The Nichols-Kulick Family (Pt 9 Conclusion) - The Return of the Sisters' Club

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There were a total of 14 children in the Nichols-Kulick family, nine (9) girls and five (5) boys.  I was happy to have something to say about the boys in this series because information on them is scarce.  One thing that was compelling to me about the work of Cousin Donald was the luck that where I was missing photos of one of the boys, he would have a story, and where his information grew cold, I had a photo.

The ladies of the family were a little easier to document because they all stayed somewhat close to each other, even forming what was called "The Sisters' Club".  They would occasionally meet (once a month) at someone's home for an afternoon and would enjoy their time together until the husbands came after their working day to also join in the visit.

One such meeting was documented in the 1930s at Grandmother's home and here are the three priceless photos shown once more with a little comprehensive history of all the Nichols-Kulick siblings.



Mary Temme (March 5, 1883 - January 1, 1953)  Married with two children. (No grandchildren)


Herman Nichels (December 22, 1885 - October 16, 1970)  Never married & no children


Anna (Ann) Berg (June 15, 1886 - October 31st, 1976)  Married with three children


Emma Ash (November 11, 1886 - January 14, 1981)  Married with one child.

Richard Nichols (January 14, 1888- December 13, 1965) Married twice with two children


Minnie Stein (September 6, 1888 - March 13, 1980)  Married with no children.


Charles (Charley) Kulick (October 7, 1889 - September 1, 1960) Never married & no children.

Alma Schemanske (August 20, 1890 - April 11, 1954) Married with three children

Mamie (May) Metzner (June 8, 1892 - November 21, 1963) Married with one child.

(Harry) Frederick (Freddie) Kulick (unknown) No history of his life.

Harriet (Hattie) Herman (unknown) Married with one child.

Martha Findahl (November 8, 1899-March 8, 1980) Married with two children

Helen (Lannie) Pahs (January 16, 1902-August 16, 1971) Married with two children

Walter Kulick (December 18, 1905-March 8, 1978) Married with two children

BACK:  Helen, Alma, Mamie, Anna, Mary
CENTER:  Hattie, Martha, Emma
FRONT:  My mother Marjorie and Helen's daughter Shirley

(Note: The only missing sister is Minnie Stein, who would appear in the next two photos.)

BACK:  Alma, Martha, Mary, Anna, Mamie, Beatrice (Anna's daughter)
CENTER:  Helen (holding daughter Joyce), Hattie, Emma, Minnie
FRONT:  Betty & Margie Findahl, Shirley (Helen's daughter)

BACK:  Alma, Mary, Anna, Helen, Mamie, Minnie, Emma
FRONT:  Hattie & Martha

BACK:  Alma (holding my Aunt Betty?), Martha, Mary, Helen, Gladys (Mary's daughter)
FRONT:  Norman & Joe? (Alma's sons), Donald Ash, (?), (?)

In closing I would like to thank our cousin Don Ash once more for starting this project for us so many years ago and giving me the foundation I could use to try and put some of the pieces of the puzzle together. There is a sense of family I can have now with these folks as never before. It has always fascinated me, the mystery of what lives they had so long ago and it's a wonderful feeling to now finally come home to them.

I can't think of anything better than letting Donald have the last word:

I would like to tell a little story about Uncle Walter and my dad because Uncle Walter used to like to tell it to me. My mother had some relatives living on a farm near Utica, Michigan. It seems this one time when Mom and Dad went to visit, Uncle Walter (who was also visiting) had to meet them at the end of the street car line with his wagon so he could carry their suitcases back to the farm.

As they started back they had to pass a grocery store and meat market. Well, I guess Dad was hungry and smelling the aroma of the fresh bread he proceeded to buy a loaf and some lunch meat and then they sat down on the edge of the ditch and had a bite to eat before they went to the farm. Uncle Walter never forgot their little picnic by the side of the road.

Well, for now this is the end of the Nichols-Kulick family tree as I know it. When I receive more information I will pass it on. That's all she wrote.      - Donald Ash

Not certain of all the folks shown here but I see Donald Ash and his dad Clarence (second & third from the left)

So as we leave these folks to enjoy their Sunday drive I can truthfully say it's a wonderful feeling to touch one's past. After all, their story is our story.     - John C Stoskopf

The Nichols-Kulick Family (Pt 8) - Martha, Helen & Walter

                                                              

Mother Caroline, Mamie? (back); Martha (center), Walter & Helen (front) -early 1910s-

Since I will celebrate Grandmother's life in more detail this November, this section concerning her will be short. I am happy to share this confirmation photo of her not shown previously.

Grandmother Martha Adeline Kulick (ca. 1914)

Cousin Donald Ash concludes our story:

Martha A. Kulick was born on November 8, 1899 in Detroit, MI. What kind of work Aunt Martha did when she was a young girl I don't know. (John Stoskopf: Mother Marjorie seems to recall her working at a paint company. I know the story goes she was called home from work the day her mother Caroline passed away September 25, 1922.)

Martha Kulick Findahl (early 1920s)

Martha & Gordon Findahl (1920s)

She married Gordon Findahl who was born on Nobember 1, 1896 in Galesburg, IL. When he came to Detroit he worked as a foreman for Ford Motor Company at the Rouge Plant.

Aunt Martha and Uncle Gordon raised two daughters, Betty and Marjorie. Growing up in Detroit, they would visit their grandparents and cousins in Galesburg and Betty eventually met and married a young man from Galesburg by the name of Paul Johnson. There they raised a family of four children. Paul worked for the Burlington Railroad until he retired.

Marjorie is the same age as my wife Bernice and they went to school together. She married Robert C. Stoscup who was born on March 24, 1927. Bob worked for the Detroit Edison Company and together they raised three children.

Uncle Gordon Findahl passed away on May 31, 1958 and Aunt Martha passed away on March 8, 1980. Both are buried in Acacia Park Cemetery in Beverly Hills, MI.

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Helen C. Kulick (early 1910s)

Helen C. Kulick was born on January 16, 1902 in Detroit, MI. We always called her Aunt Lannie. I can't tell you about her early life. (John Stoskopf: Mom remembers her as a quiet and gentle person.)

Helen Kulick Pahs sits with husband August Pahs. Behind are Amanda Schmanske & unidentified man.

Helen married August Pahs who was born on November 22, 1899 and passed away on July 8, 1963. Uncle Auggie worked for C.F. Smiths, a large grocery chain, as a store manager and later as a representative for them. They had two daughters Shirley and Joyce.

(John Stoskopf: The only photographs we have of Shirley and Joyce are from one of the 'sister's club' collection which I'll post in the concluding chapter.)

Shirley married Tom LaGrasso, who with his sons and brothers operate the LaGrasso Produce Company in Detroit. They had six children. Joyce married a man named Mr. Montfort and they raised a family.

(John Stoskopf: Shirley was born on February 20, 1925 and passed away August 28, 1998. We lost touch with what happened to Joyce.)

Helen passed away on August 16, 1971.

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Walter H. Kulick, the youngest of the 14 Nichols-Kulick children, was born on December 18, 1905 in Detroit, MI.

Walter H. Kulick (early 1910s)

Aunt Agnes, his wife, gave me these dates and a little information of the family. It seems Uncle Walter had to tell a little fib about his age to get a job working for the railroad. It was the Michigan Central Railroad which was affiliated with the New York Central Railroad and he was with them until he retired.

He met Agnes Krisan when she was working as a waitress and kept asking her to marry him until she finally said yes and they were married December 2, 1933. Agnes was born on December 13, 1913 in East Chicago, Indiana. Her parents were from Austria and spoke Hungarian as the second language in their home.

Martha with her brother Walter Kulick (1920s)

John Stoskopf: We knew Uncle Walter and Aunt Agnes well and am sorry to say (at the time of this original posting) we don't seem to have more photographs of Walter as an adult or of Aunt Agnes.


Updated February 8, 2015:  Photo finally located (courtesy the Johnson Family)

Martha with her brother Walter Kulick (1970s)

Grandmother Martha was close to her younger brother Walter. With their mother dying when Walter was still a teenager, Martha watched over him. Mom knows Walter stayed with Martha for a while and it must have been soon after Martha married Gordon because all of these events took place in 1922.


Updated February 8, 2015:  Photo courtesy the Johnson Family.

Back:  Cousin Bill Johnson & Walter Kulick (1970s)

Front:  Aunt Betty Johnson, Martha Kulick Findahl & Agnes Kulick (1970s)

A story Martha told my mother was a memory of a very young Walter coming home and being sad because he'd met a girl he liked but he knew she didn't feel the same in return. The two of them would share their emotions together, Grandma consoling her little brother telling him one day he would meet the right one. Of course he eventually did with Aunt Agnes.

Aunt Agnes Krisan Kulick represented her family when Grandma Martha passed away in 1980. Her signature on the flowers she sent us is shown here.

Uncle Walter and Aunt Agnes raised two daughters, Carol (born August 30, 1934) and Mary Ann (August 2, 1939). Carol's married name is Berrigan and she has one son. Marry Ann married Tom Purdham and they had a son and a daughter.

Aunt Agnes became a beautician working in a beauty shop eventually owning her own shop; all of this taking place after the girls were grown up.

Her and Uncle Walter lived in Sterling Heights, MI. Walter passed away on March 8, 1978. (John Stoskopf: Agnes passed away April 19, 1998.)

Carol & Mary Ann Kulick (early 1940s)

                    

The Nichols-Kulick Family (Pt 7) - Freddie & Hattie

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John Stoskopf writes:

Where one trail goes cold, other clues fall into place!  This is one point in our story where I am so happy that I personally have something to contribute.

Up until now we had no exact date when Frederick Kulick married Caroline Rienas-Nichols creating the Nichols-Kulick family.  Doing a search on the internet I have located a record which states a Frederick Kulik (note spelling) married Caroline Nickel (note spelling) on September 1, 1894 in Detroit, MI!

What is more, it states Frederick Kulik was from Germany and his father's name was Jacob Kulik and his mother's name was Dorathea Jablonki.

As mentioned before, Caroline had five children with her now deceased husband, Mr. Nichols and Frederick had four children of his own with his previous wife.  (There is speculation that Mrs. Kulick might be buried along side other Kulicks in a large Forest Lawn cemetery plot owned by Frederick.  Other than that her story is unknown.)

Harriet (Hattie), Martha, Frederick (Freddie), Anna (Ann) & Mamie (May) Kulick (ca. 1903)

This photo is what I believe to be our oldest photo from my Grandmother's side of the family which I'm estimating to have been taken around 1903. (Coincidentally that is the same year estimated for the oldest photo we have of my Grandfather's family as well.)

The oldest and tallest child shown is unmistakably Anna (Ann) Kulick.  She was born in 1886.

Next to her is whom I believe to be Mamie (May) Kulick born in 1892, the youngest of the nine children up until now.

We speculate that after Frederick and Caroline were married their first child together was Frederick (Freddie) Kulick but we have no concrete information on him whatsoever.  I'm certain this is him shown here, the only male child in the photo.

On the extreme left is whom I believe to be Harriet (Hattie) Kulick and judging from the photograph she looks younger to me than Freddie.

In-between them both is my grandmother, Martha Kulick.  We know Martha was born at the end of 1899.

Frederick (Freddie) Kulick

This is all we have on Frederick, besides the previous photograph. Absolutely nothing else survives except a personal experience of him that I share with my mother.

When I first saw this picture, I somehow knew him.  Of course that is impossible right?  Then I remembered when I was a kid and we'd visit Grandma's house there was a doll my mother had as a child, a red-headed rag doll of sorts we knew as "Freddie".  I used to love to go up in Grandma's attic and look through all the artifacts and treasures from a family past, therefore I knew "Freddie" well.

Looking at this photo Mom agrees, he is "Freddie".  In fact it was none other than Grandma Martha, Fred's younger sister who told my mother when she first got her doll, "Name him Freddie."  We believe she had warm feelings toward her older brother.  That is what survives him.

It is interesting to note on this photo Martha writes "Harry Fred Kulick".  Perhaps it is the only record of his true name.

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Harriet Kulick (ca. 1930s)

Everybody called her Hattie.  As with Freddie, we have no birth date or date she passed away.

We do know she married Norman (Red) Herman who worked for the old Hupp Automobile Company.  Unfortunately we have no photographs of Norman.

Harriet Kulick (ca. 1930s)

We do have a memory from my mother about Hattie though.  Mom recalls Grandma Martha saying that Hattie was a talented woman. If there was a social gathering to go to she could sew a dress in no time.  She could also play a piano.

Louis Herman

Hattie and Norman had one son, Louis born on July 2, 1915.  Louis, like his mother was musical and he could play the organ.  This memory is emphasized by a story told to my mother from her brother in-law Gordon Stoscup.

Uncle Gordie played the organ and did so publicly at what was known as "Nau's Sno-White Dining Room" on Grand River Ave. in Detroit.  By chance, Louis Herman ran into Uncle Gordie playing one evening and found they had something in common.

Louis worked for Chrysler Corporation and with his wife Violet, we believe, had one son and one daughter.  Violet was born April 3, 1919 and died April 26, 1975 of pancreatic cancer.  I understand it was a brave battle from stories handed down.

Louis eventually remarried a lady named Shirley and they lived in Nokomis, Florida.  Louis passed away on June 5, 1998










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