I wrote about the Mikula Family in April of 2024, and at the end, I said I would tell you about Walter and Stanley, the two oldest boys in the family.
Quick recap, Aniela Liro Mikula was my grandmother Antonia’s older sister. Aniela and her husband, Josef, immigrated to the United States in 1903. Walter was born in 1903, and Stanley in 1904, about 18 months apart.
The Mikula children and the Jakiela children were not similar in age at all. My Uncle Steve was born in 1913, and Uncle Eddie in 1915, and they were the two oldest. The other three Jakiela siblings were born in 1920, 1922, and 1924. So even before Helen was born in 1920, three Mikula boys had died, as well as Aniela. I still marvel that my grandfather and Uncle Steve were able to lean on Josef to take Helen and Walter when their mother died in 1927, and again in 1935 when my grandfather died. The stories from Auntie Helen and Uncle Eddie were invaluable to my research and I’m so thankful that I had those conversations with them.
My Auntie Helen told me that the Mikula brothers lived with their family in Wallingford for a while, but they were “trouble” and her brother Steve told them to leave.
While searching Newspapers.com, I uncovered several newspaper articles recounting charges against Walter of drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with Stanley. The most egregious charge was against both of them in September 1934 for drunkenness and assaulting their 54-year-old father and 19-year-old sister, Kazmiera. Just terrible! I found additional articles for Walter’s drunken escapades after that incident.
A copy of Walter’s 1942 Draft Card has six addresses written and crossed out. Two of those addresses are locations in Waterbury, Connecticut. Another Auntie Helen story was that Walter worked for the New Haven railroad and coming back from a wedding he was driving and killed someone. The family attached his wages so he quit his job and took jobs they “couldn’t keep track of”.
Well, karma took care of that. The last article I found was for a car accident that occurred on Route 7 in Georgetown, Connecticut, on August 17, 1946. A man by the name of Walter J. Mikula, age 43, a resident of Bridgeport, died instantly in a car accident when the car went out of control and crashed into a tree. The driver sustained injuries. Take note, the accident occurred at 7:30 am. A subsequent article in the Record-Journal in October said the driver was criminally liable for Walter’s death.
I took the information from the articles, put on my Nancy Drew sleuthing cap, and tracked down where the death certificate would possibly be located. I’d forgotten there was even a Georgetown Connecticut! I made a call to the Wilton town clerk’s office and they had it there. $20 and I had it within the week.
A sad ending for a sad life.
Stanley appeared to get his life together. In 1936, He married Godaline Kowalski. They had a son, Edward, born in 1938, and a son, Ronald, born in 1942. Stanley worked for American Steel and Wire Company for many years, and they lived in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Stanley died at the VA Hospital in Rutland, Vermont, on January 19, 1964, at the age of 59. He had been confined there since September 1963. There is no record that he was a veteran of any war, so I’m not sure why he would have been there.
Early in my research journey, I sent out a lot of letters to names and addresses I found online. People, churches, cemeteries, anyone I could think of. I even dragged my sister and our kids up to the Palmer Library to go through their historical information.
One letter in 2000 to Stanley Mikula somehow made it to Godaline who was now 94 and in a nursing home. She wrote back and we exchanged a few letters but unfortunately, I never went to visit her.
Godaline passed away in 2006.
This is the end of the line for the family of Aniela and Joseph Mikula but I continue to try and connect to the DNA matches and will keep shaking those family trees!
It's All About Family 