John F. Paloske

 

John Francis Paloske was born on February 6, 1902 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  He was the first son and second child of Frank Pavlosk and Annie Pitoff Pavlosk.  John Paloske was a first generation American; his father was born in Prussia and his mother in Germany.  The family name has been spelled in various ways:  Pavlosk, Pavloske, Pavlosky, and Paloske.

John had three siblings.  Anna Louise (or Margaret); Mary (May) and William (Bill).  They were all close in age:  Anna was born in 1898, Mary in 1904 and William in 1905.  Their parents were German, and German was generally spoken at home. John’s mother died in 1912 when he was 10 years old.  His older sister, Anna, married when he was 15.

Mom, who must have known him growing up, gave me little detail about him.  At some point, he contracted syphilis.  Mom said her mother, Anna Paloske Anderson, used to give him food.

John Paloske died on October 13, 1948.  He was 45 years, 8 months, and 7 days old.  At the time of his death, he lived at 108 Fifth Street in Elizabeth.

He was married to a woman named Cecilia A. Paloske. Her maiden name was Feeney. John and Cecilia are both buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey.  The Joseph G. Higgins Funeral Home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, handled the funeral. John and his wife are buried in a plot owned by Dennis and Thomas Feeney. Dennis and Thomas Feeney were relatives of his wife, Cecilia. They may have been her brothers or her father and another male relative.  At one time the Feeneys lived at 511 Livingston Street in Elizabeth.  My guess is that John met Cecilia in the neighborhood when they were both teenagers or very young adults.

A few years ago I went to see where they are buried.  It is almost in the shadow of the Anheuser-Busch plant in Newark.  I guess for a person of German heritage, being that close to good beer is a good place to be. I kept circling the Feeney tombstone, not understanding why I could not find John and Cecilia. They do not have a headstone; their graves are unmarked in the burial plot. They are buried in Section 12, Block F, Cecelia Paloske is in Lot 18 and John Paloske is in Lot 19.

His sister, Mary (May), died a year and a half after John.  Mom told me that Aunt May’s father, her grandfather, spared no expense for the funeral. She has her own plot, with a large granite headstone.

His wife, Cecilia Paloske, outlived him by 35 years.  She died on September 29, 1983 and was buried on October 1, 1983.  She was 81 years old.  Higgins and Bonner in Elizabeth handled her funeral.

This is such a sad story.  For some reason, he was basically abandoned by his family.  His wife was ignored.  Why was he estranged from his birth family?  Why wasn’t there any contact with his wife, Cecilia, in all the years after his death?  Why?

What did he die from at the young age of 45?  What are some details from his life – education, occupation, religion, interests, personality?

Why didn’t he have any children?  Anna Paloske Anderson was the only sibling to have children.  John Paloske married but was childless; Mary and William never married.

I have no photo of John Paloske.  These postcards of Elizabeth are street scenes he would have been familiar with growing up.