In 1902, handsome and mustached George Yauk [spelled Jauk at that time] bid farewell to his young, pregnant wife at Skrad [then Austria-Hungary] (Croatia), Yugoslavia and departed for America - the land of opportunity. Born in 1875 and reared in Skrad [actually the village of Tusti Vrh, on a mountain top 2 miles away], George Yauk married Karolina Abromovich [Abromovic], a local, shy, sweet, strong girl in 1898. Their first child, a boy, died in infancy. Extremely poor and without a job, their future was utterly bleak and hopeless, thus their decision to leave their homeland, friends, and relatives never to see them again. Heartbroken and in tears, Karolina Jauk and her mother-in-law [Josephine Jauk] were walking back through a wooded area alongside a hayfield to [Josephine's] home when labor pains overtook her and she gave birth to her second child, Mary, alongside the wooded path. The women harvesters working in the nearby hayfield assisted Mrs. Jauk by supplying undergarments to use as cloth, cutting the umbilical cord with a sickle, and transporting her and her baby to her home in a wooden cart. She and her baby would not see Mr. Yauk until nine years later.
George Yauk worked at odd jobs throughout America for 9 years before he finally settled down somewhat in the Des Moines Iowa area and sent for his wife and daughter. They arrived in 1911 and one can only imagine their apprehension and fears as a lonely mother and daughter traveled and sailed alone to a strange land, unable to speak or read any language except Croatian. Everything was so strange. For example, they threw away their first bananas because they didn't know they had to be peeled before being eaten. Like Mr. Yauk, Mrs. Yauk entered America via Ellis Island and proceeded directly to Iowa to join her husband.
At Des Moines, Mrs. Yauk gave birth to five more children[birth dates omitted]; Anne, Steve, Frank, Victor, and John. [After that] they all moved to Kirksville, Missouri where another child, Emery, was born - the first and only child born in a hospital, much to the embarrassment of Mrs. Yauk as the event was witnessed by the entire class of student doctors. Their last child, Joseph, was born in Novinger, Missouri where Mr. and Mrs. Yauk finally settled down in a small house north-west of the town.
Mr. Yauk and family and his entire possessions moved to the Novinger area from Kirksville in one small truck and proceeded to the Danforth area where they lived for a short time on the "WHITES" farm. Mrs. Yauk cried when they first arrived at the farm and discovered there was no well water. It had to be hauled in barrels by wagon from a spring a quarter mile away. Later they moved to Novinger, thence to rented farms west of Novinger, first to the "FRED STONE PLACE" and then to the "FALLINI FARM" before they returned to their house in Novinger. Some of the children attended the old one-room wooden school on a hilltop north of Danforth. Mr. Yauk also bought and sold a farm in Tipperary but the whole family never lived there.
George Yauk spent the rest of his life in Novinger working at a number of coal mines in the area which at the time was the chief occupation of the majority of the residents. He was active as Secretary of the CROATIAN FRATERNAL UNION for many years. They met in the meeting hall over the Garrison drug store. He died in 1954 at age 79 and was carried to his final resting place at Novinger Cemetery on the shoulders of his six sons.
Karolina Yauk moved to Kirksville, Missouri where she lived with her daughter, Anne, for the few remaining years of her life. She died in 1960 at age 80 and was also carried to her grave in the Novinger Cemetery by her six sons. As of this date[1989], all the children are living except Steve and Frank.
The Yauk family was one of the two largest families in Novinger. At one time, all six of the Yauk boys were serving with the Armed Forces during World War Two which generated a special letter of recognition to Mr. and Mrs. Yauk from Missouri State Representative, Mr. Wat Arnold. - John Yauk
[edited for the internet by Larry Yauk]