SETTLING INTO AMERICA: FROM VJEKOSLAVA TO LOUISE

"Gob pile," or coal mine waste, sits outside the patch town of Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania, circa 2003. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, coalcampusa.com.)

Last month, I set a goal of researching more about the Croatian roots of my great grandmother Vjekoslava Baltorinic, later known as Louise Kozlina. In part one "So Far Away: What Drew Vjekoslava to America,"  I explored why Vjekoslava might have left Croatia, and chose southwestern Pennsylvania for her home. In this installment, I'll explore life in coal patch towns, as well as the ties which held her and her family to Lemont Furnace. 

(Note: Vjekoslava was known by several names throughout her life, including Lojza and Louise, all of which are used in this piece.)


By Nancy Gilbride Casey


As Vjekoslava began her life in southwestern Pennsylvania, what was her life like?

She and her new husband Frank Kozlina settled in the "coal patch town" of  Lemont Furnace after marrying in 1906. The term "patch" was a name given to towns built at the portal to a mine, in many areas of Pennsylvania.

It was necessary for mining companies to create these patch towns because the coal seams were located away from major cities, in rural areas where no mines, roads, railroads or towns were yet in existence. The companies had to sink the mine shaft, as well as build all the infrastructure, before ever opening a mine for business.¹

Patch towns consisted of rows of nearly identical single or double houses, built and owned by the mining company, as well as a company store, a church, a school and the mine. Families paid rent to the mining companies to live in the homes.²

Houses provided by the mine companies were simply-built, wood frame houses with a front porch. They were furnished, typically with a sofa and table in the living room; a wooden table and chairs in the kitchen; a bed and trunk for clothes in the bedrooms; and scattered rugs or canvases to cover the wooden floors. In early homes, heat was provided by a fireplace; cooking was done on coal stoves; and houses had no running water or electricity. Water came from wells and toilet facilities were usually double outhouses behind the house.³

Patch houses in Lemont Furnace, circa 2003. (Photo by Chris Dellamea, coalcampusa.com.)

Although basic, the homes were well cared for. The mine companies would repair and paint the houses and picket fences periodically, perhaps alternating paint colors from house to house. They provided wooden sidewalks on the streets. Families were encouraged to plant vegetable and flower gardens, and these became pride points in the patch.⁴

The Kozlina home, pictured below, was a typical side-by-side duplex, with well water, and an outhouse in back. At the time of the photo, Frank and Louise Kozlina lived on one side of the house, and their daughter, Anne Kozlina Palaisa and her family lived on the other side.⁵

The front porch of the Kozlina family home in the coal patch town of Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania, taken in the early-mid 1940s. Louise Baltorinic Kozlina is seated top left, while husband Frank is seated lower right.

In the patch, Louise and her family would have shopped at the mine's company store, the Union Supply Company Store No. 29. The company stores were built to provide all the food, hardware, gas, clothing, and mining supplies needed by the miners and their families in the patch. (Yes, miners had to purchase their own work supplies, including dynamite.) The company store sometimes also served as community meeting place, post office and wage payment center.⁶

Lemont Furnace's old company store building still exists, serving as the North Union Volunteer Fire Department's headquarters.

As Louise and Frank's family grew to include four daughters and four sons (including one son with special needs), Louise's chores and duties must have consumed her days. Husband Frank worked the miner's typical ten-hour days.⁷ But Louise likely had the help and support of the women around her—other immigrant wives and daughters of local miners.

In industrial towns like Lemont Furnace, the wide range of immigrant groups speaking a cacophony of languages created stable ethnic neighborhoods with their own institutions and folkways. At first the vast majority spoke little or no English, and clung to their separate cultures, rituals, and beliefs.⁸ In 1910, Louise's immediate neighbors were of Slovak, Italian, and Polish descent.⁹ Their families too were likely fleeing from poverty and oppression—a young generation looking to America "trbuhom za kruhum" —with belly after bread.¹⁰
New immigrants often adhered to their religious and national identities via churches and cultural institutions, ethnic parishes and schools. They also joined ethnically-allied fraternal and benevolent societies, which provided a wide range of economic and social services for their members.¹¹ Such church and fraternal organizations clearly helped Vjekoslava assimilate into her new life, while maintaining connections to her heritage.

One connection was her membership in St. Cecilia (Roman Catholic) Mission Church in Lemont. There, she was as a member of the Confraternity of Christian Mothers, where she helped arrange church events for families, such as annual picnics.¹² Poignantly, this group was by her side to the end of her life, reciting the Rosary for her at her wake.¹³

She was also a member of the Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU). In 1972, Vjekoslava was honored for her 60-year membership in Lodge 72, located in Uniontown. She must have joined about 1912—within a few years of coming to America. Being part of this group no doubt helped her to stay tethered to her homeland, while learning to live as an American, by participating in CFU-sponsored activities, events and charities.

One such place Louise shared her maternal touch was with a CFUs "nest." The nest was a young people's group connected with a CFU lodge; lodge members were committed to educating, supporting and encouraging the next generation of young Croatians. A 1960 news clipping names Louise among the entertainment organizers for a Nest 32's annual picnic.¹⁵

 

Though not pictured, the photo caption notes that Lojza Kozlina was honored by the Croatian Fraternal Lodge 72 for her 60-year membership. (Photo Uniontown Morning Standard, 14 Sept. 1973)

As Louise's life was coming to a close, she fought stomach cancer. In the age before personal privacy was paramount, her discharge from the Uniontown hospital was noted in a March 1974 newspaper item.¹⁶ She died a few short months later, on 23 July 1974, and was buried with her husband Frank, in St. Mary's Nativity Cemetery in nearby North Union, Pennsylvania.¹⁷ Her obituary marks her connections: the Christian Mothers, St. Cecilia's Church, the CFU Lodge, the Croatian Club, and others.¹⁸

Louise's obituary, Uniontown Morning Standard, 24 July 1974.

Reflecting on Louise's life is like watching a butterfly unfurl its wings; Vjekoslava emerged from a life of poverty to one of relative prosperity, compared to her life in her homeland. She had a long marriage, a stable home, a large family gathered around her. She was connected to the community and contributed her own touch to it. She traded one small rural community in Croatia for another in southwestern Pennsylvania. She traded her birth name: Vjekoslava, also known as Lojza, became Louise.

Lojza Vjekoslava Kozlina became a citizen of the United States on 18 Nov. 1941, swearing her allegiance in the Common Pleas Court at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Her transformation was complete. She honored her ties to Croatia, but also connected deeply to her new homeland—Amerika.

It is that America that she also prospered: At the time of her death in 1974, she had 20 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren making their way in the world. Today, more than 40 years later, her descendants are a heritage spreading out across the land. They are the greatest legacy of Vjekoslava Baltorinic Kozlina.

Until next time...

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Click here to view a terrific video describing the mining life: "Out in the Coal Patch: Life in the Coal Mining Town of Western Pennsylvania," a lecture by Gary Rogers, Oakmont Historical Society Lecture Series, 2017.


NOTES


¹ Gary Rogers, "Out In The Coal Patch: Life in the Coal Mining Towns of Western Pennsylvania,"video, uploaded 29 Aug. 2018, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuZ460mKSe8 : accessed 29 Feb. 2020), particularly 5:38-14:00.
² Rogers, "Out in the Coal Patch: Life in the Coal Mining Towns of Western Pennsylvania," particularly 5:38-14:00.
³ Dennis F. Brestensky, Evelyn A. Hovanec and Albert N. Skomra, Patch/Work Voices: The Culture and Lore of a Mining People (Uniontown: Patch/Work Voices Publishing, 2003), 39-40.   
⁴ Brestensky, Hovanec, and Skomra, Patch/Work Voices, 47.  
⁵ M. Graff to Nancy Casey, e-mail, 25 Feb. 2020, "Quick Question"; Kozlina/Baltornic Folder; privately held by N Casey [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Tioga Texas. 
⁶ Rogers, "Out in the Coal Patch: Life in the Coal Mining Towns of Western Pennsylvania," particularly 5:38-14:00.  Unfortunately, most company stores also had a notorious reputation for having high prices and fostering debt, as purchases were taken directly out of a miner's wages. Often the charges were simply made on a "tick" system, where no money actually changed hands. Companies sometimes also paid their workers in "script," currency created by the companies in lieu of cash, although this practice was eventually abolished.  
⁷ Rogers, "Out in the Coal Patch: Life in the Coal Mining Towns of Western Pennsylvania," particularly 14:22.
⁸ ExplorePAHistory.com (http://bit.ly/38X5uUo : accessed 23 Feb. 2020), "Chapter 3: Huddled Masses, 1865-1930." 
⁹ 1910 U.S. Census, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, North Union Township, precinct 2, p. 24-A (penned), dwelling 417, family 419, Elizabeth Coselenn; image Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/2ZzqbSo : accessed 28 Dec. 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, Washington, D.C. 
¹⁰ Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org : accessed 6 Feb 2020), "Croatian Americans," rev. 02:29, 28 Jan. 2020, (UTC).

¹¹ ExplorePAHistory.com (http://bit.ly/38X5uUo : accessed 23 Feb. 2020), "Chapter 3: Huddled Masses, 1865-1930." 

¹² "Picnic for Sunday," Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Evening Standard, 4 Sept 1959, pg. 11, col. 5; image copy, Newspapers (http://bit.ly/2QM5r67 : accessed 3 Jan. 2020). Originally founded in 1850 in France by Catholic women wishing to support and pray for their families in a time of increased secularism, the Christian mothers' movement was brought to the United States in 1881 with the founding of the Arch Confraternity of Christian Mothers in Pittsburgh, by Pope Leo XIII.   

¹³ "Louise Kozlina (Balgormic)" obituary, The Morning Herald, 24 July 1974, p. 40, col. 7, image copy, Newspapers (http://bit.ly/2ueR6Yd : accessed 3 Jan. 2020). 

¹⁴ "Testimonial," The Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 13 Sept 1973, p. 9, col. 5-6; image copy, Newspapers (http://bit.ly/2tyt9Lm : accessed 3 Jan. 2020).  The Croatian Fraternal Union was founded in 1893 to offer life and accident insurance for new immigrants and their families. Although interest was great at an initial meeting, only a dozen or so stepped up to begin to pay dues. Undaunted, the founders joined with various other fledgling Croatian associations, and by 1927 became the Croatian Fraternal Union. The CFU eventually grew into a network of lodges throughout the United States and Cananda and today has over 30,000 members.     

¹⁵ "Mother's Club of Nest 32 to Hold Picnic on Sunday," Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Evening Standard, 11 Aug 1960, p. 16, col. 3-4; image copy, Newspapers (http://bit.ly/2ZPeR4O : accessed 3 Jan. 2020).  

¹⁶ "Hospital News: Uniontown, Discharges," Uniontown (Pennsylvania) Evening Standard, 2 March 1974, p. 9, col. 1; image copy, Newspapers (http://bit.ly/36rw074 : accessed 3 Jan 2020). 

¹⁷ Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Health, certificate of death 67003 74 (1974) Louise Kozlina; Vital Statistics, New Castle.  

¹⁸ "Louise Kozlina (Balgormic)" The Morning Herald, 24 July 1974.