Some Photos Explained

Letter to Sue Schlueter from cousin Gloria Klir dated March 26, 2000

[I have added the bracketed text.]

Dear Sue:

Antonino Scolaro b1879 d 1929

You asked for an explanation of the pictures, so I’ll start with the Horse and Wagon one of Great Uncle Tony [Antonino] Scolaro. He was your Great Grandmother Salvatora Scolaro (married name Giunta) [brother] He [Tony] was born in 1879 and died in 1929. He had 10 children –one of which is the picture of Laura Scolaro (Laura would be a 2^nd cousin to your mother and a 3^rd cousin to you.) Laura was born in 1903 and died in 1987. Although the picture is called Great Uncle Tony, he would be your Great, Great Uncle.

Lauretta Scolaro b1903

daughter of Antonino Scolaro b 1879

Mike Ganta (Giunta) b1898

The picture of Mike Ganta (Giunta) is also your great uncle and he was the son of Salvatora nee Scolaro and James Ganta (Giunta).

Jenny Ganta (Giunta) b1897

The picture of Jenny Ganta (Giunta) would also be your great aunt and she was the daughter of Salvatora and James Ganta (Giunta) and would make her sister to Mike Ganta (Giunta).

Mary Ganta (Giunta) Marchese b1894

and Fred Marchese b1890

Francesco (Frank) Ganta (Giunta) b1867

and daughter Mary Ganta (Giunta)

Marchese b1894

The picture of Mary and Dave Marchese is a picture when Mary was married to Dave Marchese. She was also your great aunt and a daughter of Salvatora and James Ganta (Giunta) and Mike and Jenny were her brother and sister.

Emily Ganta (Giunta) with her Aunt Pearl

Prudentia Giunta Amadeo b 1868 and her

Uncle Captain Jack Amadeo b1862.

1st Holy Communion

Emily Ganta (Giunta) b1895

The picture of Emily [Giunta] Cozzi alone is also your great aunt and she in turn was a sister to Mike and Jenny Ganta (Giunta) and Mary Marchese nee Ganta (Giunta. Cozzi is her married name as you can see from the wedding picture (I don’t know who the attendants were in that picture). Emily Cozzi’s husband’s name was Jack.

The picture of great, great aunt and great, great uncle with great aunt Emily (Cozzi) is this: The great, great aunt’s name is Pearl [Prudentia] and she was a sister to your great grandfather James Ganta (Giunta). Her husband was called Captain Jack and he would be your great, great uncle (Don’t know what he did or how he got the title Captain and also I really don’t remember his last name but I think it was Tantillo. [Amadeo].)

The girl in the photo is Emily Ganta (Giunta) who married Jackie Cozzi. You have her communion picture and her wedding picture. [Emily went to live with Pearl and Jack Amadeo. Emily was the third child of Salvatora and James. I don’t know at what point Emily went to live with her Aunt and Uncle, but she was living with them in 1910 according to the U.S. Census. By 1910, Salvatora and James had nine children. Story has it that was the reason Emily went to live with the Amadeos.]

Emily Ganta (Giunta) b 1895

Wedding of Emily Ganta (Giunta) b 1895

and Fred Cozzi b1890, on 15 Aug 1912.

Jennie, Josephine and Marie Ganta

born 20 Oct 1918

Now for the triplets they belong to your great, great uncle Joseph Ganta (Giunta) who was a brother to your great grandfather James Ganta (Giunta). So we have on your great grandfather’s side, his brother Joseph and his sister Pearl. Getting back to the triplets, they would be your 3^rd cousins. There is also a brother Joseph Jr. (I know he is married but no further information). The triplets [are] all married but don’t know to who and if any of them are still alive.

Now for the picture of the bride and groom you have question marked, I don’t know who they are—I know they belong in the family, as there is a resemblance to Jenny Ganta in the bride. The other picture of the man alone, again I don’t recognize but I think it might be great, great uncle Tony Scolaro. [A long time has passed since this correspondence took place. Unfortunately, I do not recall which picture these were.]

I hope this is of some help to you and lets you know where they all fit into the family. If you have any questions, let me know and if I get around to it, I’m going to try and contact some distant relative who are still living before they are gone too.

Gloria

Mom's 100th Birthday Part 2

In a letter to me from Gloria Klir, dated March 6, 2000, she describes what she remembers about Grandma Pearl and my mom Julia.

NOTE: Gloria (b1932) is the daughter of Rose (b1904) Giunta Kolodjiez. Rose was my Grandmother, Pearl’s (Prudentia) (b1892) Giunta Petorella sister. Julia Petorella (b1916) was my mother. [I have added the bracketed text]

Rose Giunta Kolodjiez and daughter Gloria (Klir)

Dear Sue:

Received your packet with the copies of the photos—I’ll get to that part in another letter. Going from your Christmas card where you asked about some remembrances of your mother, I’ll start there and explain the photos (2^nd letter).

First of all—do you have that sheet your mother made for Bette Cole? This will help you fit some of the people in the photos into where they belong as to relation to you.

Pearl and Dominick Petorella as you know are your grandparents (you may remember Grandma Pearl). They had three girls and one boy. The girls were Millie (Frankie’s mother), Sylvia, Julia and Jimmy. Pearl was my mother’s sister, therefore my Aunt and Dominick my Uncle. Since your mother was born in 1916 and I in 1932, she was grown up when I was little and consequently my remembrances are from that time (with her as an adult).

Julia and Sheppy at 802 S. Western Avenue, Chicago some time in the 1940's

Location of the Petorella Gas Station at 802 S. Western Avenue c 2018. 

They lived at 802 S. Western Avenue in Chicago (Polk and Western). Their house was a two-story on a corner and on the first level was a gas station that Julia’s father and brother Jimmy ran. The family lived on the second floor and on the back porch Aunt Pearl (your grandmother) had flower boxes in which she planted petunias and basil. They also kept pigeons and had a dog named Nellie. In the summertime Aunt Pearl and Uncle Dominick and my family would get together and go fishing at Maple Lake. (My family being Rose, my mother, John, my father, my sister, Grace and my brother Richard (At that time my younger brother was not yet born.) Rose is Pearl’s sister and Julia’s Aunt.) Uncle Dominick (your Grandfather) would go to the market and buy bushels of tomatoes and pickles [cucumbers] and Aunt Pearl with Julia would “can” them and my mother would do the pickles (she made bread and butter pickles) and they would trade off Tomatoes and pickles.

Your grandmother was a very talented lady—she could crochet, knit, make paper flowers and she also did piece work where she would pick up bodices of dresses and sew the beadwork on them. The family attended Precious Blood Church on Congress and Western—the church is still in existence today. When we would visit your grandmother Pearl she would teach my mother new crochet patterns and my sister Grace but I couldn’t learn it as I was left-handed and she said the I did it backwards. Although we all did stitchery and these were our summertime projects and then Pearl and my mother would crochet the lace on stitched doilies, dresser scarves and pillowcases. Pearl also taught us flower making. I don’t know if your mother crocheted or knitted. I don’t remember her doing so but she did make flowers with us.

Julia worked at Superior Products this photo shows Julia in the

center of the photo. Standing on the far left is my Uncle

Korcz, my father's brother-in-law. 

I don’t know where your mother worked but your mother at that time was a very shy quiet person. (Millie was already married and out of the house as was Sylvia.) Your grandfather Dominick died in 1940. Jimmy as you may or may not know got married shortly before he was drafted. He married Betty (had Bette Cole—never saw her and was killed on D-Day in Normandy. Aunt Pearl showed us his Purple Heart and when the war was over had his body shipped back for burial here. (Mt. Carmel Cemetery). He had a Military funeral. Am enclosing a picture of his headstone.

About 1950 Aunt Pearl had a stoke and Julia, in order to keep her home, bought her a TV (we didn’t have one and Julia asked us to keep her mother company so every Friday we would go to their house where we would watch TV with Aunt Pearl and have coffee and cake or pie. [I believe that Pearl liked to play bingo. Maybe that is why she didn't stay home. I do vaguely remember when we lived with us in Hinsdale, Dad would take her somewhere, drop her off, then go and pick her up. I remember wanting to go with her but Dad said it was only for old ladies.]

About this time Julia went to a beauty school, made some new friends who experimented with glam and would go out on Fridays. She met your father and started dating (as you know your father was divorced). They got married and the house on Western Avenue was sold and your father and mother bought a house on the North side and your grandmother lived with them. We visited there a couple of times. I don’t remember who was born first but at that time she had a baby. [I was the baby.]

Don’t have too many more remembrances because we were growing up, my mother was working and your mother was busy with taking care of her family. Your father and mother bought the house in Darien [first address was Hinsdale, IL, then Clarendon Hills and finally incorporated into Willowbrook] (I believe Grandma Pear lived there for a while.) Grandma Pearl died in 1956 so maybe she didn’t. [Pearl did live with us. She had another stroke while pulling us (sister Sharon and I) around the yard in a wagon. I remember her in a hospital bed in our living room. She showed us how to count on one had as her other arm was paralyzed. I was 5 and Sharon was 3.]

As you know your mother and father grew quite a few vegetables. I believe all three of you went to schools in Darien.

I hope this is some help to you. Now I’ll work on the pictures you sent and tell you how these people fit into our family. I am enclosing some pictures of your mother’s headstone and also your grandparents (mentioned the one of Jimmy’s earlier). When I get a chance I’ll ask my husband to drive to Polk and Western to see if the building is still standing and let you know.

Gloria.

Mom’s 100th Birthday Part 1

Julia Petorella was born on April 1, 1916 to Dominick (Domenico) Petorella and Pearl (Prudenza) Giunta Petorella. As you can see from the birth certificate below, her given name was recorded as
 Lucy.

Lucy was Baptized as Julia on the day of her birth at the Church of Our Lady of Pompeii.

Julia was the 4th living child of Domenico and Pearl (the first Julia was born on November 4,1914 and died May 14, 1915). Magdeline (Millie) age 6 years; Vigenzo (James) age 5 years and Palma (Sylvia) age 3 years.

Dad’s 100th Part 4:The 1940s

Note: Documentation backs up these facts. Sorry if the truth offends anyone, it is part of our family history, warts and all..

Dad never talked about the 40s. Many of us have a dark period in our lives we would rather forget and, for the most part, the 40s were his.

The decade begins with 27 year-old, Leo still working at Western Electric, making a decent wage, having made $1,300 in 1939, according to the 1940 census. He does not have a place of his own and boards with his sister, Bernice’s in-laws at 907 North Keeler Avenue in Chicago. 

Seemingly his luck changes when he meets a young lady about 10 years his junior. How and exactly when they met is a mystery. Leo lived in Chicago, she in Downers Grove. The distance in miles was not so great but it was a world of difference from city to country, factory worker to counter girl at a Walgreens. Leo Szczudlo and Margaret Sagen were married on September 6, 1941, beginning a tumultuous 6 years of married life and years of custody/visitation issues. Sometime between their marriage and June of 1942, Szczudlo became Studlo and sometime after that Margaret began calling Leo, Lee.  

A short three months after their marriage the United States is drawn into WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We don’t know why Leo did not serve in the military during the war and I am not sorry for selfish reasons. What kind of exemption could he have had? Did he just not get drafted? Who knows?

However, apparently men in uniform were an attraction for Margaret. After nine months of marriage Margaret began receiving letters from servicemen. Not platonic letters either. Whether or not there was any unseemly activity, we will never know for sure. But some of the letters alluded to meetings between Margaret and suitor(s). It appears she told a couple of these men that she was going to divorce Leo.

Did Leo know what was going on at the time? Who knows? Their union did produce a son, my half- brother, Jack on January 7, 1945.  At that time Leo, according to Jack’s Birth Certificate, was a tool and die maker at Western Electric, Co.

 

.                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a series of court dates prior to the final decree.  On one such date, Margaret lied in under oath as to whether she received letters from solders.  Leo produced a couple of those letters and Margaret was found in contempt of court and sentenced to 10 days in Cook County Jail.  Custody of little 17 month old Jack was temporarily awarded to Leo.

On December 1, 1947, Leo and Margaret’s divorce was finalized after a very lengthy process.  After the divorce Leo went to live with his sister Frances and her family according to Dolores Kozyra, Frances’ daughter.

A series of letters from Margaret discussing visitation time show that she was still trying to manipulate Leo.

Our Last Living Aunt Has Passed

 

While we weren’t together often and even less in the past few years, I remember Aunt Mary as a warm, caring and happy woman.  This is a sad milepost for us.

 

Obituary--Mary Bernice (Szczudlo) Kowalkowski

 

Kowalkowski, Mary Bernice (nee Szczudlo) Age 93. Beloved wife of the late Walter "Wladyslaw"; loving mother of Darlene and Elaine; daughter of the late Caroline and Joseph Szczudlo; sister of the late Frances (Anthony) Korcz, the late Bernice (Louis) Havlovic, the late Sophie (John) Zelesko, the late Leo (Julia) Studlo, the late Joseph (Rose) Szczudlo and the late Theodore "Teddy" Szczudlo; aunt to many nieces and nephews; Godmother of Sandra (Brian) Meloy and Christine (Walter) Kwak. Longtime member of the Polish Highlanders Jana Sabaly Kolo # 1. In lieu of flowers, Mass Memorials would be appreciated or contributions to St. Simon the Apostle Church, 5157 South California, Chicago, IL 60632 or to Holy Cross Hospital, 2701 West 68th Street, Chicago, IL 60629. Funeral Wednesday 8:45 am from Richard J. Modell Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 5725 S. Pulaski Rd. proceeding to St. Simon the Apostle Church 9:30 am Mass. Entombment Resurrection Mausoleum. Visitation Tuesday 3-9 pm. 773-767-4730 or www.rjmodellfh.com.

Published in Chicago Sun-Times on August 4, 2013

- See more at: http://legacy.suntimes.com/obituaries/chicagosuntimes/obituary.aspx?n=mary-bernice-kowalkowski-szczudlo&pid=166210443&fhid=2150#fbLoggedOut

Technorati Tags: Kowalkowski,Mary Kowalkowski,Mary Szczudlo

Things I Remember About Dad

By Sharon Gibson

Something I remember about my Dad was that he was a very conscientious about his job. He was a chauffeur for Western Electric and had to drive the bosses around. Most of the time he knew exactly where he was going, but if he was unsure he would go on a “dry run” to make sure he didn’t get lost. I remember once we all took a ride to Milwaukee just so he could check out where he was supposed to go.

Also, I do not remember him missing work, except for the blizzard in 1967 when we received 27 inches of snow. Even on that day he tried to get to work but wound up getting the car stuck in the snow. Another time he sustained a second or third degree burn to his hand, the back of his hand was one huge blister and still went to work instead of a doctor. They sent him to the company nurse and she treated it and bandaged it for him.

Another thing I remember about my Dad was when we did something wrong he would make a big show of being angry. He would pretend to be taking his belt off to spank us. He would stand there and move his feet and start to unbuckle it. We would take off running. Funny thing is I don’t remember him ever spanking us.

Another memory had to do with some pigeons we had. These pigeons just flew in one day and never left, as a matter of fact as time went on more showed up and they even had babies. Of course as kids we thought this was great. We named them, fed them and at some point Dad even made a coop for them. As you know pigeons are kind of messy birds and Dad was getting tired of the mess so one day he decided to catch them and bring them into the city and release them under one of the viaducts. So off he went with the birds but by the time he got back they had already found their way home.

Dad

Guest post by James D. Studlo

My father would have been 100 years old on July 22^nd so I thought it would be appropriate to commemorate the occasion in by writing what I knew about him.

I thought it would be best to start with what the world was like that he was born into and how he was fortunate to have been born here in the United States.

• The year saw the birth of some famous people including Gerald Ford, Jesse Owens, Vince Lombardi, Rosa Parks and Jimmy Hoffa.
• Some of the news stories were very similar to ours today. The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes. The populace protested vigorously,
• The Woolworth building opens in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it is the tallest building in the world at this date and for more than a decade after.
• The US was fighting a war overseas: Battle of Bud Bagsak in the Philippines concludes with U.S. troops under General John J. Pershing taking Bug Bagsak from defending Moro rebels, killing at least 500. 39^th street in Chicago is named for General Pershing, most people who ride on it don’t have a clue as to who he was.
• The 50th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of American Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, needless to say there were no veterans at the 150th just celebrated .
• The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States is dedicated; I still drive on parts of it today.
• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal, it has since been turned over to the Panamanians.
• The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes; it takes just under six hours today.
• Surprise, the Jews and Palestinians were fighting in the Middle East, Israel was then known as Palestine.

The Polish people had fallen on hard times in Europe in the 1700 and 1800s. There was no Polish state and many of the Poles were scattered around parts of Germany and Russia. Although they were often tradesman and hardworking they found themselves to be the subject of discrimination so many of them sought better conditions. This resulted in several waves of emigration to the US. My grandfather a bricklayer and grandmother were in one of those waves shortly after the turn of the century and came to the US settling in the Chicago area. There they stated a family. The city was growing rapidly then and there was plenty of work especially for a mason so things were apparently going to plan. My father was born in 1913 and spent some of his younger years in Chicago, times of which he never spoke about perhaps because he was too young to remember. Then my grandmother then became ill with some type of respiratory disease and my grandfather was told by the doctor that it would be best if the family was to move into the country. I presume the city air at that time was filled with smoke and soot. So he bought a farm in Wisconsin near a small town called Necedah. There it was that my dad grew up.

Farm life is tough today but even more so then, especially for children. The children were expected to do many chores including milking cows tending to animals and fields there wasn’t much in the way of mechanization. Then occasionally there was time for school. My dad said when they were able to attend school he and his siblings would walk several miles to the school in town. Sometimes they had to endure hot sun, sometime the rain, sometimes cold and snow of the Wisconsin winter. Often times thought the biggest obstacle to getting to school was human; in this case the German boys. Unfortunately the bigotry of Europe had found its way to northern Wisconsin, old hatred is difficult to eradicate even in a new generation on a different continent. Most of the time he was able to get through to school with only a few bumps and bruises. Despite these obstacles he was able to complete through 8^th grade. He was able to read and write but I always felt bad for him because I could see that he didn’t have much confidence in those abilities.

Life wasn’t all work on the farm and when he was free he would do a number of things depending on the season. In the winter they would fashion skis from pieces of wood bending the front tip upward by heating the wood in boiling water over and over again. Then they would fasten them to their boots with leather straps. From what he said they used them more like what we would refer to as cross country skis. They also created their own ice skates which they used on frozen parts of the river.

In the summer he liked to fish and since the farm was situated with the Wisconsin River a short distance to the east and the Yellow River to the west there were many good fishing sites. On occasion he would set his lines in the morning and returned later in the day to retrieve his catch. His favorite fish to catch was the sunfish pictured below. Along the way he would eat berries which grew wildly along the roads and in the woods. It may have been on one of these trips that he was bit in the leg by a poisonous snake and his friend saved his life by removing the venom the old fashion way. He also said he and his father would hunt sometimes along the river or along the edge of the fields to supplement what food they had.

As my father grew older he set his sights on returning to the city, a goal which was going to take some preparation. He never said how but he got his hands on an old Model T Ford which had fallen into disrepair and didn’t run. With a large dose of ingenuity and some old spare parts he was able to collect he was able to get the thing running again. Then one day he decided it was time and he headed off to the big city with a few dollars in his pocket in the hopes of finding a job. Apparently this was in the winter because he said he nearly froze to death on the trip and if he hadn’t installed a gas heater in the car he most likely would have, I guess the model T did not come with a heater as original equipment. At one point he was really snowed in and had to wait for a plow to come along and he then followed that to safety.

He arrived in Chicago when he was about 18 or 19 years which would have been around 1931 or 32 which was not a particularly good time to look for a job as this was in the middle of the Great Depression. I believe he stayed with relatives and in boarding houses when he first arrived. One of the more colorful stories he told was about a guy he met in one of these places who told my dad about a lead on a job. This job was at a gang distillery somewhere in the Chicago area near a river. For this he was paid 5 dollars a week and a gallon of alcohol. He was positioned near the entrance of the road and his job was to watch for any unusual activity from a tree house lavishly appointed with a wired doorbell button and an old chair. Well as the story goes one day a number of large black cars came speeding down the road a couple of them stopped and were guarding the entrance and the rest went speeding down to the distillery. He pressed the doorbell buttin frantically a number of times and then thought he should get out of there. So he climbed down from the tree house and started walking down to the road and toward home. As he walked past the cars left at the entrance one of the armed men there asked him where he was going he replied in Polish hoping to distance himself from the largely Italian operation. He said that he was going home and they just waved him on. His thought was that they let him go because he was just a young kid.

For a number of years he worked odd jobs and did carpentry while trying to get a job at one of the large manufacturing companies in the Chicago area. Finally after about 6 years he was able to secure a job at Western Electric in Cicero where he began work as a truck driver.

It was during this time that he decided to change his last name from Szczudlo to Studlo. Once I asked him and he said he made this change because it was simpler and that there was a lot of discrimination against Poles at the time and he felt it would make it easier to get a job.

He liked to dance and once told me that he on the weekends he would go to dance halls which were around the Chicago area. The most popular of these was the Willowbrook Ballroom which is still in existence today.

He also liked music and played a concertina and the trumpet by ear. He never said how he learned to play. Occasionally when we were young he would take out his concertina and play polkas on it, a great memory!

This brings us up to outbreak of WWII and he never spoke very much about his life during that time, so someone else may be able to fill in the details.

Technorati Tags: Szczudlo,Studlo,Polish,Chicago,Great Depression