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Archiver > PASCHUYL > 1999-03 > 0920370086


From: <>
Subject: [PASCHUYL-L] Stank family
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 05:21:26 EST


Wendy
I know about a Stank family in Northumberland County. As I recall, it was one
of the Polish pioneers of Shamokin. The first ones left the area around
Bydgosc(?). aka as Bromberg, in the Polish province of Poznan in the middle of
the 1850s and arrived at a port in Canada. Looking for work, they heard that
the hard coal mines in Pennsylvania needed workers and, because they had no
money when they landed, they walked and followed the railroad tracks from
Buffalo to Danville, then crossed the Susquehanna River into Northumberland
County, until they came to the coal mines of Shamokin. One of the families
with them was Klofeta, later known as Clifford, and it opened a boarding house
in Shamokin for Polish immigrants. It brought over many families from their
motherland. The group established the first Polish church, St. Stanislaus, in
Shamokin about 1870.
No doubt that Alfred Stank was one of the descendants of these Polish
pioneers.
One can track this family in the census records from 1860 on and find out
which group he came from, and the marriage record would give the name of the
priest who married him to Wendy's great-aunt. Knowing his name one can then
find the church in which they were married.
When I lived in Northumberland County in the 1930s, John Stank, who had a
furniture store in Shamokin, was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature and
served with distinction for several years. At least ten that I know of, and,
when I was a young journalist, I interviewed him many times for the Anthracite
Tri-District News in Hazleton. If I am not mistaken, he had a sister named
Martha who was married to a politician of Mount Carmel, Al Bridy, and the
family was prominently known throughout the coal fields of Northumberland
County.
Wendy probably knows more about the family than she has revealed to the
PASCHUYL mailing list, how she is tied in with the family, and so on. She
wants to keep the Stank name alive, and it deserves to be better known,
particularly among the Polish element, because these people think they have no
history to write about, and, as you can see, the Stank family has a 150-year-
old history in this country. It was one of the Polish families that built
Shamokin.
I would like to read more about these Polish families.
Edward Pinkowski
10212 SW 59th St.
Cooper City, Fl. 33328-6531

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