Our Century, 1900-1920

Our Family's Century

[1900-1920|1920-1940|1940-1960|1960-1980|1980-2000]


1900-1920

The car was new and the Wright brothers had not yet flown when this century dawned. None but science fiction writers yet dreamed seriously of space travel and computers. Up until a few weeks before the Kitty Hawk flight, aviation was seen as an impossibility too.

Life was rural. All but a few branches of the family toiled in relative obscurity on farms. But a new era was dawing; the city was soon to be the home of most of our family, and the tranquility of America's "Innocent Years" would soon be sucked up into the vortex of the Great War.

 ca. 1900: John N. Miller gives up farming and begins work in a glass factory, tutored by his immigrant father-in-law James Clabby. (Right- John Miller in 1899)

 
 1901: Maria Fleming Whelan, wife of William Henry Whelan, dies in Jersey City, NJ, of pneumonia. She is 53. (Right: Maria a year or so before her death).

 
 Summer of 1902: a vacationing Catholic kindergarden teacher (age 25) meets a Protestant musician (age 18) after he gives a concert at a New York resort. Mary Elizabeth Whelan and Wallace Ropes LeFevre are married in 1907. (Right: Mary, called Mame, and her friend Nell Flanagan, at Coney Island in 1902- perhaps the same day Mame met Wallace).

 
 1903: a poor, self-taught Lithuanian Immigrant arrives in America. Jouzapas Bartasevicius settles in Rumford Maine where he works in a paper mill with his brothers and later comes to Rochester, NY.

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 1905: William John Miller is born in Roulette Pa., to John and Jane Clabby Miller.

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 ca. 1905: James Clabby, an Irish immigrant, moves to Rochester, NY, to live with his daughter Ada and her family. He continues to work as a glass worker until a few years before his death.

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 May, 1909: another Lithuanian immigrant arrives in America, even poorer and more illiterate than his predecessor. Povilas Burkauskas, later known as Paul Berke/Burkow, also settles in Rochester. (Right: The Bremen, the ship that carried Paul to New York).

 1909: Katherine Josephine LeFevre is born in Jersey City, NJ, to Wallace Ropes and Mary Whelan LeFevre. She will be their only child to survive to adulthood. At the time of her birth, Wallace is working as a Private Secretary to an Electrical Engineer. Wallace and Mary had a son, Wallace, who died as an infant in 1908 and also another daughter, Mary, born in 1913. (Right: Katherine LeFevre at the age of 6 months).

 
 ca. 1910: George and Josephine Knapp LeFevre give up their grocery store in Middletown NY, and return to the rural life in which they grew up. George takes a job as a farm superintendant for a nephew of his at Berea, near Walden, NY. Both become very active in the local Grange, and "Jo" becomes a well known gardener. (Right- George LeFevre on the farm with his one horsepower lawnmower).

 
 ca. 1910-1914: Rochester, NY, gains two more Lithuanian Immigrants, Veronika Gudelis and Elena Dombrauskas.

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 1911: James Clabby dies in Rochester, NY, at the age of 80. His wife, Margaret Norton Clabby, dies in 1913 in Port Allegany, Pa.

 What? You think I should go exhume James and take a picture of him?!
 ca. 1911: the John N. Miller family moves to Port Allegany, Pa., where John finds work in the local glass factory. (Right- the Miller home at 201 Chestnut Street).

 
 ca. 1911: the Wallace R. LeFevre family moves to Mauch Chunk, now Jim Thorpe, Pa. (Right: Mary Whelan LeFevre and daughter Katherine at Mauch Chunk in early 1912. The hat, Mary wrote on the back, had three London Plumes and cost $24.00. Her suit was custom tailored. She further noted that Katherine's outfit was gold in color and that the fur on it was a gift from two Aunts).

 
 1913: Petronilla Morandt Flick Henninger, grandmother of John N. Miller, dies in Louisville, Ky., at about the age of 84. A German immigrant, who came to America about 1845 with her first husband William Flick, she is the mother of 12 children.

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 1914: Povilas Burkauskas and Elena Dombrauskas are married in Rochester NY. Their first child, Walter (Vladislovas) is born there in 1915 and two more children follow, Albin (Al) and Lillian (Ludvicia). The family is poor, largely due to Povilas' inability to hold a job. (Right- Walter Berke, about 1916).

 
 ca. 1915: Wallace LeFevre and his family return to New Jersey, settling in Newark. Wallace holds a job as a General Manager for Durabla, a New York City company that makes gaskets for warships. They live in an apartment at 196 Woodside Avenue. During the summer, the family vacations at the Berea farm that Wallace's father runs. (Right- Katherine LeFevre at the farm).

 
 ca. 1915: George LeFevre Jr. buys the first car that our family ever owned. Later his father, George LeFevre Sr., will also purchase a car. But he will be too afraid of driving to go above 20 miles an hour! (Right- cruising the roads near Berea, about 1915. George Jr. is driving with Mary Whelan LeFevre and her two daughters in the back).

 
 1916: Jouzapas Bartasevicius becomes a citizen and changes his name to Joseph Bartash. He works for most of his life as a cabinet maker in Rochester, and resides until his death in a small house at 5 Dudley Street.

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1917: Jonas Vilimavicius, the grandfather of Joseph Bartash dies during a harsh winter in Uzventis Lithuania. 110 years old at the time of his death, he is a relic from another age. A huge man who made shoes by the fireside, he was a child when Napoleon's armies marched through Russia, and dies during the Great War. He is said to appear a few days after his death in his granddaughter's dreams, telling her that he has not forgotten her and will come back for her. The granddaughter dies a few weeks later. Jonas' widow, Liudovika, dies in either 1917 or 1925. (Right- Jonas' gravestone).

 
 1917: Stasys Gudelis, father of Veronika Gudelis Bartash dies in Zasliai, Lithuania. A former landowner, he dies in poverty after selling his land to finance his son's attendance at seminary. He may perhaps have been involved in the assasinations of some Russian officials.

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 1917: Lavinia Wait Knapp, step-grandmother of Wallace LeFevre, dies at her step-daughter's home in Berea. She is around 90 years old. (Right- Lavinia being pushed around the farm in a primitive wheel chair, not long before her death).

 
 ca. 1917-18: the Great War (now called WWI) comes to America, and our family. George LeFevre, a brother of Wallace, serves in the army, and William Whelan, a brother of Mary, serves in the Navy. (Right- George LeFevre after coming off of guard duty in Germany).

 

 Nov. 7, 1918: on the shared birthday of Katherine LeFevre and her grandma, Josephine Knapp LeFevre, the end of the war is annoucned. Katherine's birthday party in Newark, NJ, comes to an abrupt end as the guests spill out into the streets singing and cheering. On the farm where Josephine lives, bells and sirens sound from all over, and people drive by shouting the news in excitement. That night it is announced that the news was false. The real armistice comes on the 11th.

When Josephine Knapp LeFevre learns one morning that her son George is coming home and indeed is just a few miles away in Middletown NY, she runs through the house, screaming for her husband and other family members present. "George is in Middletown, get up everyone... George is in Middletown" she cries. (Right- George LeFevre by his mother's garden on the day of his return).

 
 1919: Wallace R. LeFevre's daughter Mary Margaret dies at the age of 6. Her death causes much grief; Wallace will not play the family gramaphone for nearly a year. He and his wife Mary indulge their remaining daughter Katherine with frequent trips to Coney Island and a new piano. (Right- Mary LeFevre a few years before her death).