The Story of Jacob and Maria Link - Part 6 of 9

YELLOW PINE, ALABAMA

Frieda’s memories of Alabama

Yellow Pine, Washington Co., Alabama is where Theodore was born.  Uncle Ray told Cousin Bonnie that Grandpa bought land and a house, sight unseen, and when he got there it was on stilts and seasonally under water.  They also lived in a tent while there.  They lived in Alabama for only about six months.  Grandma killed a snake that was crawling under the tent by clubbing it to death.  Mom said that she really disliked Alabama as it was very hot!!  We can assume tent life for the Batke family as well!  Update:  Picture have recently been found that we are reasonably certain are from Yellow Pine showing their living conditions!  (Bonnie Link Fago).

Theodore Link in casket, 1922

It is here that little Theodore died under unusual circumstances, (by a parasitic worm), and is buried somewhere near Yellow Pine, Alabama.  Mom describes being told by her mother and being shown by lifting his diaper, how he died, (quite gross).  Grandpa made his casket, which by the picture, could have been a drawer.  Grandma decorated it with a cloth that her mother had embroidered, that she had brought from Russia, which looked to me like Hardanger embroidery.  It looks quite pretty, with its tassels around  the edge.  There is a picture of Theodore in his little casket, with the family around him. But she didn’t know who took it. 

It was here in Yellow Pine that Mom saw a black person for the first time.  They sang, and carried their clothes on their heads and sang and sang, but she was afraid of them.  The men had taken stumps out of the fields, and then they sat in the holes and sang! 

She most enjoyed getting up in the morning, and playing make believe, by going out and covering her "hens." She made nests in the ground, putting a bit of straw in the nest, and then put in little stones, and put a big stone on top.  That was her hen!  She would do this every morning to see if there were any chicks!
 

The Link children in Yellow Pine Alabama, 1922

She tells of not having shoes, and stepping on what she called "prickers."  They had such strong barbs on them, that you couldn't pull them out without a tool! 

Maria Link left, and Jacob Link with cap,
housing in Yellow Pine Alabama, 1922
Photo courtesy: Bonnie Fago

Some recruiters came to their area trying to find men to work in the factories of St. Joe, Michigan.  It was quite an industrial city at that time, and the country was gearing up for war!  So Grandpa and Mr. Batke made their way north  to St. Joe. by train to find jobs to make enough money to bring their families there.  The families were left behind.  Grandpa and Mr. Batke met up with the Lutheran minister of the Trinity Lutheran Church, Rev. Louis Nuechterlein.  He mentioned in his Sunday service that the families needed help.  A woman anonymously donated the train fare for the families to get to Michigan.  They never found out who this dear woman was! 

Mom and Grandma were walking along a path going into the village, (probably Yellow Pine), when a rider on horseback came along with a letter for Grandma, and it had money in it!  That was the first time Mom had seen her mother smile in a long time!  After all, when Grandpa left, she could not know how long he would be gone, or whether she would ever see him again!  How could she raise her children alone in a strange land?  These things had to have been heavy on her mind, causing her great worry!!

So Grandma, the children, Mrs. Batke and her family, including John Batke and Anna Batke (Mr. Batke’s brother and mother) according to the Immigration Border Crossing records of 1921, took the train on July 3, 1922 to Michigan.  They didn’t have any trunks or suitcases, so they wrapped everything in sheets or whatever they had.

The train kept getting switched from one end to the other, but they stayed on the train.  Mom told of getting locked in the bathroom, because she couldn’t open the door.  She screamed for her mother, but Grandma couldn’t hear her.  Finally a man opened the door for her!  She says that the kids really enjoyed the train ride!  There were five Batke children at that time, and the five Link children!

The Story of Jacob and Maria Link - Part 7 of 9

HEAVEN ON EARTH

Mom told my sister that the women and children started to get off at the wrong stop, but managed to get back on the train, and then did get off at their destination of St. Joe, Michigan!!  When they arrived, someone took them to a church and fed them bread and milk.  The Batke family stayed for a time, perhaps only weeks, in the parish house of Rev. Louis Nuechterlein.  The Links were given a place to stay on the St. Joe River front.  Both Grandpa and Mr. Batke had found work at Auto Specialties.   I conclude that Grandpa’s experience working at the Rempel Factory in Russia, may have been of help in his getting that job!
 

View toward the Link and Batke homes on Vine Street. Photo: c1970s

St. Joseph, Michigan must have seemed like “Heaven on earth to them”!  St. Joseph is a beautiful place!  They lived just below the “Bluff”, and about 2 blocks from Lake Michigan.  There was so much in a small area, such as the once famous “Silver Beach”, which was an amusement park with a wooden roller coaster, a merry-go-round, and the Shadow-land Ballroom, which is where our parents met!  It was also a port where big cruise ships docked, the St Joe River emptied into Lake Michigan,  factories, and beautiful shopping area, the park above the Bluff, and a pier and lighthouse!

My dad once pointed out a small house to me on the west side of Vine St. as being the first house that the family had lived in.  There was a bigger house in the yard where a family named Yetski lived.  They lived in the little house for quite some time.  Mom told of Grandma making a tree of paper roses (thought to be made of crepe paper) on stems, of all colors!  She was sent to buy the paper for the roses for Grandma.  The rose tree was used in place of a real Christmas tree one year, while in the little house.

They later moved to house next to 626 Vine St.  This is where the family spent their first real Christmas, with a real tree with candles, which  they could only light on Christmas Eve.

626 VINE ST.

They eventually moved to 626 Vine St. and this was their final move!  They were home!!  It took them ten long years, from 1912 to 1922, and so much hardship and suffering, and the loss of three children!!  Think of it – if they had not done this, none of would have ever had the privilege of living in this wonderful country! 

Auto-Specialties in upper left hand corner;
Whirlpool in forefront where Henry Batke also worked.  Photo: 1984.
Click on photo to enlarge.

Grandpa and Mr. Batke both became machinists (tool and die) for Auto-Specialties.  Grandpa worked there for nineteen years.   At some point, he was also a night-watchman for the Nylon Products Co. which made parts for refrigerators.  The name may have been changed, because I remember it as the Bendix Corp.  His hobby was woodworking, and he became an excellent cabinetmaker, having a woodworking shop beside his garage.  Our grandpa Jacob also played an instrument much like an accordion, but smaller with buttons instead of keys, by ear.  How we loved to hear him play!  Now I realize that it was probably Russian music!

Maria and Joseph Link, St. Joseph, Michigan, c1925

Grandma was an accomplished seamstress!  When I was a young girl, Mom told me about Grandma making her own patterns, and sewing for others.  But it got so she couldn’t see well enough to sew anymore.  Mom said that Grandma made all of her clothes, and I would guess that she also made the boys clothes.

The boys spent much of their time outdoors sledding and fishing!  By this time Grandma was beginning to be in poor health, so Mom often stayed inside to help her mother.  She did the laundry by hand and did the cooking!  She was 11 years old, or less!  It was Uncle Ray’s job to cut wood and keep the fires going!  They had big responsibilities for children so young!

She tells the story of she, and the boys cutting creosoted wood railroad ties, which are hard to saw!  They had a saw and a sawhorse and they would show off for the train engineers!  Uncle Fred would say, “come on Frieda”, and they would run and go cut the wood!  The engineers would yell, “don’t work too hard!”

They all attended the Trinity Lutheran School.  There was a teacher named Schleter who was quite mean or very strict!  She says, “we all had to go to a room to take German”! (Kids who spoke German had to study German!!!)  Everyone was segregated, girls on one side of the classroom, and the boys on the other side.  They were told to be quiet, but some boys made a noise and then Fred whispered.  She came running with a stick and hit him, and hit him, over and over on his back!!  Fred never cried out or said a word, until it was over, then he cried quietly.  The teacher didn’t last long!  She got in trouble that day and was soon gone!  Mom guesses that Grandpa may have complained to the school. 

At one time a tornado must have been very close to St. Joe, as the school got very black during broad daylight and children were very frightened with all the wind and rain.  Grandma met them at the school to get them home!

She tells of playing marbles after she had her work done, which she called, “Kimmies”, of having lots of friends, and a 9:00 curfew!  They often played “Hide and Seek and Run sheep, Run”!

She tells the story of she, and her friend Florence making fudge that didn’t harden.  They gave it to Jake, and he ate all of it, and didn’t even get sick!!

Raymond did a lot of fishing on the pier and brought the fish home to Mom.  She loved fish, so she cleaned and fried them!  She soon got to just fry them!!

She did go wading in Lake Michigan, but the boys learned to swim in the St. Joe River.  Their friends would just throw them into the river, and it was swim or drown!

The Story of Jacob and Maria Link - Part 8 of 9

GRANDMA

Grandma would often hemorrhage from the nose and mouth.  The doctor came to the house, but couldn’t do much for her.  He would plug her nose, but then she would bleed from the mouth.

The doctor was especially good to the children.  He would bring them food and take them to dinners at the Whitcomb Hotel.  He told them, “you can come just as you are,” then he would take them back home!  One of these dinners was also a Christmas Party.  Mom got a doll that she felt that she was “too old for”, but she kept it anyway!

Unfortunately, Grandma did not live to enjoy their new lives and prosperity, as she had had a series of strokes, which eventually took her life.  Mom says in the interview  by daughter Sharon, that Grandma had three strokes.

Her last stroke happened on the sloped path coming down the Bluff, going home.  She fell and couldn’t walk or speak at the time!  A girl they were acquainted with found her, and she managed to find someone to get Grandma home.  Her left side was paralyzed.  She must have eventually gotten some of her speech back, because she would ask “whose hand is this, whose arm is this”?

The teacher had to tell Mom and the boys to go home, that their mother was ill.  Grandma could only look at her children: she died two days later.  Bonnie told about Uncle Ray going in and sitting with his mother, (perhaps they all took turns doing that), he was 9 years old at the time.  The children were all there when she died.  She was 34 years old.  I can only wonder what must have been going through her mind at this time, concerning her young children!

L-R: Raymond, Jacob Jr., Jacob Sr., Willie, and Fred Link, 1942

But she need not have worried!!  She would have been very proud of her children and their many accomplishments!  They became such good, loving, Christian people, dedicated to their husband, and wives and families!  All became naturalized citizens, and all four of the boys served in WWII at the same time with a willingness to give their lives for their adopted country!!

According to her obituary in the St. Joseph Herald Press of January 14, 1929:  The Trinity Lutheran Church, “the largest house of worship in the city”, was filled for the funeral, and Mr. Henry Batke was a pallbearer!  There was a prayer service held at the home at 1:30 p.m. with the funeral held at 3 o’clock.  The minister was Rev. Louis Nuechterlein. 

Besides Grandpa and the five children, she left her mother, two sisters, and two brothers, all of whom resided in Germany, according to the obituary.  Grandma was born in Pawlowka, Russia.  When she left Russia, we can be sure that she never saw her mother, or siblings again!

As far as we know, Grandpa never saw his parents or sister again after leaving Russia, and never saw his brothers who stayed in Canada again either, to the best of our knowledge!

Our mother finished the eighth grade and then stayed home to care for her four younger brothers.  This was something she had few regrets over.  Yes, she would have liked more education, but her brothers were more important!  There was a special bond between sister and brothers!  She had actually become their substitute mother!  They always called her “Sis”!   

The Batke’s had become close neighbors of the Link’s on Vine St.  Their final home was 714 Vine and of course the Link’s was 626 Vine St.  The houses were all quite close with small yards, usually fenced in.

A REVELATION!

Katherine Batke and Frieda Link, St. Joe, Early 1920s

It was only after I had started to write the Story of Jacob and Marie, and listened to Mom’s interview again, and she mentions the names of the Batke girls, who were Mary and Katherine, that these are the girls who were her friends that we used to go visit!  I always thought that they were school friends, but I now know that they were far more than that!  These girls had been through it all, from their beginnings in Canada, and for Katherine, Russia, as she was born there!

I never knew of the connection, even though I certainly had heard the name Batke many times and knew they were neighbors of Grandpa’s.  I didn’t know they knew each other in Russia, nor the story behind their friendships until I started writing this, (the first time)!   I had listened to Mom’s interview before, but just didn’t make the connection.!  It wasn’t until I started finding pictures in Mom’s old albums with the name Batke on them that it suddenly began to make sense, after all these years!!

Mary became the wife of Arthur Engler and they lived down the block by the Depot at 600 Vine St.  I only knew her as Mary Engler!  They had a daughter named Elaine, and she and I played together (I remember the game of “Jacks”), while our mothers visited!!  To get to Mary’s house, mom and I would walk on the sandy dirt path along the fenced in yards, and not far from the railroad tracks.

Katherine’s husband’s name was Herman Fredrick, having recently learned that his parents were also a Homesteading family from Canada, originally from Russia!  Herman  Fredrick came into the United States through Portal, North Dakota by train on March 8, 1922 with a birthplace indicated as Trunstahl, Canada.  A whole other story!  I knew him as Katherine’s husband Herman, and that they had a son Don who I was sure had become a Lutheran Minister.  But I do remember that Jeannie and Katherine came to visit Mom and Dad when they were building a new house near Allegan!  Our mother actually got a brand new house!  Grandpa and Uncle Fred were there too, building cupboards for the new house!  Sharon was little and Mom was expecting Frank.  This would be about 1956. 

When Mom was well into her 80’s and her health was failing, Dad was quite urgent that we go see Mary and Art Engler, so we did one Sunday afternoon!  They had moved to an  apartment, but they were still in St. Joe!  That was Mom’s and Mary’s last visit together!  I still had no clue!  Everyone must have thought I just “knew”!

One day, I got a short letter from Mary’s daughter, Elaine, asking if my mother was still alive, that her mother was asking about Mom.  I felt so bad having to tell her that Mom had passed away on December 19, 2004.

A bit of a twist in this story has taken place recently.  I came across Elaine’s address and decided to contact her, so I wrote and included a “rough copy” of our family’s  story, which is now totally obsolete!!!  She called me on the evening of July 25, 2009!  I had not spoken to her for about 60? years!  She had to tell me that her mother, Mary, had passed away also, which I was sorry to hear of.

I learned from Elaine that a child was born to the Batke family while they were in Alabama in 1922, named Anna, and she resides in St. Joe, Mi!  Our Uncle Jake was best man at Anna’s wedding!  There were three more children born to the Batke’s in St. Joseph:  Henry Batke Jr. born in 1925.  He also served in WWII.  Then there were Edwin A. Batke, and Ruth Batke for a total of nine.

Maria and Jacob Link Obituaries (1929 & 1970)

Maria Link is Taken by Death

Mrs. Maria Link, 34, mother of five children, died at noon today at her home, 622 Vine street.  She was the wife of Jacob Link, an employee of the Auto Specialties Manufacturing company.

Frieda Link, the oldest of the five children is ill. The other children are Frederick, William, Raymond and Jacob, Jr.

Besides her husband and children, Mrs. Link leaves her mother, two sisters and two brothers, all of whom reside in Germany.

Mrs. Link had been in ill health for some time, her condition becoming serious on Sunday.

She was a member of Trinity Lutheran church and services will be held from that church Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock after prayers at the home on Vine street at 1:30.  The Rev. Louis Nuechterlein will officiate.

Mr. and Mrs. Link moved to St. Joseph from Canada six years ago and had come to Canada from Russia in 1912.

Mrs. Link was born in Russia on May 19, 1894.

St. Joseph Herald Press, St. Joseph, MI, January 10, 1929, p. 4, col. 2.

Jacob Link Obituary

Jacob Link, 81, 626 Vine street, St. Joseph, died at 3 p.m. yesterday in the Shoreham Terrace nursing home.

Mr. Link was born June 5, 1888, in Russia.

His wife, the former Mary Phillips, preceded him in death in 1929.  On June 4, 1965, in St. Joseph, he was married to Clara Lee who survives.

Also surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Walter (Frieda) Byron of Allegan; four sons, Fred of Coloma, William of St. Joseph, Raymond of San Diego, Calif., and Jacob of South Bend; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 2 p.m. in the Trinity Lutheran church with the Rev. Albert Knoll, associate pastor of the church, officiating.

Burial will follow in Riverview cemetery.

Friends may call at the Kerlikowske and Starks funeral home.

The News Palladium, Benton Harbor, MI, January 15, 1970, p. 16, col. 6.

Note: Jacob and Maria Link were neighbors of the Batkes in Canada, traveled with them to Alabama and eventually to St. Joseph, Michigan where both families lived on Vine street.

Katherine Reck Batke Schmeichel Obituary, 1979

K. Schmeichel

Mrs. Katherine (Batke) Schmeichel, 89, of Route 2, Box 470, Coloma, died Sunday evening at Claremont Nursing Home, Benton Harbor.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Kerley and Starks Funeral Home, St. Joseph, where friends may call beginning at 7 p.m. today.  Burial will be in Riverview Cemetery.  Memorials may be made to Trinity Lutheran church of which she was a member.

Mrs. Schmeichel was born October 14, 1890, in Cortiza, Russia.  Survivors include: five daughters -- Mrs. Katherine Fredrick, Mrs. Alex (Anna) Pesko, Mrs. Robert (Ruth) Jonatzke, all of St. Joseph.  Mrs. Arthur (Mary) Engler of Coloma, Mrs. Olin [sic] (Selma) Smith of Seminole, Okla.; three sons -- William and Henry Batke, both of St. Joseph, Edwin Batke of Coloma; 20 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; and one sister, Mrs. Lena Kampes of Hamm, West Germany.

The Herald Palladium, Benton Harbor-St. Joseph, MI, October 29, 1979, p. 10, col. 3

Trinity Lutheran Church and School

The Batkes and the Links were very involved with their church in St. Joseph, Michigan. 

Family stories tell about how an anonymous parishioner of the Trinity Lutheran Church funded the Batke's and Link's travel from Alabama to St. Joe Michigan in the 1920s.  Most of the Batke children attended Trinity Lutheran School and many of the Batke and Link women were married at the Church.  Also, Batke and Link family members, including Henry Batke, were buried from this church.

Location of Trinity Lutheran Church and School, St. Joe, Michigan

As you can see on this map (double click on the image to enlarge), the Church and school were only a few blocks from the Batke and Link homes on Vine Street.

The Church and School are still going strong.  For current information click on Trinity Lutheran Church.

Why did the Batkes go to Yellow Pine, Alabama? 1921

In a February 18 post, I uploaded the passenger list that shows the Batkes entering the U.S. and traveling to Yellow Pine, Alabama.  Here is more of the story.

The Batkes, Henry and wife Katherine, their children, brother John and their mother Anna and a niece Anna emigrated to the United States on December 7, 1921.  They left from Ernfold, Canada (a Canadian Pacific railway station due north of Lydiard) crossing the US-Canadian border at Portal North Dakota.  They were on board the Canadian Pacific Train 14.  Their destination was Yellow Pine, Alabama which is on the Alabama-Mississippi border.  The Links are listed on the next page of the passenger list.

In a document entitled: "The Story of Jacob and Maria Link" written by a Link grandchild, Darlene Byron Milbocker, in June 2009, a possible answer to "Why did they go?" is provided.  She reports that her mother, Frieda Link Byron, who was also on that train remembers:

"They were having difficulty making a living as wheat farmers, so about this time another man, by the name of Henry Batke, and Grandpa and Grandma were told by two men that things were better in Alabama, Michigan and California and they would travel with them to Alabama.  So on December 7, 1922 (sic), when my mother was six years old, the Link and Batke families crossed the border from Canada into the United States, at Portal, North Dakota.  They continued on to Yellow Pine, Alabama by the Canadian Pacific Train No. 14.  Upon their arrival in Alabama, the two men robbed them of all their money, and abandoned the two families....

"After being so cruelly robbed and deceived, Grandpa and Mr. Batke made their way to St. Joe, Michigan by train, to make enough money to bring their families there.  The women and children were left behind.  How they survived, financially, is not known.  Somehow Grandpa and Mr. Batke met up with the minister of the Trinity Lutheran Church who mentioned in his Sunday service that these families needed help.  A woman anonymously donated the train fare for the women and children to take the train to Michigan.  They never found out who this dear woman was!

"Mom and Grandma were walking along a path going into a village, when a rider came along with a letter for Grandma, and it had money in it!  That was the first time Mom had seen her mother smile in a long time! So Grandma, the children, Mrs. Batke and her children, took the train on July 3, 1922 to Michigan.  They didn't have any trunks or suitcases, so they wrapped everything in sheets or whatever they had."

Thank you Sharon Byron Lampros for interviewing your Mother and preserving this amazing and heartbreaking story.