Joseph Gerszewski

Josef Gerszewski, later known as Joseph of Czapiewice and Brusy parish, born Dec . 28, 1853 like most of the migrants from Poland, then occupied by Germany and West Prussia, protesting the notary subscription of their occupation governments, and seeking total freedom, stole his way onto a ship in the port of Gdansk; which he claims was no problem because port guards, mostly Polish, were sympathetic with the young Poles and aided them. He told how he and several others boarded the ship at night and hid in the coal bins adjacent to the boiler rooms. When the ship was out of port for several days they exposed themselves, dirty and hungry, having no tickets nor passports. They were fed and assigned to fire the ship's boilers for the rest of the journey. They said that the ship's cooks were good to them but in reward for this kindness, they provided them with meats and other staples from storage rooms which were in the vicinity of the boiler rooms. These rooms made with doors of iron rods and under lock and key, made it necessary to use long pokers to pull the meats to the edge and take them out. The vessel was a three mast ship and the boilers were used for heat. They encountered several storms. A couple of these damaged their ship's masts which had to be repaired. Many of the men were pumping water from the hull fearing that the ship would sink. Joseph Gerszewski, then 19, landed in New York in 1872, finding whatever jobs were available and working his way westward. Coming to Chicago, then to Winona, he worked as a skilled carpenter around Pine Creek . Then he took a job with the railroad which was pushing westward to Dakota Territory. In 1878 he came to Walsh County and staked his claim on the NE quarter of Section 28, 156-51 in Pulaski Township . This homestead was then passed on to his son, John F. and is now owned by his oldest grandson, Walter Gerszewski. After staking his homestead he returned to the Fargo area and gained experience of the then modern farming by working on the Bonanza Farm s in the Casselton and Grandin area. Returning to his claim in the spring of 1879, then owning a walking plow and one ox, pooling their power with a neighbor to the north, John Stygar, and with the two oxen he broke up 10 acres of neck high prairie sod. He seeded this to barley, broadcasting the seed and dragging it in with a large tree limb powered by an ox. In the fall, already courting Elizabeth Moga, the daughter of Martin Moga who also migrated from Poland and homesteaded abou 15 miles south a couple of years before, he again returned to Fargo to work on the railroad. Returning in the spring of 1880, he proceeded to build the homestead, first a log house and then a sod barn. He seeded a larger acreage of wheat as well as some potatoes, onions and rutabagas. He reported the crop to be enormous and had provisions for the whole winter, plus some cash income. On Feb. 7, 1881, he married Elizabeth Moga, the daughter of Martin Moga and Lucia Kloskowski at Turtle, a small trading post consisting of a few residences and a three room hotel to which a priest came occasionally to celebrate mass and perform marriages. (Walsh Heritage - vol.1)

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/9420521

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Apr 1 2015, 13:47:34 UTC

  ---

Brusy 1854 W171 0310 1 Joseph Thomas Gierszewski Regina Sigmanska