Finding Andrej Jakin

Everyone in Globeville called my grandpa “Andy Jackson.” He and my grandma lived in a small house on Sherman Street in the shadow of I-70, with its constant traffic, noise, vibration, and dirt. Nearby meatpacking plants provided both jobs and a stench that would keep residents indoors, even during the summer. 
But their tiny back yard was a bulwark against its gritty, industrial surroundings. There were cherry, pear and peach trees, and grape vines that wound along a fence. Raspberry bushes and strawberry plants were arranged in tidy sections, and beans, peas, cucumbers, and tomatoes climbed a hand-made trellis. There were phlox, dahlias, roses, daisies, pansies, violets, geraniums and the exotic oleander that grandpa carefully coaxed in Colorado’s arid climate. Chickens aggressively ate the feed grandma scattered from her apron and dutifully provided handsome brown eggs. Grandpa said it was just like his home in “the old country,” a magical place with vineyards, orchards and olive groves. I loved listening to his stories, but was too young to ask him more meaningful questions about his growing up or his family. When he died in 1961, it was the end of that world. My grandma died in 1967 and all the stories evaporated.
But there were photos in the piano bench, some labeled, some mislabeled and many with no identification. There were postcards from family in Goriza, Cerovo and St. Florian from 1902 to 1906 to Johan Korsic and Andrej Jakin, who shared the same address on Watervliet Street in Globeville. Copies of receipts show that money was sent to family back home, and there were a few surviving letters from relatives in Slovenia.

Andrej and Ida Jakin are best man and maid of honor
in the 1906 wedding of Leopold and Teresa Korsic.

 

1906 postcard to Johan Korsic and Andrejo Jakin in Globeville 

 Money sent to relatives in Cerovo, Slovenia 1902

My husband Russ and I attend Holy Rosary Church and that is where we met sisters Julie and Teresa, whose maiden name is Korsic. This led to many discussions about our families. Leopold Korsic and Andrej Jakin were close friends who arrived the same year (1902) from the same town (Gornje Cerovo) in what was then Austria Hungary. Both settled and worked in Globeville, raised their families in the neighborhood and attended Holy Rosary Church. Korsics were able to maintain contact with their family in “the old country,” whereas the Jakin family lost touch after the Germans burned their home during World War II. 
For several years we joked about going to Slovenia and finding out more about our background. The more we talked, the more real the idea seemed. Julie and Teresa renewed their contacts with the Korsics in Slovenia and plans were made to visit in July 2019. More to come...

Ethnic Festivals in Globeville

Globeville knows how to celebrate its heritage. The three remaining ethnic parishes will hold festivals that draw on the neighborhood's ethnic roots. The first of these will be held on Saturday only, July 20th, 2019 on the church grounds at 349 E 47th Avenue, from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm. The fabulous food offerings are all handmade and include Greek, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Mexican, and Italian dishes. There will be libations, entertainment, crafts and activities for the kids. Don't miss the opportunity to tour this exquisite Orthodox Cathedral at 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm. Or attend the beautiful Vespers Service at 5:00 pm, with questions and a history lesson to follow.
Orthodox food festival 

 Learn the history of this Cathedral and its precious icons

 

Next is the Polish Food Festival at St. Joseph Polish Parish at the corner of 46th Avenue and Pearl Street - this is the red church spire visible from I-70. The two-day event is August 24th and 25th - Pierogi, Polish beer, cabbage rolls, Polish beer, potato pancakes and Polish beer! Krakowiacy Polish Dancers and Swojskie Dziołchy Polish singers, Jurek Kamiński and Ania Janik and Sons will entertain you. Check the program for prices of food and Polish beer, and the schedule of entertainment. Polish Food Festival

 

 

Holy Rosary Church will begin its festival with a catered dinner on Saturday, September 7 that includes wine, dessert and entertainment. A bazaar will follow on Sunday, September 8 with Mexican specialties, potica, strudel, games for the children and entertainment. Tickets for the dinner on Saturday can be obtained at the parish office. Admission to the bazaar is free and tickets for food and games can be bought on Sunday. Holy Rosary Denver

 

Slovenian Potica! 

Corn holes are popular with everyone

 

 

Preserving the home ties

They had come to escape religious persecution and mandatory service in the armies of their oppressors - Austria-Hungary, Prussia and Russia. They were treated like second-class citizens in their own country, and their language and culture suppressed. But in America, they were free to express themselves and in Globeville they took every opportunity to celebrate and preserve their heritage.

Lydia Heck remembered, “St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was at 4438 Grant and that’s where we went to German school. We went after regular school a couple times a week. It was the same as Bible School, where we would learn catechism and to read and write in German.” Pauline Rodie added, “Our German people also had their Volga Gesangbook. The songs were long and people knew them from memory.” 

 

Volga Gesangbook courtesy of Virginia Laber

 

In 1889, Globeville’s Poles established the Polish National Alliance (PNA). In addition to providing burial insurance, the lodge offered a place to hold events like Polish Constitution Day, and for young people to perform plays and concerts in the Polish language. In 1902, due to the fund raising and promotional efforts of the PNA, St. Joseph's Polish Catholic Church was dedicated. In 1920, the resourceful Father Jarzynski was able to purchase the Colorado and Southern Depot for use as an elementary school, ensuring the continuation of old country faith and customs.

 Children's concert, PNA Hall. Photo Courtesy of Cathy Gizeski

 

In 1920, Globeville’s Slovenes built Holy Rosary Church and, in 1927, Holy Rosary School. Several fraternal organizations, the KSKJ, the American Fraternal Union, the Slovenian Women's Union and the Western Slavonic Association, provided financial services and a place for athletic teams, dramatic groups and choirs to express their Slovenian heritage. This child’s book was published in 1917 and carries the imprimatur of Father Cyril Zupan, OSB from Pueblo. It teaches the Slovenian alphabet, and provides simple descriptions of Slovenia, fairy tales and Bible stories.

 Jezus prijatelj otrok. Jesus is a friend of the children.

Helen Kohut Capron grew up in Globeville’s Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church. “They tried, really tried, to teach us to speak and write in Russian. We had to go to Russian school once a week after regular school. It was like Sunday school. When my grandmother Anna passed away in 1950, we no longer spoke the language and I’ve forgotten most of it.”  
These pioneers and the fraternals are gone. Their descendants have grown up away from the neighborhood and are unaware of much of their heritage. Only the churches remain.
 

Rocky Mountain Land Library in Globeville

Globeville’s North Washington Street is a hodge podge of auto repair shops, salvage lots, and cannabis and liquor stores. Nestled in this industrial mix is the newest branch of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, who’s tagline proclaims - A resource linking land and the community. An oxymoron? Globeville is not often associated with open space and it’s been a long time since the community had a library of its own.
First, a little history.
In the 1870s, the area was sparsely settled by homesteaders and ranchers. Within a decade, the arrival of railroads, smelters, foundries and meatpacking transformed the region into an industrial town.

 

 Sanguinette farm at 51st and Washington about 1880
Photo used with permission from Nora Duryea

The building at at 4800 Washington was once home to meat packers like Mountain States Packing (1924) and K & B Packing and Provisions (1934) that provided blue-collar jobs in the neighborhood. The packers were also major polluters, dumping their refuse directly into the Platte River, and generating a smell that would take your breath away.
But things are looking up.
Since the 1970s, with the founding of the Platte River Greenway the Platte River has received the care it deserved. Polluters were pressured to clean up and fined for dumping, while volunteers and municipalities pitched in to create trails, parks and recreation areas. A former sewage treatment plant at 54th Avenue and Washington has been transformed into Carpio Sanguinette Park, an oasis of cottonwoods, cattails and wildlife. Nearby is Heron Pond, home to herons, avocets, red-tail hawks and waterfowl.
Globeville’s library was founded in 1920 and located in the Globeville Community House at 45th and Grant Street. Eighty-five years ago, during the Depression, Denver closed the library. Although the Valdez Perry opened in 1996, Globeville citizens avoid crossing the railroad tracks to Elyria and rely on the little library in front of the Rec Center.
Enter Jeff Lee and Ann Martin, founders of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, who are restoring a former ranch near Fairplay to house their collection of 40,000 books about nature and the west. In March 2019, the couple opened a branch library in the urban frontier of Globeville, complete with books, events, a Book Club, book discussions, author signings and the cozy, civilized atmosphere of a real library.
Join the conversation. Nick Arvin will lead a discussion about Globeville’s first Book Club pick, The Summer Book written by Tove Jansson. Come by and get acquainted on Sunday, April 28th, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Register for this event on the website:
https://landlibrary.wordpress.com/

Globeville Did Its Part

In the decade before World War II, Globeville’s population had struggled to find jobs, but the demands of war now created a labor shortage. Women filled vacancies at factories and foundries when men left for the service. June Jackson Egan rode the streetcar to 10th and Inca to make fuses for PT boats at Slack-Horner Foundry; Carol Christenson worked on aircraft, (including Eleanor Roosevelt’s plane), at McClellan Field near Sacramento.

 Mary Reed, left and Carol Christenson
® Mary Lou Egan

The Globeville community offered support in the way it always had: through its churches and lodges. Members of the First German Congregational Church formed the Blue Star Letter Writing Committee to keep the congregation’s 175 members in the service informed about church activities, and a newsletter called “The Minister’s Mailbag” kept the men in contact with each other as well.

The children at Garden Place School collected scrap and contributed to bond drives, while the young women of Holy Rosary Young Ladies’ Sodality volunteered at the Catholic USO at 16th and Logan. The Polish Harmony Club, a young-people’s social group affiliated with Polish National Alliance, entertained servicemen who were recovering at Fitzsimons Army Hospital and sponsored weekly dances at the Polish hall for military personnel of Polish descent. Paul Goreski recalls, “During the war my folks used to go out to Lowry and invite a Polish serviceman over for dinner. He had to be Polish.” 

Mary Canjar joined the Red Cross and attended classes to become an Air Raid warden.
She was issued a uniform with a shirt, pants, helmet and armband, and made sure that windows were covered and lights turned off during blackout periods. Canjar also won an award for persuading every family on Logan Street to purchase War Bonds. Residents were rewarded with a bus tour of Lowry field, a lunch and serenade by a marching band. 

                   Mary Canjar, photo used with permission from Father John Canjar

Victory Gardens became the name for the substantial gardens Globeville’s citizens had always planted. The community’s traditional frugality and resourcefulness made the
war rationing of gas, sugar, meat, and cooking oil, easier.

 Fathers Robert and Joseph Meznar's 1940 Ford
with its "A" gas sticker (highlighted in red).
Photo ® Mary Lou Egan

On both V-E Day and V-J Day, church bells rang, factory whistles and car horns blared. Twelve young men from Globeville lost their lives in the conflict; the nation and the neighborhood were forever changed by the experience.

Remembering Lent

The short, dark days in February and March were the perfect setting for Lent. There were the weekly rituals of stations of the cross, recitation of the rosary, benediction and confession. Before Vatican II, everything was in Latin and people of a certain age know all the words to Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Praise We Christ's Immortal Body) and Stabat Mater (for the stations of the cross). 
Adults were required to observe a complicated set of rules for fasting (not eating between meals) and abstinence from meat, while youngsters under the age of fourteen were granted a little more leeway. (I looked forward to Friday dinners with Mac 'n Cheese, potato pancakes and Mrs. Paul's Fishsticks). Everyone was urged to “give up” something like soda, candy, gum or TV.
By Holy Week, the days were getting longer and brighter, and the preparation more intense. More church visits, more rosaries, longer choir practice, baking Potica, apple strudel and painstakingly coloring pysanky eggs (every eastern European celebration seems to be time consuming).
Lent is about transformation - darkness to light, from distraction to contemplation, from busyness to solitude. Christ is risen, indeed He is risen from the dead. 
Customs that used to annoy me, now comfort and reassure me. I enjoy the symbolism of ashes, incense, the washing of feet, lighting the new fire and blessing of oils. Ash Wednesday is next week and I'm rehearsing Latin hymns.

  

Stations of the Cross at Holy Rosary Church

Potica or Povitica

Pysanky eggs - ours never looked this good

 

Neighborhood Memory Project - Globeville, Elyria, Swansea

Gracious, intelligent and sharp - Bob Padboy has almost a century of memories and is a good storyteller. Padboy was born in 1924 in a coal town in New Mexico, where his Slovenian-born father, Anton, worked in the mines. His mother Mary insisted that none of her three boys would would follow their father in the coal fields and the family moved to Globeville. Padboy is the oldest Globeville resident whose reminiscences were recorded for the Globeville, Elyria and Swansea Memory Project, and still lives in the family’s home in the neighborhood. 

 Bob Padboy in 2018. Photo® Mary Lou Egan

 

The Padboy house was purchased in 1940. Photo® Mary Lou Egan 

Anthony Garcia is the youngest person interviewed for the Memory Project, but his roots in the neighborhood run deep.“I was born and raised in Globeville, my mother worked at the Globeville Recreation Center for years, and my grandmother was an artist.” Garcia brought his family heritage of service to the community and creating art together. He is the co-founder of the BirdSeed Collective and has been named the director of the Globeville Recreation Center at 4496 Grant Street. Garcia hopes the center will again be a source of information and activity - “to keep the community a community.”

 Anthony Garcia at work. Photo® Mary Lou Egan  

BirdSeed Collective Mural - Where Wood Meets Steel
on Washington Street, Photo® Mary Lou Egan

To hear the stories of Globeville, Elyria and Swansea, view these priceless interviews 
Globeville, Elyria, Swansea Memory Project