Matrilineal Monday: Bessie Matys Hruszczak

Bessie Matys, my great grandmother, was born 5 June 1895. She came to America in 1912, leaving her father and three older sisters in Fraga, to join her brother in Coatesville, Chester County, PA. It was there she met and married Panko Hruszczak in 1915. Together they had 10 children. One passed in infancy but the others lived full lives. But today, I'd like to focus on Bessie herself.

Little is known of her life before she immigrated. She was born in Fraga, Rohatya, Galicia to, according to church records here, Joseph Matys and Olena Vaspleship. I know of her four sisters only because of a letter from her brother's oldest daughter, Catherine. Catherine Matys Rothermel immigrated with her parents. We wrote and visited several times. She wrote once that there was four girls and her father and that Bessie was the youngest of all.

She was 18 when she boarded the ship Cincinnati in Hamburg, Germany to join her brother, Frank, here in America. She arrived, according to records at Ellis Island, on 28 October 1912. She listed her ethnicity as Ruthenian - Austria. She listed her place of residence as Fraga, Austria. Her name was listed, not as Bessie, but rather as Paska Matys. The records show too that she would be joining her brother Frank Matys in Coatesville, PA. Bessie lived with Frank and his young family, according to Catherine Matys Rothermel, until she married Panko.

Panko and Bessie were married 24 July 1915 at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (now Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Church) in Coatesville. Catherine Matys Rothermel was one of the flower girls!

They spent most of their married life in Coatesville. In 1917 they spent a short time in Columbia, Lancaster County when Panko worked for A. M. Byers Co. as an ironworker (according to Panko's World War I Draft Registration). When their infant son passed in 1918, he was buried (according to his death certificate) at the "Polish cemetery" (St Stanislaus) near Coatesville. The 1920 census shows the young family in Chester City, in Delaware County, PA where Panko was a machinist in a pipe mill. They are back in Coatesville shortly thereafter. Panko's Social Security application lists Coatesville as home in 1936, as does his World War II Draft Registration in 1942.

They had 10 kids:
1916 - 1918 Theodore (named for Panko's father / COD pneumonia/influenza)
1918 - 1997 Joseph (my grandfather / named after Bessie's father)
1919 - 1985 Theodore (named after Panko's father and child lost)
1921 - 2008 Nicholas
1922 - 1995 Paul
1926 - 1971 Mary
1930 - 1997 Ann
1932 - 2002 Peter
? Helen
(living) Katie

Panko passed in December 1968. After he passed, she remained living at their house in Coatesville on New Street. Bessie passed 5 September 1972. They are buried at the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Cemetery in Valley Township.

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc...

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he...

52 Ancestors: Remembering the King

Today is Elvis’ birthday. He would have been 80 today. I was only eight when he died so obviously I am too young to have seen Elvis perform. However, when I hear his music, I go back in time. I am once again that young girl dancing in the living room to Elvis and other greats with my father. Back then girls learned to dance by dancing with their fathers not some video of scantly dressed people doing all sorts of things young ladies should not be doing in public! What is YOUR favorite memory - either of your father or of Elvis? 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is a weekly genealogical challenge issued by Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small . Look for my weekly posts each Thursday! © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

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