Florian Stiglich was raised in Croatia and met and married Francis Cindric in Ogiline, Croatia. Florian and Francis had six children together. They were Mary Maragrite, Slava "Stella", Pete, Francis, Joseph, and George.
Sometime in the early 1900s, the Stiglich family immigrated to America. They traveled on the French liner La Savoy through Ellis Island in New York City. The trip on the overcrowded boat was a rough one, and at one point the boat was rocking so hard that Slava almost fell overboard.
Eventually the family made it's way to the Croatian/Serbian community of Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. The Stiglich family moved into a home on Sandusdky that they had to share with other families. Pop Stimach remembered that there were too many women and not enough kitchens and bathrooms for them to be very happy.
The oldest daughter, Mary, met and married Pop Stimac at the St. John's Catholic Church on Strawberry Hill. It wasn't long before they started having children of their own and in 1912, they had John. Unfortunately Mary didn't produce enough milk to feed him properly. Luckily, Francis had also just had a baby, George, and she would feed both babies at the same time. Usually John would fall asleep before he had finished eating. Mary Goodell remembered hearing that Francis would come up to feed John and everyday and they would supplement his diet with chamomile tea.
Mary Goodell remembered that "Grandma would bring lemon drip candies, cookies, breads, sausages and other goodies when she came to visit. She would try to visit once a week and Johnny would meet her in a buggy at the streetcar. She always brought material to make the girl's dresses" and would by licorice for the boys.
Mary and her sister, Stella Belke, also remembered how the Croatian wives would get together and bake lots of povitica and strudel as well as cookies and other sweets. Stella continued making povitica for the rest of her life.
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