The Stimach Family History
Ivan John "Pop" Stimach
The original spelling of the name was Stimac and was Croatian in origin. Ivan "Pop" Stimac was born in the village of Pozarnica in the Delnice area of the state of Zagreb in Croatia on February 27, 1891. His father was also named Ivan and his mother was Mary Mufuic.
Pop was one of seven children of Ivan and Mary. He had three sisters who died while they were very young and three brothers. Anthony, Joseph, and a third brother who also died very young. Pop's father had been a store and tavern owner, but had lost his business due to illness and had moved the family to Pozarnica before Pop was born. Pozarnica was a very small village and Pop described it as having only "four houses as the complete town." Pop's mother, Mary, sold homemade wine and whiskey and was also a herbalist or "pharmacist" for Pozarnica and the surrounding area.
Pop described his father as being "over six feet tall with brown hair" and his mother as being "tall with black hair and a round face." In Pozarnica, Ivan worked in timber and farming, but by the early 1900s he was unable to work due to old age and Mary had to support the family financially.
Pop's older brothers came to the US seeking work in the lumber industry and on October 20, 1908, Pop immigrated on the French ship "Lan Riniere" through New Orleans. He was only seventeen years old at the time and had to borrow the money for the trip from Anthony. The trip had cost him $250 and Pop had to pay his brother 40% interest on the loan. So much for brotherly love. Ed remembers his father telling him that when he left home, his mother, Mary, accompanied him to the train station on an ox cart. He took the train to France and from there departed for America.
When he arrived in the US, he was hungry and he noticed a young boy selling a large basket of apples. Pop only had a five dollar bill, which was a lot of money in those days, but he hadn't yet learned enough English to communicate well. He approached the boy intending to buy one apple and pointed to the basket of apples and held out the five dollar bill. The boy was very happy as he took the money and ran off leaving Pop with a large basket of apples. Needless to day, Pop ate a lot of apples for the next week or so. He found work as a lumberjack about seventy miles from Oaksgrove, Louisiana, where he stayed and worked for four months making $4.00 a day. He would saw down trees and split them into stakes.
After working for a time in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Pop met a man named Clepcheck, who worked with him as a lumberjack. Clepcheck invited Pop to come and visit his family on Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. While visiting, Pop attended a wedding at St. John's Catholic Church and met Mary Stiglich. It was love at first sight as the two were married three months later in 1911.
Pop's mother died on the day she learned that Pop had married Mary. It's been surmised that she was very upset because she knew that when Pop married in the U.S. that he would not be returning home to Croatia. However, Pop's older brother, Anthony had sent all the money he had earned home to his wife in Croatia and eventually returned home. Unfortunately, World War I broke out and Anthony was captured and sent to a Prisoner of War Camp where he died of lice infestation and disease. Pop's father died the same year.
Pop and Mary lived at 319 Barnett on Strawberry Hill and joined St. John's. They made their first major purchase three years into their marriage when they bought a large dresser. Pop had many jobs over the years in Kansas City, Kansas. He worked in construction, stone masonry, and helped build the viaduct connecting Kansas City, Kansas with Kansas City, Missouri. During the Depression he worked in the government's Works Project Association. It paid $6.00 a week and they built infrastructure like roads, bridges, water lines, dykes and dams.
Pop and Mary had eleven children. They are John, Stella, Joseph, Frank, Mary, Anthony, Peter, Helen, Edward, Albert, and Ernest. Peter, however, died only two days old.
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