The Story of Mike Romiski – Killed at East Brookside Colliery, 1927

Michael Romiski, also known as Mikolaj Romanshyn and Mykola Romaniszyn, was born in Galacia, Austrian Empire, on 9 December 1893.  He emigrated to the United States in 1912, and shortly afterward settled in the area around Tower City, Schuylkill County, where he went to work in the mines.  On 9 December 1927, he was killed instantly in a fall of rock at the East Brookside Colliery.

The following story from October 2017 was provided by a descendant, Christine E. Maltby:

Galicia was the poorest province in the Austrian Empire.  Some say it was the poorest in Europe, more desperate than the Irish famine.  Historian Norman Davies estimates that 25% of the population emigrated between 1911 and 1914.

Maybe Mikolaj Romanowicz was recruited by a mining company agent or perhaps he received an encouraging letter from his cousin.  Military conscription was a disturbing possibility if he remained in Galacia.  In 1912, at the age of 18, he left his village, Holuczkow.

He knew with certainty his destination – the Lykens Valley in eastern Pennsylvania.  Anthracite “hard” coal, is mined in this part of the geological valley and ridge area of the Appalachian mountains.  Laborers were needed.  Coal fueled the engines that were to carry him and coal awaited him.

The strenuous realities of that journey were near impossible to imagine.  Long before he could descend into those mines and draw his pay, Mikolaj would have set out on foot or by cart to the closest railroad station.  Already a vast network of trains criss-crossed the German and Austrian-Hungarian Empires.  His destination was Hamburg, the port city on the tidal Elbe River flowing to the North Sea.

Passage was booked on the S.S. Cleveland of the Hamburg-Americam Line.  The ship was large enough to carry 443 crew members, 239 first class passengers, 224 second class passengers, and 2, 378 third class passengers who were crowded into bunks in steerage.  The ship sailed on Friday, 31 May 1912.  Ports of call were made in Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe before crossing into the English Channel to Southampton, England, and Cherbourg, France – then steaming across the Atlantic.  Less than two weeks later, on Tuesday, 12 June 1912, the S.S. Cleveland docked in New York.

Note:  The S.S. Cleveland  is pictured above.  Prior to World War I, it was used primarily to transport immigrants to the the United States.  In 1919, it was seized by the United States and used as a troop transport after it had been renamed the U.S.S. Mobile.

Even though the Cleveland carried a ship’s physician, all steerage passengers had to pass through Ellis Island for health inspections and political screenings [there was no entry allowed for anarchists and polygamists].  Mikolaj is identified as 5 foot 6 inches with brown hair and eyes and fair skin.  We do not know whether Mikolaj carried a valise of personal items but he had $25 and the name of his cousin in the Lykens Valley.  Names are difficult to decipher on the manifest, but his cousin could be Janko Rolajczyk.  Only an initial “H” is clearly discernible for his father back in Holuczkow.

Another train ride lay ahead, carrying him to his final destination.  He would take room and board with his cousin or whomever he could, perhaps sleeping shifts, sharing a bed or the floor, working his way.

The Lykens Valley and its mountains – Short Mountain, Big Lick Mountain, Berry Mountain, to name a few – are beautiful.  The mines were not.  They were dirty and dangerous.  The men took risks and the boys started young – sifting and sorting the coal in the breakers.  There were mouths to feed.

Note:  A statement from author Barbara Ehrenreich, Living With a Wild God, 2014, pages 23-24, is provided here:  “You may think of mining as the application of brute muscle to mountains and rock – and it is that too, of course.  But mining is also an intellectual exercise, requiring the combined skills of a plumber, a carpenter, and an electrician as well as an explosives expert.  You had to be able to judge the strength of a beam or the reliability of rock at a glance and do instant calculations in your head.”

On the 1920 Federal Census, Mikolaj is erroneously listed as Mike Boneski, living on Polish Row, Wiconisco Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. In this time period and and for some time to come, the family surname was written as Romiski or Romesky.  Mikolaj is the Polish equivalent of Nicholas, and he would be alternately known as Mike or Nick.

He is identified as a “laborer” in a “Coal mine.”  Perhaps in 1920 he was employed in the Short Mountain Colliery of the Lykens Valley Coal Company.

In 1920, Mike was 27 and a young father.  His wife Annie, age 24 is listed on that census as emigrating in 1913.  On later documents, her maiden name is listed as Wolos or perhaps Walus.  On the 1940 census, Annie lists her age at her first and only marriage as 15.  Her birth year was 1896 or 1897.  The couple could have married in 1911, or early 1912 in Galacia, and Mike could have saved money and sent for her in 1913.  No passenger manifest has been located, either for Anna Romanowicz or Anna Wolos [or variations of the same].

Borders constantly change in Central and Eastern Europe.  Mikolaj Romanowicz was listed as a Ruthenian (Russniak) on the Cleveland‘s passenger ship manifest.  The countries Ukraine and Belarus [White Russia] descend from that heritage.  The Rus were early Slavic peoplels who swept across the steppes of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.  Ethnically they diverged from Poles and Russians.

Today, the village of Holuczkow is within the border of Poland but close to the Ukraine.  The beautiful Greek Catholic Church of St. Parashevy (Paraskeva or Paraskiewy) is now a “daughter” church of the Roman Catholic Diocese.  The available of sacramental records is not known.

Romanovich family members were later buried in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Lykens, Dauphin County. The staff at Holy Ascension Church, Lykens, founded in 1912, or the Orthodox Church in America – Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania – could be contacted for sacramental records for the marriage and baptismal records of the children.  These records may be written in Russian and require translation.  Both the Russian language and the liturgy would be more familiar than the alternative in the immigrant community, a Roman Catholic Church.

By 1920, the family included Alexi Nikolaus Romanowicz, born 1915, and Basil Wallace Romanowicz, also known as Charles, who was born in 1917.

Sadly, Mikolaj and Anna’s first daughter, Mary Romanowicz, died of cholera in August 1918.  She was an infant of 4 1/2 months old.  The informant of the Schuylkill County death certificate is Mike, but the form and signature is filled out in the undertaker’s shaky script.  His spelling of the surname – Romanoviges – provides a clue as to how Romanowicz and Romanovich might have been pronounced.

Four more children followed:  John Paul Romanowicz was born in 1920; Paul Romanowicz in 1922; Kathryn Romanowicz, also known as Katie or Kay, in 1924; Mary Nikolaevna Romanowicz in 1925.

Then tragedy struck.  On Friday, 9 December 1927, Mike was at the inside workings of the Brookside Colliery owned by the Pennsylvania and Reading Coal and Iron Company.  In pulling coal into the chute, a fall of rock crushed Mike, killing him instantly.  The accident was termed “unavoidable.”  He was 34 year old, the father of six children, ages 2 through 12.  His widow Annie was 31 year old.  Exactly two weeks later, she birthed Stephen Jerome Romanovich, their last child.  It was a pain-filled Christmas.

Three years later, on the 1930 U. S. Federal Census, Annie Romiski, age 34 is listed as a widow, residing at 343 Julian Street, in Williamstown Borough, Dauphin County.  All seven of her children were living with her:  Elliott Romiski [Alexi], age 15; Charles Romiski [Basil], age 13; John Romiski, 11; Paul Romiski, 9; Katie Romiski [Kathryn], 7; Mary Romiski [Mary Nikolaevna], 4; and Stephen Romiski, 2.

In 1930, the value of the home was listed as $6,000, owned not rented.  Annie is listed as the “proprietor” of a “boarding house.”  Generating cash in this way was a common practice in the immigrant communities, but only one boarder is listed:  Czechoslovakian miner John Komar, age 37, married.  Perhaps his wife was still in Czechoslovakia; perhaps he was newly or temporarily working in the Lykens Valley.

In 1920, the family had been living in a rental on Polish Row.  In 1922, the earnings of an anthracite coal miner averaged about $67 in a half-month pay-roll period, if fortunate, $2,000 a year.  Mike, in providing for his family might have purchased life insurance.  In 1930, the five older children were all attending school full-time, with no jobs listed for them.  This was unusual for the circumstances.

Dauphin County records would provide more complete answers:  land records available through the Recorder of Deeds; and probate and guardianship records from the Register of Wills/Clerk of the Orphans’ Court.  Both are located in the Dauphin County Court House in Harrisburg.

Then the unspeakable happened.  Annie became desperately ill and died on 8 May 1931.  Her oldest son, Elliott [Alexi], 16 years old, was the informant on her death certificate.  The youngest, Stephen Jerome, was 3 1/2 years old.  For these children, the 1930s and the Great Depression were doubly difficult.  Their experiences are shrouded in time.

The 1940 U. S. Federal Census gives new insights and assurance.

Alexi Romanovich and Basil Romanovich, single, ages 25 and 23, were residing in an apartment building between 91-97 East 3rd Street, New York City, paying $12 a nmonth.  This was in the East Village area of Manhattan, a vibrant Ukrainian community. Alexi had completed four years of high school and was working as a “counter man” in a restaurant, 54 hours a week.  That income is not listed, but he is listed as having other sources of income.  Basil had completed one year of college, and is listed as a “new worker.”  Alexi was living at the same address in Manhattan in 1935.  In 1935, Basil was still living in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

John Romanovich, single, age 22, was a lodger in the household of Ray Lehman and Ruth Lehman, at 1214 Delaware Avenue, Wyomissing, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  He had completed four years of high school.  In 1935, he resided in Hershey, Dauphin County.  He was working 42 hours a week as a clerk in a realty company.  He worked 52 weeks in 1937 and had an income of $950, with no other source of income.

Paul Romisky and Stephen Romisky, single, ages 18 and 12, were enrolled as students and residents together at the Hershey Industrial School Unit 38, South Hanover Township, Dauphin County.  Paul had competed three years of high school, which meant he was in his senior year.  Stephen had completed the fifth grade.  Both resided in that same house in 1935.  Two couples with young families farmed the land and supervised the students, the Gibbles and the Habigs.  Florence Habig is listed as “housemother.”

Kathryn Romisky and Mary Nikolaevna Romisky, single, ages 16 and 14, were two of six children lodging with the family of James Detrick and Nette Detrick on their farm on Cranberry Road (01011), Harrisburg, Dauphin County, while attending school.  Kathryn had already completed two years of high school.  Mary had completed the 8th grade.  In 1935, the girls had lived in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, but not on a farm.

The residents of Dauphin County mined coal, but they also manufactured chocolate.  Entrepreneur Milton S. Hershey returned home to build his second fortune and a model community.  He and his beloved wife Kitty were unable to have children, and at her suggestion, he founded the Hershey Industrial School. In 1909 when the doors opened, four boys, all orphans, were the first students.  Hershey had childhood memories of long separations from his father who dreamed and drifted.  So he opened his heart and his pockets.  Working farms were maintained for the benefit of students and staff.  He created a caring home and a challenging curriculum, both academic and vocational.  Graduation included job placement.  In 1918, three years after Kitty’s death, the school became Hershey’s sole beneficiary – $60,000 in endowment funds.  Milton Hershey died in Stephen’s senior year, 1946, and the school yearbook, Acropolis, highlighted M. S. Hershey‘s legacy.  His memorial service was held in the school auditorium.

While we know that Paul and Stephen were enrolled at MHS, the fact that John was residing in Hershey in 1935 suggests that John had been enrolled as well.  It is possible that all five brothers attended, although Alexi turned 18 within two years of his mother’s death.

The Milton Hershey School ultimately accepted female students in 1977, four decades too late for Kathryn and Mary N.  Their education was not neglected.  This was the Progressive Era.  Mary Nikolaevna’s son wrote in her obituary:

Born the 7th day of the 7th month and the 7th of eight children, she was orphaned early in life after a coal mining accident took her father and pneumonia claimed her mother.  Mary and her sister Kay [Kathryn] found themselves working on a series of farms throughout their childhood.  The hard work was relieved by regular visits to church, where Mary found the love and peace that sustained her throughout her life.  School was also a joyful experience and Mary was proud to earn her degree as a registered nurse from Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.

Remarkably, none of the children of Mikolaj Romanovich and Anna Romanovich entered the mines.  All seven graduated from high school.  All seven served our country during and post World War II.  Mary served in the U. S. Cadet Nursing Corps.  Kathryn joined the WAC’s.  Alexi, Basil, John, and Paul served in the U. S. Army.  Stephen graduated in 1946 and enlisted that July.  He served in the Berlin Airlift as the Cold War escalated, and made the U. S. Air Force his career choice.

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Additional information is sought about this immigrant family.  Please add corrections and comments to this post.