Bio: Juric, Mary

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Juric, Vosel, Cerne, Collier

----Source: Family Scrapbook

Mary Vosel was born in Jugoslavia on May 14, 1885 in Slovenia, near Iderje, where the water flowed from a mountain (studenec) spring. She grew up among five brothers. She was married in Jugoslavia and had one son.

She came to America in 1910 when she was 25 years old. She told of working very hard in the "old country" and then here too in the coal mining towns in Penn¬sylvania. She later came to Willard where she lived with her cousin, Mrs. Cerne, and later with Mike Cerne until going to reside at Memorial Home in Neillsville. She still resides there.

As I sat and visited with her in her native tongue, she quoted me a poem, long remembered from childhood days.

Mary celebrated her 96th birthday in May. She is a very friendly and alert lady, who enjoys visiting and asks questions about the price of groceries now. When I told her bread is 89 cents a loaf, she said, "When I came to America, bread was only five cents a loaf and we could hardly buy it, how do the people buy it now?" Reminisc¬ing with her tells me how hard pressed she and others were, yet they kept on working and never gave up.

Submitted by: Anne Collier