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Frances Trontelj was born on Sept 5, 1887. Her father's name was Anton Trontelj, and her mother's name was Marijana (Mary Ann) Kozlevcar. She was born in the parish of Smarja (Fara Smarja), the village of Zgornja Slivinca (vas Zgornja Slivinca), house number 21 (stevilka 21), in what is now Jugoslavia, but at that time was Austria-Hungary.

Anton Trontelj, the father of Frances Trontelj, was born in 1828. He joined the Austro-Hungarian army in 1848 and spent 12 years in the service of Emperor Franz Joseph. When he returned to his native village, no one recognized him because of his long absence. He married, and a son, John, was born in 1872. The name of his first wife is not known. When John was still an infant, Anton's wife died.

In 1877 Anton married Marijana Kozlevcar. Very little is known about Marijana Kozlevcar, except that she was born in 1847. Anton Trontelj and his second wife had three daughters. Mary was born on Dec 18, 1882. Ursula was born on "zegnanska Nedelje" (a Sunday some time in the fall of the year) in 1884, and Frances was born on the date mentioned earlier.

Both Anton Trontelj and his son, John, were masons by trade. They also farmed a small acreage. Anton Trontelj had two medals as a result of his long army service, and was very proud of having been in the army. He could neither read nor write, and as a young girl Frances would often read to him from history books. He would become very angry at what was read to him and would say that things didn't happen that way at all. Anton was very fond of his general, whose name was Rodetzky whose army defeated the Italians at Custozza in 1848. The information is under the heading "Austria, Empire of".

John Trontelj, the son of Anton, also served a term in the Austro-Hungarian army. Discharged soldiers were required to attend annual training sessions. At on time, soon after John had lift for America, Frances was reading a letter which had been sent to them by an agent for the steamship line upon whose ship John had gone to America.  She read, "Your son, Marko Vovk, has arrived in America savely."  Anton angrily took the letter from her and said, "you're not reading that right - you don't know how to read correctly!"  He took the letter to Zalar's, who were friends of his. Apparently John had used the identification papers of Marko Vovk, whom he closely resembled, in order to get out of the country, since he was still required to attend the annual maneuvers. Anton didn't want a little girl to know more than was good for her.

Marijana Trontelj died in Feb of 1897 at the age of fifty. Anton Trontelj died soon after, in Nov of 1898 at the age of 70. Frances remembered that at the time of her father's death, the village carpenters came and made a coffin out of boards which had been stored in the attic of their house. She had often seen the boards, and wondered what their purpose was.

The village cemetery was adjacent to the church, and was very small. After 10 years, each grave was used again. The bones of the previous occupant were placed upon the top of the coffin of the new tenant before the grave was covered again. Later a larger cemetery was begun some distance from the church.

Frances was nine years old when her mother died, and eleven when her father passed away. After the death of Anton Trontelj, the property passed into the hands of John, the half brother of the three girls, who was in America at the time. A neighbor plowed their land, and the girls farmed the small acreage adjoining the house. The older two girls helped the neighbors with their field work in order to make ends meet. Their staple foods in the winter were sauerkraut and potatoes, of which they had an ample supply. During the winter they wove baskets, which they sold for 4 krajcers each (a krajcer was worth approximately 1 cent). Together, they could weave about 10 baskets a day.

At one time, Frances had to sell here long hair in order to buy clothes. She remembered crying when it was cut off. The price received was 2 goldinars and 40 krajcers, which was approximately $1.20. Parting with her hair was one sad memory she never forgot, and she never had her hair cut again.

After four and a half years in America, John Trontelj returned to Austria. He married a local girl, and returned to America after only two weeks at home. His new wife's relatives farmed the land, and the house was closed. The three girls were forced to live with others.

At the age of 13, Frances went to live with a cousin, John Trontelj, who was the custodian of the village church. She was never too courageous, and one of her duties was to ring the church bells at the proper times during the day and evening. She was always frightened when going into the empty church. Frances' sister, Mary, went to work for a family named Zuntar in the village of Paradisc. The Zuntar's owned a lot of land, and were wealthy by the standards of the area. Sister Ursula worked for a farmer named Kunstarek, who employed a number of women to help him farm his land. Later she worked for a farmer named Kerzolek, who owned even more land than Zuntar.

A neighbor of the girls named Kmetovic had gone to America, and wrote to them urging them to come also. Mary had saved 200 goldinars (a goldinar was worth approximately 40 cents).  Part of this was from the estate of her father, and th rest she had earned. Ursula also loaned her some money, and in December of 1906, at the age of 24, Mary left for America.

Ursula moved back into the family home soon after Mary left for America. A few weeks after she arrived, Mary married Joseph Oven. The date was January 21, 1907. At the time it was not unusual for girls arriving from Europe to get married within two weeks of thir arrival, even though they may have had no previous acquaintance with thir future husbands. Women were scarce, and by European standards the young men were extremely well off, and eager to get married. There are many second and third generation Americans today whose ancestry is very much a matter of who arrived on the next train.

It was commonly said at this time that new arrivals ate continuously for the first month or so because of the sheer abundance of food - a situation they had never known before. Kmetovic, the neighbor who had urged Mary to come to America, had built a house in Troy Location, which was two miles south of Eveleth, Minnesota. At this time there were many iron mines operating in the area. Since transportation was difficult, little settlements called "locations" sprang up around each mine. Thus surrounding Eveleth were the locations of Drake-Stratton, which was occupied mostly by Italians, Adams Hill, Spruce Location (Chicken Town), Spruce Hill, Leonidas, Genoa, Sparta and Troy. All of the inhabitants of Troy were of Slovene descent.

After the Oven's were married, they purchased Kmetovic's house for $600 and ran it as a boarding house. A beer distributor named Trampush loaned them the money, upon condition that they sell his beer to their borders. Business was good, and the loan was repaid in one year. The house was not very large, but there were always from fourteen to fifteen boarders in residence. The house had seven beds, and the boarders slept in two shifts. One group slept while the other group worked, and vice versa.

Room and board cost $16 per month, and included the laundering of working clothes, with towels provided. Beer was 10 cents per bottle. It was purchased by the keg.  In the later prohibition years, home brew was provided. While the charges may not seem very large, the standard wage in the mines at the time was $1.75 per day. Thus, the cost of room and board was in proportion to what one would pay for similar services today.

One year after Mary left for America, Frances left Jugoslavia forever also. She crossed the Atlantic on the ship LaTouraine, and arrived in America on August 18, 1907. The cost of passage was 196 goldinars (about $78.40).  She had inherited 82 goldinars from the estate of her father, Ursula loaned her 100 goldinars, and her half brother, John, also loaned her some money to make up the required amount.

On August 28, 1907 the nineteen year old girl arrived in Eveleth, Minnesota. She had a tag pinned on her giving her destination, since she could neither speak nor understand English. The Oven's were supposed to meet her at the train depot, but through some misunderstanding they were not there when she arrived. A man named Anton Car met her there, and she stayed at the Car's home the first night. The next day Mrs. Frank Okoren, a man named Cvek, and Frank Japly, Mrs. Okoren's brother, walked with her to Troy Location. She cried when she saw the collection of hovels and houses that made up Troy Location. It was a far cry from the stone houses in her native village.

The next day she began working in her sister's boarding house. John Trontelj, the half-brother, had returned to Jugoslavia by this time. With the money he had saved in America he bought additional land adjoining the home he had inherited. His wife was a very industrious woman and an efficient seamstress. John and his wife had six children, two of whom died in infancy. One of his children disappeared in World War II, when both the Germans and Italians invaded that part of Jugoslavia. At the date of this writing (1964) one of his daughters and her family live in the old family home. John died in 1951 at the age of 79.

Ursula was hard of hearing and would not have been permitted to immigrate to America with that disability at the time. She married a widower named Drobnic in 1918. He had a 17 year old son by the previous marriage. Ursula had one daughter, Micka, (Mary) of her own by this marriage.

 

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