So much of what is best about us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it also measures our sense of loyalty.    Haniel Long

Joseph Kudrick, my father, is born at home in Cranberry on Thursday, January 25, 1906.  Cranberry is a mining patch town adjacent to the Cranberry Mines and located south of the borough of West Hazleton.  He is also baptized on Thursday, January 25, 1906 at St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Hazleton with Rev. Thomas Szabo officiating.

Joseph is Anna's seventh child overall joining 16-year-old Anna Scšur II, 14-year old Mary Bartko, 12-year-old John Bartko, 7-year-old Michael Kudrick, 5-year-old Helen Kudrick and 3-year-old Elizabeth Kudrick in the family.  Anna Scšur II is working in a local shirt factory and John Bartko is working at the Cranberry Colliery along with his step-father, Alex.

Anna is 38-years-old and her husband Alex Kudrick is 34-years-old.  To supplement the family income, Anna and Alex take in boarders who have emigrated from their homeland in the Austria-Hungarian Empire in East Central Europe.

Adam Kelhart, a cousin to Joseph, is born in the city of Hazleton to Joseph's aunt, Helen Scšur Kelhart.  The Kelhart family will have 11 children (cousins to Joseph) of which Adam is No. 6.  The Kelhart family will move from Hazleton to Hellertown, which is located outside the city limits of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

John Koneyak is born at 684 Locust Street in Hazleton on May 27.  He will marry Joseph's sister, Elizabeth, in 1924.  Also, John Mikitisin (McDeshen) emigrates to Oneida, Pennsylvania from the same village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire that Anna Scšur left.  He is the future father-in-law of Joseph's other sister, Helen. 

Alex Kudrick, father
Anna Scšur, mother
Kudrick Family, marriage
Michael, son
Helen, daughter
Elizabeth, daughter
Joseph, son
     more on Joseph
Anna, daughter
Susan, daughter
Bartko Family, 1st husband
Kudrick Ancestry Page
Ancestry Home Page
Kudrick Home Page

News items other than Anna's pregnancy include:
Seventy-five percent of slate pickers killed in the anthracite coal fields are under 16 years of age.  Fortunately, mechanical spiral slate pickers are replacing the boys.  On the other end of the financial spectrum, the local Coxe Family sell their coal holdings to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company for $18 million.

The Bon Ton Department Store opens at Broad and Church streets in downtown Hazleton while the Family Theater, part of Hazle Hall, opens as a vaudeville house nearby.  In local "movie houses," short silent films are shown on a machine called the Klinetograph.

Music is a recreational activity and very popular.  Six thousand people jam Hazle Park to listen to the Carlisle Indian Band while a  popular song making the rounds is "In My Merry Oldsmobile."  For the less adventurous, card playing has many enthusiasts.

On the sports scene, football is considered a rugged and sometimes brutal pastime and not as well accepted as baseball.  Locally, many baseball games are played at Hazle Park.  A six game series is played between the Ladies' Star Team of St. Louis and Mount Carmel at Hazle Park.  Both Audenreid and Tamaqua baseball teams also play games at the wonderfully landscaped park.

While Joseph is an infant, Hazleton hosts its Semi-Centennial.  The July 1906 celebration lasts a week and is witnessed by 30,000 people.  Festivities include decorated floats with horse and buggies drawn over Broad Street.  Additional activities include concerts, horse racing and trolley rides.  Hazle Hall is gaily decorated, the Grand Opera House hosts a Schubert concert on Wednesday and special trains run to the hinterland bringing people to the celebration.  A major carnival is erected to entertain and the Family Theater features a motion picture machine that makes pictures appear life-like.

After witnessing the parade, Alex and Anna Kudrick take their children to Hazle Park.  Anna packs a basket and the family seeks out a cool place in the sheltered table area in the park.  While at the park, the family watches the bears, enjoys the rides and stays for the fireworks.  The two older girls spend time at the dance hall ogling the older couples including their chaperones dancing.   

Joseph spends 1906 sleeping in his crib, while:
Grievance No. 129 is filed on behalf of the Cranberry Colliery employees whose wages were recently reduced by the A. Pardee and Co.  After hearing the grievance, the committee rules in favor of the mine employees.

On the national scene, a devastating earthquake strikes San Francisco killing 700 people.  On the other end of the country, in New York, Harry Thaw shoots architect Stanford White over a chorus girl named Evelyn Nesbit.  The sensational murder later spawns the 1955 movie, "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing."

The first known radio broadcast of voice and music is made over the airways during Joseph's 1st year.

A ball player named Ty Cobb joins the Detroit Tigers where he will play for  22 years.

Scranton, Pennsylvania wins the New York State Baseball League Championship.

Alex Kudrick, father ~ Anna Scšur, mother ~ Kudrick Family, marriage ~ Michael, son ~ Helen, daughter
Elizabeth, daughter ~ Joseph, son ~ click here for more of Joseph ~ Anna, daughter ~ Susan, daughter
Bartko Family, 1st husband ~ Kudrick Ancestry Page ~ Ancestry Home Page ~ Kudrick Home Page