William Stasik

• General Notes
  • St Florian Death Book - Valent Stasik, of Trauger, PA,died 11-24-21, 51 years Roman Catholic. Original Locus - Velky Vicas Sariska, of heart trouble, buried in St Florian Cemetery, Trauger, PA. Side Note: Ecclesiastica, Sepultura, eo Denegata Fuit
    
    Valent Stasik we believe was born on February 14th,1876 in Vit’az, Slovakia.  When he was born there it was Austria-Hungary, later becoming Czechoslovakia, and finally Slovakia.. A review of the Ellis Island online records show a number of Stasik’s coming from Gloweinka, Poland and settling in Western Pennsylvania, although there are no records of Valent arriving. These immigrants were apparently cousins to Valent.
    Vit’az is near the city of Presov, Slovakia. In 1816, Prešov became the seat of an independent Greek-Catholic bishopric, separated from the Muka-tchevo diocese. The new bishopric received a vacant church with a Minorites' monastery, and after several reconstructions these buildings have been basically serving this function till now.
    Together with economic development, the city continued its building activities. Within a short time all the damage from the previous period was successfully repaired, and after the whole area of the inner city had completely been built-up, wealthier citizens were building their exotic houses with gardens in the outskirts of the city. A dominant architectural style in the 18th c. was baroque. The most beautiful baroque buildings in the city include the Klobussiczki Palace, the Szirmay Palace, the Governors House, or the reconstructed Church of St. John the Baptist.
    After living under the repressive and feudalistic society that existed in the countries of the Carpathian Mountain Region of Galicia at the beginning of the 20th century, a great many of the Carpatho-Rusyn people sought out the "Land of Dreams," America.
    In the early 1900's, a large immigration of people took place from the Carpathian Mountain region of Galicia to the coal mining patches of America.
    The Carpatho-Rusyn people, as these immigrates from Galicia are known today, arrived in America, after spending up to two weeks at sea as steerage passengers, in the most cramped quarters with hundreds of other passengers. After crossing the ocean they then would sit in New York harbor for days awaiting transport to Ellis Island. The immigration station another experience in this new land, it was also were many of their names were changed, because the immigration officer couldn't spell it or just wrote down what even they thought it should be. After passage through the immigration station they usually boarded a Pennsylvania Railroad train with their only means of knowing where they were going, a slip of paper pinned to their coats, with the name and town of their sponsor written on it. Without knowledge of the language or the country the immigrates migrated to areas were possibly a friend from their village had settled, or areas which resembled their home land as well as jobs they were familiar with in the coal fields of Pennsylvania. Many an unscrupulous coal company agent, after befriending the men, would pin the name and town of the coal company they recruited for to the men's coats, and send them on their way without the men knowing where they were going or where they would end up, thus increasing the agents recruiting fees.
    The Anthracite Coal (the hard coal) and Bituminous Coal (the soft coal) mining regions of Pennsylvania, being very active at the turn of the 20th century, were in need of a much larger labor force. The Coal Companies actively sought out this new immigrant labor force, to be exploited, as another new source of cheap labor for the coal mines. Many of the coal companies sent their agents overseas, to central Europe, to recruit the workers they needed for their mines. A great many of the Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants settled in the bituminous coal mining patches in the Western Pennsylvania counties of Cambria, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland Counties.
    This ethnic concentration of the Carpatho-Rusyn people in this area of western Pennsylvania brought other immigrants from similar backgrounds to it. The Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants brought with them their ethnic arts, talents, customs, and strong religious beliefs. Religion and the celebration of the Holy Days playing an important part in the lives of the Ukranian coal miners.
    Valent followed this same path as he arrived in America and settled in Trauger, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. In Trauger, he went to work for the W.C. Frick Coke and Coal Company, eventually becoming a ‘fireman’ in the boiler room. An animosity hung over the laborers. Mostly Poles and Slavs, they struggled with English and with the customs of a strange, new world.  They were welcome to pick up a coal shovel and go to work. But if they dared to ask about pay or safety, they were quickly reminded that plenty of other foreigners with strong backs could replace them.  By word of mouth and in the newspapers, they were often referred to as "Hunkies," a generic slur for Eastern Europeans who were considered dim and unimportant
    As immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire migrated to the coal fields of Pennsylvania they developed a great desire for their own Byzantine Churches. At first the Slovaks traveled to the Saint Vincent Monastery at Latrobe, PA to attend church services and for their religious needs. When the Slovak parishes were established in Mount Pleasant, PA and Whitney, PA, they attended those churches. Wishing for a church closer to Trauger, a group of assembled for public worship and requested to be incorporated according to the law on January 1, 1894 under the leadership of Rev. Staphen Dzubayas the St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church. The first place of worship was in a hall in Calumet, PA.  The actual construction of a church building did not begin until 1897 and the small frame building was completed the same year.  As the membership in parish continued to grow the need for a larger church building was felt.  The cornerstone for the present brick church building was laid on August 16, 1914.
    The Slovaks attended and paid their fraternal lodge dues there. The first Slovak fraternal lodges were the "National Slovak Society Lodge #59" in United, Pennsylvania and the "National Slovak Society Lodge #177" in Mammoth, Pennsylvania and also Lodge #181, First Catholic Slovak Union, Jednota in United, PA and Lodge #281, First Catholic Slovak Union in Mammoth, PA. In the year 1907 the Slavonic Citizens Club was founded and met regularly.
    Sometime before 1904 Valent married Susanna Pacofsky, who had previously been married and had two sons, Nick and Albert. In 1904 his son John was born. Sometime between 1904 and 1910 Valent changed the name of his family from Stasik to Stoker, and started going by the first name of William. The 1910 U.S. Census shows William and Susanna Stoker living in Trauger, with two sons, Bert and John.
    Beginning in 1904 William and Susanna had four children together:
    John, born 4-June-1904, was given the Slovakian name Joannem.
    Stephen was born on December 31, 1905. He was given the name Stephanum. Stephen died on March 3rd, 1907 and was buried in an unmarked child’s grave at St Florian Cemetery in Trauger.
    Mary was born on April 20, 1910 with the name of Mariam. She later married Nicholas Harouse, having xx children. Mary too is buried in St Florian Cemetery.
    Helen was born on December 10, 1914. After her parents died in the 1920s she moved to Detroit and lived with her ½ brother Nick Pacofsky. Records show she later lived in California with the name of Helen Fontes.
    His 1917 World War 1 Draft Card has him as William Stoker, born 14 February 1875, despite the fact his headstone states 14 February 1876.
    The 1920 U.S. census shows the growth in his family with his daughters Mary and Helen being born since 1910. His son John still lived with him, as did his wife. They were all still listed as Stoker.
    Valent Stasik died November 24, 1921 and is buried at the cemetery in Trauger. When his son was married in 1930 he listed William Stasik as his father.Albert resumed using the name Pacofsky, and John used Stasik the rest of his life.
    

Click here for details of William's family with Susan Baluha

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