pellowski.

I have also obtained, courtesy of Mr. Ben Schultz at the Polish Museum in Winona, a copy of the official church record of the Pellowski-Bambenek wedding. Fortunately, I'm a little more confident in my ability to translate Latin.

I, the undersigned, with three announcements made and the consensus of both parties confirmed, have through my words joined together in matrimony John Bambenek, from Winona (St. Stanislaus) son of Charles and Frances (nee Nygowska) and Leocadia Pelowski, from Pine Creek, daughter of Jacob and Francisca (nee Zabinski), with Felix Pelowski, Helen Bambenek, Francis Malotka, and Genovefa Pelowska as witnesses.

Reverend Jas. W. Gara

Pine Creek, WI (I)

2010-07-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

Sacred Heart Parish, in Pine Creek, Wisconsin, was established on February 7, 1864. Because the majority of the local settlers were Bohemians, the fledgling church was named after after Bohemia's patron saint, King Wenceslas.

After the Kaszubian Polish settlers emerged as the majority in Pine Creek, the name "Sacred Heart of Jesus" (a very popular Kaszubian devotion) was added to the young congregation's name, as in the sign below. Note how Saint Wenceslas (in Polish, Święty Wacław) takes second billing on the current church building, erected in 1875. AMDG, by the way, stands for Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, which is Latin for "To The Greater Glory of God." To judge from the strikeout marks, the engraver must not have been Polish. The picture below shows the Sacred Heart parish buildings appeared around the turn of the 20th century.

I couldn't even guess how many of my Pellowski and Zabinski relatives were christened here, or made First Confession here... and so on. Very many members of my family lie buried in the cemetery on the hill behind the church. I never fail to get chills down my spine when I am in the vicinity.

Bridges of Winona County (IV)

2010-06-07T14:03:00.000-05:00

Originally posted August, 2008

I knew I was having a great time on my trip to Minnesota last month. The MERLOT 2008 conference in Minneapolis was excellent; my presentation was well received, and I brought back a lot of promising ideas about "blended learning" to try out on my Classical Mythology students this semester. I got to spend a fair amount of time in Winona, as well. Finally, I managed to take a few locomotive pictures here and there.

However, it's only now starting to dawn on me what a great time I had. As much as I missed my beloved wife and our puppy dogs (by the way, Anubis is starting to be Lisa's dog too), it was fun to be by my own bad self - driving around the old family stomping grounds or walking the streets of downtown Minneapolis, or listening to other computer nerds talk about teaching people stuff. I'm glad to be back home, too, with Lisa and the pupsters. I'm happy to be back teaching again. Even so, I believe a certain part of my heart is still there in Winona: probably always has been, probably always will be.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Highway 43 Bridge between Winona and Trempealeau County, WI, which was temporarily closed for repairs this summer. The first picture was taken from Levee Park in Winona; the second is looking due north as you enter the bridge from the Winona side. Enjoy!

Bridges of Winona County (III)

2010-06-06T19:21:00.000-05:00

Originally posted June, 2008

The new background of my home page comes from a postcard picture of Winona, produced circa 1905. Beautiful, no?

The view is looking north (the Mississippi runs from west to east as it passes Winona) not from the Wisconsin shore, but from Island No. 72, which belongs to Minnesota and is also known as Latsch Island. In the foreground is the 1891 High Wagon Bridge, dismantled for scrap after the current highway bridge was finished in 1941. Behind the High Wagon Bridge is the Chicago and Northwestern's 1872 railroad bridge, a segment of which still survives.

What looks like a smokestack at left is actually a 210' standpipe - a sort of water tower - fed by wells. Apparently the good people of Winona didn't drink from the Mississippi even back then, the lovely blue water notwithstanding. But then, the sun doesn't rise in the North either. The artist who tinted this picture may have been handy with oils and watercolors, but had obviously never been to Winona.

Strangely enough, this doesn't detract one bit from my enjoyment of the postcard picture. When I was up in Winona last week, the postcard picture kept popping up in my mind. I even considered driving down to Latsch Island to take a photograph from its vantage point. But I thought better of it. I took lots of pictures in Winona this time, the way I always do. But some images are best left in the back of one's mind.

The metaphor of life as a road was well trodden even when Gilgamesh was a pup, but still, I could think of no better place for the end of my road. A river. A rising sun. And on the horizon, Winona. I could walk over the wagon bridge even though Dad warned me he was afraid to do it as a kid. Or I could take a Northwestern passenger train, or hop a Green Bay and Western freight like Grandpa Bambenek did. The choice I find most appealing, though, is the boat. I could walk aboard, introduce myself to the ferryman and shake his big blue-gray paw before beginning my leisurely ride into Heaven.

Bridges of Winona County (II)

2010-06-05T21:53:00.000-05:00

Originally posted June, 2008

At left is a picture of my maternal grandfather, standing on the Minnesota side of the Burlington Route/Green Bay & Western Winona bridge some time in the 1930s.

Some time before World War One, my great-grandfather Charles Bambenek had the job of delivering a steam saw to a sawmill in Dodge, Wisconsin. He was also tasked with teaching the sawmill's owner, Jacob Pellowski, how to use it. He brought his oldest son John along for company; Jake Pellowski had brought his daughter Laura along to keep him company as he waited for his new saw. The two young ones hit it off, and pretty soon John was hopping trains across the bridge on Fridays, to spend weekends on the Pellowski farm in Dodge - helping with the chores and courting his future wife. In 1914 they were married at Sacred Heart Parish in Pine Creek, Wisconsin.

At right is a picture of yours truly in basically the same place, taken in 1994 by my beloved wife. According to GreenBayRoute.com, the bridge's middle span burned in 1989 and it was demolished in 1990. It was hard to believe then that I was standing in the same place where my grandfather had hopped trains to go courting my grandmother. It is hard to believe now that the picture of me standing by the Winona railroad bridge is itself now fourteen years old.

Bridges of Winona County (I)

2010-06-04T19:48:00.000-05:00

Originally posted June, 2008

I've been fascinated by bridges as long as I can remember. I suspect this comes from all the trips my family took to my parents' home town when we were kids. Not that long after I was born - as soon as Mom felt up to it, no doubt - my parents packed me up and drove me up to Winona, Minnesota to meet the extended family. The Highway 43 Bridge, which connects Winona to the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River,appeared at the end of our trip to tell us that we were finally there. It was also the scariest part of the trip - high, and, long, and narrow, it seemed to defy gravity as it rose over the River. What if it suddenly fell into the River? While we were on it? I don't recall ever cowering on the floor of the car, like somebody used to do, but I definitely held my breath.

Today the Highway 43 Bridge was closed down due to corroded gusset plates. Winona is as sleepy a little river town as one could imagine, but one might as well roll up the sidewalks too. Shoppers and commuters from Wisconsin will have now have to cross the River at Red Wing (roughly 30 miles northwest) or La Crescent (roughly 30 miles southeast). Winona hasn't been isolated in this way since 1892, and it will be really interesting to see how the people of the area will cope. I also hope they get it patched up before I get up to Winona in August!

In Memoriam

2010-06-03T11:17:00.002-05:00

Originally posted May, 2008

In May 1945, Alex and Anna Pellowski of rural Dodge, Wisconsin learned that their son, PFC Lawrence J. Pellowski, had been killed in action on Okinawa on April 20th. Alex Pellowski was the younger brother of my maternal grandmother, Leocadia (Laura) Pellowski Bambenek. This meant that Lawrence was my mom's first cousin.

Mom did not remember Lawrence very well - he was ten years Mom's senior; a serious young man who seldom bothered with silly little girl cousins (and I'm sure Mom was very silly even by little girl standards). Mom was far closer to Lawrence's sister Anna Rose, a studious girl exactly her own age who sometimes attended the same elementary school. Still, Mom remembered for the rest of her life her shock upon learning of Lawrence's death.. She had only been four when her grandmother and both of her grandfathers died - too young to know them very well and far too young to comprehend what had happened. Dealing with the news that Lawrence would never return to the farm again and play tricks on his city slicker cousins from Winona - that was another matter.
"Lora Mae" and "Anna Rose" went on to long and well-lived lives. Laura Mae Bambenek went to work as a telephone operator; she met and married a railroader from Winona named Ray Hughes and moved with him to Racine, Wisconsin, where they started their family. Their older son is a college professor, their younger son is a school superintendent, and their daughter is a pharmacist. Anne Pellowski (who is still, happily, alive and well and active) studied at Columbia and in Munich and, after that, worked as an administrator at UNICEF. She has published five books in a series, chronicling farm life in Wisconsin as seen through the eyes of five generations of Polish-American farm girls. Although they are written primarily for children, I personally know they make wonderful reading regardless of one's age - or gender or ethnic background or affinity for farm life.

PFC Lawrence Pellowski lies buried near his parents in Sacred Heart Cemetery, in Pine Creek, Wisconsin. He only lived to be twenty-one. Though his life could (and should) have been much longer and happier, it was certainly no less well lived. He was one of hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who fought and gave their lives so that their fellow Americans could live in freedom and security. Simply put, accomplishments like his make all of our accomplishments possible. We Americans owe our war dead and our veterans and our serving military a great debt - 365 days a year.

That's How I Roll

2010-06-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

Both sides of my mom's family came to the United States from Kaszubia, in what is now Poland. In the mid nineteenth century, Kaszubia was part of the Prussian province of Pomerania. The Prussians were doing their damnedest (which was very damned indeed) to Germanize my ancestors, so my ancestors got out. The Bambeneks - that is, my maternal grandfather's family - settled in the budding metropolis of Winona while the Pellowskis - my mother's mother's family - farmed across the river in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin.

I recently stumbled across a partially digitized version of Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge's 1917 History of Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. Thank you very much, WiGenWeb! The section on Dodge Township closes with this intriguing paragraph:

Above Dodge one of the first settlers was John Latsch, afterward a prominent wholesale grocer of Winona. He came here in 1856 and settled near a creek at the mouth of the valley that now bears his name. In 1865 Frank Pellowski settled in the same valley, and in the next five years there arrived so many settlers from Hungary that the valley came to be called Hungary Valley. The name of Latsch Valley is being gradually resumed, especially for that part of the valley near its mouth.

Frank Pelowski (1829-1910) was my great-great grandfather. He lies buried alongside my great-great grandmother, Anna Kicrer Pelowska (1837-1895) at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Pine Creek, WI.

I am reasonably sure that Frank and Anna were not Hungarians at all, but Kaszubian Poles. Family tradition has it that they spent their first winter in the Valley in a dugout Frank carved, literally, out of the valley. If, in fact, the Pelowski family did this in 1865, they must have wandered about the States for a while; my great-grandfather Jacob Pellowski (1859-1937) was born on the boat to America. Thanks to Larry Reski at Poland to Pine Creek, I have learned that the boat in question was the Donau, which arrived in New York on August 25, 1859.

More about that later. Much more. Before I go, though, I'd like to share another interesting tidbit I found in the History of Trempealeau County. Emphasis mine.

Although they, the early settlers, mostly all came from the German Empire, they came from different provinces. Those living near Pine Creek came mostly from the Province of Posen and Pomerania, and those near Arcadia and Burnside came from the Province of Silesia. They all speak the Polish language, but the dialect is decidedly different. The great majority of them are of the Catholic faith. One of the strong characteristics of the race is they are cheerful givers to churches. Another is that they are hard losers and do not readily forget when some harm has been done them, and they frequently carry their animosities to their death bed.

Recognize anyone you know?