Sacrifice And Loss

 By Terry D. Janes

 

We have all lost someone in our lives.  We have all made sacrifices.  In my family, it was the loss of my late Uncle, Staff Sergeant Frank L. "Pappy" Ream that motivated me to write the book, "Patton's Troubleshooters" and eventually create this website.  The reason for creating the website and the book was to help other families.  In some cases, it helps a veteran connect with an old buddy.  In some cases, it helps a family better understand and connect with their veteran family member.  As my dear late grandmother would say, "that's only the icing on the cake".  The main reason why I have done what I have done is for families and friends who lost someone.  They were the ones who I had in mind when I began this project twenty years ago.  Today, I would like to tell you about one such family.  Truth be told, I never imagined that a family's sacrifice and loss could be so great as this family.  I was deeply touched and humbled by their story, and I believe you will be as well.

 

From Judy Bezjak comes the following: "My grandfather came to this country in 1908 on the Lusitania.  He had fled Croatia, which was then a part of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire to avoid being conscripted into their army.  He sailed from England.  Many Croatians went to areas were there was mining activity such as Pennsylvania and Southern Illinois.  My grandfather went to Southern Illinois and after about a year he sent for my grandmother who was working in a bakery in Reijka on the border of Italy.  They were married here.  After living in a couple of smaller towns, possibly mining company housing, they settled in a nice two-story house on Grand Avenue in Johnson City, Illinois.  Their first baby, Tony, died as an infant and my grandmother made him a burial gown from her wedding dress.  They had another son, Rudy, who was a very intelligent little boy.  One day when he was about 5 years old, he went up in the hayloft and played with matches and was suffocated in the smoke.

 

They took in miners as renters to help with the expenses and my grandmother had to cook for everyone.  Then in 1917 a son, Louis, was born, followed by my mother, Rose, in 1918, and Tony Jr., in 1919 and Rudy in 1925.  [The reader should keep in mind that these last two children were named after their previously deceased older siblings.] They were a close-knit family.

 

My grandfather played the button box concertina at weddings, Christenings, etc.  He liked to make homemade wine, as was the custom in his home village of Stari Laz.  When it became illegal with Prohibition, he made a secret trap door under my mother's bed to a hidden room in the cellar.  My grandfather often had to go to the county seat of Benton to the courthouse to bail out his friends who were apprehended for making alcoholic beverages during Prohibition.  He was never caught. There would sometimes be terrifying night time raids by the KKK on the immigrants' homes.  They would also burst into wedding parties and take all the gifts and money from the table intended for the bridal couple.  There were many people from Kentucky in that area that hated the "hunkies" or immigrants.  My grandmother would refer to them in disgust in her broken English as "Kentookers." 

 

In the mid to late 1920's there were mine strikes where the mine company would hire scabs.  During one incident many of these scabs were massacred at Herrin, Illinois by miners trying to unionize.  There was also a terrible mine explosion that killed five members of one family.  The mother jumped down the well and drowned herself.  My grandfather decided farming might be a safer way to make a living.  During this time there were also gangsters like Charlie Birger who had armored cars, machine guns, and hideouts.  He was found guilty of murdering the mayor of West City and throwing the body down a well.  My uncle Louie attended the public hanging of Charlie Birger in the courthouse square at Benton.

 

In 1929, my grandfather purchased 78 acres of land in the next county, Franklin, in a tiny place called Plumfield.  There was a ramshackle house on the property where an entire family had died during the great tornado of 1925.  There was no inside plumbing at that time and rural electrification was far in the future.  There was an old outhouse next to the house and Louis asked his dad, "What's that little place for?"  His dad informed him that was the bathroom and the Sears Roebuck catalog was an essential amenity; however one should watch out for the "slicky pages."  My grandmother refused to move in with the house so far from the road, so the house was moved closer to the road.  However the storm cellar was at the original site, and when a storm came up, everyone would be soaked and the storm mostly over by the time it was reached.  My grandfather intended to fix the house up and was renting out the other house.  One day, uncle Vala drove up and said "All the banks have closed; you can't get your money." 

 

During the Depression, Louis left for Detroit with some friends at the age of 16.  The next year, my mother, Rose, left for Chicago with her cousins to work as a maid or nanny in the home of a prominent Jewish doctor.  Tony went to C.C.C. camp.  By the late 1930's Louis was well liked by the owner of his company, who decided to relocate to California and took Louis with him.  Tony was trained as a tool and die-maker by a relative, and joined Rose in Chicago.  They shared an apartment together and Tony found employment at Verson All-Steel.  Tony had a girlfriend, Frieda, who lived in the same apartment building.  Rudy was a big help to his dad on the farm operating all the big farm machinery from the age of 12.  Tony was making good money in Chicago and purchased a used car for Rudy so he could travel to Zeigler, the next town to attend high school.  At high school, Rudy met his sweetheart, Helen. 

 

With the war, Louis was drafted and sent with the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943 to work on the Al-Can Highway in Alaska.  Later he went to paratrooper training and was picked to be a member of the O.S.S. and was sent to Burma to be a member of Detachment 101.  Tony was drafted into the Army.  He was assigned to the 317th Inf. Regiment of the 80th Infantry Division.  When Rudy received his draft notice just after his high school graduation, his dad went to the draft board to protest.  He asked for a deferment on the grounds that Rudy was needed to work the farm and two sons were already in service.  His request was rudely denied.  His dad accompanied Rudy to the train to see him off for Army basic training.  He was assigned to the 71st Infantry Regiment of the 44th Infantry Division."

 

Pvt. Tony Ruzich-"a sparkling personality, and could get along with anyone."

 

 

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