This past June marked 105 years since the birth of my maternal grandmother, Margaret Katherine Simonik. She was born on 5 June 1913 in the small town of Morewood, in the bituminous coal fields of Westmoreland County, in southwestern Pennsylvania. She was the seventh of eleven children born to Slovak immigrants John Simonik and Anna Tatar, and only one of five children to survive to adulthood.
Three days later, on June 8th, she was baptized Margita Katarina Simonik, at the Roman Catholic Slovak Parish of Visitation of the Blessed Virgin in Mt. Pleasant. The beautiful commemorative certificate given her family, with its text written in Slovak, has made its way through the generations in our family, and is translated here:
Baptismal Certificate
By this it is certified that Jaroslav Janda, on the day the 8th of June, the Year of Our Lord 1913, according to the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, baptized Margita from Moorewood, born the 5th of June, 1913, the daughter of John Simonik and of his lawful wife Anna Tatar, for which Joseph Haniczek and Mary Kiliany recited as godparents.
The present certificate is an original transcription from the Registry of the Christened of the Roman Catholic Slovak parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
(signed) Jaroslav Janda
Grandma's early life can be traced in the movements of her family from town to town and church to church. From Mt. Pleasant, her family moved to West Leisenring, about 30 miles away. She made her First Communion in 1921 at age 7, and her Confirmation in 1926 at age 13, both at St. Polycarp in West Leisenring. Below, two more commemorative certificates mark those occasions.
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Margaret's First Communion certificate, from St. Polycarp Church in West Leisenring, Pennsylvania,
dated 14 Aug. 1921. (Author's personal collection) |
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Confirmation certificate from St. Polycarp in West Leisenring, dated 1926.(Author's personal collection) |
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In 1920, at age 7, the United States Census shows Margaret living in North Union in Fayette County, where her father John was a teamster in a coal mine.
About Grandma's school-age years, we know she attended school through the 8th grade - noted in the 1940 United States Census. It appears that she attended school in North Union school district. A wonderful news clipping from the Uniontown Morning Herald dated Feb. 26, 1927 notes Margaret Simonik would deliver an "Essay on Washington," as part of a "Patriotic Program" put on by students of North Union and Dunbar schools. She would have been about 13 years old and possibly in the 8th grade.
In the 1930 United States census, she is shown at age 17, with her older sister Anna, 26, on their own, employed as laundresses, in the town of Beaver Falls, about 1-1/2 hours from her family's home in North Union. I recall Grandma telling stories of working in a hospital laundry, and the census information bears that out, as is shows she joined the nurses, cooks, floor maids, janitors and other staff at Providence Hospital, shown below in a vintage postcard.
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| Postcard image of Providence Hospital, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where Margaret and her older sister Anna worked as laundresses in the late 1920s and early 1930s. (Vintage postcard image via web.) |
Later in life, as our mother worked long hours as a single parent of four kids, Grandma generously helped with our family's laundry and ironing. It's only now I realize just where she acquired the skills which she used for our benefit.
Other photos shed light on some Grandma's life before her marriage. Brunette, beautiful and a bit sassy-looking, Margaret Simonik did love to dress up and--fortunately for us--have her photo taken. With her large, warm brown eyes and her own fashion flare, she cut quite the charming figure in these photos of her which were passed down to my mother and then to me.
It wouldn't be long before this lovely lady met the man she would marry. More on this in a future post.
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