Anna Veronica Berish
Page edited 28-Apr-22. ET
Anna Veronica (Berish) Timko - Born on Anna Biros on March 1, 1897 in Riddlesburg, Broadtop Township, Bedford County, PA. She was the oldest child of Michael Berish, a coal miner, and Anna P. Mudry, a housewife.
Description
Anna was a thin individual who stood about 5 foot 8 inches in height. She had light brown hair and brown eyes. In her later years she wore eye glasses.
Early Years
Although she had 12 younger brothers and sisters, she also had three other siblings die at birth. There was one boy, one girl and one child whose sex was not mentioned in the oral history.
Anna spent much of her youth helping her mother raise her siblings until she married and began having children of her own.
- Childhood - Having 12 younger brothers and sisters, Anna spend much of her youth helping her mother raise the other Berish children.
- Siblings
Education
Anna's formal education was completed by the eighth grade.
Religion
Anna was baptized into the Catholic faith and was devout member of the Church in later years.
She was a member of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio during the early years of living in Warren. However, in her final years, she attended Christ Our King Church in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio.
Anna was a very devote Catholic. Her daughter Dorothy remembered being very small and not old enough to sit still in church in the front pews with her siblings. She had to sit with my mother on the 'women's side of the church. One time Dorothy remembered sitting in the pew feeling very tired. As is common with young children, she closed her eyes and started to fall asleep. However, the moment she closed her eyes and leaned against her mother, Anna would give her a poke to the ribs with her elbow that indicated that sleeping in church was not acceptable and not to try that again.
Family Years
How Anna came to meet her future husband Joseph John Timko Sr. can only be a matter for speculation. It is known that the Slovak miners lived in very close-knit communities where everyone knew everyone else. Perhaps they met during a church social or through mutual friends or simply as neighbors. No matter, the county records show they were married on September 14, 1914 in Dixonville, Indiana County, PA.[1]Anna was just seventeen at the time of her marriage. In fact, her father had to file papers with the court to allow his daughter’s marriage. The young couple were married by Reverend Gro. D. Bonsk.
Over the next seventeen years, the young couple would have eleven children: five boys - Joseph John Jr., Stephen Michael, Edward John, Albert James and one unnamed who died at birth, and six girls - Mary Martha, Anna Joan, Susanna, Elizabeth Margaret, Emma Marie and Dorothy Alice. The child Susanna would only live a few days before passing away.
As the family grew, every Saturday, Anna would spend the morning making bread for the upcoming week. She only baked during the week when it was needed. In addition to bread, Anna would make pies and coffee cake topped with a mixture cinnamon and sugar to satisfy her family’s desire for deserts. Most Saturdays, the entire kitchen table was filled with her homemade bread and pies. The family would generally eat more than one pie a day, depending on how many kids still lived at home.
Her daughter Dorothy fondly remembers her mother taking freshly baked bread from the oven as they were getting ready for bed. Anna would take one of the loaves, while it was still warm, slice it and butter up big slices for the kids to eat. The baked goods never had a chance of spoiling and by the next week Anna would be baking again.
It was also not unusual for Anna, during the week, to have one of the girls bake a cake. Anna’s favorite was spice cake, and she always asked her daughter Dorothy to make that particular cake with icing. As there were few prepackaged foods during those days, everything was usually made from “scratch.” And by the end of the day, the kitchen was often a mess after a day’s baking. However, everyone then had to lend a hand with chores, even the younger children.
The ten children of Joseph and Anna are as follows;
- Mary Martha Timko
- Anna Joan Timko
- Susanna Timko
- Joseph John Timko Jr.
- Stephen Michael Timko
- Elizabeth Margaret Timko
- Edward John Timko
- Albert James Timko
- Emma Marie Timko
- Dorothy Alice Timko
Residences
During the first years of their marriage, it is not known exactly where Joseph and Anna first took up residence. It could have been with either set of parents, which was not uncommon in the first part of the twentieth century or they could have simply rented a company house from the mine owner. The 1920 Census lists the family as living in Dixonville in the County of Indiana, Pennsylvania when the census taker visited their home. The Census also shows that they lived very close to both sets of parents though it cannot be determined if they lived on the same street, as there were no street names or addresses used in the mining towns of that time. Their oldest daughter Mary’s marriage license also lists that she was born in Dixonville in Indiana County.
During the family's years in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, Joseph and Anna rented or owned a total of seven houses on the southwest side of the city.
- 100 block of Parkman Road [Note: The exact address of the family's first rental house is not known. Anna's daughter Emma (Timko) Burin said that while driving with her mother, Anna pointed to a small collection of houses next to the railroad tracks on Parkman and said that was the house the family lived in when they first arrived in the city. At the time, it never occurred to Emma to ask exactly which of the house had been the family's first home. However, from city records, the address would have to have been either 160, 170 or 178 Parkman Road.]
- Lived at 985 Hunter Street NW in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lived at 1437 Tod Avenue SW in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lived at 487 Fourth Street in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lived at 481 Oriole Place SW in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lived at 770 Fourth Street in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lived at 1640 Oak Street SW in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio
After the death of her husband Joseph, Anna would live with her daughter Elizabeth Margaret Timko, and then later with her daughter Anna Joan Timko.
Working Years
Anna was a homemaker for 40 years. She never worked outside the home.
Personal Life
Anna, or Baba as she was known to her grandchildren, was a no-nonsense type of grandmother who was used to running a large household full of kids. And despite the fact that we were her grand children, it made no difference. Grandson, granddaughter, son, daughter, niece or nephew, she treated us all the same – with firmness, with fairness and, despite the lack of a smile, with love. Smiles, it seems, were only given on special occasions and that made them all the more sought after. I suspect that the only one who could see beneath her façade was her husband Joseph and that he was one of the few that could draw out a smile from her whenever he wanted one.
Death
Anna died from breast cancer which spread to her spine on April 27, 1972 at St. Joseph’s Riverside Hospital in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio.
She was buried along side her husband Joseph on April 29, 1972 at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Lordstown, Trumbull County, Ohio. The graves of Joseph and Anna are located at Sts. Peter and Paul’s Byzantine Cemetery on Hewitt Gifford Road (Rt 84) in Lordstown, Trumbull County, Ohio. This cemetery is approximately 3-4 miles southwest of Warren, Ohio. Their graves can be found in Section A, Row 8 in Graves 20 and 19.
References
- ↑ Orphans Court, Indiana County, PA, Joseph & Anna Timko’s Marriage License, No. 3747, Volume 22 Page 248.