Tekle Christine Rimkus

Krikšto tėvai: Juozapas Urbaitis ir Elžbieta Griciūnaitė

Synopsis of interview of Tekla Rimkus (T) by her daughter Grayce Lizauskas (G) at Grayce’s home in Woodbury, Connecticut in 1959. Also present were Tekla’s grandson Jennings Grimm Jr. and his wife, Miriam Grimm. G: Mother, tell about your life. T: I was 14 years old when my mother died. There were five sisters left; I was the oldest. I went to Riga, Latvia, to stay we some people we knew and lived there 11 years. After I was married, a war was starting, and my husband had to leave for America. I stayed alone with the children, Brontestava (Blanche) and Jonuku (Jonas, later John). People pushed me to come to America. They asked, “What are you doing here alone?” and helped me make arrangements to come with my children. Before coming to America, I lived in Lithuania for one year. G: (The manifest of the S.S. Potsdam listed her, one child and one infant.) T: I arrived July 7, 1905. Those were some bad times. Some Americans were nice, but others tried to take advantage of you. We got by one way or another; some people helped us. God looked out for us. We bought a little business, a butcher shop and grocery, and lived from it for about 25 years. Peter, my husband, became ill and had to lie in bed for two years. Those were hardship years. We had to sell the business and our home. When he died, he left me everything and four children (two sons and two daughters). When I stayed along with the children, Brontestava was the only one married. So, I lived for about 15 years with the other children, and then Grazyte/Grazina (Grayce) became ill when she was 22 years old. It was a hard time; the other children had all married. There were the two of us; sometimes we worked, sometimes not. We lived together 11 years, then she met her husband (Eddie) and got married. I’m talking a lot; it’s all not very important. G: Of course it is; it’s about your life. T: But overall we lived, thank God, lives that were healthy. I’m 83 years old. G: (If Peter hadn’t gone to America when he had, with war having been declared between Russia and China, he would have been inducted. Peter was an officer in the Polish army. We believe if he had joined the Russian service, his wife and children would not have had a very bright future. The Lithuanians would not have necessarily considered the Russian army their own. At the time, it wasn’t unusual for a man to emigrate to another county ahead of his family to get a job. He would then either send money back or go get his family once he had settled.) T: I was born in Kaunas on December 20. I’m not sure of the year. I married for love. There were six sisters and one brother by my “real” mother; one sister and one brother had died. My stepmother had six girls and one boy. My father was a farmer and a blacksmith. He had about 75 acres. He was born on the same land where I was born. We never talked about how many generations of our family had owned the land. I was too young for such discussions. He was a very, very good blacksmith, even to the extent that he would make knives, sickles, and scythes. He was renowned in the territory; people would come to him to have things done. He was a great hunter. My mother used to get so tired; she had to keep up with him. It was her job to skin them, and at one time she had 40 skins. They would sell them to Jews who would then sell them to factories where they were made into clothes like jackets and such. We didn’t have a tannery, so we had no alternative but to sell them. G: How was it on the way to America? T: I loved it just like a bird loves to fly. The children were both fine, but kept asking me for orange juice and I kept having to tell them no. We left Lithuania and walked through Russia. We almost got shot, as the border was closed. We went through Germany, and stopped in Hamburg to buy some clothes for our trip. We then went to England, and tried to stay in Sweden, but we weren’t allowed in. The we left there for America. G: (At that point she had two dollars with her.) When you first came to this land, what did you first see? What did you think of America? T: When we first came close to America, it was after midnight, around 2 a.m., and no one would sleep, being afraid to miss something, to miss the first lights. Around 2 a.m., we saw the first lights and started yelling, “America! America!” Some people cried. Those that had fallen asleep had risen and joined in the yelling. We had finally reached our new homeland and thought our journey was over. We saw the lights and thought of the long 10 days we had been traveling. When I saw the Statue of Liberty, I cried. We got into smaller boats to come ashore (onto Ellis Island), and it actually took until 3 or 4 a.m. to get to land.
Detail
Tekla Rimkus interview about her early life: talks about the family's reasons for emigrating and her trip to America on the S.S. Pottsdam.

Source information

Title
Tekla Rimkus interview about her early life and her family coming to America
Author
As told to Grayce Rimkus Lizauskas (daughter)
Note
Interview in Lithuanian; translated by Grayce Lizauskas. Also present, Tekla's grandson J.B. Grimm Jr. and his wife, Miriam Grimm.
Publisher
Transcribed copy found in personal papers
Publisher date
1959
Publisher location
Woodbury, Connecticut

Repository information

Name
Ancestry.com