Wilhelm Fryderyk Siekierski (1877-1948)

by Maciej Siekierski

I did not know my grandfather Wilhelm Siekierski. He died in Brazil, three weeks before I was born in Poland. Until recently, all I knew about Wilhelm was based on a few childhood memories of my father, family tradition, and on several details, which I was able to find in Polish archives. Thanks to the wonderful tool of communication, the Internet, Wilhelm's descendants in Brazil, Canada, England, Poland, and the United States have established contact and have been able to fill some of the blank spots in our ancestor's biography and our genealogical tree. It is my hope that this project in family history will develop into something of an informal family information network, something which will not only help us share in what we have in common, but also offer an opportunity to learn about the different cultures and historical circumstances which have influenced our lives.

The Siekierski family name is not very common. According to Kazimierz Rymut's recent dictionary of names (Slownik nazwisk) there are about 2,700 individuals in Poland with that last name. This of course pales next to 220,000 Nowaks or 132,000 Kowalskis, but is considerably more than the 1,700 Walesas and 900 Wojtylas living in Poland. To the 2,700 Siekierskis one has to add probably 1,000 more living in the United States, Germany and elsewhere - with listings in telephone books and Internet hits providing some indication of the number. The first mention of the Siekierski family name is in a 1386 document in reference to the nobles holding the village of Siekierki west of Poznan. Two centuries later, Siekierskis were no longer in the village of Siekierki, but they were present in several other areas of Poland. One of the Siekierski families moved to neighboring Prussia, where it received land in exchange for service and taxes.

The first mention of Siekierskis who are undoubtedly our ancestors dates to August 8, 1740, when free men Bartek, Mathes, Andreas, and Joseph Szekerski swore homage to the new king of Prussia from their land in the village of Napierki in the district of Dzialdowo (Soldau). Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Siekierskis are quite frequently noted in the tax and other legal records from the districts of Dzialdowo (Soldau) and Nidzica (Neidenburg in German, or Nibork in the Polish-Mazurian dialect). Surviving records from Lutheran parishes mention a number of Siekierski baptisms, marriages, and funerals. Unfortunately, the records of the only Catholic parish in the area, St. Jakub's in Bialuty (Bialutten) did not survive. Our earliest confirmed direct ancestor is Wojciech (Albrecht) Siekierski (c. 1808-after 1866). Wojciech was the village elder in Napierki, married to Dorota Wasniewska. Our great grandfather Wilhelm, born in 1848, was very likely one of the younger children. Wilhelm's mother died before 1864, the year in which his father, Wojciech, a Catholic, remarried in a Lutheran church. Two years later, Wojciech transferred his land to his new wife's son from her first marriage, Samuel Lawrenz, and consented to Samuel's marriage to his daughter Maria. Wilhelm was not even mentioned in the document. Wilhelm married Wilhelmina (Emilia) Socinska and moved to Bialuty, where he started a business as a butcher. One family story, that he was well educated and an architect, does not have any confirmation. Given the family circumstances, Wilhelm was probably not very pleased with his lot in life and kept searching for something better, an attitude that he may have imparted to his son.

Wilhelm's son, Wilhelm Fryderyk Siekierski, was born most likely in Bialuty, near the town of Dzialdowo on October 7, 1877. There is no record of his baptism because Russian Cossacks burned St. Jakub's parish archives during their advance into the Masurian Lakes region of East Prussia in the summer of 1914. Incidentally, the Russians largely completed the task some 30 years later by burning most of the civil records in the district center of Nidzica. This situation makes routine genealogical work quite difficult. Wilhelm Fryderyk spent his early years in Bialuty. He probably attended the village elementary school there. The language of instruction was German but Polish was spoken at home. As my father remembered, Wilhelm had only a basic command of German and spoke Polish with a heavy Masurian accent. He was largely illiterate. Only much later, his wife, Marianna, tried to teach him to read and write, but without complete success. The only information we have about his siblings is that he had a brother, Gustaw. The Neidenburg Kreis Blatt, during the 1870s and 1880s, includes references to Wilhelm Sr. as a butcher residing in Bialuty. It is not know why the family moved across the Russian border to the town of Mlawa, before the end of the century. Here, Wilhelm continued his business as a butcher, and young Wilhelm Fryderyk met his future wife Marianna Kolakowska. They were married on February 2, 1898 in the Holy Trinity church in Mlawa. Nine months later their first children were born, twin girls, Teresa and Jadwiga. Unfortunately, Teresa died two weeks later. Her name would eventually be revived in Wilhelm's second family, in Brazil.

Wilhelm and Marianna decided to try to better their lives by emigrating from Poland. We do not know how and when the decision was made, but the turn of the 20th century was a great period of emigration from Central and Eastern Europe to North and South America. Two of Marianna's sisters immigrated to the United States. Wilhelm's brother, Gustaw immigrated to Germany. It is not known who went first, exactly where, and when. My father recalled being told that before settling in Germany, Wilhelm tried his luck in America, but that he was quickly disappointed and returned. Anyway, by 1900, Wilhelm, Marianna and Jadwiga found themselves in the heart of the Westphalian coal-mining region, along with several hundred thousand other Polish immigrants. Wilhelm did well in Wattenscheid, a suburb of Bochum. The family lived at 143 Bochumer Str. and attended the local St. Joseph Catholic Church. All of Wilhelm and Marianna's remaining children were born in Wattenscheid. The butcher shop prospered and employed several people. According to his daughter Maria's recollection, Wilhelm had little sense of smell, which meant that Marianna had to inspect all meat purchases for the butcher shop to make sure that it was fresh. Wilhelm had a horse drawn van with which he made deliveries, frequently taking his children along. He was planning to purchase an automobile. The World War, which broke out in the summer of 1914, ended this happy existence. Wilhelm was called into military service and the family was left largely on its own. There was very little meat for processing in the butcher shop, as virtually all was taken for military consumption. One of the family stories tells of Marianna helping to support the family by cigarette smuggling on the Dutch border. The oldest son, Wili, helped her in the effort.

The war ended in November 1918, but the economic situation did not improve. Life in Germany continued to be very difficult. On the other hand, independent Poland emerged from the ruins of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires. Hundreds of thousands of Polish immigrants living in Germany and in the United States began to look with hope toward their Homeland. Marianna's two sisters, Leokadia Wybrancowa and Mania Rutkowska, and their families were planning to return from the United States to Poland. Wilhelm was not a very patriotic individual, but he was sufficiently conscious of his nationality to consider Poland his homeland. Marianna's influence certainly helped him in this decision. She came from a family with noble traditions dating back to the Kingdom of Poland, as well as deep devotion to the Polish national cause. Members of her family were involved in the 1863 uprising against Russia. As per my father's recollections, there were always issues of Polish-language periodicals at home, and Wilhelm used to get very angry when the children tried to talk to him in German. The situation in Poland was not completely settled yet. Poland was involved in a prolonged war with Soviet Russia, and the fate of much of East Prussia was to be decided by a plebiscite. In the meantime, the family celebrated the wedding of the eldest daughter Jadwiga and Bernard Wegierski in July 1919.

The final decision came in late summer of 1920. The Bolsheviks were beaten by the Poles at the gates of Warsaw in mid-August. The East Prussian plebiscite of July 1920 went badly for Poland. Most of the Polish-speaking areas voted for Germany. Ironically, a distant cousin of Wilhelm, Friedrich Wilhelm Siekierski of Neidenburg, was one of the principal organizers of the pro-German vote in the district. Only the district of Dzialdowo, with Bialuty, but without Napierki, went to Poland. This little piece of familiar turf is exactly where Wilhelm decided to live. By that time, Wilhelm had no close relatives in Poland. His brother chose to remain in Wattenscheid. His father was deported to the East by the Russians in 1914 and probably died during the war. Relatives in East Prussia opted for Germany and ties were severed. Nevertheless, the returning family was not alone. Marianna's many relatives lived in nearby Mlawa and vicinity and could be counted upon for help. Wilhelm opened a butcher shop on Mlynska Street in Dzialdowo. According to Polish commercial directories from the mid-1920s, there were 16 butcher shops in Dzialdowo, a town of about 3,500 inhabitants. Soon, Wilhelm's restless and enterprising spirit made him turn to something with less competition and a greater potential for profit. In addition to the butcher shop, he decided to start a dairy processing business. He took all of his savings, borrowed money from his brothers-in-law and others, invested in some modern processing equipment - and plunged ahead. The dairy plant showed promise. Wilhelm bought milk from farmers near and far. My father recalls long trips in a horse drawn wagon picking up and delivering dairy products as far south as Regimin. Wilhelm found buyers for his butter even in distant Berlin. Nevertheless, something terrible happened when my father was 14, in 1925 or 1926. There was a sudden shift in the value of the currency. A boxcar of butter was sent to Berlin and payment was sent back in worthless currency. There of course was no written contract and no insurance. Wilhelm was broke, unable to repay his creditors, and to support his wife and six minor children, ranging from 5 to 17. He decided to go to Brazil to make money in order to repair the damage.

When Wilhelm left Dzialdowo in 1925 or 1926 he probably did not think that he was never going to return and that he would not see his wife and children again. In the meantime they had to manage alone and with the help of Marianna's family. Marianna did not survive the experience. She died on October 15, 1928, of a heart attack - or simply of heartache - a toothless old woman of 48. The children were much more resilient. Not only did they recover from this family tragedy but drew strength from it. Thanks to the efforts of their sister Maria, a teacher, the younger siblings lived together as a family and went to schools. They remembered their father in Brazil, they wrote to him on occasion and he responded through a notary once in a while, but as years passed, most of the children accepted the thought that they would never see him again. Meanwhile, Wilhelm began what he thought was a new chapter in his life. These were to be his final two decades in the helpless struggle for fortune and respect, something, which he failed to achieve in his earlier life in Germany and Poland.