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by Frank L. Koucky |
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All of the Koucky's know of the Petosky stones found near Charles' summer home on Lake Charlevoix and along Lake Michigan (Devonian hexacorals). But another famous fossil collecting area is that found around the Coal City mines. On many occasions as a student at the University of Chicago and while teaching geology classes at the University of Illinois (Navy Pier) we went on field trips to the Braidwood-Coal City area. The mines had long been closed but the huge spoil piles looked like small volcanoes scattered over the area. These multicolored hills held treasures in the form of siderite concretions. When fresh the dinosaur egg shaped concretions were heavy and dark gray. These concretions are composed of iron carbonate (siderite) which rusts to a bright red hematite that often colors the the outside of the concretion and the water that drains from these spoil piles. When the concretions were cracked open often a beautiful fossil plant or animal was discovered Prize collections of these fossils can be seen at the Chicago Field Museum (Pennsylvanian fossils). Our family had made an earlier trip to Coal City (perhaps in l 937). Dad took Grandma to visit her sister, Elizabeth Molley She lived at the edge of the city in a white wood typical small farmhouse with a big yard which had fruit trees and a big vegetable garden. Rud says that her husband, Jim Molley was lazy and wouldn't work, so Leesa had to raise chickens and ducks and sell fruits and vegetables. Jim Molley and Leesa had homesteaded with the Sebeks but he couldn't stand the cold of the North Dakota winters and came back to work in the coal mines which were now closed. Leesa had a son, James, who ran away at an early age and hadn't been heard from. |
She also had a daughter who had gone west (Mayme Biss). Leesa had come to Cicero to visit grandma and to go to the Chicago World's Fair with Ed and grandma (1934). Braidwood was on route 66 and Coal City was a few miles north. In the 1870s to 90s Chicago was a rapidly growing industrial center with great iron foundries and steel mills near Gary. Coal couldn't be provided fast enough to these industries and there was a great demand for coal miners. It was dirty hard work but new emigrants could find work here. In :l 875 the Sebek family came to New York in steerage from a farming area in Czechoslovakia. John was 35 and his wife, Mary, was 22.. They had with them Rudolf (2) Elizabeth (1?), and Johanna Barbara (3).. Grandma kept talking about her rich relatives that sent Christmas presents and clothes-the Tuxedo None of this family could speak English and so Czech sponsor groups sent the family to Chicago near the rail yards on Ashland Ave. Mary didn't like the city and so at first chance the family moved to Coal City with other Czech miners. Johanna went to school where the teachers liked her and gave much help with English. A big expense was the beer that each miner took underground for lunch. For 12 years the family toiled in the mines. Grandma tells of walking the train tracks after school picking up spilled coal lumps for heating their house. Grandma was 16 when she married a miner named Joseph Koucky (20) in Coal City, Illinois.
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