By Julie Huebel, Pierce County Historical Association
ELMWOOD, WI – In January of this year, we lost Dorothy Allen, a staple in the neighborhood where I was raised. She lived just over a half-mile from Tripple Hill School, her grade school alma mater and the very place I grew up. I say I grew up in Tripple Hill and people will look at me doubting I am old enough to have attended a country school, I will see the confusion on their face and have to clarify that my parents converted the school to a house and it is literally where I was raised.
Dorothy was part of a singing trio with her sisters, the Binkowski Sisters. Yes, B is for Binkowski. John (Johann) Binkowski and Johanna (Matzkowitz) show up in Rock Elm Township on the 1920 federal census with two kids at home, Albert (age 19) and Anthony (age 16). The boys were both born in New York and their parents both born in Germany. The family arrived in the U.S. on April 3, 1894, aboard the ship Saale with their four-year-old daughter, Marie. I can find no other mention of Maria, assuming she passed away as a child. They seem to have also lost a boy, John Jr., in 1902 while living in New York.
I was able to locate the family on the 1905 New York state census living in Elmira, New York just over the border from Pennsylvania, there were three children in the household at that time: Anna (age 9), Albert (age 4), and Anthony (age 2). John was listed as working in the blacksmithing trade both on the 1905 and 1910 census records in NY. Anna, was listed as working as an operator in a knitting mill at age 14 in 1910.
It was reported in the May 6, 1914, Elmira Star-Gazette newspaper that a farewell party was held for daughter, Anna by her friends and was presented with a gold ring before she was to leave for Elmwood, Wisconsin. Anna would sadly pass away at the young age of 22 in 1918 only four years after moving to Elmwood. The mother, Joanna passed away in 1945, her husband John in 1950, they are buried in the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery at Farm Hill.
Albert’s obituary says he married his wife Helen Studer and lived in NY a bit, but records show he was married in Pierce County in 1926 and had been living here since 1914, so I think the obituary was incorrect. (someone correct me if he had temporarily moved back to NY as a young adult). Albert passed away in 1979 at age 78 and is buried in the Free Home Cemetery just outside Plum City. Anthony passed away at age 82 and is also buried in Farm Hill. It is from him the Elmwood Binkowski’s descend.
If someone has a photo of John and Joanna and family or Anthony or Albert’s families, please share! (info@PierceCountyHistorical.org)
