Ellis Island Immigrant Frederick Albert Koprek 1904-1970

This Family Tale is a collection of many small tales and memories.

My goal in all of the Dead Family Tales is to present stories that would have been told around a kitchen table or around a campfire during family gatherings.

Beginnings

Fred was born in Gelsenkirchen-Horst, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. His father, Samuel, was born further east in Wallen, Kreis Ortelsburg, Ermland-Masuren, which is now in Poland.

Ellis Island

The Samuel Koprek family emigrated in 1906. They made the journey on the Vaderland from Antwerp to New York City. Processed through Ellis Island.

The 1906 ship's manifest indicates that they were on their way to a friend's home in Pennsylvania. I don't know what happened but they ended up at 1701 E Moffat, Springfield, Illinois in the 1910 census.

Brothers Died Young

They lived in Springfield Illinois for quite a few years. Two of Fred's brothers were born and died there: Paul A. Koprek 1911-1912 and Wilfred Koprek 1917-1917. They are buried in Springfield. As I was growing up, I never heard anyone talk about them. It was a surprise when I found them while doing genealogy research.

Fred Gets a Job

He was a delivery driver for a grocer or a dairy in Springfield. The owner is the lady on the right.

Wisconsin Farm

His parents and siblings moved to a farm near Gleason, Wisconsin sometime before 1930. Most of their offspring still live in that area. Photo below was taken at the farm. Frederick Albert Koprek is holding his son, Frederick Lowell Koprek. Next are Fred's brothers, George and Carl Koprek. I don't know the bull's name, but he is definitely keeping an eye on them.

Hard Work on the Railroad

For 40 years he was part of the crew that changed out the railroad ties and maintained the Illinois Terminal Railroad tracks. He was not afraid of hard work and was rewarded with a pretty good life. He always had a deep tan from working outside.

Showering Ritual

Full-bore hot followed by full-bore cold.

DIY Dentistry

Fred's nephew Bob told me this disturbing tale! Fred had a bad tooth. Taking a bottle of whiskey with him for killing the pain, he went to the garage and pulled his own tooth with a pair of pliers.

Old Spice

His signature smell.

Coffee and Sugar for the Children

My brother and I got our first taste of coffee on a front porch swing during the heat of a Sunday afternoon one summer. Grandpa brought us bowls of ice cream with coffee poured over it, topped with a teaspoon of sugar. That is still one of my favorite desserts!

Butcher Shop

Every Saturday morning in the 1960s Fred and his grandson Mike would go to the neighborhood butcher--Dreschel's--on the corner of E. Orchard St. and N. Charles St. in Decatur, Illinois. Everyone knew everyone there. All German immigrants, going there was a social call which included bringing back the Sunday roast. As a child, it was a real treat to be allowed behind the counter where they kept the big wooden butcher block and you could peek into the mysterious meat locker.

Fish

The extended family would often go fishing together and it was always a party atmosphere. Fred loved to fish and had a metal minnow bucket.

He would bring the fish home in that bucket and clean them in the basement over on Walnut Street. They had a hoosier cabinet that he would use as a worktop. First he would spread out a few newspapers to help with cleanup before gutting and cleaning. That cabinet has been passed down to a new generation and is still in use, but not for fish cleaning anymore.

Waltzing

While watching Lawrence Welk in the basement one evening, he showed me how to waltz when I was about 5 years old. I stood on top of his shoes and he counted, "1, 2, 3" as he moved his feet and we "waltzed".

Operation

He had a sharp little pocket knife that he would use to extract splinters from his grandchildren's hands. Digging out the splinter was a bit painful, even though he was gentle and the knife was sharp.

Tiger Chair

This beautiful 1940s bentwood rocker was where he would relax, have a beer, smoke his pipe, play the harmonica (I remember him learning the song Blue Hawaii), and watch TV in the basement. It was originally covered with a dark green (almost black) corduroy. I had it recovered in 2018 with this wonderful tiger microsuede.

Reining in Helen

Fred's wife Helen would harp on a subject again and again until Fred would growl a phrase at her in German (or maybe Polish?). Whatever he said settled her right down. She would stop immediately. It was like magic. The sound of an angry German speaker still strikes fear in my heart today.

Fun Facts

He could isolate his left and right chest muscles and would make them dance to amuse the kids. His eyes were stunning--as blue as the sky. He always wore a hat to church. Usually a fedora.

Roll Your Own

You would find Fred sitting at the kitchen table early every morning, rolling his cigarettes while listening to the radio. Once he had rolled enough for the day, he would put them into an empty Prince Albert tobacco tin.

Which reminds me of this unique way that kids would misbehave:

Back in the days of land line telephones there was no caller ID. That made it easy to make prank calls. One popular prank was to call a grocery store and ask if they had Prince Albert in a can. When the answer was yes, you would say, "Well you had better let him out!"

Breakfast

Oatmeal with cream and sugar. Sometimes topped with crisp crumbled bacon.

The Koprek Clan

Some extra photos:

Koprek Family c. 1934

Top Left:

Eva Lipka Koprek,

Martha Koprek Tanzyus

Back Row:

Irene Neuman Koprek, Ernie Koprek

In Front of Back Row:

Samuel Koprek, Fred A Koprek

Left: Betty Tanzyus (little girl),

William Koprek, Helen Haupt Koprek

Fred L Koprek (little boy)

Leonard Tanzyus (seated)

The next photo is at the farm in Wisconsin. I think the girl on the left is Diana Koprek (Carl's daughter) with a cute little kitten! You probably recognize Fred by now with his wife Helen. The year is about 1955.

If you are in a position to help with funding?

Dead Family Tales also has a Patreon page.

The fee to the internet hosting company for our deadfamilytales

site is $20 a month, so if 20 of you readers were to pledge $1,

that cost would be covered!

My research is a labor of love, as you might have guessed, but

money gets tight some months.