Contact: Stan

Source: Levis 125 Year Book (1981); provided by ""The Jailhouse Museum".

Surnames: SCHRAMEK

Shramek, William

I, William J. Shramek, am one of the six children of Charles and Rose Shramek of Neillsville, Clark Co., Wis., township of Levis.  My dad, brother, Charlie (second oldest) and my Dad’s friend traveled to Neillsville, Wis. and then to Sidney, Clark Co., Wis., each with a team of horses with freight to their farms.  I think it was in the early part of the year 1905.  My mother and the rest, except my older brother Ladd, arrived on April 2^nd, my mother’s birthday.  My mother hired a livery rig from the Merchant Hotel to take us 5 ½ miles south to the farm in Levis.  I was 10 years old, the oldest of the children on this trip and do I remember the md road we had to travel.  I think it took about three house, stop and go, to get to the farm.  We had a litter each of farm stock, frame house, two log barns, etc., but in the fall of 1905 we had the misfortune of our home burning down, a crack in the chimney sent a wood spark to set a bag of feathers on fire and with a strong west wind, it was over in about three hours.  Nothing was saved but we had our bodies and the clothes on them.  We stayed at some good neighbors for awhile.  The outside of the new home and one large room and one bedroom was finished before winter, and the rest finished in spring.  We children, Charlie, William, Jerome, Edward, and sister Lillian, all went to the Lincoln School (later named Meadow View).  My older brother, Ladd, stayed in Chicago.

I remember the old log school, east of Lincoln School.  Some years later a social hall was built on the same ground.  Our parents celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary there… date I don’t remember.

Brother Jerry worked at the Four Corners Cheese Factory.  I went to work at a munitions plant in East Chicago, Indiana in 1914 - 1915.  We were making ammunition for the British Government.  After a year or so I returned to the farm.  Early in 1917 I went to work for an insurance company.  Later that same year, three of my friends and I enlisted in the Army at the Chicago recruiting office.  A few days later, we were called to report.  We were all shipped by rail to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri.  The clothes we wore were Army issue - one size fit all.  I think we were there about six weeks; when they had about ten carloads of recruits we were shipped west via El Paso, Texas.  There were three cars of recruits left.  The rest went on to Fort McArthur, San Pedro, Calif.  We were stationed in the lower camp in tents.  I never forgot the hard seats and candle lights in the cars.  At the lower camp, eight of us contracted spinal meningitis and were sent to the upper camp (Fort) to the tent hospital where we were taken care of.  Some came out okay, so not so good.  After about three months, we went back to the lower camp.  By then wood barracks were constructed.  After a few months we joined the 46^th field artillery and shipped to Camp Eustis, Virginia.  After a few weeks of training, our company walked to Newport New and boarded the transport ship U.S.S. Huron for Brest, France.  We landed some time in Feb. 1918 and stayed at a rest camp a week or more.  Mud was up to our shoe tops.  We were again shipped to Chateau in the town of Gironde, France.  We stayed there for about six weeks after the Armistice was signed Nov. 11, 1919.  From here we were shipped to Marseille, France, in a train of 40 or 80 railroad box cars, out of Marseille.  We boarded the Italian transport ship "Duce Deli Abuizazzi" and sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar for New York.  After two weeks on the seas, we passed the Statue of Liberty to dock at the New York pier.

We boarded the ferry boat "General Weston" (no shore leave) to New Jersey, then on to Camp Dix.  After quarantine, we were shipped out to all of the states.  I went to Camp Grant in Rockford, Ill.  After my discharge and pay, I went to Chicago and then on to Neillsville, Wis.  I arrived in Neillsville some time in February or March of 1919.  Later on I started a milk route, picking up milk from the farms in Levis, hauling same to the condensery in town.  The Krumpecks had a farm, first one west of the school.  There I met my wife Josephine; she only stayed on the farm during the summer months.  Her sisters, Helen and Marie were younger and attended Lincoln School.  I don’t know when the name of the school was changed.  Josephine worked for a while in Marshfield,  and then returned to Chicago.  Later on I got a job in Chicago.  We went out together for quite some time.  We decided to save and then spend our money together, so we got married on Oct. 30, 1922 at a minister’s home.  Our first child, William Jr., was born Aug. 14, 1925, and two daughters later.  We lived a few years in Chicago.  The Krumpeck family lived in Bensenville, Ill.  Dad Krumpeck found us a home in Bensenville, so we bought it and moved there in the fall of 1936.  I was still working in Chicago and drove 45 miles round trip every working day.  I went through plenty of hard winters here and also in Wisconsin.

Son William Jr. lives in Villa Park, Illinois.  Daughter Jacqueline lives in Roselle, Ill. And daughter Josephine lives in Lafayette, Ind.  All have families.

My wife and I and her two sisters all attended Lincoln-Meadow View School reunion on May 28, 1978.  My wife passed away after our 55^th anniversary, she suffered a fatal stroke on Aug. 1, 1978.  We have lived here in Bensenville for 43 years and I am still living here by myself.

Best wishes,  Bill