Mary Hudak or is it Kostelnic? (1862-1951) Part 2

Mary Sarna with daughter, Mary Gabuzda 1951

I found Mary SARNA’s death certificate. She died in an unusual way going to her husband’s, George SARNA, gravesite in St. John’s Roman Catholic Cemetery on Maces Road. This is given more detail in her obituary found in The Plain Speaker Newspaper of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 18 May 1951, page 32, column 3. (Newspapers.com) 

The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, PA) 1951. Newspapers.com Digital images:  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4355223/woman_drowns_at_freelandmary_sarna/  : 2016.

Her death certificate states “accidental drowning in coal mine hole”  otherwise known as “a water-filled stripping.”

Pennsylvania Department of Health. Historical and Museum Collection. Pennsylvania Death Certificates. 1906-1964. 

Ancestry.com : accessed : 10 Dec 2016.

Mary’s son, John SARNA, of 623 Main St. filled out her death certificate with family information. He listed John KOSTELNICK as Mary’s father and her mother was unknown. she was born in Czecho Slovakia, born on 2 June 1860.

Mary had been living with her eldest daughter, Anna Sarna REMAK, 709 Main St., since her husband, George SARNA, died in 1935. In 1951, Anna REMAK, was sent to Washington D. C. for medical reasons, as this obituary states she is “presently a patient in a hospital” in D. C. Mary SARNA is then sent to live with her younger daughter, Mary Irene Sarna GABUZDA or “Mrs. Stephen Gabuzda.” She had only been living at 899 Centre St. for a month. This verifies the family stories of Mary’s daily walking to her husband’s gravesite to bring fresh flowers for the plot vase. Mary was refreshing the vase water when she fell into the coal mine hole nearby. One of her grand-daughters, remembers the guilt her mother, Mary GABUZDA, felt as she was just put in the charge of her mother’s care.

I now have two documents that say the name KOSTELNIC for my great-grandmother. Her death certificate filled out by her son and her marriage certificate copied from the local church records. Where does the “HAJDUK” name come from on her daughter Mary's baptism certificate?

Family stories state that Mary SARNA had an older sister, Anna ZEMANY, which everyone called “Mrs. Zemany,” including family members. Mrs. Zemany will be my next ancestor to research to solve this puzzle.

Mary Hudak or is it Kostelnic? (1862-1951) Part 1

Ever since I got interested in genealogy back in 1999 (attended a family reunion), I got started researching other family lines. My maternal grandmother’s, Mary Irene SARNA, both parents immigrated to the United States in the 1880s. I have yet to find actual records of their arrival. I first find the Sarna family in the 1900 US Census living in Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.

1900 U.S. Census, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Freeland, p. 28B, dwelling 497, family 498, George Sarna; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 March 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T263, Roll 1431.

According to this census record, both George and Mary SARNA came to the US in 1880. They were both born circa 1863. They were married for fifteen years. There are five children listed. This also states that Mary lost two children in death. I will cover in more detail Mary's life in her husband George SARNA's story.



They include:
Anna Sarna (1884-1970)
George Sarna (1890-1912)
John Sarna (1891-1984)
Mary Sarna (1894-1991)
Andrew Sarna (1896-1977)

Looking at my personal records in my own possession, I have a copy of my grandmother’s, Mary Irene SARNA Gabuzda, baptism record. This states that her parents are George SARNA and Mary HAJDUK. Her birth date is 26 Apr 1894 and was baptized three days later. This document is copied from the Baptismal Register of the Church (St. John’s Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church of Freeland, PA) on 8 Jan 1930. Was this an error in the copying of the original document?

X marks Mary Irene Sarna

I also find in my family possession, a group photo of the confirmed children of St. John’s taken around 1906. The girl with the x mark is Mary Irene SARNA. This is taken in front of the original church located at Ridge and Lucerne St. built in 1892. You can see the matching building in the photo below from a local Slovak newspaper, Kalendar Jednota, also dated 1906.

Translation - Slovak Church and Rev. Karol Pajdusak, pastor in Freeland, Pa.

Tancin, Charlotte. History of Freeland, Pa. website. (https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/frldreligion.html : accessed 9 Mar 2016).

The second church building was built in 1915 at 420 Vine St. on the corner of Vine and South St. This church has been closed since 2008.

Tancin, Charlotte. History of Freeland, Pa. website. (https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/frldreligion.html : 

accessed 9 Mar 2016).

I also have a duplicate copy of George and Mary’s Marriage Certificate. They were married on 20 Aug 1883 in the Immaculate Conception Church of Eckley, PA, by the Rev. Joseph Jaskovic. This states the bride as Mary Koscelnik. This was copied from the original on 20 Dec 1911. 

In reading about the history of St. John, The church's website as listed below states that
 “In 1889, with Fr. Fallihee's encouragement, 72 Slovak families united to begin the process of forming the present St. John Nepomucene Church. Having obtained land, and able to secure collateral for a loan, they received permission from Bishop O'Hara to commence construction of their first Church. It was dedicated on September 10, 1890 and in 1891 Rev. Josef Libar Jaskovik,” the one who married George & Mary, “became the first pastor.”

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish. Parish History. St. John Nepomucene 

Church. http://www.ourladyfreeland.org/history.html : accessed 6 March 2016).

Are these two different Marys? Could be? But, I do not think so. As the 1900 Census say they were married by 1885. Family says no; this is the same Mary! 

My next entry will cover my process of finding the answer to this Hudak or Kostelnic name mystery.

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 7

Remembering My Grandparents

Mary and Stephen Gabuzda celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

The Gabuzda brothers, Stephen and George Gabuzda made the decision to split their meat market and farm business in the start of 1933. George took the Glen Almus Farm and Stephen kept the brick store at the corner of Centre and Chestnut Streets of Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania.

All three of Stephen’s sons helped out their Pop in the store throughout the Depression. This included, his eldest George, who put off going to Villanova at the end of the decade on a football scholarship graduating with a chemical engineering degree in 1942. Eddie, below, works at arranging fruit in the store window.

With the start of World War II, all four of the Gabuzda families in Freeland, Luzerne County and Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania,  had sons or daughters who went to war or served at home as soldiers, sailors, airmen, or nurses during the war. George used his chemical engineering degree from home. Eddie worked as a nurse overseas in Burma and after the war also obtained a degree in chemical engineering. Steve, Jr., served in the famous battle of Remagen. Martha, my mother, 

graduated from Mesicordia Nursing Hospital in 

Philadelphia in 1944 and joined the Navy Nurse Corp and served for the next five years on the east coast. 

Stephen Gabuzda and Mary Sarna became grandparents with their first grandson born in 1939. All together they had sixteen grandchildren born between 1939 to 1966 (one born after his death). Photo to the left is Mary and Stephen proudly posing with their first granddaughter born in 1944. Photo to the right shows their first two grandsons in front of the Gabuzda Meat store at 899 Center Street in Freeland.

During the 1950s, son George helped his father renovate the store which included a new butcher meat refrigerator seen on the right. Stephen, like other small local business, began to feel the effects of competition from larger supermarkets coming into town, like A & P and Acme. His business, like others, went “down the tubes.”

The Gabuzda family had a family reunion on 23 June 1962 celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of their parents. Mary was privileged to hold her first great grand child, her son’s Steve Jr.’s grandson, as seen to the right. 

It was held at oldest son, George's home in Hometown, Pennsylvania. All seven adult children with their families were in attendance. 

Original photos in author's possession.

Seven granddaughters pose for the camera.

Stephen was diagnosed with bladder cancer three years later. He also lost functioning of his kidneys the following year. 

I remember our family driving up to Pennsylvania from Virginia several times the last six months of his life with my parents helping out the best way they could for Martha’s parents. 

My father does a “fake” nap with his father-in-law, Stephen, on a Sunday afternoon. This is a very special picture, seen on the right, in my memory as my father died six months after my grandfather.  

Stephen A. Gabuzda died on Friday, 22 July 1966, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, following a surgery three weeks earlier at the age of 80.

His daughters said that as he lay in his hospital bed he told them some of the stories of Slovakia and his journey to America that they had never heard before.

His viewing was held at the local Petrilli Funeral Home. His funeral was the following Monday, July 25. This was the first family funeral I attended. It was held with a mass at St. Ann's Auditorium since the church was being renovated at the time.  I remember seeing him in his open casket. It frightened me and I started crying uncontrollably. This followed with most of the people in attendance crying with me. 

He was buried at Calvary Roman Catholic Cemetery in Drums, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. 

Stephen’s sons were not interested in taking over their father’s business. Stephen’s nephew, Andy HAZARA, mentioned in a previous post, was given the family recipes for the kielbasa, bacon, and sausage. These meats are still made by Andy’s daughter with special orders throughout the year.

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 6

Family Memories

The Gabuzda family poses for a family picture taken in their living room at 899 Centre Street. Sons, George, Stephen Jr., and Edward lean behind the couch. Daughter, Martha with father Stephen Sr., mother Mary and daughter Bernice (Beezie) sit on couch. Youngest daughter, Marion, sits on the floor in front. Oldest daughter, Irene, had left home as wife to Donald O'Donnell.  Photo taken around 1940.

Stephen Gabuzda was a son of Slovak peasants who probably couldn’t read. As a young boy in Austria-Hungary, he had been given the equivalent of a fourth-grade education, only because he served as caretaker/companion of the son of a local dignitary and attended school with him--otherwise, he could not have gone to school. Whenever the dignitary’s son was naughty, Steve got the punishment--with the school master’s switch. He was truly a “whipping boy.”

Stephen Gabuzda, with daughter-in-law,
Mimi (married Edward in 1944).

Steve was a self-taught man. Every morning after opening the store in Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, he would return to the kitchen to await customers. Sitting at the kitchen table, where he could watch the store through the glass in the upper part of the door between the store and kitchen, he read the morning paper, The Hazleton Standard-Sentinal. Martha has vivid memories of her father using his index finger to follow the line of the print. He also read the Hazleton Plain-Speaker, and the Slovak-American journal, Jednota. Martha says he always seemed aware of the issues of the day, and discussed them with his customers, and had beautiful European-style handwriting, written with a flair. She says he probably learned English by “total immersion,” without classes, and none of his children remember  him attending classes here. Martha thinks he learned so quickly because he was a gregarious man, so friendly and outgoing. While he had a good command of the language, he spoke it with an accent, pronouncing “veal” as it it were “weal.”  His oldest daughter, Irene, remembers her father having a very pronounced, heavy accent, but his later daughters remember a more moderate accent, and the youngest, Marion, remembers no accent at all.

Stephen never spoke of returning to Slovakia, and had no desire to go back. He often expressed his pride in being an American. The only time the girls heard him speak Slovak at home was when he and their mother didn’t want the children to know what they were talking about, or when “Granny” Sarna, who didn’t speak English, visited Saturday mornings. When Martha once asked him why he didn’t teach his children Slovak, he said, “Because we are Americans, and in America we speak English.”

A few years back, my mother, Martha, and her sisters, recorded their “Front Porch Memories” of growing up at 899 Centre St. in Freeland. Some of these stories of the 1930s to 1940s include:

Martha

The girls were often found playing “house” with their dolls on the porch, or Martha directing her sisters in stage productions of their own, but Martha says if her Pop was ever annoyed because he had to walk around the girls there to go down to the chicken house and the big truck garage, he never showed it, but always seem amused.

Marion remembers as a teen sitting on the porch with boyfriends who walked her home, her Mom saying, “Be careful, the priests are watching.” (The rectory of St. Ann’s Catholic Church was directly across the street from their front porch.) She remembers Pop coming home from the Elks Club about 10 P.M. saying, “Time to come in now,” and seeing Mr. Stuntz, the next-door neighbor occasionally peeking out his window. Marion remembers Mom “used to scrub the porch with buckets and buckets of water, carefully wiping down the bannister and keeping the porch clean, and then, after all her chores were done, her Mom sat on the glider on the porch in a nice clean dress.”

Beezie with Kitty and Trix

Martha was Bobby’s  Seitzinger’s date for the MMI Senior Class Day at Pocono Manor once, when they left the house to go to his car, her Pop came out of the side door from the store in his bloody butcher apron with a meat cleaver in his hand to say good-bye. He called to Bobby, while waving the cleaver in the air, “Now, you take good care of my daughter, Bobby.” Martha said she will never forget the look on Bobby’s face. Martha says that it’s funny now, but she was so embarrassed then: “He must have been cutting meat and forgot that he still had the cleaver in his hand.”

Martha also remembers that as a teenager, her brother Georgie and a friend would sneak into the garage, push the car out along the gravel driveway to the street, turn on the engine and drive off. “Mom, getting wise to this, surprised them one night by sitting in the back seat and waiting for them. Caught them red-handed!”

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 4

A Growing Business

The family continued to grow for Stephen and Mary GABUZDA. Stephen Jerome Gabuzda was born on 12 June 1920 and Martha Gabuzda was on 28 Nov 1922. Two more daughters were added including Bernice Gabuzda on 26 Sept 1925 and Marion Gabuzda on 24 Apr 1928.

The decade just after the Great War was a boom-time in America. For the immigrant sons of Slovak peasant farmers, the American dream was becoming a reality after two decades of hard work. In Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, Steve and George GABUZDA were expanding Gabuzda Brothers Meats, adding a dairy farm to their growing business in 1922. They named their company “Ayrshire Breeders and Dairy Corporation.” They bought the title to the 101 acre dairy farm three miles east of Freeland that became known as Glen Almus Farm, named by Stephen’s daughter, Irene. Both Freeland Gabuzda families would go out to the farm together on Sundays.

Around this same time, in September 1922, a nephew, fourteen year old, Andy HAZARA, arrived to the U. S. from Lopuchov, Austria Hungary, to Freeland. Andy's mother was Zuzana Gabuzda Hazara, a sister to the four Gabuzda siblings who arrived twenty years earlier. Susan married Andrew Hazara and Andy was their only child. Stephen met him at Ellis Island. Irene, eight years old at the time, Stephen's oldest, remembers when Andy came to his new home in Freeland. "I'll never forget the day he came. He looked like a little scared rabbit, and he had his pack tied, and he was carrying it. My mother greeted him at the door, I was behind her. He got down on his knees and he kissed her hand. Andy had his haircut so short because the first thing they did at Ellis Island was to shave his head." Irene remembers that Andy knew no English at all when he first arrived, but he learned English quickly living in the house with her family, working in the Gabuzda Brothers store. Andy also went to a tutor, Mr. Johnson on Ridge St. in Freeland, who taught Andy all the way to the eighth grade level in just six weeks or was it six months? Part of Andy's apprenticeship with the Gabuzda Brothers business was taking the butcher wagon on a regular run through the small coal patch-towns and villages just outside of Freeland to cut and sell meat for the many customers in places like Jeddo, Highland, Eckley, and Upper Lehigh.

Employer and Employee picnic at Gabuzda`s Glen Almus Dairy and Truck Farm, Pond Creek, PA, circa 1932.

From left to right: Alvina Peters (father, Carl, works on farm), Mary Gabuzda with arms around daughters Marion and Beezie, Mrs. Hogg holding Cyril, (newly arrived from Scotland - Living and working on farm with husband), Martha in front of Mrs. Hogg, Mrs. Anna Peters and daughter, Lorraine Peters in white, Eddie and Tommy Fedorshak (father, Peter Fedorshak worked in Stephen’s store) in front of them, and Anna Gabuzda with little Tommy Gabuzda. Photo from my mother's scrapbook. 

Martha's memories of the farm includes a cement walkway that ran the length of the barn with the cow-stalls in either side, and she used to try to walk down the very center of that walkway because she was so afraid of those cows! Not far from the big barn was the cement dairy building, where milk from the cows flowed down from above through pipes along the wall and directly into bottles with “Gabuzda Brothers Glen Almus Farm” on them.

 These cows were awarded several times for the Gabuzda Brothers and George after the brothers split their partnership in the 1933. George took the farm while Stephen kept the store on Centre and Chestnut Streets. 

"Glen Almus Farm" 1986

My mother, Martha, wrote a short history of the Gabuzda Brothers business  in 2002.

“A few years after arriving in the United States from the Slovakian area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they [Stephen and George GABUZDA] apprenticed themselves to their uncle by marriage, George PALYA, an established Freeland “butcher” (now known as meat cutters). About 1912 they opened their own meat and grocery store, “Gabuzda Brothers. Meats and Groceries” at the northeast corner of Center and Chestnut Streets, while a store and residence building was being built for them on the south east corner. (Presently being remodeled by the new owner). The business existed for 50 years until the A&P came to town. At one time they had four delivery trucks going to the “patch” towns on Route 49 such as Eckley and Jeddo.

They also owned a dairy and truck farm called Glen Almus on the road to White Haven, across the road from Fairchild's swimming pool and recreational park.They did their own milk bottling and house to house delivery. They were their own suppliers of many fresh products. In addition to their Ayrshire dairy herd and bottling plant, there were chickens, pigs, cows for slaughter, a truck farm for vegetables, a fruit orchard and cattle feed of hay. They even bred some of their dairy cattle for sale and won many blue ribbons for their herd at the many Pennsylvania County fairs. 

Chickens were kept in coops in their truck garage at the Freeland location from which came fresh eggs daily. Some customers were lucky enough to get them still warm from the nests. Also in the garage building was a smokehouse and slaughter house where they made their own sausages and scrapples. The Gabuzda Brothers were well-known for their kielbasa sausage, their secret recipe. To this day it is still being made by their grand-niece, Mary WITHERELL, daughter of Andrew HASARA, who had been apprenticed to them and later opened his own store on South St. That store is still in business (2002), though the kielbasa is now made only for special orders during the Easter season including regular orders from former Freeland residents from miles away.

They employed many people on the farm, in the store, and on the road. Their sons also had to work after school and on Saturdays. Brother George, also, later on opened his own store a few blocks away.  

During the depression years, they kept many people “on the books" causing indebtedness for themselves.

George sat on the Board of Directors of the Citizens' Bank.

The brothers were active members of the Elk’s Club doing many charitable fund-raisers and other works. They financed one of the side altars of St. John’s Nepomucene Roman Catholic Church.

They were for a time, partners, in ownership of a mahogany forest in British Honduras."

More detail of their international business travels in my next blog. 

Checkout 
https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ct0u/freeland_home.html  This website gives more details covering the GABUZDA, PALYA, MERRICK, and REMAK stores. These family names will be presented in the future.

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 3

After Stephen GABUZDA and Mary SARNA were married on 25 June 1912, they move to a small 3 room house for six months on Birkbeck St. between the old silk mill and the lumber yard in Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. Because their first child, Irene, did not arrive for another year and a half; Mary said that she was often embarrassed by older women asking her, “Mary, when are you going to have a baby?”

After Steve’s marriage, his brother George GABUZDA continued to live at Palya’s for a while. Around 1913, the Gabuzda brothers decide to move on with a business of their own. 

They rented the wooden building that still stands (quite barely) at the northeast corner of Center and Chestnut Streets in Freeland and operated their new business from there. At this time, Mary finally had her first child, Irene, on 10 Jan 1914. 

In August/September 1914, the two brothers bought the land right across the street, at the southeast corner of the same intersection. In October, they had a contract started to build a brick store and house on that corner. Directly, across Centre from the store is St. Ann’s, the Irish Catholic church, now called Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. 

One day, Mary went over to watch the workmen pour the cement foundation for the new brick building. She was twisting her wedding ring on her finger, a habit she never got rid of, when it popped off and fell into the wet cement while they were pouring. The ring was never retrieved, and Steve had to buy her a new one. Sometime in 1915, Steve, Mary, little Irene and Steve’s brother George, moved into the new brick home and store at 899 Centre St.

899 Centre Street on the corner of Chestnut and Centre Streets

My aunt Marion states that their home was unique in that it was built “as a big beautiful home with a built-in store and small office. The large side porch led into a living room, large formal dining room and a very large eat-in kitchen; an open stairway to six large bedrooms upstairs, all with walk-in closets, and one large bathroom.”

Later that same year, when the brothers had moved into the brand-new brick building, Stephen and Mary welcomed their first son, George, born 5 Nov 1915.

Two years later, Stephen’s brother George, brought home a new family member, marrying Anna SILVASI on 6 Aug 1917, at St. John Nepomucene Church. Months later, Steve and Mary welcomed their third child, Edward born 17 April 1918.

George & Anna Silvasi Gabuzda

By this time World War I was raging for four years in Europe. By August 1918, George Gabuzda left Freeland to join a US Army motor transportation corps as a truck mechanic, in Pittsburgh, Virginia and Florida. Sometime during his service in the south, George contracted a case of the influenza virus which killed about 600,00 Americans in 1918. It is possible that this influenza that almost killed him saved his life from being sent overseas for the last days of one the bloodiest wars in history.

When George finally came home, he quickly agreed it was time he and Anna had a place of their own. George and Steve signed papers renewing their business partnership interrupted by the war. George found an empty double lot just a half block away from their business at 941 Centre St.

The next decade would bring the promise of hard work for these two immigrant brothers from Slovak peasant farmer parents. 

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 2

My grandparents’ Wedding Day

My grandfather, Stephen A. GABUZDA, with his brother, George GABUZDA, decided the coal mining business was not for them. They left Mahanoy City to the small town of Freeland, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles northeast. They apprenticed for their cousin’s husband, George E. PALYA, in his meat market business. See previous post.

Mary SARNA, was a regular customer at this time. She lived with her older sister, Anna Sarna REMAK in Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. The Remaks had their own business running a hotel and bar. Mary would watch her nieces and nephews as their parents minded the business. Mary had her eye on the older brother, George, and at the same time Stephen, the younger, had his eye on this special costumer. 

Stephen Gabuzda finally got the courage to ask Mary Sarna out on a date. He was so nice to her that she soon forgot about George. Their dates included going on walks, dancing and an occasional movie, when Steve had the 20 cents to pay for their admission. They were both good dancers and enjoyed it even into the early years of their marriage. They did more than polkas, mostly ballroom dancing, the waltz and fox trot. They often won prizes like a box of chocolates, for being the "best couple on the dance floor." One Sunday, with box lunches, Stephen and Mary joined five other couples for a fun afternoon. Here is a photo of them, third couple from the left, playing a relay game. Mary wrote the date on the photo and kept this in her Bible. It was found here after Mary died. That must have been a very special day when Stephen captured her heart.

They were married on 25 June, 1912. Mary (18) would not marry Stephen (27) until he was Naturalized as an American citizen. He was naturalized 24 days before on 1 June. During this time, if a female American born citizen of the United States married an alien from another country she would lose her citizenship.

I am fortunate to have all three copies of the three steps Stephen took to become an United States citizen. 

Naturalization Petitions and Declarations , 1901-1931, from court held in Scranton, Index 1906-1991. Petitions Vol. 7, No. 1503-1752. 1912. NARA Series M626 Roll 24.  LDS Microfilm#1,666,914. Accessed online Image 522-523 of 1124 from FamilySearch.org on 28 Jul 2016.

Step 1: Declaration of Intention

On the 12th day of June 1908, Stephen went to the Common Pleas Court of Schuylkill County to begin his first step of American Citizenship. The application reads

“I, Steve Gabuzdza, aged 22 years, occupation Fireman, do declare on oath that my personal description is: Color White, complexion Light, height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 164 pounds, color of hair very light brown, color of eyes blue, other visible distinctive marks none.

I was born in Razlavicza, Austria, on the 12th day of November; anno Domini 1885; I now reside at Mahanoy City, Penna. I emigrated to the United States of America from Hamburg, Germany, on the vessel Pennsylvania; my last foreign residence was Razlavicza, Austria.

It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and particularity to Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, of which of now I am a subject: I arrived at the port of New York, in the state of New York on or about the 2nd day of March, anno Domini 1906; I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein: SO HELP ME GOD.
Steven Gabuzdza"

Step 2 : Petition for Naturalization

Four years later, on 21 February 1912, Steven traveled to the District Court of Scranton, Pennsylvania to apply for his Petition for Naturalization. 

“To the Honorable the District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Pennsylvania: The petition of Stephen Gabuzdza, herby filed, respectfully shows:

First: My place of residence is 72 S. Center St, Freeland

Second: My occupation is Butcher

Third: I was born on the 12th of November, anno Domini, 1885, at Razlavicza, Austria.

Fourth: I immigrated to the United States from Hamburg, Germany, on or about the 16th day of February anno Domini, 1906 and arrived in the United States, and arrived in the United States at the port of New York, N. Y., on the 2nd day of March anno Domini, 1906 on the vessel “Pennsylvania.” 

Fifth: I declared my intention to become a citizen of the United States on the 12th day of June, anno Domini, 1908 Pottsville, Pa. to the Common Pleas Court of Schuylkill County.

Sixth: I am not married. This section is crossed out. 

Seventh:I am not a disbeliver in or opposed to organized government or a member of or affiliated with any organization or body of persons teaching disbelief in or opposed to organized government. I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy. I am attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and it is my intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign princes, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularity to [stamped] FRANCIS JOSEPH EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA AND APOSTOLIC KING OF HUNGARY of whom at this time I am a subject,  and it is my intention to reside permanently in the United States. 

Eighth: I am able to speak the English language. 

Ninth: I have resided continually in the United States of America for the term of five years at least, immediately proceeding the date of this petition, to wit, since the 2nd day of March, anno Domini, 1906, and in the state of Pennsylvania, continuously since preceding the date of this petition, on the 3rd day of March, anno Domini, 1906, being a residence within this state of at least one year next preceding the date of this petition.

Tenth: I have not heretofore made petition for citizenship to any court. 
Attched hereto and made apart of this petition is my declareation of intention to become a citizen of the United States, together with my affidavit and the affidavits of the two verifying witnesses thereto, required by law. Wherefore your petitioner prays that he may be admitted a citizen of the United States of America.

Signed Stephen Gabuzdza

Declaration of Intention filed this 21st February 1912.

Witnesses included: Dominic A. O’Donnell, occupation Clerk, residing at Foster, Luz.[erne] Co., Pennsylvania. and Patrick Moehan, occupation Contractor, residing at Freeland, Pennsylvania. 

Step 3: Certificate of Naturalization

Stephen was granted his U. S. Citizenship on 1 June 1912 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is interesting to read that this document is later dated on 4 January 1929 with the embossed seal.

U.S. Certificate of Naturalization of Stephen Gabuzdza in possession of the author.

I noticed the spelling of GABUZDZA on all three documents. The second Z at the end of his name was eventually removed.

Mary SARNA was born in 1894 in Sandy Run, Foster Township, Luzurne County, Pennsylvania. Her parents came to the United States in 1880. Her father, George SARNA, worked in the local coal mines as a miner.

"Pennsylvania County Marriages, 1885-1950", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familyseach.org/ark:/61903/1:1KFHJ-6SF : 24 June 2016), Stephen Gabuzdza and Mary Sarna, 1912.

After their marriage in the local church of St. John’s Nepomucene Church of 420 Vine St., Freeland, Pennsylvania, by Father Andrew Jurica, they took a rented “surrey with a fringe on top” with their wedding attendants, Anna and Julius Demshick, to the local Ice Lake Hotel in White Haven for the wedding luncheon. The hotel was owned by Tim REILLY, and managed by an on-site couple, brother-in-law, Anthony O’DONNELL and Mary Reilly O'DONNELL.  On the way back to town, the surrey broke in two, leaving the bride and groom stranded as Anna and Julius left for help in the two wheel-one seat buggy. I wish I was a bird nearby to hear what the newlyweds discussed as they waited for their rescue with the returning vehicle.

Stanhope Surrey in the Seeley Yard Museum, San Diego, CA. Used with permission.

Later in family history, Stephen and Mary’s daughter, Irene GABUZDA, married the son of Anthony and Mary, Donald O’DONNELL. 

Stephen A. Gabuzda 1885-1966 Part 1

My First Family Reunion

Stephen A. Gabuzda

I have finally been inspired to start a blog (after reading many for the past 10 years). I started an interest in genealogy back in the 1990s, after a distant cousin on my maternal side sent a fifty question survey for my mother to fill out. Mom would take strips of scrap paper and write pages of details to his questions. She would then rewrite her answers by hand on larger pages to mail to him. I know cousin, John, was ecstatic when he received her packages of photographs & detailed stories.

The summer of 1999 was the family reunion, we all so forwardly looked to attend. My mother’s paternal family has a great history. Her father, Stephen GABUZDA, was born in a small town of Raslavice, in Austria-Hungary on 16 Nov 1885. He was the fourth child of nine children born to Andrew GABUZDA and Maria SZABOL. His older brother, Joseph GABUZDA, born 1882, was the first of the family to come to the United States in 1899. Anna GABUZDA, born 17 Jan 1884, followed in 1902 and settled in Mahanoy City, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, with her brother, Joseph. George GABUZA, born 10 Nov  1889, followed in 1905, and Stephen GABUZDA, came in 1906. Both George and Stephen settled in the little coal mining town of Mahanoy City, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania.

By 1910, I find Stephen living with his cousin-in-law, George PALYA, apprenticing in the butcher/meat business in Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. George PALYA was married to the GABUZDAs’ cousin Anna TKACS (pronounced KOTCH and later spelled). Anna’s mother, Anna SZABOL, was the younger sister of Maria SZABOL, mentioned above. PALYA came to the US in 1895 and he married Anna TKACS who was born in the US. Her parents came to the US in 1893 after they were married in the “old country.”

George Palya & George Gabuzda stand in doorway. Stephen Gabuzda stands in front of delivery truck.

Of these four GABUZDA siblings, who traveled to a new world, worked hard, and found love; their descendants gathered together for a weekend in Poconos, Pennsylvania, to learn of their history and shared stories.

I will follow with more entries of these stories and memories of this side of my family. 

But I must say, Thank you cousin, John Gabuzda, for all of your diligent work searching through courthouses, libraries and family’s personal stories WITHOUT the computer...and inspiring me to continue on. I am sad to say that he died 5 April 2015.