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Paul the First
The three brothers took steerage passage to America at separate intervals. Paul, apparently the third eldest of the children, was the first to leave for the new world. To Paul (hereinafter to be referred to
as Paul I of Duelm) belongs the ancestral honor of being the very first Sakry to set foot on American soil and therefore the first to establish the Sakry roots in America. Paul I was born Paul P. Sakry on March
20, 1845 Komprachcice, Opeln (Opole), Polish Silesia. At age 22 (in 1867) he married Margaretta Nagele (who was born on June 11, 1847.) After their marriage in 1867, Paul I and Margaret moved to Berlin,
Germany, where their first child, Maria (Mary) Sakry, was born in 1869. Apparently dissatisfied with life under German domination, in March, 1870 they made their way by train and boat to Liverpool, England, and thence by steamer steerage to the United States of America
via New York City. Like so many other European immigrants, they undoubtedly had their first taste of America at or near Ellis Island (Castle Garden on the Battery), the U.S. Government’s immigration checking
station, in New York harbor. They proceeded directly by train to St. Cloud and Watab to meet their contact person in the frontier state of Minnesota. Paul and Margaretta took out a homestead in Benton County near the present
village of Duelm. A log shack and a barn were constructed with the help of neighbors. Heavily timbered land was cleared by hand and by oxen. Railroad ties were made from the timber and hauled to St.
Cloud by oxen where they could be sold for money to buy flour and groceries for the family. The trip took two days one way! Wheat and vegetables were raised on the farm. It was on the farm near Duelm
that Paul and Margaretta raised their family and lived out their lives. Paul P. Sakry, the first of the ”brothers three” to come to America, died in 1924.
After daughter Mary, born in Berlin, their second child, Paul A. Sakry, whom we shall call Paul II of Duelm, was born at the Duelm farmstead on March 22, 1871. Eventually, Paul II would succeed
his father, operate the farm for many years, and raise a large family of his own.
They were: Anna, Andrew, Mathilda (Tily), Vincent, Magdalena (Lena), Julia and Apolonia. |
