John SLIPKE

John SLIPKE  Father Mother Franz SLIPKA Mary BURESH

Mary KATELS  Father Mother KATELS ?

Married: 6 July, 1885

One child, unnamed, died at birth

John Slipka was born in Bohemia in the fall of 1860. He was only 9 months old when he immigrated to America with his family. His family first settled in Milwaukee Wisconsin. At the age of about 24, after his father died, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, with his brothers and mother. The 1886 St. Paul city directory gives John Slipke occupation as a boxmaker, working for Blodgett & Osgood. A year earlier he was living with his mother and brothers Frank, Henry, and James. I have a copy of a wedding photograph that I believed to be of my grandparents, however, there is no identification on it. When visiting a cousin, Robert Carl, in Tulare, California, he showed me a wedding photo of our grandparents that did not match the one I had. The man in the two photos was similar but the lady was altogether different. I eventually traced the origin of the photograph and found that it had been made in St. Paul, Minnesota, so I began a search in the vital records there. I found a marriage license issued to John Slipke and Mary Katels on June 27, 1885, and a record of their marriage on July 6,1885. A further search revealed that Mary [Katels] Slipke died in childbirth in May 1886 and the baby lived  only five weeks. (Willis Dallons)

This wedding photo,taken in St. Paul ,MN, is possibly that of John Slipke and Mary Katels

When John Slipke lost his wife and baby in a matter of a few weeks, he must have been filled with despair. He left St. Paul for Salina, Kansas. We know that John, and his brother James, had lived earlier near Salina, Kansas, as they are listed in the 1880 national census of that year. John gave his age as 18, and James as 17. It is quite possible that John had met Mary Magette when he was working as a farm hand in Kansas, as the census shows that he was living in the same township as the Magette family. At that time Mary would have been 15 years old. We can only guess at the train of events that became part of our family history. Shortly after the death of his first wife, John was back in Kansas, and married Mary Magette on September 28, 1886.

Name Changes

John's last name changed during his youth. He was born John SLPKA in Bohemia, and imigrated to America under the name SLIPKA. The St. Paul city directories givesthe family name as SLIPKE, whereas the census gives the name as SLIPKA. John;s mother remaired using the name SLIPKA, whereas his younger Henry brother was married with the name SLIPKY. John married Mary Magette using the name SLIPKE, but their first child Gertrude, was listed as a SLIPKA in the cemetery records. All of John's brothers in Minnesota eventually used the name SLIPKA.

Family of John Slipka and Mary Magette

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