Samuel Koprek - Places Part 2

Samuel Koprek

b 1872 Warochy, East Prussia

m 1895 East Prussia

d 1950 Gleason, Lincoln county, Wisconsin, USA

Pennsylvania

The Vaderland ship manifest indicates Samuel's final destination is a friend named Gottlieb Koschewitz in Boswell, Pennsylvania. Boswell is a mining town.

According to the 1910 census, Gottlieb owned a farm in the Somersett area.

One of my questions: Who is Gottlieb to Samuel? I do not know the connection between them. Gottlieb came to America in 1902 and he was born in Hamburg.

Opa Samuel and his family moved to Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, 30 miles south of Gottlieb. Samuel worked as a coal miner. His son George was born there in 1907. This is the Lutheran church of Meyersdale. Baby George was probably baptized here.

Interesting side note was that George's birth certificate states that he was Eva's fifth living child, but her seventh in total. She had already lost two children before she got to Meyersdale.

When did the other two children die? Where?

Native English speakers had trouble spelling our Koprek names.

Eva is Afar

Koprek is Koferac?

She would bury two more sons in Springfield, Illinois.

Springfield, Illinois

Another question.

Why did Samuel move from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the coal mines in Illinois?

1909 City Directory

802 Indiana Avenue

1910 Census

1701 E Moffat

Coal miner with Eva and six children

1913-1919

1703 E Moffat

They moved next door for a few years.

A good friend of the family, Eva Tanzyus, had a heart attack and died in this home in 1916. She was worried about her son William going off to the fight in the Mexican Border War. Her other son Henry married Martha Koprek four years later.

1920 Census

2207 Cinncinati Avenue

They owned this house.

It is an empty lot now.

(two blocks south of Krekel's)

Sam was still working as a coal miner.

Eva and eight children shared the home with him.

Martha (21) was working at a watch factory.

Carl (17) was working at a watch factory.

Fred (15) was working as a wagon driver for a grocery store. George (12)

Ernest (9)

Edward (6)

Lillian (4)

William (7 months)

During their time in Springfield, they had two sons who died as babies.

1912

Eight month old Paul (1911 - February 1912) and

1917

Wilfred, born on 21 Jan 1917 but died the next day.

They are buried together at Oak Ridge Cemetery.

The same cemetery as Abraham Lincoln.

Block 21, Sec 4, E, 19

Church home?

I cannot find a church that they might have attended in Springfield. Martha was married in 1920 by Rev Henry F. Ebert, who was the pastor at a church called Hope Evangelical Lutheran (no longer exists). He lived about three blocks from the family's Moffet rental home. He has no affiliation with any of the Springfield Lutheran churches that I contacted.

Wisconsin

1930 Census

Daughter Martha (Henry Tanzyus) and son Fred (Helen Haupt) had married since the last census and moved to Decatur, Illinois.

By the time of the 1930 census, Samuel had moved to Wisconsin with the rest of his family. They were living and working on their own farm. I have very little information on this part of Samuel's life. They lost their house in a fire. If I can find more on the Wisconsin years, I will add a Part 3 to Samuel's story!

I do know that my dad would go to the farm for harvesting season as a child in the 1930s and 1940s.

1930

Samuel's sons, Fred, George, and Carl

With their bull in the background?

1936

Samuel's grandson Fredy on the draft horse, Babe.

1955ish

Were they involved in logging?

Samuel's granddaughter Diana (Carl's daughter) with her Uncle Fred and Aunt Helen.

Opa Samuel's Final Resting Place

Just north of Gleason, Wisconsin in Luther Memorial Cemetery

45.322270, -89.507303

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