Year 2024 Wrapup

It’s January already – what??!!?!

I cringe looking back at my 2023 wrapup post where I laid out all kinds of ambitious sub-projects toward, and including, actual writing for the book. To be brutally honest, I can’t say I finished much of anything last year. Which isn’t to say I didn’t do anything related to this project, but combined with a lot of personal concerns, things didn’t work out anything like I planned. So with that in mind, instead of concentrating only on what I did (or didn’t do), I’ll work in a retrospective on the year that was in Carpatho-Rusyn Pennsylvania.

Had a great time and represented my work along with the Carpatho-Rusyn Society at the Johnstown Slavic Festival in September.

Many of these things I highlighted on my Facebook page as they happened. (I did post about a dozen times to my Instagram page as well.)

Portions of a list of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrant pioneer settlers to Pottstown

Something I started a few years ago, compiling lists of the pioneer Rusyn immigrants in certain places, I continued this year. I’ve now got usable, perhaps definitive, lists for:

• Pottstown, Montgomery Co.;
• Alden Station, Glen Lyon, and Nanticoke, Luzerne Co.;
• Maizeville / Gilberton / Mahanoy Plane, Schuylkill Co.;
• Middleport / Cumbola / Brockton / New Philadelphia, Schuylkill Co.;
• Lehighton, Carbon Co.;
• Slatington, Lehigh Co.;
• Bethlehem, Northampton Co.;
• Berwick, Columbia Co.;
• MacDonaldton, Somerset Co.;
• Altoona, Blair Co.;
• Nanty Glo and Wehrum / Vintondale, Cambria Co.;
• New Alexandria, Westmoreland Co.;
• Charleroi, Washington Co.

I was also able to see a few last parishes’ metrical records to gather data on immigrants’ places of origin, including St. John’s Orthodox Church of Alpha, New Jersey (yes, New Jersey) – which sits almost on the border with Pennsylvania and had a number of members in Pennsylvania, especially in Easton and West Easton.

In January, at Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church in McKees Rocks, Allegheny Co., Dean Poloka presented "From Rus' to the Rocks: A Brief History of Our Rusyn Roots." The presentation was filmed and can still be seen on Facebook.

In February, my review of Paul Robert Magocsi Carpatho-Ruthenica Collection: An Exhibition Catalog, compiled by Natalia Barykina, Allison Graham, and Ksenya Kiebuzinski, was published in the journal Slavic & East European Information Resources. Always great to add another peer-reviewed journal publication to my CV!

Also that month, I shared to Facebook a post by the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia highlighting Ss. Peter & Paul Church of Mount Carmel. I added this info:

Saints Peter & Paul Church of Mt. Carmel, Northumberland County, is one of the numerous parishes of Carpatho-Rusyn origin in the Philadelphia Archeparchy. By my estimate, during the immigrant era about 60% of the members were Lemkos, 35% were Subcarpathian Rusyns (mostly from the Prešov Region), and the remainder Galician Ukrainians. There were even a few Hungarian families and some of the Subcarpathian families identified as Slovaks. A large number of Lemkos left the parish in 1907 to establish St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Church down the street…

I followed it up with a post appealing to readers who might have certain photographs:

Here's a selection of photos of the parish's first church and the second church that served the parish from 1914-1991 when it was destroyed by fire.

I don't have too many historical photos from Ss. Peter & Paul's community, and I especially want to find a color interior photo of the 1914 church before it burned down. (I'd also love to have some old photos of parish groups or fraternal brotherhood/sisterhood groups.) Can you help?

I haven’t received anything; the appeal is still open!

In March, while cleaning out some old stuff at my mother’s home, I came upon a set of old display materials that were kind of cool. Many years ago, for fun, I did quite a few Carpatho-Rusyn culture & history displays at ethnic festivals in Pennsylvania. For one or more festivals in northeastern Pa. I did a series of church chain migration posters for display. I found them (21 in all) and saw that some of the glue had worn out and the pix/labels & red arrows were starting to fall off. Before tossing them I photographed them, and posted some of the more interesting ones to Instagram and Facebook.

 

Then on Holy Saturday, I found myself in Schuylkill County to get some authentic kolbasa from a store in Shenandoah. I then headed up the hill to Shenandoah Heights to the historic St. Michael's Greek Catholic (Ukrainian Catholic) Cemetery dating back to 1885 or so (the parish was founded in 1884).

While I'd photographed the immigrant tombstones there several times, I thought I would focus that day on some of the more interesting stones that are Instagram-worthy. Quite a few are inscribed in the Cyrillic alphabet (one could term the language of most of them either archaic Rusyn or Ukrainian, while none are in modern Ukrainian) and many include the deceased person's European birthplace. (This was one (actually in two parts: part 1 | part 2) of my few Instagram posts this year! But I also posted the set to Facebook.)

I also took such photos in St. Mary’s Byzantine/Greek Catholic Cemetery #1 in Mahanoy City, although for lack of time I haven’t posted them.

In May, the Greek Catholic Union (GCU) celebrated the grand (re)opening of the GCU Museum in the lower level of its St. Nicholas Chapel on its headquarters grounds in Beaver, Beaver Co.

In June, my travels took me to the historical cement-producing towns of Northampton County. One of my stops was Martins Creek, near the Delaware River, longtime home of the Alpha Portland Cement Company, to see if the once substantial Carpatho-Rusyn community left much evidence of their presence. (Spoiler: they really did not.)

On this same trip I visited the Treasury of Faith Museum of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia at their chancery and cathedral in Philadelphia. I met with the museum director and the archeparchy’s archivist. I was very pleased to hear from the archivist that although the archives are in the process of reorganization, she is open to fielding requests I might have about various parishes and such. Looking forward to following up on this in 2025!

Also that month, Eastern Christian Publications reprinted the groundbreaking study by Walter C. Warzeski, Byzantine Rite Rusins in Carpatho-Ruthenia and America, originally published in 1971 by the Byzantine Seminary Press.

 

In September, I attended the 90th annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Mount Saint Macrina in Uniontown, Fayette Co., with several thousand Byzantine Catholics of Carpatho-Rusyn descent.

Two weeks later, I joined with other Carpatho-Rusyn community activists from the Carpatho-Rusyn Society to present a Carpatho-Rusyn heritage information table at the 9th annual Polacek Family Johnstown Slavic Festival in Johnstown, Cambria Co. Below is a handout I produced and distributed, "Chronology of Carpatho-Rusyn History in Greater Johnstown."

 

In October, I attended the Washington, D.C./Annandale, Virginia celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Ruthenian Byzantine/Greek Catholic Church in the U.S., marking the 1924 arrival of its first bishop, Basil Takach, and the beginning of the exarchate that included all parishes with a Subcarpathian Rusyn majority (as opposed to Galician/Ukrainian) as well as Hungarian-identified and Croatian Greek Catholic parishes.

A few weeks later I attended the Carpatho-Rusyn Society’s 30th anniversary celebration in Pittsburgh. I was one of 8 founders of the organization way back in 1994.

That weekend I also attended the 42nd Annual Carpatho-Rusyn Celebration of St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Uniontown, Fayette Co.

Local historian Ron Kramer, of Lemko heritage, gave a presentation "Eastern European Immigrants of the Minersville Area 1870-1910" at the Minersville [Schuylkill Co.] Area Historical Society speakers series.

In November, I attended the 56th annual convention of ASEEES in Boston but didn’t have a paper to present this time. Yet it was probably my favorite ASEEES yet (perhaps due to a lack of pressure, not having to present anything). A small group of Rusyn scholars from Slovakia and Poland were in attendance and I got to spend some time with them--both old friends and new friends! I also for the first time got to see Harvard University’s campus, on a walking tour led by none other than former faculty member Prof. Paul Magocsi!

Part of the ASEEES Rusyn scholars group on walking tour of Harvard (photo: lem.fm)

In December, St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church of Nesquehoning, Carbon Co., worked with the Nesquehoning Historical Society to make a live presentation of the Carpatho-Rusyn Christmas caroler tradition of the “jasličkari.”

Volunteers from the Carpatho-Rusyn Society Eastern PA Chapter and Ss. Peter & Paul Byzantine Catholic Church decorated a Carpatho-Rusyn Christmas Tree on display at the Outlets at Wind Creek in Bethlehem, Northampton Co.

And I wrote my first-ever Foreword, for a friend’s book coming soon that will be an important contribution to the history of Carpatho-Rusyns and their descendants in the U.S. I won’t give away the subject but if you know what the “Sokol” was, there’s a clue on the broader topic. 😊

In 2024, several Pennsylvania churches of Carpatho-Rusyn origin celebrated notable anniversaries:

• St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, Hazleton, Luzerne Co., 130th (July)
• St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church, Hazleton, Luzerne Co., 135th (August)
• St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church, Mont Clare, Montgomery Co., 125th (September)
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic Church, Levittown, Bucks Co., 70th (November)
• Holy Trinity Byzantine Catholic Church, Philadelphia (North Philadelphia/Oak Lane), 100th (November)
• St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Olyphant, Lackawanna Co., 120th (December)

In sad church news, the historic Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne Co., founded in 1900 by now-Saint Alexis Toth, was closed in September and merged with nearby Holy Trinity Orthodox Church as a result of dwindling membership and mounting challenges with maintaining the structurally deteriorating, large cathedral building.

I closed the year by actually posting on this blog – twice in one week, although straddling the new year – by calling out two outstanding books that were published in 2024. Both were notable because 1) they provide some groundbreaking information on Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants in Pennsylvania, 2) I contributed to some elements of each, and 3) they are just that awesome! So once more, I invite you to learn more about From Thatched-Roof Houses to Immigrant Entrepreneurship: First Generation Lemko-American Businessmen, by Bogdan Horbal, and Andy Warhol's Mother: The Woman Behind the Artist, by Elaine Rusinko.

 

So what do I expect from 2025? I already have two potential speaking engagements, one virtual, the other in Pittsburgh; more to come when details are set. It looks like my contribution to a roundtable at ASEEES in 2023 will soon be published with the entire set of papers in a Rusyn journal in Europe. And of course I have a long-overdue paper on Carpatho-Rusyn identity in two disparate and unsung areas of the state that I hope will appear in the Pennsylvania History journal. Please stay tuned, and have an excellent year!

Original material is © by the author, Richard D. Custer; all rights reserved.