John Suchomski was born June 25, 1852 in the village of Wysoka,
near Cekcyn, in what is now the powiat [county] of Tuchola, near Bydgoszcz,
Kujawy-Pomorze province, Poland. At that time, the village was in the Prussian
province of West Prussia [Westpreussen]. He was the sixth of seven children,
the third of three sons of Kazimierz Suchomski, a small tenant farmer and
barrelmaker, and his wife, Franciszka, nee Topolinski. John was baptized a
Roman Catholic in the parish church of Byslaw, Przemienienia Panskiego
[Transfiguration church], five miles away [1]. (In 1885, Byslaw had 98
houses and a population of 994 inhabitants [2]).
The year before John was born, his older sister, Agnieszka, died as a
result of scalding, aged three and a half years [3]. Before 1855, one of
his brothers died. Then, on March 8, 1855, his father died as the result
of what the death record called colic. His wife was left with two sons
and three daughters, the children all minors [4]. What became of
Franciszka after this is unknown.
On November 10, 1873, John, now living in Byslaw, married Hedwig
Myslinski in her Lubiewo parish church of sw. Mikolaja (St. Nicholas
church) [5]. He was 21 years old; she was 18. Between 1874 and
1879, they had three children recorded in the Lubiewo parish baptismal
register. John was listed as a katnik (in German, Käthner), one who lives
in the corner of someone else's room (a sharecropper?) [6]. In 1880,
Lubiewo had 147 houses and 970 people [7].
In 1880, John and his family moved to Chicago. At first they lived in
the neighborhood around Holy Trinity Roman Catholic church [8]. Later, they
moved to the area around St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic church.
Hedwig's brother, John Myslinski, a tailor, had already lived in Chicago
since 1869 [9]. In 1884, John Suchomski's younger sister Franciszka
Wielewicki moved to Chicago [10], [11]. In 1900, John listed his
occupation as a tailor. At that time, he had nine surviving children; had
been naturalized in 1888; and he could not write or speak English [12].
The Suchomskis' son, Leo, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1911 for his
participation, with five others, in the murder of Fred W. Guelzow, a truck farmer.
The other accused murderers, except for another minor, were sentenced to death
by hanging [13], [14]. Jane Addams [15] and others petitioned the governor of
Illinois for a stay of execution, which was granted; the four condemned men were hung
in 1912.
John and Hedwig celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in
1923. A big party took place at the home of their son, John, and was
attended by most of their surviving children, and fifteen grandchildren [16].
In June, 1925, John's wife died [17]. Three years later, he was
committed to Oak Forest Hospital, a Cook County, IL poor farm [18].
John died there on July 6, 1933 of emphysema. He was buried in St.
Adalbert cemetery, Niles, IL [19].
Digitized image of John Suchomski's death notice, July 8, 1933. Source: Dziennik Chicagoski (Polish language newspaper); Microfilm; Polish Museum of America Library, Chicago, IL.
Footnotes:
[1] Microfilm # 0071367, p. 145. Poland. Bydgoszcz. Byslaw
(Tuchola) - Church Records. Salt Lake City, UT: Family History Library.
[2] Sulimierski, Filip, ed. Geographical dictionary of the Kingdom of
Poland and other Slavic countries. Vol. 1. Warsaw: Sulimierski i
Walewski, 1880-1902, p. 506.
[3] Microfilm # 0502967. Poland. Bydgoszcz. Byslaw (Tuchola) -
Church Records. Salt Lake City, UT: Family History Library.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Microfilm # 1569312, item 4, p. 169. Poland. Bydgoszcz.
Lubiewo (Swiecie) - Church Records. Salt Lake City, UT: Family History
Library.
[6] Microfilm # 0529604. Poland. Bydgoszcz. Lubiewo (Swiecie) -
Church Records. Salt Lake City, UT: Family History Library.
[7] Sulimierski, op. cit., Vol. 5, p. 413.
[8] National Archives Microfilm Roll # 196. 1880 U.S. Census,
Chicago, Cook County, IL, E.D. 148, sht. 68. Chicago, IL: National
Archives - Great Lakes Region.
[9] Microfilm # 1577900, item 4, vol. 1a, p. 124. Illinois.
Cook County. Chicago - Church Records (St. Stanislaus Kostka).
Salt Lake City, UT: Family History Library.
[10] Death Certificate # 27785 (1915), Chicago, Cook County, IL
(in file for Claim # 6316, Polish Roman Catholic Union of America
Insurance Records). Chicago, IL: Polish Museum of America Library.
[11] Microfilm. Death Notice of Franciszka Wielewicka, Dziennik
Chicagoski, Oct. 25, 1915, p. 7. Chicago, IL: Polish Museum of America
Library.
[12] National Archives Microfilm Roll # 267, op. cit., E.D. 528, sht.
14.
[13] Microfilm. Chicago Police Department Homicide Records, 1870-1930, Vol. 2,
p. 58B. Chicago, IL: Illinois Regional Archives Depository, Ronald Williams Library,
Northeastern Illinois University. Leo is listed both as Leo Summers and as Leo Suchowski [sic].
A photograph of Leo Suchomski standing with Frank Kita, one of the other accused murderers,
appears on the Library of Congress Website, but it is mislabeled. As it is shown on the
webpage, Leo is on the left, and Frank is on the right. See also Leo's prison record.
[14] Chicago Record-Herald (December 3, 1911). pp. 1, 3.
Chicago Metro History Fair, University of Illinois at Chicago Website (link not operational).
[15] Jane Addams, "The Right to Petition," [1912] Swarthmore College Peace
Collection, Jane Addams Papers, Series 3, in JAMC (reel 47-0329-0334), Special
Collections, The University Library, The University of Illinois at Chicago.
Chicago Metro History Fair, University of Illinois at Chicago Website (link not operational).
[16] Microfilm. "50 Years of Married Life, Mr. and Mrs. J. Suchom-
ski," Dziennik Chicagoski, Nov. 14, 1923. Chicago, IL: Polish Museum
of America Library.
[17] Death Certificate # 17981 (1925), Chicago, Cook County, IL.
Chicago, IL: County Clerk's Office.
[18] Pamphlet. "The History of Oak Forest Hospital." Chicago, IL:
Cook County Bureau of Health Services, June, 1993.
[19] Death Certificate # 517 (1933), Bremen Township, Cook
County, IL. Chicago, IL: County Clerk's Office.
