Mike LaPatka

Mike LoPatka (later given as LaPatka) was born in the small town of Chewton, Wayne Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, on Friday, November 13, 1903. He was the third child born to John and Mary (Brinczko) LoPatka, both of whom had immigrated to the United States in the 1890’s from the Hungarian portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (an area now in modern day Slovakia).

The LoPatka family lived on Plum Way just off the ball field in Chewton. Mike had two older siblings, George and Anna, and many more followed in the coming years. While growing up Mike and his brothers and sisters attended the old wooden schoolhouses of the Chewton Independent School district. Sometime during the timeframe 1913-1917 Mike’s parents rented out their house in Chewton and moved the whole family by train to Cleveland, Ohio. After only three months they packed up and moved back to their home on Plum Way in Chewton.

Beginning in 1914 the monumental “Great War” (later known as World War I) raged across Europe, but the isolationist-minded United States managed to remain officially neutral for the time being. Sometime after war broke out the Reverend Frances A. Maloney, the pastor of St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Wampum, apparently convinced John LoPatka to change the spelling of the family surname to the more Americanized form of “LaPatka.” This was probably suggested as a way to distance the family from their native Austro-Hungarian homeland, which was aligned with Imperial Germany during the Great War. The more traditional family surname of “LoPatka” could still be seen on occasion in the coming years.

In April 1917, prodded on by the threat of German U-boat (submarine) attacks off the Eastern Seaboard, the U.S. government was drawn in and declared war on Germany. Later that year, on December 7, the federal government also declared war on the LaPatka’s home country of Austria-Hungary. A military draft was now in the works but the LaPatka family would not be affected as active hostilities ended in November 1918.

On June 7, 1917, the LoPatka’s moved to a sixteen-acre farm on the outskirts of Chewton (on Tony Dytko Road). With nine total children including Mike (another two died in infancy) the family had a lot more room to grow out in the countryside. Five more kids would be born out at the farm from 1920-1926.

During the 1917-18 school year (and possibly in the seventh or eighth grade) Mike had Delos Burnside as his teacher and some of his classmates included William Davidson, Mary Summers, Walter Guy, Howard Houk, and George Emilko.

Unfortunately, Mike’s promising life was cut short. Tragedy struck in August 1923 when Mike, at age nineteen, died at the family farm. The circumstances of his death are a bit cloudy. One story claims that Mike was hit in the head with a baseball or baseball bat. The other story purports that he was in a fight with another boy, fell and hit his head on the front steps of what later became Kubinski’s general store, and later died at home. I believe the other boy involved in the alleged fight was seventeen-year-old Robert Dombeck of Chewton. I am not sure what is true but Mike’s death certificate indicates he was stricken ill on August 17 and did not die until 5:00am on August 24. His cause of death was given as “apoplexy,” an outdated medical term often associated with excessive bleeding.

Mike's family members, and especially his older brother George, were devastated by the loss. A service was held either at the home or at St. Teresa’s Church in Hoytdale (near Koppel). Mike was buried alongside the church in St. Teresa’s (Hoytdale) Cemetery. His grave is adorned with a large headstone, plain in style but impressive in size, engraved with the moniker of “MIKE LOPATKA.”