frankgerbic1864.html</title</head> <body> <h1 align="center">Frank Anton Gerbic</h1> <p align="center"><b>May 1864 - July 27, 1930</b></p> <br><i> The story's about Frank all comes from my father, the youngest child of Frank. My dad had a love of knowledge, and had the foresight to write down pages of what he remembered of his family and his childhood. All of the stories about Frank are here, lots more of Tony's life growing up in Euclid are listed under his own page. </i> <br> <br> <p align="center"><img src="Rocini map.jpg" width="499" height="501"></p> </p> <br> So what was happening in your families history when Abe Lincoln was being assassinated? If you are a Gerbic you can say, "in another part of the world Frank Gerbic is being born". I have this year in many different documents, Frank Gerbic is born May 1864, in Austria. Several places are given, Rincon and Kombreska. I know many of our family members are a bit confused, thinking we are actually German because of the Austrian references everywhere. But I can assure you that we are Slovenian. Apparently Austria is used kinda like Africa or South America when referring to a birth place. <br> At the time of his first wife's death he probably had 4 living children, Rudy 14, John 12, Anna 10 and baby Frank who was 8. My father told me that he had a older brother named Anthony who died as an infant, this was probably the child born August 8, 1904. I have his birth certificate (unnamed), but cannot find his death certificate in Ohio's records anywhere. <br> Frank seems to have moved a lot, with some years no listing at all, which seems to support the idea that the kids lived elsewhere, while he worked. According to the Ohio city directory a Frank Gerbic is all over the place...I'm leaving the door open that these may be different Frank Gerbic's. <br> <br> 1900 (census) Frank Gerbic and family, 52 Brooker Ave, saloonkeeper<br> 1902 F. Gerbic, labor 367 Plover, Lakeview<br> 1909 Frank Gerbic, labor 1184 E. 60th NE<br> 1911 same listing<br> 1913 same address, now as a painter<br> 1914 Frank Gerbic, molder, 449 E 158 NE<br> 1915 Frank Gerbic, painter, 1195 E. 60th NE<br> 1918 Frank Gerbic, molder, 15408 Daniel Ave.<br> 1920 (census) Frank Gerbic, wife Mary, sons Vinco and Tony living at Hale Ave. <br> <br> <b>From AJG's memoirs about his father Frank: </b> <br><br> <b>Foundries<br></b> <i>"Now you come to Euclid my home town. The people here are mostly Yugoslavian, with a sprinkle of Irish and other European nationalities. The streets are all named after different Indian tribes such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Mohawk. The houses are mostly one of two stories and composition. In other words this area was considered the poor area. These people worked in the many factories and foundries situated all over near the railroads that parallel along the terraced part of the lake. My father worked in one of these so called foundries where he made cast iron gears and parts. He first made patterns of it in boxes of black sand that held the imprint to do later. Then the molted iron was pored into it, to be later cleaned, ground and machined into precision pieces of perfection. The people who worked in these factories were all brought here from Europe and taught to do these dirty and back breaking jobs. My Dad got to be a pattern maker he made them out of wood to be imbedded into fine black sand to be slowly taken out in to be used again and again." </i><br> <b>Snophs<br></b> <i> "My father made good money at this trade which was $8.00 for an 8 hour day, this was in 1920-1926. The fellows that worked in this environment would carry a curved flask of white lightening they sipped called Snophs. They sipped this throughout the day as time permitted and by days end they would have an empty flask. This snophs was a poor mans drink with a low alcohol content, by sipping this a fellow wouldn't get drunk, which they made up for on Saturday. I don't remember much about my father only that he was well known and he seemed to have a lot of friends."</i><br> <b>Upton Road & Rabbits<br></b> <i> "As a lad of about seven, I went with my 75 year old father to his job as a watchman for a construction company that was building a road called Upson. My father at this time was sleeping in a supply wagon shack that was moved around down the road as it was being built. He was supposed to place lighted safety kerosene lamps along the road to show were the ditches were. Each morning he would gather them up and do the same thing again the following night. I sure enjoyed going with him, we would eat our lunch in the wagon and then in the morning I would help him gather the lamps, then we would ride back home with some fellow that carried milk into town. After a couple of nights of this I told him that I wanted to stay home as I couldn't sleep in the wagon for it was too cold, we couldn't have any fire to warm up because the wagon smelled of kerosene. One thing I noticed in the early mornings was the large amounts of rabbits that were running across the road. Sometimes there were as many as twenty. As we waited for our ride I commented that a lot of rabbits would get run over once the road was built. This one morning as we were riding to town the truck made so much noise that a family of rabbits crossed as we were passing and the truck killed a few. The milkman picked up a couple to take home to eat and asked my father if he wanted any, to which he said 'No'."</i><br> <b>Fires<br></b> <i> "I remember another job I was supposed to do was to take a lard can filled with food to my father who worked at Euclid Foundry. Well this factory caught fire and almost burned down, but last year (1975) we made a trip back there and I found the factory still in business after 50 years. I remember another fire they had a long time ago when I lived back there, A old house was built close to the railroad tracks. This building was very old and the hobos used to sleep in it. Well it caught on fire and the fire company placed their hoses over the tracks to put out the fire. Along came a freight train and even with a flagman the train cut the hose in half with water spraying back and forth. With its terrific pressure Vic my brother being close by jumped on the hose and with his weight couldn't hold it, it was a site and in a way very comical. By the time they got the water turned off and a different hose connected up, the haunted landmark burned down leaving the numerous fruit trees that we emptied as we would go to our swimming hole."</i><br> <b>Fixing shoes<br></b> <i> "My father used to fix all our shoes, he had a supply of soles, nails, glue, hammer and a shoe vise. The soles were made of heavy cow or horse hide which when put on a shoe made them very stiff. I like to watch my father fix shoes, the leather had a new smell and he took a lot of care when he cut the leather to fit the shoes. After gluing the sole on he placed the shoe on a vise and picked up his hammer. He commenced to nail the sole on. After the sole was on he would polish the shoes so they looked like a new pair. The only think was that they were so stiff. Every family had someone that fixed shoes, if not you had some shoe maker do if and he generally charged you about a dollar. <br></i> <br> It would be very helpful if I could locate Frank's immigration papers. The Cuyahoga County Archives has 2 indexes for immigration, but Frank is not in their files. The next step is to contact the US District Court and the US Dept of Justice. <br> My father tells the story of Franks death like this. "We were living in a garage, and very poor by this time. One Sunday my Mom and I went to church and came back to find papa asleep on the cot. We thought he was just taking a nap like he usually did at this time, but he wasn't, he was dead. We attended St. Christine Catholic Church on 222nd in Euclid. When my father died, services were held in a building about 500 ft from the church because the church building wasn't completed yet. I remember while they were digging the basement for the church using a large steam shovel with four flat wheels, they built a dirt ramp to get the shovel out but somehow the shovel tipped over killing the operator, he was pressed right into the soft clay, this was one of the first disasters I had ever seen." <br>In 1997 I sent a letter to St. Christine's looking for information about Frank's death, at the time I thought he had died in 1929. They wrote me back telling me that their records go back to 1925 but they couldn't find any info on Franks service. @@ I have also been told that Frank's wake was held at his brother Antone's grocery store in Euclid. <br><br> <p align="center"><img src="Frank Anton's death certificate.jpg" width="443" height="421"></p> Frank is buried in the Catholic Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland. Section 57, Lot 282, Grave 2. He has no marker of any kind, his family was very poor and I'm sure no one could afford one. His site is beside a large statue with the name Dudic on it, the marker beside his is of a Mary Juriga. <br> <p align="center"><img src="Frank Anton Grave Headstone.jpg" width="512" height="691"></p> <br> <p align="center"><img src="Frank Anton Grave Area.jpg" width="527" height="811"></p> <br> <br> <b align="center"><a href="frankandemma.html"> Frank and Emma's page (first wife)</a></b> <br> <br> <b align="center"><a href="frankandmary.html"> Frank and Mary's page (second wife)</a></b> <br> <br> <b align="center">Last Update Dec. 2, 2009</b> <br> <br> <b align="center"><a href="index.html"> Return to Main Page</a></b> <br> <br> <b align="center"><a href="lostgerbics.html">Return to Lost Gerbics</a></b> </body></html>