The Life of Anthony John Raczkiewicz

XXXXXXXX

Anthony John Raczkiewicz (my grandfather) died at his residence on October 31, 1980, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His obituary indicated that he was 85 years old but after finding his birth record in Poland, he was actually 87 years old. He reposed at the Arsulowicz Brothers Mortuary, West on Stocking Avenue and a funeral Mass was celebrated in the Basilica of St. Adalbert. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. According to the obituary in the newspaper, he was survived by his wife, Pauline, son Anthony Jr. and wife Cecilia, son Ronald and wife Pamela, daughter Shirley and her husband Roy Longwell, John Dykstra, surviving spouse of his daughter Lorraine, as well as nine grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and his sister, Mrs. Frank (Mary) Kufta of Muskegon Heights. Additionally, he was survived by his youngest brother Boleslaw in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland but the writers of the obituary either didn’t know or remember this. XXXXXXXX When Anthony was born on March 13, 1893, in the village of Sabaudia, his father, Jan, was 28 and his mother, Katarzna (nee Kaszucka), was 24 years old. Jan was a peasant farmer and his wife had come from a family of furriers from the city. Their family already consisted of five-year-old Jan and four-year-old Jozef. Mikołaj Roczniak, 30 years old, and Andrzej Lisikiewicz, 23 years old, accompanied Jan to report the birth of his son in the city of Tomaszów Lubelski. His Godfather was Mikolaj and the Godmother’s name hasn’t been deciphered in the record, which is written in Russian. The document was read out loud, and signed by the priest, because they could not read or write (at least in Russian.) XXXXXXXX Anthony and his brother Joseph traveled to the United States for a better life in 1912. When Katarzyna said goodbye to 19 year old Antoni and his brother Joseph, it was likely that she was never going to see him again. Her oldest son Jan had left two years earlier. Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz explained that there is a figurine that was built in Sabaudia in 1909. “I believe that my Grandma Katarzyna said goodbye from this place and blessed her sons and daughter before the long journey. It used to stand at the end of the village. The figurine says: God bless these inhabitants.” The remaining six children were ages six to seventeen. Her husband Jan was still alive (and would be alive for three more years) and his sons had been encouraged to go by him and he helped with the cost and the planning. XXXXXXXX Anthony and Joseph sailed from Antwerp, Belgium on September 18, 1912 but first had 700 miles of travel, some by rail to get there from home. They sailed on the SS Mount Temple with the destination of Quebec, Canada, arriving on October 2, after 17 days on the ocean. They arrived by in the United States at Detroit, Michigan, on October 4, 1912 by train, entering as permanent residents. Their final destination of Grand Rapids, Michigan is where their brother Jan already lived. XXXXXXXX Anthony Raczkiewicz married his first wife Klementyna Gołębiewska in Grand Rapids, MI on June 20, 1916, about four years after he arrived in the U.S.,. Anthony’s brother Joseph was one of the witnesses. The other was Catherine Nadwornik (spelling?), who was on the ship with Klementyna when she came to the U.S. and was also from the same area in Poland. Klementyna was born November 23, 1897 in Tomaszów Lubelski. Her parents were Wojciech Golebiowski, 35, a blacksmith and Katarzyna (nee Roczniak), 37. The witnesses were Ludwik Skiginski, 45 and Konstanty Kudlicki, 34 and her Godparents were Ludwik Skiginski and Antonina Roczniak. XXXXXXXX Anthony and Klementyna were married for less than two years when she passed away on April 4, 1918, from complications of childbirth. Their daughter Bronislawa, who was born in Bay City, Michigan (where Klementyna had family) three days earlier, was taken to D.A. Blodgett Children’s Home for medical care. Bronislawa also passed away there in July from a congenital heart problem. XXXXXXXX When Anthony was 22 years old and registered for the World War I draft, his physical description was medium height, medium build, gray eyes, light brown hair and a deformed finger. At age 47 when he registered for the draft for World War II, his physical description was 5’5, 145 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, and light complexion. His youngest brother Boleslaw resembled Anthony in appearance according to his son Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz. .”Po obejrzeniu zdjęć mojego Stryja Antoniego to tak jakbym widział swojego Ojca Bolesława.” “After seeing the photos of my Uncle Antoni, it is as if I saw my Father Bolesław.” XXXXXXXX Anthony married Apolonia Skrobot (my grandmother) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on September 6, 1920. The wedding was at St. Adalbert Church. Reverend C Skory performed the marriage and Joseph Raczkiewicz and J. (Juuie?) Sagauska are listed as witnesses. Joseph was Anthony’s older brother and I think J. Sagauska was “Jennie” who my mother remembered was a long term friend of Joseph. The record says he was 25 years old but I know he was 27 since I have now seen his translated birth certificate. Apolonia (Pauline) was 18 according to the records but with a birthdate of April 1904, she was actually 16 ½ years old. This might explain the later confusion where family members thought she would “lie” about her age and claim to be younger than she was. (In the 1930 census, she claims she was 17 when married. The marriage document indicates 18. Birth dates vary . . . XXXXXXXX At the time of the marriage, Anthony was a cabinet maker. Pauline traveled from Oil City, Pennsylvania to Grand Rapids with a friend to visit relatives. Her parents were Polish immigrants and she spoke Polish, Russian and English. She met and married Anthony while on the visit. Her wedding dress, veil and bouquet were very elaborate. She told her family the wedding gown was featured in the window of Wurzburg’s Department Store in downtown Grand Rapids. She bought and wore the matching shoes even though they were the wrong size and pinched her feet. When Anthony came to the United States in 1912, he was a farm laborer in Poland. During his first years in the U.S., he was a laborer, polisher and a tanner. In the earliest Polk Directory I could find that listed him (1914), Anthony is a laborer. In 1915, Anthony was a polisher. In June, 1916, when Anthony got married, he was a laborer/polisher and his fiance, Klementyna/Clementena, was a factory hand. When he registered for the WWI draft the following June,1917, Anthony (22) was a tanner at the tannery. In the 1920 census, he was still working at the tannery. XXXXXXXX Anthony tried to run a business for a few years. In 1921, Anthony left the tannery and was a clerk at Charles (Powlski) Powlowski’s Billiards at 612 Bridge St. NW. This location had opened in 1916 as the Buddy Theater, opened by the Buddy Brothers. Pool halls must have been a popular entertainment with 13 listed in the city that year. Charles Powlowski was from the same part of Poland, immigrated to Grand Rapids and married his wife the same year Anthony married Pauline. Charles also had a soft drink store at 511 Bridge St. NW. By 1922, the city had 30 billiard halls and Anthony (Radzkiewicz) was listed in the city directory as the owner. He had five competitors on Bridge Street alone. In 1923, he was co-owners with Mr. Czarnopis and there were 33 pool halls in Grand Rapids. This was likely Stanislaw Czarnopis who came to the US with Anthony’s brother Jan. The family legend is that Anthony made $100 a day and there may have been gambling happening on the premises. His daughter Shirley Longwell remembers hearing these stories but it was “before her time.” Interestingly, Grand Rapids had gone dry, at midnight, April 30, 1918 and the state soon followed with Prohibition voted in until it was repealed in 1933. It is unclear if gambling or alcohol contributed to the money made or the demise of his business. By 1924 the number of pool halls grew to 34 but sadly, Anthony was no longer running one of them and there was no longer a listing in the city directory. Anthony was again listed as a laborer. After his pool hall experience, Anthon went back to factory work and like everyone, was affected by the Great Depression. In 1928 Anthony was still a laborer and in 1929 Anthony was listed as a worker. In 1930, Anthon was listed as a tacker at Keifer Tannery and made $6500. “The early 1930's, of course, were the years of the Great Depression. With its onslaught in 1929 and its relentless persistence, the community of St. Adalbert's suffered many setbacks, beginning with the closing of the Polish-American Bank, located at the intersection of Bridge, Lexington, and Stocking. As a result of its closing, many parishioners lost a large share of their life's savings. The setbacks continued with the folding of small businesses and the slowdown of larger industries, resulting in layoffs and, at least, cutbacks in working hours.” http://www.mipolonia.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/St.-Adalbert_1881-1981_Grand-Rapids_MI.pdf XXXXXXXX Anthony worked 40 weeks in 1940 for a $1,000 annual salary continuing his work as a Lacquer at a tannery. He continued as a tannery worker and Lacquer through 1959. His daughter Shirley remembers him bringing home castoff pieces of leather and her sister Lorraine had some of them in her home. In 1942, when he registered for the WWII draft, Anthony was still working at Keifer Tannery at 240 Front St. NW which was owned by Irving Orr who lived at 915 Cambridge Dr. SE., a 3,000 square foot home newly built in the affluent nearby city of East Grand Rapids. XXXXXXXX Anthony was a member of St. Hyacinth, Polish Falcon Society and Polish National Alliance Society. Card parties, weddings, concerts, dances and beer drinking were common activities and were popular ways for people from Poland to socialize together. Grand Rapids had forty or fifty “halls” owned by private societies of different immigrant groups. There were more Polish ones than any other nationality and there were eight Polish ones on the West side. XXXXXXXX The Grandpa of my memory was a man who spoke little English, who made me feel like I was his favorite and layed on the couch or sat on the front porch, spitting out chewing tobacco into a coffee can. He proudly tended his roses and made sure his yard never had dandelions. Grandpa had a sweet tooth and a favorite holiday gift to give him were chocolate covered cherries. He would give me and my sisters Linda and Lori a quarter each to get lots of penny candy at the candy store around the corner on Bridge Street. He would walk us to the bakery for sour cream cookies, paczki, and rye bread.