My great grandfather, Kölcl Bernhard immigrated from Bveria, in Germany, specifically, in a town called Kringil. He came to America because he wanted to work for his uncle, who came there earlier and started a butcher shop that sold various other things. He also payed for other relatives to come to America. Usually the oldest son comes to America to work for the uncle, but his older brother was electrified in an accident, so Kölcl came instead. At first, he knew no English or education, and had no money. Eventually, though, from working hard at night school to learn English and become a citizen, and earning money during the day from chopping meat, he bought his own farm that he loved. He met his wife, Kristina, at her mother’s delicatessen luncheonette in Elizabeth, New Jersey, In 1928, 7 years before he bought the farm that my grandmother remembers so fondly. The store was called Hauswalds which is my older brothers middle name! When the farm was bought Kristina stopped working for her mother and began working on the farm and raising her family. My grandmother, Margo (us grandchildren call her Emmey), remembers her life growing up in the family with him as a father, saying that he was always busy working on the farm but he was happy with a loving and caring American wife. when asked to remember specific things about him, she says, He was always in good humor and loved to tease, he was a handsome man with beautiful blue eyes, and he was a fantastic and dogged polka dancer! Emmey remembers him always saying to her, “watch the pennies and the dollars will take of themselves”. When both his children went off to college and started families of their own, he retired by selling the farm to a developer and moving to a retirement village. There, he made lots of friends and was happy until his sorrowful death in 1988.
