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The Kudrick Family
--Elizabeth's Birth--
My Ruthenian Roots by Joseph R. Kudrick
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The family is one of nature's masterpieces. George Santayana
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Elizabeth Kudrick is born on August 28, 1903: Elizabeth, the third Kudrick child, is born on August 28, 1903 in the village of Cranberry. Elizabeth is baptized and confirmed on September 6, 1903 in St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The priest who baptizes Elizabeth is Rev. Victor Mirosay. Alex and Anna Kudrick have six children, two boys and four girls. The oldest child, Anna Scšur II Bartko is 13 years old, a teenager.
Born In Cranberry: Elizabeth's village, Cranberry is an old mining village originally settled by the Irish in the 1840s. As the immigration gates opened from Central Europe in the 1890s, the Ruthenians, Slovaks, Poles and other Slavic nationalities replaced the Irish both in the Cranberry mines and in the patch town itself.
Birth Of Relatives: Two cousins of Elizabeth are born in the same year. Thirty (30) miles north of Cranberry in the town of Nanticoke, the last of the four Michalek children is born. Her name is Helen Michalek and she is destined to become a very good friend of both Elizabeth and her brother Joseph as they all grow into maturity. Additionally, 30 miles south of Cranberry in the Hellertown area near Bethlehem, Mary Kelhart is born to Helen Scšur, Elizabeth's aunt. Finally, a future sister-in-law, Mary Yurko, who would eventually marry Elizabeth's brother Michael is born in Pennsylvania.
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John Bartko Jr., the third child of Anna Scšur, at age nine, accepts employment at the Cranberry Mines as a slate picker. (See story next column).
Hearings are held by the Anthracite Commission to determine proper behavior during the 1902 strike. The commission sides with the miners.
Workers at the Duplan Silk Mill in Hazleton, strike to protest a reduction in wages. This strike occurs one year after the major anthracite coal strike of 1902 paralyzed the local economy.
The 30-mile-long Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton Railway commuter service opens. Express trains run every 45 minutes between the two Luzerne County cities.
Baseball introduces the concept of a World Series as the Boston Pilgrims lose the first game to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cy Young is the losing pitcher for the Pilgrims.
A balcony at the Philadelphia Phillies ball park in Philadelphia, the Baker Bowl, collapses and kills 12 people.
Orville and Wilbur Wright fly a powered airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
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Young Boys Become Slatepickers: Before Elizabeth is one year old, there are 18,000 persons in the anthracite coal industry employed as slate pickers. All of Elizabeth's brothers become slate pickers to supplement the family income and ease the financial burden on Alex.
Slate pickers (shown above) or breaker boys as they are also known range in age from 7 to 16 and are paid $0.70 per hour for a 10 to 12 hour day. The slatepicker's job is to sort through the coal as it travels down the inclined chute. By use of a small stick (sometimes) and his hands (mostly), he stops the flow of coal; then hurriedly picks out the rock or slate and casts it into an adjacent chute. By the end of his "shift," the boys hands are bleeding and caked with coal dust which stops the blood from flowing.
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The Cranberry Colliery with 1,123 employees in 1904 is the second largest employer in the 9th Coal District.
Major family operated coal businesses in the area include Pardee (Cranberry), G.B. Markle (Jeddo), Coxe Brothers (Drifton) and A.S. Van Wickle.
Automobile racing as an organized sport begins.
Upper Lehigh wins the local baseball championship
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Hazle Park--A Popular Place: Recreation in the Cranberry area in 1903 includes horse and wagon rides, visits to the ice cream parlor and trips to the lake in Hazle Park.
The lake in Hazle Park (shown above) is a favorite for boating, courting and watching fireworks burst overhead in the evening. The 40-acre park is an ideal place for the Kudrick children like 13-year-old Anna Scšur II to enjoy both the natural park scenery and the roving eyes of young local slate- pickers.
The walk to Hazle Park from the Kudrick home in Cranberry is the equivalent of a six city block and is normally reserved for the weekends, holidays and ethnic festivities.
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