1900s

The Porubsky-Schulmeister Nuptials

joelowry1982 1900s, Porubsky, Schulmeister

“Twenty-one year old Carl Porubsky, the son of Mathias and Christina Vogelman Porubsky was wed today to eighteen-year old Elizabeth Schulmeister in a family ceremony at Saint Joseph German Catholic Church in Topeka.”

If I was writing a wedding announcement for these two, it would probably start out with my just-the-facts manner before devolving into a mess of a discussion about roses, 3-button suits, and broaches. Alas, I am not the writer of wedding announcements. This picture was taken on Karl and Lizzie’s wedding day, Sunday, 26 August 1906.¹

I don’t know the time of the service, and unlike other Christian denominations, Mass times for the Catholic churches don’t appear in The Topeka Daily Capital. The weather this Sunday was described as fair, with temperatures in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s.² Surely, for August in Topeka, it was a lovely day to get married.

Carl and Elizabeth would see this marriage last fifty-five years, until Carl’s death in 1962. Elizabeth died in 1972.

IMG_5793_Fotor copy

 

Sources and Notes:

  1. Names appear in the marriage license announcement as Karl Bornesky and Lizzie Schulmeister. “Marriage Licenses,” The Topeka [KS] Daily Capital, 26 Aug 1906, page 11, col 4; digital image, (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2016), Newspapers.com.
  2. “Weather Conditions,” The Topeka [KS] Daily Capital, 26 Aug 1906, page 1, col 5; digital image, (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2016), Newspapers.com.
  3. Carl Porubsky and Elizabeth Schulmeister Porubsky, photograph, taken in Topeka, Kansas, on 26 August 1906; digital image, photograph of original, taken 2016 by Joseph Lowry; privately held by Barbara Viti, [address for private use], Tallmadge, Ohio; Two young adults in marriage outfits, one a dark 3-button suit and the other a white gown with flowers; Provenance is Carl and Elizabeth Porubsky to Caroline Porubsky Wolford to Barbara Wolford Viti.

Edward Lowry, Lawman

joelowry1982 1900s, Lowry, Paternal
I’ve previously written about my great grand uncle Edward Lowry, wondering what happened to him after 1904 and what he did in the last few years of his life. In the 14 months since I wrote that piece, I’ve discovered quite a bit. At the turn of the 20th century, Edward was living in Republic, Ferry County, Washington. He went to Washington to seek work and perhaps a fortune as a miner, but by 1900, he was was the Democratic candidate for sheriff of Ferry County in what was the first election since the county separated from Stevens County. No doubt utilizing the same skills of politicking that he used as a labor organizer in Colorado, he won the 1900 election for sheriff by a count of 677 to 593, beating Republican A.E. Stewart.
Click to enlarge
Lowry took the role well, as various newspaper accounts from the early 1900’s depict him chasing after escaped inmates, seizing sheep due to a failure to pay taxes, rounding up murderers and investigating robberies, as was the case in October 1901 as reported by the Spokane Spokesman-Review. As it turns out, Republic resident and rancher Frank O’Brien’s wife was keen on leaving the family fortune in the hen house instead of the bank. While employee Michael Smith was cleaning out the chicken coop, he discovered the O’Brien fortune and pocketed it, setting off by hired carriage and then train. Sheriff Lowry took the complaint and directed that a wire report be sent before setting off in search his fugitive. That wire report made the difference as a train was stopped by Canadian lawmen in British Columbia with Smith aboard. With some of the gold still in his possession upon arrest, Smith was brought back to the Republic jail to face his accusers.

 
Just two and a half months later, Sheriff Lowry had the dubious distinction of losing several of his inmates who escaped by sawing through the wooden jail bars. The Spokesman-Review and San Francisco Call both depict the tale of how Lowry recaptured the fugitives. Not realizing they were gone for several hours after the escape, he was quick to pick up their trail. He located two in the town of Wauconda, 16 miles to the west, while two more were reported to be in Curlew 20 miles to the north. It was the two in Curlew who were up to no good, committing their second felony of the day (the first being their escape from jail). When Lowry entered the saloon in which the two men were reported to be, he found the barkeeper and patrons lined up along the rail being robbed!

 
The warm Washington summer of 1903 saw Lowry climbing Gibraltar Mountain, just a few miles outside Republic. Someone had discovered a grisly scene, with the bones of a man and cougar lying near one another. From the evidence at the scene, it appears to have been a terrible struggle that occurred over a year prior. The gun was quite rusted and the remains very much decayed. Lowry’s role as sheriff was to identify the victim. The San Jose, California Evening News found the story so terrific that they carried it on their July 31 front page.

 
Lowry’s final appearance as a man of law and order in readily available newspapers is February 24, 1904. Again, he was doing what he had done several times before in bringing back a fugitive, Everett Wilson. Wilson shot a man named Dan Bethune, although for what cause we aren’t certain. Of interest to the reader, Wilson was to await the result of Bethune’s wound in jail. Translating the parlance and with the medical knowledge of 1904, Bethune was probably a dead man walking.
 

Lastly, we also now know why records and newspaper mentioned of Edward become more difficult to locate after 1905. In early October 1905, Edward and his son Ralph set off from Republic to Phoenix, Arizona. At some point in his life, Edward contracted tuberculosis and believed that the dry desert air would be good for him. Unfortunately, he died on Monday, October 9, 1905 after just a single night in town. His obituary in the October 12, 1905 Arizona Republican reads:

Funeral of E. LAWRY [sic] – The funeral of E. Lawry will be held this afternoon at 4 o’clock at the undertaking parlors of Easterling & Whitney. Mr. Lawry came here last Sunday, very ill of consumption, and died Monday morning. His home was in Republic, Wash., where his wife and other relatives now are. A son sixteen years old accompanied him here. He was quite a prominent man in his county having served two years as sheriff. He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles which society will have charge of his funeral.

Lowry was 49 years old when he died. He’s buried in Phoenix.

Sources:
An Illustrated History of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan Counties, State of Washington, Volume 1, (Washington, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1904), 446; digital images, Google Books (http://books.Google.com : accessed 30 Nov 2015).

“Cash Taken From Cache,” The Spokesman-Review, 10 Oct 1901, p. 1, col. 2; image copy. Google News (http://news.google.com/ : accessed 30 Nov 2015), Google News Archive.

“Sawed To Liberty,” The Spokesman-Review, 29 Dec 1901, p. 1, col. 6; image copy. Google News (http://news.google.com/ : accessed 30 Nov 2015), Google News Archive.

“Fugitive Prisoners Are Captured,” San Fransisco Call, 29 Dec 1901, p. 20, col. 5; image copy. University of California, Riverside (http://cdnc.ucr.edu/ : accessed 30 Nov 2015), California Digital Newspaper Collection.

“Bones Of Man And Beast Are Found On Mountain,” The (San Jose) Evening News, 31 Jul 1903, p. 1, col. 1-2; image copy. Google News (http://news.google.com/ : accessed 30 Nov 2015), Google News Archive. [Note: The image is indexed for 30 Jul 1903, but the article appeared in the 31 Jul 1903 newspaper.]

“Late News From Republic,” The Spokesman-Review, 24 Feb 1904, p. 4, col. 4; image copy. Google News (http://news.google.com/ : accessed 30 Nov 2015), Google News Archive. [Note: The image is indexed for 21 Feb 1904, but the article appeared in the 24 Feb 1904 newspaper.]

“Funeral for E. Lawry,” The Arizona Republican, 12 Oct 1905, p. 5, col. 3; image copy. Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 30 Nov 2015).

Treasure Chest Thursday – Manifest of the SS Roland

joelowry1982 1900s, Maternal, Porubsky, Treasure Chest Thursday
One hundred and fourteen years ago today, my 3rd great grandparents Mathias and Christina Porubsky, their son Carl and five of his siblings were on an adventure at sea. The Porubsky’s had left their Volga German community in Kamenka, Russia, perhaps to escape the Tsar and policies of assimilation and were en route to Topeka, Kansas. It was there that an enclave of Volga Germans had established themselves. They had set out aboard the SS Roland of Norddeutscher (North German) Lloyd. At 345 feet, the Roland was just a few dozen feet longer than today’s Staten Island Ferry. They sailed from Breman, Germany and were en route to Baltimore, Maryland.
The Porubsky family was among up to 800 people stuffed below deck in 3rd class. On June 22, 1900, they arrived at the passenger terminal along the Patapsco River and proceeded overland to Kansas.
This manifest marks their journey to a new life in America. At the time of his arrival, Mathias Porubsky was a 44-year old laborer; his wife Christina was 38. An uncle had paid their way, although the identity and relationship of this uncle remains unknown. They arrived with $20 in their pockets (about $550 in today’s dollars). Checkmarks indicate that all but the youngest two could read and write.
The manifest as located through FamilySearch.org
The manifest as located through Ancestry.com
Finding the above images was not without it’s small challenges. Both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org have the manifest in their record collections but neither is perfect. The two sites, which are the largest genealogical record holders in the world, only sporadically overlap so it’s not always the case that both sites will have the same record.
I retrieved the Ancestry.com manifest because it appeared as a ‘hint’ on Mathias Porubsky’s page. Ancestry.com hints allow users to quickly identify records that may be related to their ancestor and attach them to their family tree. Unfortunately, many people accept every single hint without closely examining the record to ensure it belongs to their ancestor. The Ancestry.com record was poorly scanned, as it is crooked and has several columns (18 and 19) chopped up. That said, the index (transcription) of the manifest was spot-on and I was to quickly find my ancestors on the page.
The FamilySearch.org document is a very clean scan, but slightly darker. Unfortunately, a very poor transcription for this document made it much harder to locate. The ship was listed as the SS Poland, instead of the SS Roland. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how the family name was listed because numerous searches failed to turn up anything. Having already located the Ancestry.com version of the manifest, I used my search skills knowledge to search for a simpler surname I knew was further down the same page. Sure enough, after I located ship mate Joseph Zadja, I scrolled up to find the Porubsky family.
Having these types of documents tells a lot about the travel conditions my ancestors endured to arrive at a new life. When paired with other documents, we can start to piece together a life story, which is the ultimate goal for any genealogist.

Sources:
“Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820-1948 and 1954-1957,” index and images, Ancestry.com (http://interactive.ancestry.com/8679/mdt844_19-0177/696872?backurl=&ssrc=pt_t28087067_p5130324876_kpidz0q3d5130324876z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid&backlabel=ReturnRecord : accessed 18 Jun 2014), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Records of the US Customs Service, RG36; Series: T844; Roll: 19

“Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-29149-8032-62?cc=2018318 : accessed 18 Jun 2014), 1891-1948 (NARA T844) > 19 – Jun 7, 1900-Feb 25, 1901 > image 180 of 876; citing NARA microfilm publications M255, M596 and T844.