A Recollection of the Skura Family History

Edited by Edwina Cesario Florian and Anne Pomykala

Adam & Catherine Skura Story

Before World War I, Russian Cossacks invaded the village in Poland where Adam Skura was living. Adam was only a young teenager at the time. The Cossacks had taken every male in town, above childhood age, back to Russia. Adam, along with other male members of his town, was forced to fight in the Russian Army. Catherine Skura could speak five languages including Yiddish. Since she worked on a big estate in Poland in the kitchen washing pots, the family thinks that perhaps this could have been a Jewish family and that was how she learned Yiddish. Although Catherine could speak fluent German, she refused to use that language after the War. They were in the German section of Poland after the partition and life was more than difficult.

Adam and Catherine Skura came separately to the United States in the early 1900s. Adam born 12/24/1879 arrived at Ellis Island on 12/23/1903 at the age of 24 with $12 in his pocket. His last place of residence was listed as Brzoslowa and he reached America from Hamburg, German on the German ship, Blucher, built in 1902 - see manifest.

Catherine and Adam were married in 1905 in Connecticut. The first child, Joseph, died as an infant. They didn’t like the United Sates very much, so they returned home to Poland after the birth of Wanda in the United Sates on October 27, 1908. (Mushy thinks that Wanda was conceived in Poland.) Chet was born two years later in Poland on December 28, 1910. Mush remembers a story that was told to him of his mother and uncle while they lived on a large farm in Poland. Wanda wanted to play a joke on her brother Chet. She told him to play with the tail of a cow. She kept on egging him on to play with the cow’s tail. He kept on playing and playing and playing. Eventually, the cow started to move her bowels. Chet wasn’t quick enough to get out of the way and got warm, moist manure all over him.

With rumors of war coming, they decided to return to the United States just before World War I in 1912 or 1913. Back in America, Catherine gave birth to Helen, born on October 31, 1913. Five years later on September 9, 1918, Edward John was born. Growing up in Stamford Connecticut in the early 1900s was quite different than today. The girls had to do the house work and the boys were favored. When Helen asked her mother why the boys had it so easy, she was told that when they grew up, they would have to work for a living. This did not go over too well with Helen. Eddie was the baby and abused his favored status to irritate Helen. Eddie would often tease Helen by such things as kicking her under the table. When she retaliated, it was only Helen who was in trouble.

On Christmas the family would have a 12 course dinner in honor of the twelve apostles. Helen would giggle and was often sent from the table. Helen also remembered the Polish Catholic Church (St. Joseph’s Holy Name Catholic Church) that they belonged to during their childhood. The Church was very strict, and the pastor’s word was the law of God. When the pastor came into the room, all of the children had to kneel and kiss his ring. In fact, Adam was excommunicated from the Church for not paying his Easter Duty. On his death, he was not allowed to be buried in the Catholic cemetery. Catherine’s grave is in St. John’s Cemetery in Stamford (formerly Greenwich Cemetery). However, Adam was buried on the outskirts (for those without papers), and his grave cannot be located as it was washed away in a flood. Helen writes that Adam was buried in a single grave in section F 673, and that Catherine was buried in Lot 12, Block 52

In America, Adam started a meat house business on Atlantic Street in Stamford with a two story family residence beside the store. Adam’s store was well-known for its aged beef. Many wealthy patrons traveled from Greenwich by horse and buggy to purchase his meat including Al’s family. Mush remembers visiting the meat market with the huge walk in refrigerator and the black slabs hanging on the hooks. He also remembers watching Eddie, Chet and John play ball in the vacant lot across the street. This was a beautiful neighborhood with big Victorian houses. He had a special process of aging the beef, which made it absolutely delicious and worth the extra mile to get. Adam’s meat business was close to the Bozak Funeral Home. The Bozaks were also Polish; and the older and younger generations of both families remained good friends. Mushy remembers that Adam Skura was a very kind and well-mannered man. Both Catherine and Adam addressed everyone with a salutation, Mr. or Mrs. and never forgot to say thank you.

Eventually, Adam brought many relatives over from Poland to the United States. He paid for their transportation as well as their room and board when they got here. Adam had put them up in apartment buildings that he had owned at the time, on Taft Street in Stamford. Adam’s relatives were not only given free housing but free food as well. However, in 1935, things started to change for the Skura family as the United States started to fall into a Depression. Adam was having a hard time making ends meet. When Adam asked for help from his family, they couldn’t help him out. They were encountering financial problems themselves and didn’t have the money to help him.

Adam didn’t understand where all of his money had gone. He thought that he had money, but eventually learned that his wife Catherine had given it all away. Catherine was very religious and gave away most of their savings to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Depression was taking its toll on Catherine, and she began to mentally break down. As Catherine’s condition worsened, Wanda had to help the family out and eventually had to quit school. At the age of 10, she was driving a wooden delivery truck for the family business.

Adam died on September 9, 1935. When he passed away, the family looked at the will, and there was no money there. Catherine had given it all away. They needed to raise $300 in back taxes to save the house and business on Atlantic Street in Stamford. They couldn’t raise the money and lost everything – the house and the business. Everything that Adam had owned and acquired during his life was lost during the Depression years.

Eventually, Catherine was put into a state mental institution in Newtown, CT. There, she was given very painful shock treatments to try to bring her back. It was torturous. She was in and out of the mental institution for years. They let her go home every once in a while. While Chet and Eddie went to serve their country in WWII, around 1941, Mushy had to check in on his Grandmother Catherine in Stamford. He was sent there for the whole summer which was a very scary experience for a pre-teen. He would take a 20 cent bus ride to Stamford then walk the rest of the way. He remembers how Catherine’s mind was really starting to go. She saw things that were non-existent such as insisting that she saw the devil. Also, her house was only lit with kerosene, no electricity. Mush remembers his grandmother’s German Shepherd, Connie, who liked to lick the ice cream cones that Mush had purchased for him. Mushy also remembers how Grandmother Catherine’s face had pox scars all over. Apparently, she had survived a bout with the small pox when she was a child, before WWI in Poland. When Chet and Eddie returned home to Stamford after the war, they realized that they had to return Catherine to the mental facility. Catherine went back into the Newtown mental institution and never came out. She passed away 12/14/1957 when she was in her late 70’s.