THE KOPICKI

THE KOPICKI / WASILEWSKI FAMILY STORY

(written from 4th generation perspective by Carole Tolla)

PAUL KOPICKI, my maternal great grandfather, was born in Germany in l858 . He was a butcher and a horse stable caretaker. He had a sister, Mrs. John Cichon whose last known address was Bulloal, N.Y. He married PAULINE GEINSTWA ,my maternal great grandmother, in l882. She was born on 3/1/1859 and was a dietician. Pauline had one sister,Chila, who was the mother of Nellie Bambrick and the grandmother of Bernadine who lived on Van Loon Street with her husband Al and son Butch.


PAUL KOPICKI	PAULINE GEINSTWA KOPICKI

Paul and Pauline arrived in America from Poland on 4/19/1883 and they became one of the early settlers of Plymouth Penna. Paul went to work in the mines and built the first house on Van Loon Street in Plymouth which became the family compound for four generations of Kopickis.. It was built as a duplex with a basement apartment. The mines spread out on Shawnee Avenue at the base of Van Loon Street, which seemed to be a vertical rise up the mountain having number 178, the Kopicki home, nestled smack in the middle of it.

THIS IS HOW 178 VAN LOON LOOKS TODAY. I REMEMBER THE HOUSE COVERED IN GRAY ROOF TYPE SHINGLES. OLD TRIXIE, THE BLACK DOG USED TO SCRATCH HIS BACK ON THEM AND IN WINTER CONNIE & I WOULD SHOE SKATE IN THE DRIVEWAY.

AS A CHILD, MY MOM, FLORENCE, FELL OFF THE PORCH AND WAS UNCONSCIOUS FOR A WHILE. THE FAMILY STORE WAS LOCATED IN THE BASEMENT. AT OTHER TIMES IT WAS USED AS A SMALL APARTMENT FOR: MRS. RUMSKY: GREAT GRANDMA PAULINE; AND FROM 1946-1950, MY FAMILY.

Paul and Pauline had one daughter, Joanna, born 1887. She died in 1892 at age 5. They also had 6 sons: Frank (1883), John (1885), Thomas (1891), Paul Jr. (1892), Peter (1894) and Leo (1898). After 21 years in the mines, Paul, Sr. decided to go into the meat and food industry becoming a butcher. After 35 years in Plymouth, he and Pauline, in 1918, moved in with their eldest son, Frank who lived in Plains, Pa.with his wife, Stella and their children..Frank Jr., Robert, Marie and Margaret. Frank was a funeral director—as was his brother, Leo, who married Vicki and had three children: Edward, Theresa and Joanne. Their brother John may also have been a funeral director. He married Michina and had 4 sons: Jake, Ed, Alex, and Dan. John died in 1958. Their brother Paul Jr. became a Catholic priest. He lived in Larksville. Peter stayed single and was a podiatrist. And last but certainly not least----my grandfather, Thomas, who was born l2/29/l889. He married the love of his life, Elizabeth Wasielewski, my maternal grandmother, on 8/25/1912 and lived with her in one side of the Van Loon St home for approximately 40 years. Mrs. Rumsky lived in the basement apartment . All eleven of Tom and Elizabeth’s children were born in this house. Paul Sr. is remembered as a loving, affectionate grandfather who would come once a month to collect the rent from Elizabeth, only to turn around and give it all back to his grandchildren (who gave it back to their mother).


THOMAS KOPICKI	HIS BROTHERS: PETER, FATHER PAUL, AND LEO

Paul and Pauline were members of St. Mary’s Church and celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary there in 1932. Paul passed away in October of 1936 at the age of 78. He is buried in St. Johns Cemetery in Dallas, Pennsylvania in the Kopicki family plot. Pauline became senile and was sent to live in the basement apartment on Van Loon Street where Thomas and Elizabeth took care of her. Due to her illness, she was very belligerent and made life miserable for poor Elizabeth who already had her hands full with all her children. Pauline passed away on 7/2/1946.

PAULINE WITH HER 2 GRANDCHILDREN, FRANCES AND BERNARD

VINCENT WASILUS, my other maternal great grandfather, was born in Lithuania (Russia Poland) in the 1860's. His mother’s name was Ursala (my maternal great-great grandmother) and he had 3 brothers: Charles, Adam and Ludwig, and 4 sisters: Elizabeth, Eva, Margaret and Anna. ( Click here for full Wasilus family tree) He married CONSTANCE ELIZABETH KONOPACKI, my other maternal great grandmother, in 1882. She was born in Germany on 2/14/1874. Her mother’s name was ELIZABETH KUCZYNSKI Konopacki (also my maternal great-great grandmother) who died giving birth to Constance.


VINCENT AND CONSTANCE KONOPACKI WASILUS	ELIZABETH WASILEWSKI ON HER COMMUNION DAY

Vincent and Constance immigrated to America through Ellis Island and got their citizenship papers at theWilkes Barre Courthouse on 3/18/1892. All their children died young (one son was named Leo) except their daughter Elizabeth, my grandmother, who was born on 4/21/1892. Constance died on 2/14/1897 at the age of 27. Elizabeth was only 5 years old and was brought up by her Paternal grandmother, Ursala Wasilus, in the Nanicoke area. Vincent didn’t speak English and worked in the coal mines. Because of the language problem, he was given the American name, William Link. After being alone for 6 years, Vincent married a Polish woman named Josephine Stalavich on 2/15/1903. Their first child, a son named Vincent, was born on 4/29/1907 but died 13 years later on 10/03/1920 from Rheumatic Fever. They also had a daughter, Anna, who died at age 3 from Whooping Cough and a son, Bernard, who died of unknown cause at age 7 months. The only child who survived was a daughter, Verna, who was born on January 24, 1910 and lives as of this writing in Pottstown, Pa. Verna (My great Aunt and my grandmother's half sister.) married George Poremba and had 2 sons, Albin and Eugene. George died (killed in the mines) and Verna married Steven Kaska. They had one son, Steve Jr. Verna said that she was called Verna Link in elementary school. When Vincent’s brother, Charles, married a Polish woman, Charles added SKI to his surname so Vincent decided to do the same thus changing his name to WASILEWSKI. Verna said that she was unaware of having a half sister until she was about 6 years old. At that time, Elizabeth was 22 years old and a wife and mother. Vincent died of miner’s asthma (Black Lung Disease) on April 20, 1922. His brothers, Adam and Ludwig, died of the same disease. His second wife, Josephine, died on 5/29/1959.


GEORGE AND VERNA WASILEWSKI POREMBA	VERNA KASKA

THOMAS AND ELIZABETH KOPICKI

THOMAS AND ELIZABETH ON THEIR WEDDING DAY WITH FATHER PAUL KOPICKI JR. AS BEST MAN. MAID OF HONOR IS THOUGHT TO BE MARY LOWERY, MAMA'S COUSIN ON HER FATHER'S SIDE..THE DAUGHTER OF EVA (WASILUS) PACROPUS

Life was not easy during the depression, especially with so many mouths to feed. Thomas worked as a butcher at Hacker's Supermarket on Main Street. The family operated a small grocery store from the basement of their home but as my Mom remembered it, Elizabeth gave credit to everyone so it wasn't profitable at all. At least the family was able to have meat in their diets occasionally because of this job. Eventually, Thomas went to work for the Hudson Coal Company as a timberman. Copy of his pay stub below

He loved gardening and woodworking. I remember the aroma of shellac in the basement of the house on 165 Nottingham Street that they eventually moved into after all their children had grown and moved away. I also remember how protective he was of his precious pear tree which made my mouth water every time I looked at it. At some point in time, Elizabeth fell while carrying clothes to hang on the clothesline and either broke or dislocated her hip. She did not seek medical attention resulting in a frozen, painful joint and a limp which plagued her the rest of her life. She was a fabulous cook and baker, treating us to a feast of Polish goodies every time we visited. From this point on, I shall refer to Thomas and Elizabeth as Mama and Papa which was the entire family's terms of endearment for them. Papa developed pancreatic cancer and on the day that he was to be released from the hospital, in his enthusiasm to go home, he died of a heart attack. (date) Mama, upon hearing of the death of her 2nd youngest son, Leonard, went into "sugar shock" and developed diabetes. She was informed that shortly after his 20th birthday, Lenny arrived in Korea during the war, ill and was ascending a hill when he was shot in the head by the enemy.(1950 click here for articles.) Her diabetes eventually caused a infection in the toe on her arthritic leg which turned septic (gangrene) She died on January 17, 1969 and is buried alongside her faithful husband Thomas and with her son Leonard in the Kopicki plot in St. Johns cemetery in Dallas, Pa.

My mother, Flo, was the 6th child born to Papa and Mama at 12:00am on 10/04/1922. As she puts it, "The start of a new day." As with all her siblings, Mom was born at home on Van Loon Street. Mama wanted to name her Barbara but when her Godmother and mid-wife, Mrs. Lowery, signed the birth certificate, she decided that she liked the name Florentina better. Mom's middle name was Constance after the grandmother she never met. Mom shared a room with her 3 sisters. Her 6 brothers shared a bed in another room. During the Depression, there was no work and most people were on "relief". She said, "In school we would each get a grapefruit or an orange, at least one per week, and looked forward to it. Every so often our parents would get a card and all the children would go with their parents to a distribution center and would be given a set of clothing and a pair of shoes. They didn't have a choice of clothing..just had to be satisfied with what they got. Mom wore the same dress to school every day. One teacher took pity on her and gave her a jumper. To Florence, it was the most beautiful dress she ever saw. In the summer, the children would go to the coal strip mines to pick coal and crack it to the size of golf balls so as to have tons ready for the stove in winter. She also would get up at 4am to hike up the mountain to pick blueberries so Mama could can them for the winter months and make pies and jelly. Some mornings Flo had to get up at 5am to help knead dough before she went to school. Mama would bake 10 to 12 loaves of bread at a time which lasted about 4 days. Without electric toasters they would take a long fork and hold the bread over the hot coals in the kitchen stove if they wanted toast. One day Papa came home from work with a box that had a dozen old fashioned high topped lace shoes in different sizes. The kids didn't like them but took whatever fit best since it was better than nothing. In the evening, the neighborhood children would get together to play games like: tag, red rover, Simon says, and how many steps. The whole family would huddle by a little radio and listen to programs such as, Amos and Andy, and The Shadow Knows. In the winter the kids got together to go sleigh riding down Van Loon. Since they had only one sled (usually Bernie, the eldest used it) the other children were very inventive, sledding down the hill on pieces of cardboard, shovels, or anything else that was flat and could be sat on. More memories coming soon.

In school, she was taught the regular subjects plus spelling and Palmer Method penmanship. Every Friday they would have tests and if any words were wrong, they had to write them 20 times each for extra homework. During her Jr. and Sr. High School years, Florence participated in big pep rallies before sports games and went to dances on the evening of the day they received their school newspaper. As a teenager she loved dancing (jitterbug) and wouldn't miss the Monday Night Dances. It was hard times back then and many times she had to "chisel" tickets (asking people for their passes if they weren't going back into the dance hall) In the 1030's 15 cents was hard to come by.

Around 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt started projects such as the WPA so people started getting jobs building highways and fixing roads etc. Her family was able to get off relief because Papa got a fob in the WPA. Then he worked as a timber man in the coal mines and on weekends he was a butcher in a meat market.

Florence graduated in 1940 and immediately got a job in a jewelry store getting $5.00 a week working for 40 hours of work. In 1942, during WW2, Florence moved to Nutley, New Jersey with her sister Betty and got a job in the office of Crucible Steel, a gun and munitions company. She sent home $5.00 each week to buy a bathtub for the Kopicki household since they always used an aluminum wash tub for baths. One rainy day while standing at a bus stop, she noticed an extremely handsome man, hands in pockets, getting drenched while waiting for the same bus to take them to work. Uncharacteristic for shy Florence, she asked him if he would like to share her umbrella.
Of course he said yes and she immediately memorized his employee number on his Crucible Steel badge. Having a friend in the Personnel Dept., she found out that he sent the bulk of his paycheck home to his widowed mother in Pa. to help her and his younger brother. Florence fell in love immediately and married her hero, Karl Mack on January 28, 1945.

As of this writing, most of the 10 Kopicki children have grandchildren and even great grandchildren. The Family numbers approx. 165 members. Your help is needed for updates and corrections of this document. A contact page is provided for you to leave comments, and your e-mail address, home address and phone #. Can't wait to hear from you. This document is printable so feel free to do so. Love, Carole


FRANCES MARRIED ALBERT ZALNERITUS JERRY	BERNARD MARRIED JEAN SYCHTERZ	ELIZABETH MARRIED THOMAS COTTER

ELEANOR MARRIED JOHN USEFARA	FLORENCE MARRIED KARL MACK	PAUL MARRIED PAT DALY

THOMAS JR. MARRIED ELEANOR PISCOTTY	ZENNON MARRIED JANE BRODEL	LEONARD DIED FIGHTING FOR OUR COUNTRY IN KOREA

	FRANK MARRIED RITA BIANCARDI


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More childhood photos soon