JOSEPH KIJAK
To continue my series of posts on my grandparents and great-grandparents, this is a week in which three of my four grandparents had birthdays. As a child, I can remember the pure joy of having three birthday celebrations in a week for three of my special grandparents.
Joseph Kijak was born August 3, 1892 in Bay City, Michigan to John Kijak and Mary Anna Rubis. He was their first child and only son. His birth was followed by the births of three sisters, Anna, Martha and Rozalie. Joseph Kijak would be my maternal grandfather and he was a very special grandparent who I have many fond memories of even though I was only 12 when he passed away.
While I do remember my grandfather well, I have very little information regarding his childhood. I don't have any photos of him from his childhood years but I know that he was baptized in the Catholic faith as a newborn and that he lived in Bay City, Michigan with his parents and sisters as evidenced by the 1900 Bay City, Michigan, US Census:
From what I have learned over the years from other relatives the marriage of my grandfather, Joseph's parents, was not a pleasant one. His mother had been only 16 when she was married to John Albert Kijak who himself was 30. This was no doubt an arranged marriage after both families had arrived in the US from Poland.
Somewhere during the period from 1900 (when the Bay City census shows the family still together) to 1903 when Joseph Kijak's step sister, Emma, was born in South Bend, Indiana, mother Mary Kijak left Bay City with her 4 Kijak children, Joseph, Anna, Martha and Rozalie and settled in South Bend, Indiana with a man named Frank Banner. Her husband, John Albert Kijak, remained in Bay City, Michigan. John and Mary Kijak never divorced.
My grandfather, Joseph, spent his youth living in South Bend with his mother, sisters, step sister, step brothers and his mother's companion, Frank Banner. This is the only photo I have of Joseph Kijak as a young man:
The 1910 South Bend, Indiana, US Census shows this family though the 4 Kijak children are listed with the surname "Banner" which was incorrect. It is amazing the steps a genealogist has to go through to find hidden data. For years I could not put my finger on a 1910 census for my grandfather and never thought to look under the surname Banner. We must always be alert to all possibilities:
While living in South Bend, my grandfather found a job in St. Joseph, Michigan working for Cooper Wells, a hosiery manufacturing company. This was only a 30 mile drive from South Bend and it was here, at work, that he met my grandmother, Ella Kolberg. How long they dated, I don't know, During their courtship Joseph Kijak did rent a room in a home at 417 Court Street in St. Joseph undoubtedly to be closer to work and most likely to be closer to his girlfriend:
On June 17, 1914 Joseph Kijak and Ella Kolberg were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Joseph:
They began their married life in St. Joseph where my grandfather continued to work at Cooper Wells. Their first marital home was a rental at 614 Price Street in St. Joseph which is still standing in very good condition 107 years later:
In 1915, son Harris was born and in 1918, son Elden was born. The 1920 Berrien County, Michigan, US Census shows this family living at 211 Court Street in St. Joseph. This house is no longer standing:
In 1925, their daughter (my mother, Eloris,) was born, followed in 1926 by their 3rd son, Leslie. With these 4 children their family was complete. At this time Joseph and Ella had a fruit farm on Cleveland Avenue in St. Joseph and the work and toil was their income.
In 1929 my grandfather had a unique experience with a member of the Al Capone gang which I have previously written about. This experience led to his discontinuation of driving.
The Depression came in 1929 and with it the loss of their home and farm though the 1930 Berrien County, Michigan, US census does still show them living on Cleveland Avenue:
After the loss of their home and farm the family lived in a variety of rental homes until approximately 1940 when Joseph and Ella were able to purchase a home at 818 Pleasant Street in St. Joseph. During these years, no longer farming, Joseph worked as a painter and decorator and in later years at the S&H Green Stamp store.
In 1945 my grandparents had a professional photo taken of themselves on the occasion of my grandmother's 50th birthday. This is a favorite photo of mine:
As a teenager, my mother had a birthday book in which she had friends and family members sign their names on the date that was their particular birthday. Her father, Joseph, signed his name in this birthday book as follows and it is special to have an example of his handwriting though he signed on the page for August 2nd instead of the 3rd! He had always thought his birthday was on August 2nd and celebrated it on that day all of his life. When I began my genealogical research and visited the Court House in Bay City, Michigan, I was able to obtain a copy of his birth certificate showing his birth was actually August 3rd. I also visited the church in Bay City where he was baptized and that also indicated a birth date of August 3rd:
Though photos with my grandfather are few and far between this one of myself and my brother with my grandmother as well is one that I particularly remember:
My memories of my grandfather are many - his coming to Detroit on various occasions to help my parents with construction work when my parents bought their first home, building shelves in the basement to hold all our toys, planting a maple tree in the back yard and planning the placement of the tree so as not to obstruct a future garage, getting paint poisoning and having to bandage his fingers for the rest of his life and living in extreme pain from the poisoning. He was a gentle man, never raised his voice and was a loving husband to my grandmother and a good father to his four children.
My grandfather became ill in October, 1960 and was diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm. The hospital in St. Joseph could not treat this condition at that time and he was transported to a hospital in South Bend, Indiana where he passed away on October 23, 1960. I was only 12 at the time but have vivid memories of our drive from Detroit to South Bend, having a car accident on the way, getting lost trying to find the hospital in South Bend and my mother arriving to see her father just before he passed away.
He was a wonderful grandfather and I have always remembered him. He and my grandmother are buried in Lincoln Township Cemetery in Stevensville, Michigan and his memory lives forever in my heart:
Today I am thinking of him on this the 129th anniversary of his birth.Copyright 2021, Cheryl J. Schulte
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