Read or Listen to My Newest, Most Comprehensive Presentation on Lithuanians in Springfield! 

Presented March 12, 2022 by author Sandy Baksys for the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, Chicago. https://lithspringfield.com/2022/03/19/never-immigrate-to-the-united-states-because-you-might-end-up-in-a-coal-mine/

All text on this blog site copyrighted: 2/15 © 2012 Sandra Baksys

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An Immigrant Childhood: Ann Tisckos Wisnosky

An American-born daughter of Lithuanian immigrants remembers what it was like to live in early 1900s Springfield, a town of muddy streets and backyard farms.  Read how mothers and fathers repaired shoes and made petticoats at home from cotton flour sacks, and what it was like to go to elementary school as one of “those foreign kids.” READ MORE. 

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Who Put the “Mack” in McDonald’s, Springfield?

Anybody who’s eaten a McDonald’s hamburger in Springfield has feasted on a bit of local Lithuanian-American history involving a family aptly named “Mack” (Lith: Makarauskas). Three posts tell about this family and the business:
Who Put the “Mack” in McDonald’s, Springfield?
More Springfield Mack “McHistory”
Last Chapter: Our Local Mack-Donald’s Empire
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The Baby in the Cigar Box

Read about how Lithuanian immigrant parents Nancy and Adam Pazemetsky kept alive their infant daughter Ann after she was born prematurely at 1.5 pounds by keeping her in a wooden cigar box surrounded with hot water bottles. READ MORE.
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Taking a Spin at the Cara-Sel Lounge

One of the more colorful Lithuanian-American businesses in Springfield was the Cara-Sel Lounge, 7th and North Grand Ave., operated for 17 years by World War II veteran Tony Yuscius. READ MORE.
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Three-Day Lithuanian Wedding: Eva Kasawich & Victor Alane

The date was Sept. 25-27, 1927. The bride’s roses were pink. Piles of plates were cracked with silver dollars, and miners gave ostentatious gifts of $10 and $20 bills. Read about the 3-day wedding of deceased coal miners’ son and daughter Victor Alane and Eva Kasawich on East Reynolds Street. READ MORE.

And a second look at the gala affair… READ MORE.
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Our Lithuanian-American U.S. Senator

Senator Richard J. Durbin isn’t just one of the most powerful—and down-to-earth–political leaders in the United States. He is our #1 claim to fame as Springfield Lithuanian-Americans, and one of Lithuania’s best friends in Washington. READ MORE.
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The Mining Life

By the 1910s, most miners had only 2-3 days of work a week, imposing great hardship on their families, according to the Sangamon County Historical Society’s Web page “Coal Mining: Boom to Bust:” READ MORE.
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The Mine Wars

Immigrant miners in Illinois were soft-coal, deep-shaft miners who cut and loaded their daily quotas  by hand. By the late 1890s, the Central Illinois coal mines had been organized by the United Mine Workers. In the early 1930s, violence erupted when the UMW broke with its strong rank-and-file tradition and a rival union formed to strike Peabody coal. From Carl Oblinger’s book, “Divided Kingdom: Work, Community, and the Mining Wars in the Central Illinois Coal Fields During the Great Depression.” READ MORE.