Bio: Mencinger, Nick & Mary

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Mencinger, Volcic, Skurky, Gottstein, Milis, Emile, Schwab

----Source: Family Scrapbook

Nick Mencinger was born December 5, 1888 in Radmannsdorf, Austria. He came to the U.S.A. in 1914, to Chicago, Illinois. He came from Bohinj, Bistrica (near Triglav). Mary Volcic was born August 15, 1894. She came from Skofjaloka, Slovenia, to Chicago in 1915.

Mary Mencinger did outside housework to repay her fare to America. She worked several places, one of them being a delicatessen. She quit there when she was ex¬pected to work on July 4. Even if she was not then a citizen she refused to work on that day (even then refus¬ed to be a second rate citizen).

They were married in 1916. Four children were born this family: Lillian, born in 1917, Chicago; Anne 1919; Willard; Frank, 1921, Willard; and William, 1927, Chicago.

Lillian married Joseph S. Skurky (deceased) in 1943. Frank married Iris Gottstein in 1945. Anne married Steven R. Milis in 1942. William married Camella Emile in 1949.

Mary and Nick Mencinger came to Willard in about 1918 and stayed until 1922. Nick left first for Chicago, not being a farmer; he went back to lithography in Chicago, until retirement, then to San Diego, California.

Coming to America made a speech problem, so Mary learned to speak some English by telephoning Mr. Schwab each evening, the words she heard and did not understand during the day. She learned to read when the children went to school and she learned to write when the two boys went into the service in the 40's (so she could communicate with them as they did not learn to read and write Slovenian).

Some recollections of my four to five years living in Willard country:

Recall a hole in the kitchen table where we youngsters would pull a wet dish rag through pretending to milk cows. Wood stove for heating and cooking. Hot in summer and not much heat in winter for heating the entire house.

Cake: Frank Schwab was a terrific baker. One day he brought a small un-iced cake for my mother and at the same time he made a cake for a wedding. Very impressed, never saw such a lovely cake and as for taste of the smaller sample cake, it was so delicious that to this day I can recall this taste. It has never been duplicated for me. Memorable!

I recall the two-room frame house with a loft reached by a ladder. Hickory nuts stored there. Outhouse, barns, pigsty, thickens, apple trees around the house, berry bushes along the road, dog named "Cooney", root cellar under the house, potatoes and carrots.

Blueberry picking in the hills; wild chamomile picked for tea. Original land was undeveloped: blasting our stumps, plowing. We experienced flies, bees and snakes.

I also remember mom with three of us youngsters carrying a freshly killed piglet with her on the way to Chicago from Willard, when we left to join our father in the city.

Some personal memories and recollections of Wisconsin (I was six years old when we left Wisconsin). Two-room school; went there only a few months. First day I did not want to go to school so hid under the bridge which went over the creek that ran through the pasture between our farm and Bukovec's farm. (They found me.)

The Foster NE Railroad tracks and lighted sparklers on July 4 with the Schwab's near the tracks. There was some sort of storage shed or station belonging to the railroad there too.

Wind rippling and waving the ripe wheat. (This is one of the most memorable sights I recall.)

Climbing a windmill on a neighboring farm. Getting water from the well.

Picking potato bugs from the potato plants, putting bugs in a can then pouring on kerosene and lighting this and burning the bugs. (Pre-school activity)

Playing in the dirt in the road, (no traffic) Fireflies lighting the woods. Riding a horse. Milking a cow. A sweet scented floral herb (?) (Lupine?) It had red or possibly purple blooms. Thunder storms in the summer. Being scared by the squirrels in the woods in the Fall. Snow coming into the house under the windows forming a white wedge from floor to sill. Christmas tree with lighted candles. Frozen, frosted windows. Sleigh rides in the snow. Recall butchering a pig, sausage making and rendering lard.

Recall a visit to Willard when 15 years old... walked in pasture with snow melting after a late wet-snow. Water running in creek, snow topping the stones, ground wet and squishy, air cool, bright sunny day.

Nick Mencinger died on April 9, 1964 in San Diego, California. Mary Mencinger died on September 5, 1980 in San Diego, California.

Lillian Skurky is presently living in San Diego. Anne Milis is presently living in Encinitas, California. Frank Mencinger is presently living in San Diego and William is presently living in Des Plaines, Illinois.

By: Lillian Mencinger Skurky (eldest daughter)