Adam
Sakry I of St. Cloud was already dead 23 years, never having seen his own children grow up. And now, even Julia would not live to see most of her many grandchildren. She had, of course, supported her first
grandchild, Walter Roscoe, the son of her deceased daughter Mary, for seven years until now. She also had been able to see their second grandchild ... baby Florence, the first child of her daughter Frances (Mrs.
Paul Porwoll). Many years later, Walter Roscoe told me that, ”Julia was a kind woman and took care of me as a boy. Toward the last she lay sick in bed for some time with cancer, and it would make her
so happy when Auntie Frances brought her baby Florence and laid her beside Gramma.”
And now, finally, in late 1913, as if satisfied at last that not only her eldest but her second son were now married, this brave and
resolute little widow who had suffered so much sorrow and hardship and loss, who had given up her own family and homeland to seek in America the better life she never found for herself, but who by her own sacrifice
assured the better life for her children and their children ... this quiet, unsung heroine whose priceless gift of motherly love produced a living legacy of stalwart Polish-American sons and daughters who would
ultimately enrich the nation, came at last to the end of all pain and struggle. Julia Kuczera Sakry quietly passed away on November 13, 1913, just eight days after Joe and Agnes exchanged vows at the altar.
Fate had still another twist for the Sakrys in 1913 in the circumstance of John's love affair with Elizabeth Eiynck ... a romance, incidentally, that was to last a lifetime and produce a family of seven fine
children. As fellow employees in the same hotel, they had opportunity to see a great deal of each other from the very start, and, considering the powerful attraction which seems to have drawn them irresistibly
together, it should come as no surprise that this innocent, attractive young German maiden should suddenly find herself pregnant early that fall. And considering the harsh, condemnatory view with which their own
church frowned upon such an ”accident,” one can only surmise the terrible shock and despair which must have gripped these two devoutly Catholic young lovers. With his mother on her deathbed, John must have
suffered his own kind of heartfelt anguish, fraught with the built-in guilt and spiritual remorse of his rigid Catholic bringing-up. It is quite likely also that he and ”Liz” managed to keep their secret
from the rest of the family at least until well after Julia's death and perhaps even until after their wedding early in the following year.
But there can be little doubt that the last few months of 1913 must have been
a very trying time of great anxiety and concern for John ... in striking contrast to the new-found wedded joy of Joe and Paul ... and all of it overshadowed by the tragic death of their devoted mother Julia who had
drudged so long to keep her fatherless family together until she simply burned herself out.
The year 1913 was marked by several other matters that are worthy of note. After their marriage in May, Paul and Minnie
settled into the family’s ”little house” (Adam House) on the corner of Breckenridge and Seventeenth Avenue North, while Joe (as eldest son) and Agnes in November, took over the larger residence (Julia House) at
Sixteenth Avenue and Fifth Street North which had been the family home since Julia acquired it in 1893.
Julia must have known for some time that she was dying, for there was much activity that summer, quite
as if she was hastening to make sure of how her meager properties would be distributed among her children. Stearns County abstract records show that Julia, together with a family friend (probably a building
contractor) named William Preihs, took out a lien on the small house (Lot 9) on August 11th for building materials. The amount was not disclosed but the materials had been furnished in bits and portions
over a two month period in Spring ... during April and May ... just ahead of Paul and Minnie's wedding. All of which suggests that the small frame house was enlarged or renovated for the couple to live In.
(It is known that the house originally had two rooms and that the wing containing a small kitchen, pantry and porch was added later. The renovation could have been the addition of this wing.)
Another lien, against Julia Sakry and a Mr. Norm Priehs, is on record for building materials furnished for a kitchen extension on the larger (Julia) house (Lot 1). This lien is registered for the dates of
April-May, 1913, and it clearly shows that the larger family house on Sixteenth Avenue, into which Joe and Agnes moved, also was given a kitchen wing addition.
All these things seem to have been done in a
hurry, as if to enable some bequeathing and readying of the houses for immediate occupancy (by the two oldest married sons) while Julia was still able to make such previsions before she died. She made two final
moves on August 29, 1913, giving the larger house (Lot 1) to her eldest son, Joseph, and the little house (Lot 9) to her eldest-living daughter Catherine, who seemed best able to assume the lien against it, although
Paul and Minnie had already occupied it. (Paul and Minnie then acquired it from Catherine at a later date.)
The year had an unusual amount of family socializing and visiting, and relatives came often to visit the
failing Julia. Aside from the weddings and the funeral of Julia, one other important get-together fortunately is recorded, in this instance by a group photograph that was made of a gathering of the family and some
of the relatives in front of the little house of Paul and Minnie sometime during the summer, probably about August. Only a block away in the larger house, Julia lay bedridden, otherwise she may have been included
in this rare picture. Undoubtedly, since the gathering was at Paul and Minnie's house, the usual big dinner customary at such gatherings was prepared by Minnie with plenty of help from the other women.
Shown on the picture is a good cross-section of the Sakry-Thomalla relationship, though by no means more than a small sampling of the several sides of the family. It shows (see photo in addendum 2) the
following: In-law Paul Porwoll and wife Frances (Sakry) holding their infant daughter Florence; Peter Wildzek seated holding his children Otto and Eleanore with his wife Julia (Thomalla) standing behind them;
Victor Thomalla standing behind his wife Mary (Lasota) who is seated holding their daughter Lucille; Emma Thomalla seated beside Walter Roscoe (son of deceased Mary Sakry Roscoe); Math and Joseph Thomalla standing
behind the Porwolls; John Sakry standing behind Julia (Thomalla) Wilczek; Paul and Minnie (Monica Thomalla) Sakry standing behind Emma and Walter; Joseph Sakry seated in front of Anna Thomalla and his fiancée Agnes
Gamroth. The Thomallas were all brothers and sisters of Minnie.
Such was the fateful year of 1913, a year amply labeled as a time of great change for the Sakry clan. Indeed it seemed that with
the passing of Julia came the end of an era ... the Adam-Julia era. By these two, and especially by Julia's determined struggle to bring up their six children, this branch of the clan had been firmly rooted
in America at last. From now on, their children's children would proliferate and become a solid, significant part of the American fabric.
