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Joseph Lyk's baptismal record from Wojcin, Poland.
Anthony Lyk's Certificate of Naturalization,
1913.
Lyk
Family in front of their Elmira, Michigan home, about 1920.
St. Thomas Catholic Church in Elmira, Michigan, about 1915.
Public School in Elmira, Michigan, about 1915.
Rose Gronek Lyk and Anthony Lyk at home, about
1955.
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Anthony Lyk's Poland
In 1904, when Anthony Lyk left his native Poland, it was no longer an
independent nation but had been divided between Germany, Russia,
and Austria for over a century. Anthony's village of Wojcin lay in
the area of Poland then part of Germany. In an attempt to root out
Polish and Catholic influence, Germany had encouraged its own citizens
to settle in the region, prohibited Poles from speaking their native
language, and barred them from attending Catholic schools. Those
who did not comply were persecuted.
The region was a lush agricultural area. Many Poles in this area,
owning no land of their own, worked as tenant farmers or agricultural
laborers. As large landowners increasingly employed modern farming
methods and the use of agricultural machinery that required less labor,
these rural workers found their opportunities diminished. Some migrated
to industrial cities in Germany , while other Poles were drawn to the
promise of America. These Polish immigrants joined millions of other
people from southern and eastern European countries who poured into
the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In turn-of-the-20th
century America, booming industrial areas offered the greatest opportunity
for employment and many of these immigrants settled in cities like
New York, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee,
Cincinnati, and St. Louis.
In Poland, Anthony worked sawing lumber, operating a pit saw by hand.
He and his wife, Rose, married in January 1900, and had already mourned
the deaths of two small daughters by the time their son Joseph was
born four years later. While the reason Anthony left for America is
unknown, he must have decided that his young family's future did not
lie in Poland. In fact, other family members had immigrated to America
before him. His wife's sister resided in Baltimore, the port where
Anthony's ship landed, and an uncle lived in Elmira, the rural community
in Antrim County, Michigan, where Anthony chose to settle.
The Lyk Family in Michigan
Soon after he arrived in the town of Elmira in northern Michigan,
Anthony Lyk was hard at work at a nearby lumbering camp, earning money
to bring his wife and infant son to the United States. Eight months
later, in October 1904, Rose and baby Joseph arrived.
Anthony supported his family by farming in the summer and working
in the lumber camps during the winter. He and Rose had six more children:
Leo, Frances, Gladys, Stanley, Martha and Peter. The family spoke
Polish at home—the eldest Lyk children first learned English when they
grew old enough to attend school. But, by 1920, all members of the
family spoke both Polish and English. The Lyks were not the only Polish
immigrants in their northern Michigan community—other families were
of Polish heritage as well. Anthony and Rose Lyk became naturalized
citizens in August 1913.
While the Lyks were working to make a new life in America, World
War I broke out in Europe, bringing great sorrow to the family. Anthony's
brother was conscripted into the German army and his mother was killed
during fighting that destroyed the village of Wojcin where Anthony
had grown up.
During the late 1910s and early 1920s, Anthony Lyk became a landowner,
purchasing a house and several parcels of land for his own farm at
the edge of town in Elmira. Beginning in the mid-1920s, he was appointed
to a number of offices in his local community. Anthony Lyk served as
Warner Township treasurer, justice of the peace, highway commissioner,
and school board member.
Like countless others before and after him, Anthony Lyk took a chance
on a new life in America. He accomplished much. Anthony and his wife
Rose raised a large family, ran a farm, and were active in their community.
Anthony died in 1956 at the age of 80 and was laid to rest in St. Thomas's
Catholic cemetery in Elmira, Michigan. Rose was buried beside him in
1974.
All images from the family of Joseph & Helen
(Szczepaniak) Lyk
ID 2003.142.2
Jeanine Head Miller, Curator of Domestic
Life,
Leisure & Entertainment
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