Bio: Jelercic, Joseph & Frances

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Jelercic, Kovac, Kirn, Fluiras

----Source: Family Scrapbook

Joseph Jelercic was born in Vipava, Jugoslavia in 1873. Frances Kovac was born in Ljubljana, Jugoslavia in 1885.

They both came to Lorrain, Ohio in 1905. Joe worked in the steel mills and Frances worked as a maid. They were married in November 1905. They bought a house and had 22 roomers which she took care of.

They had six children: Joe, who died in infancy; John who lives on the home place; and Agnes and Cyril, who died as infants.

In May of 1915 they moved to Willard to buy a farm rather than take the job as a foreman in the steel mill at $2.25 per day. His brother, Vincent, was already here.

They had the first hip roof barn in Willard in 1915 which was built by Joe Ule. All the timbers were hewed with a broad axe by hand. The barn was ready for use by fall when they bought six bred heifers. They built a tar paper shack for living quarters.

On October 29, 1916 Emma was born. Mr. Snedic was doing fall plowing for them. It became too late to finish so he set the plow in the furrow and said he'd return in the morning. That night, it snowed and froze so hard that the plow stayed there until the next spring. Grandma Herrick performed the midwife duties only to gain Emma as a daughter-in-law 17 years later.

Two weeks later, Mr. Jelercic was crying to Mrs. Kirn that they had such bad luck with children in Ohio and he was sure they'd lose this one too. Mrs. Kirn said, "Go home and take care of her. She's born in Wisconsin and the only way you'll get rid of her is to kill her!"

In December 1921 Ann was born. She's married to Mar¬vin Fluiras, and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1932 our house was built of cement blocks which were all made by the family. The blocks were laid, the chimney built, eight rooms, 4 large closets, and the porch were plastered for a grand total of $100.00. Cows sold for $8.00 per head in 1932. Also there was a milk strike at this time. Milk was less than $1.00 per hundred.

Joseph died in 1955 at 82 years of age. Frances died in 1975 at the age of 90.

Submitted by: Emma Herrick