Bio: Perko Family

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Perko, Hocevar, Cesnik, Foster, Zallar, Kangas, Zimmerman, Suda, Zagar, Snyder, Leuffel, Lindeman

----Source: Family Scrapbook

The history of the Perko family at Willard all started in Slovenia with the birth of Jozef Perko and Marija Hocevar on March 19, 1874 and December 8, 1880 respectively, in the small and poor but respectable villages of Tolcane and Ambrus. These are about two miles apart, near the Krka River in the foothill countryside of southern Slovenia of what was then Austria- Hungary. Both Jozef and Marija lived within the villages and worked in the surrounding hilly and rocky farm lands where the growing of grapes for wine was, and still is today, one of the main occupations. Besides grapes, they had vegetables and flower gardens and grew corn, barley, hay and other such crops largely for their own consumption and for their horses, cattle, chickens, etc. All this experience with farm crops, animals and including the rocky soil was to be of great use to them years later when they came to start new farms in the wild timberlands of the Willard area.

Attracted to America by stories of freedom, jobs and easy money Jozef made his way to Cleveland, Ohio in 1898 and worked at odd jobs for a few months before moving on to Pueblo, Colorado to go to work in the steel mills (Stivark) of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. Meantime, Marija Hocevar, helped by an uncle who had settled in Pueblo earlier, came over on steerage, arriving in the U.S. on July 26, 1899, and worked in Pueblo for some months as maid and cook for a wealthy family to pay back money advanced for her passage. Though Jozef and Marija knew each other in the land of their birth, romance did not blossom until they met again in Pueblo and were married on May 7, 1900.

The Jozef (now Joseph) Perkos settled down in Pueblo to raise a large family like all good Slovenian Catholics. Firstborn was Mary, on March 11, 1902 and then in quick succession came Joe on August 13,1903, Felix on January 7, 1905, Anna on March 21, 1906, Charlie on November 29,1907 and Olga on July 21,1910. They lived honest, decent, devout Catholic lives, but they were poor and knew few luxuries. Despite low wages at the steel mill and the costs of a growing family they managed somehow to save the money which was to be their nest egg for starting farming in Willard.

Attracted by advertisements in the Slovenian newspaper 'K.S.K.J.' and other papers and magazines about virgin farm land for sale in the Willard, Wisconsin area, they finally decided, after ten years in Pueblo, to go back to farming which they had known in Slovenia in their younger years. Therefore, in the early spring of 1911 Father and young son Joe, then only seven years old, traveled by train to Fairchild and then to Gorman where they found much wilderness but also a few friends from Pueblo who had preceded them to the Willard area. They knew the Volk family who had settled and built a house earlier near the Gorman depot. This was their residence those first weeks in this new world. There were no roads, only the Foster railroad and a few trails.

Ignac Cesnik and Mr. Foster had organized the land sales well enough so that the area had been surveyed and prospective farm plots could be seen and selected. Unfortunately it was still cold when Father and Joe arrived and snow still covered the ground.When they looked over their selected new farm they couldn't see the large number of stones on the ground. These stones played a very important part in adding to the difficulty of survival in those early days on the farm and in molding the character of the boys and later the men of the family.

Anyway, 80 acres of land (and later 40 more acres) were chosen mainly because it was going to be near the schoolhouse and that would be important for a large, growing family. Somehow in those early days of 1911 Father and Joe, helped by friendly neighbors, managed to get a small 2-room house built and then had the rest of the family (Mother with three daughters and two more sons) come to Gorman in the summer of that year. Mary, the oldest was then nine and Olga, the youngest was a baby of a little more than six months.

Those first months and years with little or no money coming in and a large hungry family to feed were difficult indeed. Food was obtained however and wherever possible. Vegetables from their gardens and Pillsbury wheat flour bought in 100-pound sacks were their staple foods. The flour sacks with the 'Pillsbury' laboriously scrubbed out became useful material for shirts and dresses and other things. Meat was scarce but early they learned to snare rabbits which ware plentiful, and these along with limited supplies of home-grown pork and beef kept them from starvation though not from frequent times of scarcity and hunger. Deer were common and even caused damage by eating the home gardens, but deer hunting was illegal most of the time and these good people, even in the face of hunger and scarcity were generally law abiding and would rarely kill the deer.

There was very little cash income on the farm in the early days. A little cord wood and fire wood could be sold to the railroad and to the city people of Greenwood and Owen and after a few cattle were bought they regularly sold cream which was produced from the milk at home. The cream was separated with a then spanking new hand-cranked cream separator which still stands in the attic of the old farm home. Later pickles were sold to the pickle factory set up in Willard. The income was not enough for food and clothing and farm supplies and machinery and land and other things, so it was necessary to borrow money to keep going. In those days the Greenwood banks made a few loans but for the Perkos it was the Zallar family at Willard who provided the cash. This money was very welcome at the time but it took many years afterwards to pay off those loans and it was a constant source of worry and concern to the family to make sure there was money for the interest and periodic repayments.

In 1911 after the snow melted and the first field was cleared it became apparent that the problem of stones in the soil on the Perko Farm would be very serious indeed Every field, after clearing of brush and trees and stumped first had to have all the cobbles and boulders laboriously dug up by hand and hauled away by horse and wagon or sledge to the nearest stone fence or stone pile. When it was plowed newly exposed cobbles and boulders had to be picked up and hauled away again and again and again year after year as the plows dug deeper and winter frosts pushed up more stones. By rough estimate some 10,000 to 15,000 tons of stones were moved this way by Father and the boys.

This was an endless and thankless task and worst of all it produced neither bread nor money at times when those were needed most. It certainly tested to the limit man's capacity to survive in adversity and is something of a credit to the Perkos to have stuck it out in this severe school of hard knocks. Perhaps the lesson was too severe because in later life none of the offspring stayed in farming permanently.

During all these and later years more children were born. Edward came along on June 23, 1912 only a year after the family arrived in Wisconsin. Then came Fred on January 14, 1915; Albert on October 16, 1916 and finally, after 5Vi years on March 27, 1922 came Louie, the youngest in the family. Altogether ten children were born to Joseph and Mary Perko, six in Colorado and four in Wisconsin. The only loss to the family in those early days was little Anna who at eight years of age died pneumonia on May 31, 1914, just three years after they first arrived in Willard.

Gradually with the passing years the children grew and through hard work, thrift, much worry and much prayer and church-going, the farm prospered. The original 2 room house which was blown off its temporary foundation in the big cyclone of 1918 was improved; a cellar dug under it, two bedrooms added, a cellar dug under these bedrooms and porches were put on front and on back.

The children were getting older and more restless and finally got the urge to move on. Joe and Mary left first in the early 1920's for Ely and Duluth. Joe married Milma Kangas in Ely in 1928 and Mary married Louis Landini in Duluth about that time. Felix went to Milwaukee and Chicago till retirement back in Willard.

Charlie and Olga went to Cleveland in the late 1920's. Olga picked husband Joe Zimmerman, a Clevelander. Charlie married Madeline Suda in 1930. They later moved to Lac du Flambeau where he and Madeline now live in comfortable retirement.

Edward found romance at Willard and married Elsie Zagar and then took over the General Store at Willard until retiring to gentleman farming in the early 1960's. Fred had married Helen Lindeman. He is now retired to the old farm at Willard.

Albert married Margaret Snyder on April 30, 1945. They live and work in New Orleans. Louie stayed home on the farm until the middle 1960's then he married Jenny Leuffel (now deceased). He now lives in Marshfield.

In the more recent years age and illness have gradually reduced the size of the Original Joseph Perko family. First Mother died of a stroke in 1944 at a fairly early age of 63. Then Father died in 1963 from complications following prostate surgery at the ripe age of 89. Joe followed then in 1978 from stroke and heart attack and Mary in 1980 from complications following an illness. Today seven of the original ten children still survive and thrive and look back on the old days on the farm with pleasant nostalgia and are just glad to be alive.

It can be said that the life of the Perko family sometimes was lacking in lightness and gayety and often filled with toil, drudgery, frugality and religious fervor, but it was a rewarding life. The trials and strains of the early life on the farm were powerful teachers and molders of strength, personality and perseverance. Such trials were never equaled or even approached in later life, so that almost any job or endeavor taken up seemed comparatively easy. The legacy handed down by our parents and our heritage is that hard work, thrift and religion as practiced by most of the Willard Slovenians are the best way to assure a success in life and a seat in Heaven for ourselves and our children.

Al Perko - New Orleans, September, 1980