Facts about Thomas Chuprevich and Wanda Fritz ...
Fanny and George, (the above horses), I first heard of them as a child, they were my grandfather’s team of horses that pulled his plow and also his buckboard wagon. Fanny and George were well taken care of they had to be, they provided the work force to plow the fields and transportation, for my grandfather and his family.
My father would use Fanny and George as a metaphor many times to me, such as; “A family needs to pull together, like Fanny and George did”… or … “you have to be like Fanny and George and look forward and finish the job” …. Well Fanny and George wore “blinders”, so they could not look anywhere but forward!
Yet Fanny and George to me are a real part of the Chuprevich history on the farm in PA. And I think my grandfather had a great affection for those horses or at least this is the impression I had, from hearing my father speak of them.
Thomas Chuprevich (my dad)
I could not locate my father's birth certificate, yet I was able to track down his Baptismal record @ St. Mary's Church in Ledgedale, PA
this is the info I received in an email from, Queen of Peace Church in Hawley, PA, they are the "keepers" of the records ...
The record is located in a record book written in Latin. The book is in a fragile state and the page cannot be copied or scanned. The translated entry records that Thomas Chuprivick (not spelled Chuprivich or Chuprevich) son of Joseph Chuprivick and Josephine Jideska (not spelled Jadeska) was born 18 December 1919, baptized 21 December 1919. Sponsors were Philip Wisnusky and Catharina Wyka. Fr. Henry P. Burke presided over the baptism.
Here is will insert a bit of history, about "St. Mary's Church", in Ledgedale, PA.
History of St. Mary's Church
In 1849 a tannery was built in Ledgedale. Many Irish Catholic immigrants found jobs here and they settled in the area with their families.
The area where the tannery was located had a Post Office, a small country store, a one room schoolhouse, and a few houses. Since most of the settlers were of the Catholic Faith the one thing they wanted most was a Church where they could attend Mass and worship.
In 1853 Very Reverend Moses Whitty, pastor of St. Philomena's Church in Hawley, started a mission for the village of Ledgedale. Since Ledgedale was a mission charge of Hawley, a priest from Hawley would come occasionally and say a mass in one of the local homes. As recorded in one history of the diocese, in 1856, Bishop John Neumann, subsequently canonized as Saint John Neumann, came from Philadelphia on horseback and confirmed a class in the Mangan home in Ledgedale. (wow that is a big deal, St. John Neumann)
St. Mary's church was built in 1877. The inscription on the cornerstone tells us that the church was dedicated on the Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Mother on August 15, 1877.
The original church, of New England Architectural design, stands today, just as strong, firm and stately as it did in 1877. The story of its construction, as handed down from generation to generation, was that all of the families and working members of the families were asked to contribute money or labor. The land for the church and cemetery was donated by
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Denver, Sr. and the Patrick Mee families. Patrick Mee was a Civil War veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic. The stones used for the foundation of the church were hauled by oxen from a blue stone quarry twenty miles distant in Pike county. The lumber was all native chestnut and hemlock milled at the local mills. Local masons did the hauling of the stone and foundation work. Numerous other tasks were done by volunteer parishioners. However, skilled New England craftsmen, who specialized in church building, were hired to do carpentry construction and the interior finish of the church. All this work was carried out under the guidance of Father John O'Malley from Hawley. Thus St. Mary's became a mission church of St. Philomena Church, Hawley (now known as Queen of Peace Church) and remained so until 1940 when St. Thomas More, Lake Ariel was built.
Under the Most Reverend William J. Hafey, St. Thomas More parish was founded in 1940 and Father Joseph Corcoran became the first resident pastor of St. Thomas More and St. Mary's Churches in 1941. It was in 1940 that electric was finally installed in the church and the kerosene lamps removed. In July of 1942, on the day the church of St. Thomas More was dedicated, Bishop Hafey administered the sacrament of confirmation at St. Mary's Church.
In the late 1950's a new roof was put on and the interior and exterior of the church was repainted. The original Stations of the Cross, imported from Germany, as well as all the statues were repainted and refinished.
I know my father (Thomas Chuprevich) was born in the farmhouse, on the farm his parents owned, located approx. 1 mile, from (St. Mary's Church)... being that it was winter when dad was Baptized, I am sure the Priest came to the house to give him this sacrament of the church.
My Aunt Monica had notes about her (my) family, and prior to her death she gave me a copy of these notes. I have found through research, several of the names on her notes were either wrong or misspelled (which was/ is not uncommon with old records and family stories passed down) … I am also aware my paternal grandmother’s mother was married twice, her first husband died and she remarried, as was the case with my paternal grandfather’s father… with this in mind my “DNA pool” of relatives is double for both great-grandparents, what it would normally have been, since both of my paternal great-grandparents had children with both of their spouses… Through ancestry, I had my DNA tested and there is a match with my father’s “Godmother”, which tells me, my dad’s godmother, was probably a sister to his mother, (my grandmother) … whether “Catharina” was a “half-sister” or a full sister to my grandmother Chuprevich is unknown, yet we share some of the same DNA, so clearly she was related to my grandmother. Catharina's maiden name was "Krupa"
In recalling the stories my Aunt Monica would tell me about “grandma Chuprevich”, I remember her saying, grandma had sisters who arrived to the USA prior to her, Catharina is clearly one of those sisters … With this thought in mind, great-grandma Jadeska was not only married to man with the last name "Jadeska", but she was also married to man, with the last name "Krupa" at one time. dad is a descendant of the marriage, with "Mr. Jadeska"...
As to great-grandpa Chuprevich … things get even more complicated, he had two spouses as well …first of all great-grandpa spelled his last name, “Czuprewicz”, first name “Piotr”… grandpa “Chuprevich” (my grandfather, spelled it differently) as did his brother Frank and Paul, we are all descendant of great-grandpa Czuprewicz’s marriage, with “Anna Pipyanka”…. One of great-grandpa’s wives. His other wife (I do not know who was first) was named “Emilia Remba”… and they had sons as well… all those sons kept the spelling of the last name “Czuprewicz”… (I am currently doing research on their families and stories)… many of them lived in Scranton, PA or Dunmore, PA they all started out in Maspeth, NY. (this being the first place they all lived or stayed when they first came to the USA, from Eastern Europe)
I also think one of grandma Jadeska’s half-sisters married into the “Czuprewicz” side of the family … apparently the Czuprewicz family was really huge in Poland / Russia and that community was really “clannish”, and always married within their community… All of them and a great section of the Polish / Russian community followed a similar track to get into the USA and many, many of them first settled in Maspeth, NY, then went into PA or other parts of the Country. Both the "Chuprevich" and the "Czuprewicz" side of the family married into the "Duda" family ...
(research on dad's "Godfather"... his name can found spelled several different ways, as it is with many last names, from the time frame.) I found it spelled "Wozniak and Woznick", "Philip" was from Poland and was a coal miner (like grandpa was) the Polish community was very tight back then and especially if they worked in the mine together ... Philip was most probably a friend, from the "Polish community" and from work, with grandpa in the mines.
Below are photos, taken during a coal mine "tour", in Scranton, PA. Although I do not know for sure if this was the exact coal mine my grandfather Joseph Chuprevich worked in it is representative of what his work environment would have been like ..