The Strauss Family

Joseph Strauss and Katherine Knoch lived and met in Posługowo, Poland—a small farming community. They were married in 1855. Their first son, John Johan Strauss, was born in Poland in May of 1856. Their second son, Michael Strauss, was born 13 years later in Poland in 1869.

John Johan Strauss married Mary Marianne Kabaczinska in 1884 in Poland. On Saturday, April 3, 1886, John and Mary left Poland for the United States.

On Sunday,  April 24, 1887, Joseph, Katherine, and Michael (age 18) boarded the SS Lessing in Hamburg, Germany. They arrive in New York on Friday, May 6, 1887. Their journey from Posługowo took about 15 days, with 12 days at sea.

Michael met Johanna Makowski in New York and married her on February 4, 1894.

Thus began the start of today's Strauss family tree.

This history of the Strauss family is being written in 2023, well over a century later. To help recount the family history, we've tapped the memories of the family elders:

• Virginia Lubowiecki, granddaughter of Michael and Johanna Strauss, and daughter of Kinga Strauss Lubowiecki, turned 100 years old in December 2023. She's spent hours answering our questions about the family. Sadly, she died two months later.
• Phyllis Gozelski Meyer, also a granddaughter of Michael and Johanna Strauss, and daughter of Lillian Strauss Gozelski, turns 90 years old on October 24, 2023. She has also helped with family history. Sadly, Phyllis passed away on August 25, 2023—two months before her birthday.

Here's one of the earliest photos of the family from 1912. From left to right: Mary Strauss, Frank Strauss, Lillian Strauss, Kinga Strauss, Johanna Makowski Strauss, Hattie Strauss, Helen Strauss, Michael Strauss, and Jane Strauss.

Here's a view of the first three generations of the Strauss family, starting with Joseph and Katherine Strauss.

Coming to America

Emmigrating from Poland to the United States was a journey that involved traveling by train from their village in Poland to Hamburg, Germany, and then crossing the Atlantic on a steamship. This map shows the route traveled. Castle Garden is the immigration station in New York.

Poland to Hamburg

The two Strauss families boarded a train at the train station (pictured above) in Janowiec, a town about one mile away from Posługowo. That train station still stands today.

The train, running on line 281 (shown above), took them to Warsaw. From Warsaw, they took a train to Berlin or Leipzig—then to Hamburg. This journey took two to three days.

Note: Citizens in the area are trying to get Line 281 reactivated to restore train service to the region.

Long-distance railways between Poland and Germany came into being around 1850. They used coal-burning steam locomotives. The average speed during the journey was likely about 25-30 mph even though the train could get up to 50 mph on a straight track.

Here's a video of what that train may have looked like. The engine in this video is a later model than the one that took the Strauss families to Hamburg, but the noise and smoke were similar.

Hamburg to New York

John and Mary took the same route to New York as Joseph, Katherine, and Michael. They boarded a steamship in Hamburg, Germany, stopped in Le Havre, France, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Both families traveled in Steerage class.

The SS Lessing was a two-masted, single-screw, coal-powered steamship owned by the Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-American Line in English). It was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Ltd., Linthouse, Glasgow in 1874. Tonnage: 3,527. Dimensions: 374 x 39 feet. It was in service from 1876 to 1888.

Note that the photo above is the SS Lessing in early 1882. Later that year, the ship was rebuilt and a second funnel was added. These are drawings of various parts of the ship.

The last drawing is what steerage accommodations looked like. The SS Lessing was scrapped in 1897 in Marseilles, France.

They arrived in New York Harbor to see the Statue of Liberty under construction. John and Mary saw the statue one year earlier in its construction, perhaps without it's upper body as shown in the photo below. It was nearly completed when Joseph, Katherine, and Michael sailed into the harbor.

Their ship stopped at Castle Garden, Battery Park in Manhattan, New York. The Ellis Island immigration facility didn't open until 1892.

When they arrived in New York, they had to have a physical to ensure they were in good health. Health authorities in the United States were concerned about the numerous cholera pandemics that occurred in the 1800s.

Castle Garden, NY

Ellis Island physicals

Ellis Island in 1905

Great Blizzard of 1888

Joseph, Katherine, and Michael were in New York for about one year when the Great Blizzard of 1888 struck. The photo below shows a scene from New York City but conditions were similar on Long Island, where the Strauss families settled.

Electrification and telephone

In the above photo, notice the wires above the streets that carried electricity and telephone calls. Electricity was introduced to New York City in 1882 and telephones at about the same time. In 1879, Thomas Edison built the first commercial electric power station in Manhattan that provided power for 85 customers. By the end of the 1880s, electric lighting had become common in homes, businesses, and public spaces.

Electrification on Long Island occurred more slowly. By the mid-1880s, several Long Island communities, including Babylon and Northport, had established their own electric lighting companies, but the number of customers was small. It took years to get the infrastructure in place.

The first telephone exchange in New York City was established in 1878 by the American Bell Telephone Company, but telephone service was used only by businesses. By the end of the 1800s, there were thousands of subscribers.

Telephone systems on Long Island in the 1800s were more limited. The first telephone exchange on Long Island was established in 1881 in the village of Patchogue and had a small number of subscribers. Additional exchanges were slowly established in other Long Island communities. These exchanges were acquired by the Suffolk Telephone Company and the Nassau Telephone Company. In turn, they were acquired by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), in 1907.

Virginia Lubowiecki, daughter of Kinga Strauss, who was born in 1923 in New Hyde Park, New York, recalls always having electric power in her home, but they didn't have telephone service until about 1940, even though it was available years earlier.

New Hyde Park

Floral Park flowers

Most of the Strauss immigrants located in or around New Hyde Park and Floral Park, New York.

There will be a map here showing where people built homes.

Many of their children went to Sewanhaka High School, which was built in 1929. New Hyde Park Memorial High School opened in 1956, but Sewanhaka had vocational programs that attracted students who would otherwise go to New Hyde Park Memorial. Since they were Polish Catholic, many sent their children to St Hedwigs School or Holy Ghost School (renamed to Holy Spirit in 1965). There was also Our Lady of Victory in South Floral Park, but we don't know of Strauss family who went there.

A few relatives lived in the Mineola and Williston Park area. Some attended Mineola High School, which was originally located at 121 Jackson Avenue, Mineola, NY. Built in 1927, it was south of Jericho Turnpike, on the corner of Willis Avenue and Jackson Avenue. The new Mineola High School was built in 1962 and is located on Armstrong Avenue in Garden City Park - a few hundred feet away from the Mineola line.

Ed Sawicki Jr says he used to play on the huge empty lot that the new high school was built on, and remembers when that lot was on fire.

St Hedwigs Church and School

Citizenship revoked

At least two Strauss women had their U.S. citizenship revoked for marrying men who were not citizens. They were Kinga Strauss and Helena Strauss.

Kinga Strauss married Leon Lubowiecki on November 20, 1921. She lost her U.S. citizenship because Leon was not a citizen then, though he had resided in the U.S. since 1912.

Kinga remained a non-citizen for 39 years, unable to vote. On March 22, 1960, she applied to take an Oath of Allegiance to the United States. The judge who heard her case and presided over her oath apologized to her.

It was the Expatriation Act of 1907 that was responsible. American men did not lose their citizenship when they married immigrant women, however. You can get the details and feel a littile of the outrage from this NPR article: NPR: That Time American Women Lost Their Citizenship Because They Married Foreigners

The Cable Act (also known as the “Married Women’s Independent Nationality Act” or the “Married Women’s Act”) was passed on September 22, 1922 and repealed parts of the 1907 Expatriation Act.

You can get up-to-speed on immigration and citizenship issues from this article: U of Virginia: Dual Nationality: TR’s “Self-Evident Absurdity”

Also this: EXPATRIATION ACT OF 1907

Potato farming

Potato farming was a significant industry on Long Island in the early 1900s, particularly in the eastern part of the island. The region's potato harvests were so abundant that it was known as the “potato capital of the world.” The potatoes grown on Long Island were shipped to markets throughout the United States, where they were sold at roadside stands, markets, and grocery stores.

It's no surprise then that Strauss family members were attracted to potato farming. Sisters Lillian and Johanna “Jane” Strauss married brothers John and William Gozelski. They were sons of potato farmer Adolf Gozelski. Here's a photo of Adolf (in the driver's seat) delivering a load of potatoes to New York City.

William and Jane moved to Hornell, New York and later to Gainesville, New York and started their own potato farm that eventually expanded to 643 acres. Their sons William Jr, George, Peter, and Edwin (Joe) grew up in the potato business and all except William Jr had farms of their own in the area, farming on land that belonged to the family.

Years later, the sons got out of the business when their own sons and daughters went to college and sought other professions. The family still retains ownership of the land but rents it out to other growers. Most of the potatoes grown are used for potato chips.

John and Lillian Gozelski's daughter, Phyllis, married potato farmer Joseph Louis “Doey” Meyer in 1958. They moved to Cohockton, New York and started a potato farm that is now a 2,000 acre enterprise. The farm is run by their sons Joe and John.

George Gozelski, son of Bill and Jane, started a company called Ski's Potato Chips in Gainesville, New York. They manufactured potato chips, using their own potatoes, and delivered to customers across western New York State. The entire family pitched in when they could. Ski's eventually stopped operating when there was not enough labor to keep up with the work involved with both farming and manufacturing chips.

Milk delivery

The Sawicki and Lubowiecki families were involved in the milk delivery industry since the turn of the century.

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