Sunday, July 1, 2012

Immigration Story


FOR THE FAMILY OF STEVEN AND KATHERINE [GOLOBIC] GURGON
AMERICA HOW PAP GOT HERE?

PAP'S ROOTS
From what I gathered from Pap, Mother and my Older Brothers and Sisters, also listening to the older men some of whom came over on the same ship as Pap did, I am going to try and write down as much as I can remember and go back as far as I can on his life.
Pap was born  in Austro-Hungary, what is now called Yugoslavia at the time of "Franz Josef" King under the Hapsburg's. According to the stories my mother told us he was a very good King and everyone loved him. Pap also talked about him and said the people were very satisfied under his rule and wanted no other ruler. Pap was seventeen years old , and during this period there appeared a stranger in the area and he was trying to recruit younger men to go to America, telling them of all the beautiful things they would see and how easy it was to get rich and come back to their village and live like kings and never have to work again. But first they would have to get enough money for passage in the spring of the next year. So Pap and four other young men worked hard and saved their money and when spring came they met this same man who took their money and bought them a ticket to Hamburg, Germany and a passage ticket to America. (This man was being paid by the steamship lines for recruiting these young men.)

With his parents blessing and a joyous send -off he headed for Zagreb, there to catch his train for Hamburg, Germany and thence to America.

In the late Spring of 1907 Pap and the four young men stepped off the boat and set foot in America. They had disembarked at Ellis Island, where immigration officials first turned them over to be examined by government doctors and if they passed they were sent to on to their destinations. Not knowing any English whatsoever and no one there to meet him Pap had a tag tied around his neck bearing the name of his destination and the address of my Grandfather and Grandmother. Just two of the others went with Pap, the other two Pap met many years later in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a town full of Croatians. Pap said they were quartered in the lower holds of the ship packed like sardines. It was hot and stifling and they were allowed only once a day to go topside for a breath of fresh air. This was known as going "steerage class".

  He settled in Josephine, Pennsylvania. (Incindentially I was born in Josephine, on the 1st of November, 1918 a cold and blustery day as told to me by my mother).  There was a steel mill located there and that is where Pap got his first job in America, eventually the steel mill closed (year unknown to me) [1926] it was torn down and all of the employees lost their jobs. 

 COLOMBIA PLATE GLASS FACTORY, JOSEPHINE, PA.

 Pap then next received employment at the old stone quarry above Hillside, Pennsylvania until he received employment at the Columbia Plate Glass Company in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, (TinTown) there he became a boiler operator, pipe fitter, and water tender. He worked at the glass company for approximately 20 years, when in the late 1920's , 1929 to be exact the greatest depression this country ever had commenced. With the stock market crash, all banks closed, and factories shut down, millions of people out of work, thousands who lost money and real estate property committed suicide. "this was a time that tried men's souls," as George Washington uttered on a cold shattering day at "Valley Forge".

Pap tried everywhere to find a job but with no success, finally he accepted a job working 3 days a week in the Brenizer Mine (Aunt Stella's hometown). He dug coal there for about a year, when the expected happened, the space he was working in, the roof  was weak and finally collapsed and covered him up. Somehow he struggled free, unhurt, with only a few minor scratches and a sore back. This he said finally convinced him that this was no place to earn a living for himself and family, so he quietly gathered his tools and equipment, went to the mine office, drew his last paycheck and terminated his employment at the mine forever.

"Just a minute before I go any further, I would like to interject some humor here, so let me go back to the time Pap was working as a boiler operator, sometimes I get ahead of myself and omit something that may or may not be significant."

On one occasion a boiler operator who normally relieves pap at the end of his shift came in drunk and demanded Pap to work his shift for him. Pap refused and the man got real indignant and angry. 

The next shift the man concealed himself in the shanty and was waiting for Pap to arrive home. In the meantime Grandma had seen the man enter the shanty. She immediately sent one of the older boys  (Scottie or Johnny) to warn Pap. When Pap came home he sneaked into the house, went upstairs, took out his 38 revolver, went to the back bedroom and fired 2 quick shots into the shanty. Now, we didn't need a back door in the shanty  but that guy got out of it so fast that he made a new door and he was never seen again. I guess those 2 shots convinced him he was fooling with the wrong guy. The bullet holes remained in the shanty until the 1936 St. Patrick's day flood swept away all the outhouses and shanties in its path. Another event at that time was the birth of George (Zug) Gurgon.

NOTES:
FAITHFULLY TRANSCRIBED FROM  THE GURGON TIMES EDITED BY PEGGY GURGON FOR THE GURGON FAMILY TIMES NEWS LETTER APRIL, 1984. WRITTEN BY  JOSEPH [OPIE] GURGON.





CHILDREN OF STEVEN AND KATHRINE GURGON
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