Walter Leroy Harr and Agnes Suhovic
in Cleveland, Ohio from 1926 through 1985. Welcome Cousins!
We are doing well to round out the family history of the first and second generation here in America. And to discover to our amazement that our roots in America go back much farther.
Agnes
Agnes Suhovic was the only one of six siblings of Joe Suhovic and Mary Evans to have been born in West Virginia. We believe it to be Ripley but have not tracked down a birth certificate record yet. Her older brothers Joe and Frank were born in Eastern Pennsylvania and her younger sisters Anna and Helen in Cleveland. Her oldest sister, Mary (or Mae) was born in the homeland in or near Slovakia. For the most part, Agnes grew up and lived in Cleveland her whole life though. See Suhovic Evan for more information on her background.Walter Leroy
Walter L was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother Sadie was supposedly born in Pennsylvania also but this is a mystery. The mystery of Jesse, Walter L's father, is quickly disappearing. There were many stories of Walter's lineage but none with much fact or details to corroborate. Only in 2009 has much been discovered as a concerted search by grandson Randy was started using the latest online records. For more information on the mystery of both Walter's parents and his initial years, see Harr Brooks.Pennsylvania Connection
The connection with Western Pennsylvania for both families seems to exist but is not fully rediscovered yet. The family often went back to Pennsylvania for visits to relatives there. For sure Jim Baker and family just south of Pittsburgh. Agnes's parents did first immigrate to Eastern Pennsylvania from Slovakia and Agnes' Aunt lived there. Walter's mother Sadie was supposedly born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as were her parents; based on census and other declarations. Walter's parents (Sadie and Jesse) were living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when Walter was born. This even though they were married in Colorado shortly before and were living in Iowa shortly after. It is not clear where Walter L's parents met and what took them to Pennsylvania.Children
Leroy Patrick (Pat) Harr was the first born in 1928. Walter (Wally) came soon after in 1930. Richard J (Rich) was a bit later in 1934. There were no girls born in this branch of the family until Elizabeth Agnes Harr — last child of Walter Harr and the 8th and final grandchild. So two generations of only boys. One way to carry on the name!The boys were definitely active in the neighborhood. Big at the time was playing baseball in street leagues. Rich and Wally were especially big into this along with their cousins Harvey and Joe Schwartz living upstairs. See the photo gallery for more of this story. Only Wally would later try and make a profession out of it right after high school and at the height of Cleveland Indians fever in 1949.
1920's
Agnes and Walter were married on 7 Nov 1925. How they came to meet is not known as Walter was from a broken family but born and raised in America. Agnes was from an immigrant Slovakian family that struggled with the loss of their father in 1918, a remarriage by the mother that also ended by this time.Walter had gotten a job with Bell Telephone when his father left almost ten years earlier when he was around 13. He worked as a splicer / cableman on the overhead wires to start. By the late 1920's, he was the foreman responsible for long distance line maintenance between Cleveland and Buffalo, NY. His work was entirely outside and, as you might imagine, mostly in bad weather. Consequently he had a permanently weathered and deeply suntanned appearance to the day he died. This in contrast to his father's fair complexion.
Life was getting better and they bought a house in Garfield Heights at the end of the decade. It is not clear where they lived before this but possibly with Walter L's mother Sadie Harr who died a few months before Leroy "Pat" was born. The Garfield Heights address was picked up in the 1930 census for the family.
1930's
Early in the 1930's, Walter L was let go by Bell during the great depression. Supposedly, the company hired a new kid just out of school at half the salary to be the foreman. Walter L worked at whatever odd jobs he could find, including tree trimming for the Federal Government WPA (Works Project Administration). It was not until the end of the decade that he started to find gainful, steady employment with afamily that was loyal to him until his early demise in 1960.As a result of no steady work, the bank foreclosed and they lost the house in Garfield Heights. This tainted Walter L's approach from then on. He refused to ever get a loan again until he could pay cash for something. They moved back to the house they rented before and lived in it from the early 1930's until well after Walter died in 1960. This is the house the kids clearly remember as do many of the grand kids later.
It was a duplex house. Agnes' youngest sister Anna lived upstairs and had two boys the same age as her three — Harvey and Joe Schwartz. As a result, these five boys pretty much ruled the neighborhood and had a built in baseball team and such. Life was hard but good. The Schwartz's and Harr's did much together.
1940's
Walter L finally landed a regular job in the early 40's with a company called Atlantic Tool & Die where he worked until his death. This was a company formed in the mid 30's by German Immigrants, mostly Engineers, escaping from Nazi Germany. His duties were mainly as an electrician but in actual practice he was a jack of all trades. The company founders (Louis Hoffman and Ernst Mehywald) and Walter's family became quite close socially as their children were close in age. Louis was the outside salesman and Ernst the Chief Engineer.A note of interest, one of the founders (Earnst Mehywald) was a sprinter on Germanys 1932 Olympic Team and actually ran against Jesse Owens in the 100 Meter race that shattered Hitlers claims of Arian superiority.
Son Walter worked for his dad one summer while in high school, during which he gained a healthy respect for his Dad's knowledge and work ethic. Walter L would & could tackle just about anything and seemed to be tireless. Anything he did had to be perfect. He had no tolerance for sloppy or half finished results.
Agnes' mother Mary never learned to speak nor read and write English. As a result, Agnes would visit her weekly to transcribed letters for her Son's (Jano boys) who were off to war. Agnes would translate their English letters to Slovakian for her mother as well. As best we can tell, Mary was living with her Son's (we believe the oldest John) until she died later in 1959.
Walter and Agnes ended up being the tie that bound the families together for the most part. Although not well off himself, Walter would look out for all the sisters in both families. This for both his four younger sisters as well as Agnes' three other sisters.
1950's
All three sons were out of the house and married during this decade. Grandchildren started arriving by 1956 as well. Middle son Walter had been in the farm leagues for professional baseball since graduating high school in 1949. After returning from Korea with an injury, his aspirations for a career in the majors was over though. So he finally got a job at Reliance Electric out in Ashtabula — a good day's drive back in those days with no major highways or roads. Youngest son Rich had served in the Navy but lived nearby as did oldest son Pat.Jesse, Walter L's estranged father, finally passed away in 1954 and Agnes' mother Mary in 1959. But otherwise, life was growing more prosperous and stable with family gathering's common.
Every Saturday night, the Suhovic sisters and mother Mary would meet at Walter L and Agnes' house for a meal followed by cards, discussion and a general family get together. Kids would play around. Joe Daniels (nee Suhovic) had long been estranged from the family (since the 1920's) and never participated or really spoke to them. Frank Suhovic lived nearby and was adored by his sisters but his wife did not mix with the sisters and so they rarely were there either. But many years of laughter and fun are remembered. The step-brothers, John and Mike Jano, would also sometimes come.
In late 1950's, Walter had finally saved enough money to buy a house again. They were out looking at one when Walter collapsed. At the hospital, they discovered he had Lunch Cancer and gave him six months to live. He was determined to fight the disease and kept working through it. Three years later he was still going. As he became weaker, they made sure at Atlantic Tool & Die that he would not do anything that could be dangerous and did things that allowed him to sit and rest as often as he needed too. He became too weak to drive and so had to take three busses and over an hour to get to the office. The bus stop was across the street from the house. When coming home, he would get off the bus and rest for 20 minutes against the lamp post on the street there before having the energy to walk across the street and into the house. He finally succumbed to the cancer in 1960. He had been a light smoker (maybe a pack a week) but was in and around the heavy pollution of the burgeoning Steel Mill industry of Cleveland at the turn of the century.
1960's
Agnes continued in the house for most of the rest of the decade. She had taken employment at a printing company in downtown Cleveland. One of the perk's there was a set of box seats at the Cleveland Indian's stadium. While her son Walter was playing and well beyond, she became a rabid fan. When in town and available, her son Walter and grandson's would join her. Due to Walter playing with many of the players in the team before in the farm league, the trip to the ballpark would include visits to the dugout and locker room before and after the game. Players like Mudcat Grant and others would come to the stands to pay their respects to their most loyal fan, Agnes Harr. Mudcat, Rocky Colivito, Russ Nixon (of the Boston Red Sox) and others were regular visitors to the home as well.1970's
Agnes moved into an apartment in Parma not too far from her oldest son Pat. But she continued to work as a secretary downtown at the printing company. During this time and earlier, she spent many years in the hospital battling a cancer in her face. There were many reconstructive surgeries taking muscle, skin and even bone from other parts of her body to restore her face after removing tumors.During this decade her middle son Walter moved back to the Cleveland Area (Mentor) and thus allowed for some restoration of family gatherings and events. Both Pat's house in Parma and Walter's in Mentor were the site of gatherings for various occasions. Most the graduation from high school of the grandkids.