The 2022 Bartlett address

In light of the current events in eastern Europe that has produced millions of people seeking a new life in a new land, I thought I would share some of my ancestry and how it has influenced my career decisions and approach to life. When my paternal grandfather, Joseph Sertich was 3 years old, his mother died giving birth to his baby sister. Four years later while Joseph and his father were cutting timber in a forest near Nova Kapala, Yugoslavia (just east of Zagreb, Croatia) Joseph’s father was crushed by a falling tree, leaving his 2 children orphans. Local farmers were willing to look after Joseph as he had experience caring for sheep and goats, but my grandfather always said that his sister died of a broken heart. It is easy to understand that what likely was an unthrifty 4-year-old girl did not thrive as an orphan. My grandfather worked on farms in Croatia and Germany and eventually made his way to the United States in 1911. He married my grandmother, Effie Polyan and they managed the boarding house at the Nemacolin Coal Mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. When cars became more readily available and men began to commute to work from home, the boarding house closed. In 1938 he built and operated Sertich General Store in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania with his wife and 4 children, my father being the youngest. There was a slaughterhouse behind the store where they finished livestock and provided custom dressing of stock, that produced beef, lamb, pork, chickens and a variety of smoked meats/sausages for sale in the store. This is where I grew up (lived above the store) as my parents took over management of the operation in 1955. In spite of 2 milk venders selling dairy products in our store, we always kept our own milk cow so we could have real milk for our family consumption.

At 12 years of age my maternal grandfather, Josef Klimek immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in 1909 from Mszana Gorna, Poland with his oldest sister, Anna and her husband. When their father died, Anna, being the eldest of the family returned to Poland to deal with her father’s funeral and settle family affairs. World War I broke out and Anna never returned to the United States. Josef made his way to southwestern Pennsylvania’s coal region and worked at the Richeyville Coal Mine. He met Mr. Kois who suggested he might want to marry 1 of his 5 daughters. My grandfather thought it was a good idea and married Rose, the youngest and biggest of the Kois girls. Eventually they saved enough money working at the mine to buy a dairy farm in Carmichaels. Josef got work at the Nemacolin Coal Mine. My grandmother Rose managed the dairy, milking up to 35 cows twice a day and had 8 children of which 6 survived.

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