Bridges - November 2009

8/14/2019 Bridges - November 2009

1/12

n o v e m b e r 2009

bridges


2/12

B R I D G E S

Lithuanian American News JournalUSPS 017131 Published 10 times per year(Jan./Feb. & Jul./Aug. combined).

Address of publication is:LAC, Inc./BRIDGES,

3906 Lakeview Dr., Racine, WI. 53403

BRIDGESis the official publication of the

Lithuanian American Community, Inc.National Executive Board

2715 E. Allegheny AvenuePhiladelphia, PA 19134Tel: 800- 625 -1170Fax: 856-428-6014

E-mail: Lithu anian USA@yahoo .com

BRIDGES Consultants Jeanne Dorr EditorGema Kreivenas Art Director/ProductionRimas Gedeika TreasurerLithuanian American Community, Inc., &

Subscription Manager.THE INFORMATION CENTER FOR

HOMECOMING LITHUANIANS

Collects & provides information from Lithuania.Copyright 2007 Lithuanian American Community, Inc. All rightsreserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced without

written permission of the publisher. All statements & opinions,including product claims, are those of the organization/advertisermaking those statements or claims. The publisher does not adopt,or put forth, any such statement or claim as his own, & anysuch statement or c laim does not necessarily reflect the

opinion of t he publisher.Address all editorial correspondence to:

BRIDGESJeanne Dorr4 Shrewsbury YardRiverton, NJ 08077-1038

E-Mail: [email protected]

For subscription & advertisinginformation, please contact:

LAC, Inc./BRIDGES,Rimas Gedeika78 Mark Twain Dr.Hamilton Sq., NJ 08690

Subscription rate is $20.00 annually, 2 full yearsfor $38.00 (US Mail serviced subscribers).Subscriptions to other addresses are (US $35.00),

c o n t e n t s

2 editorialLetter from the EditorJeanne Dorr

4 historyLITHUANIANFBI

CONNECTION

Henry L. Gaidis

6 triviaSubmitted byEdward Shakalis

7 reflections More about

emaiciu Kalvarija Ramune Ku bliu s

8 reflections Remembering the Dead In this Y EAR OFTHE PRIESTRev. Peter Burkauskas

9 reflectionsBlessed Georgeand you

PA RT 1Father Joseph

10 reflectionsA TeenagersFirst Tripto Lithuania

Part 1

Audra Kriauciu-nas

12 photo album2009

Trakai Castle

15 we got mailJohn Vazbys

16 news and viewsJeanne Dorr

17 here at homeUpdate

St. George ChurchSubmitted by Jeanne Dorr

18 here at homeWhite Gloves

Submitted byFlorence Morkus

20 baltic tale HOW AN OLD MANWAITED FOR DEATH

22 calendar

in this issue


3/12

In 2008 the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation marked its 100thAnniversary. I doubt that anyreader of this article has notheard of the FBI and the heroicexploits of its famous G men.The Bureau as it is commonlyknown by its members has beengloried in stories, movies, andtelevision dramas for decades.Still few know of the early histo-ry of this law enforcement organ-ization and still fewer know thatit has a Lithuanian connection.

Although the U.S. MarshalsService has existed as long asthere has been a federal courtsystem and the U.S. SecretService since the American CivilWar, the U.S. Government hadnot had a real investigative arm.The Marshal Service was largelyresponsible for enforcing and

maintaining the operations of thecourt system and the U.S. SecretService protecting the Presidentand counterfeiting. It was onlyduring the later years of the 19thcentury with congress enactment

investigative organization. Thenew organization was officially

established on July 26, 1908during the Presidency ofTheodore Roosevelt under thename the Bureau of Investigation(BOI).

Its first official assignment wasto combat interstate prostitutionwhich had been made federally

illegal under the Mann Act whichwas unofficially known as theWhite Slave Traffic Act. Theorganization was renamed theUnited States Bureau ofInvestigation in 1932 and theFederal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) in 1935.

Surely the most famous head ofthe FBI was J. Edgar Hooverwho served as Director of theFederal Bureau of Investigationfor over 48 years. It was largelyunder his direction that theoriginal small federal investiga-tion organization grew to be the

premier law enforcement whichit is today. During the 1930s,the FBI became legendary intracking down notoriouscriminals such as John Dillinger,Baby Face Nelson, Kate MaB k Al i C K i

investigative organization inthe world.

Many have heard of thelegendary Director J. EdgarHoover who led the FBI from1924 to 1972, but few have heardof the name Alexander BruceBielaski who served as the

Director of the Bureau ofInvestigation from 1912 to 1919.Even fewer know that Bielaskiwas of Lithuanian origin.Although his family name hasbeen Polonized over time, hisfamily roots can be traceddirectly back to Lithuania. Hisgrandfather, Captain AlexanderBielaski (Beleskis) had beenborn on August 1, 1811, inLithuania. Being raised underCzarist Russian occupation,Bielaski as a young man waseducated in a Czarist Russianmilitary school. After graduation,he had been commissioned as

a Topographical EngineerLieutenant and assigned to dutyin the Russian Army. With thestart of the 1830-1831 Polish-Lithuanian Insurrection, Bielaskiresigned from the Russian Armyand became severed on theStaff of General Dembinski.

Dembinskis Corps consisting of3,500 Polish regulars and severalhundred Lithuanian guerrillasfought heroically to defendLithuania from the advancingCzarist Russian forces. Still the

ll t th di l d ld

Henry L. Gaidish i s t o r y

LITHUANIAN

FBI

CONNECTION


4/12

hold the vital river crossing at allcost while the others fled tosafety. Fighting heroically,Bielaski forces successfully heldthe forge until the other rebelshad reached safety. They did not

withdraw until their numbers hadbeen reduced to about 30 menwhich Bielaski then led intonearby woods. Through hisskill the survivors successfullywithdrew to Warsaw whileconstantly skirmishing with thepursuing Russians. By the time

Bielaski reached Warsaw he onlyhad one man still under hiscommand. Bielaski then foughtwith distinction at the Battle ofGrochowo until he was seriouslywounded. A bullet ripped open oneid f hi f d ll d t hi

insurrection which he

had fought so valiantlyfor had been crushed.

Refusing to continueliving under Russianoccupation, Bielaski leftPoland for France andeventually arrived in theUnited States. In 1835,

he served as a civiliansurveyor with the U.S.Army in Florida duringthe Seminole War andlater settled in Illinois.He eventually obtainedemployment and gainedfame as an engineer for

the Illinois CentralRailroad. Bielaski

became an Americancitizen in 1841. After having livedin various parts of the country,Bielaski married Mary Ann Carey,an Illinois resident, in July 1842and would eventually father three

boys and four girls. While residingin Illinois, Bielski became anintimate friend of AbrahamLincoln who would later becomethe President of the United States.In 1844, Bielaski was appointedChief Draftsman for the U.S.Bureau of Patents and moved with

his family to Washington, D.C.With the start of the Civil War,Bielski offered his services to theUnion and returned to Illinoisto serve as a Lieutenant withCompany F of the 30th IllinoisV l t I f t R i t

subsequently appointed an aide-de-

camp to General McClernaud withthe appointment being recommend-ed by President Abraham Lincoln.In this position, Captain Bielaskitook part in the Battle of Belmonton November 7, 1861, where theUnion forces commanded byGeneral Grant engaged the

Confederate forces under thecommand of General LeonidasPolk. As the federal forces weremoving against a Confederateentrenched artillery supportedposition, Captain Bielaski rodeforward encouraging the advancingtroops. When his horse was shotout from under him, CaptainBielaski chose to continue theattack on foot. Seeing the nationalcolors falling, Captain Bielaskiquickly grabbed the fallen flag andcontinued its advance throughwithering enemy shot and shell.While carrying the Stars andStripes of his new homeland,

Captain Bielaski was killed by acannon explosion and his bodynever recovered. Although theadvancing column succeeded indriving the Confederates from theirposition, they were later forced towithdraw. General McClernaud isquoted as having stated that A

braver man never fell on the fieldof battle. His bravery was onlyequaled by his fidelity as a soldierand patriot. He died making theStars and Stripes his windingsheet. Although many men hadf ht ith t di ti ti lik

h i s t o r y

Kpt. Aleksandras Bielaskis


5/12

h i s t o r y

With Captain Bielaskis death,

his older children immediatelysought employment to supportthe family. His son, OscarBielaski, born on March 21,1847, in Washington, D.C.decided to follow in hisfathers footsteps and joinedthe Union Army as a drummer

boy with a Union CavalryRegiment. During lulls betweenbattles, Oscar learned how toplay baseball. After the war, hereturned to Washington, wherehe secured a position as agovernment clerk andcontinued to play baseball.Oscar Bielaski went on tobeome one of the firstprofessional baseball players.His professional career lastedfive years during which time heplayed with the WashingtonNationals, Baltimore Canaries,and Chicago White Stockings.Another son, Alexander Bielaski,

graduated from St. JohnsCollege in Annapolis, Marylandand the Boston TheologicalSeminary and became a distin-guished Methodist EpiscopalMinister. The Reverend DoctorBielaski and his wife, RoselleBielaski, had three daughters and

three sons.His son, Alexander BruceBielaski was born on April 2,1883 in Montgomery County,Maryland. He attended GeorgeWashington University and after

Washington, Bielaski wasassigned to the Bureau ofInvestigation and eventuallybecame the AdministrativeAssistant to Director Stanley W.Finch who had been appointed as

the first Director of the neworganization.

Upon Finchs departure from theBureau of Investigation, Bielaskiwas appointed to replace him.Bielaski remained as the Directorof the Bureau of Investigationfrom April 30, 1912 to February

10, 1919. During that time,Bielaski oversaw a steady

increase in bureau resources

andresponsibilities. After leavingthe Bureau of Investigation,Bielaski entered into privatelaw practice. While on a trip toMexico in 1921, Bielaski waskidnapped by Mexican banditsand a ten thousand dollar ran-som paid for his release. Afterbeing held for three days,Bielaski managed to escapeand took the paid ransommoney with him. Duringprohibition, Bielaski workedas an undercover decoy in aspeakeasy in New York whichresulted in many arrests and

convictions. He later went onto head the National Board ofFire Underwriters arson inves-

tigator team and serving as thePresident of the Society ofFormer Special Agents.Alexander Bruce Bielaski diedon February 19, 1964. Like hisLithuanian immigrant grandfa-

ther, Alexander Bielaski made anoutstanding contribution to hisnation and deserves an honoredplace in Lithuanian-Americanhistory.

Henry Gaidis

Henry Gaidis is a contributor toBridges. He is a member of the Board

of Directors of JBANC and among hismany interests is military history

Alexander Bruce Bielaski

T R I V I A Q U E S T I O N(No.33)


6/12

a

The summer of 2009 marked the start of a newadventure in my lifetime; an adventure that would

forever change my life. I had always wanted to visitLithuania, the place of my heritage, and now Iwould finally get to visit. Being a sixteen-year-oldhigh school junior, I got the opportunity to go toEurope for the first time in order to see Lithuania,and England. It all started July third, 2009 as mymother, father, brother and I left for theIndianapolis airport, my aunt drove us in herpickup truck, to embark on our journey. Aftertraveling to Washington D.C. we discovered, afterwaiting the six hours for the scheduled time of ournext flight and then another five or six hours forthe plane to be fixed, that our flight to Copenhagenfor that night had been canceled. After waiting inline with about 300 other people we got a hotelvoucher from the airline, SAS, so we would have aplace to stay for the night. The next day we arrived

at the airport by noon for our 5:15 pm scheduledflight, so we could check in our bags and gothrough security. By now we had gotten used towaiting in long lines. At 5:15 we were finally on ourflight to Copenhagen and after an eight hour flightwe arrived in Copenhagen in the early morninghoping to catch our supposedly rescheduled flight

I tried to pick out familiar landmarks that I hadheard about, but I was too far away. I could, howev-

er, make out the Nemunas river, and my brotherclaims that he saw Traku Pilis. After touchingdown to the ground and enjoying the wonderfullycool weather that Lithuania had to offer, we wereinside the airport in Vilnius learning that all of ourluggage had been lost as well as the luggage frommost of the other passengers. After filling out thelost luggage paperwork, we went out into the mainpart of the airport, and were greeted by my uncle

Aldas, and his brother-in-law Romas. Dede Aldashad a flower for me and my mother which mademe feel welcomed immediately, and he gave us atour of old town Vilnius as we made our way backto our hotel where we would be staying for thenext week or so. Wed already lost two of ourprecious vacation days in Lithuania, so we had tomake the best of the days we did have. Already Iwas noticing that the driving habits were differentin Lithuania than in America. The drivers weremore dangerous, and didnt use turn signals asmuch. Also the streets were different becausethere werent as many street markings and thestreet signs were on the buildings instead ofhanging out over the roads. Also, unfortunately,th it bit f ffiti I ffiti i

Meet Our

Young Writers ...

r e f l e c t i o n s

Audra Kriauciu-nas

Audra Kriauc iu-nas

Trakai

A TeenagersFirst Trip

toLithuania

Part 1


7/12

and just look out to see what was happening, and

they had a nice wide place you could sit and beright by the window. You could watch people walkdown the cobbled road and see what was happen-ing. You could also hear snatches of differentconversations in Lithuanian all around. Afterchecking out the hotel room we went to the DanceFestival even though we had already missed half ofit. When we got to the stadium we werent allowedto go in because we didnt have any tickets, so my

Uncle went around trying to get in at all of theentrances. We opted to stand outside with all of theLithuanian dancers, many of whom were teenagers,trying to see what was happening inside. It wascool to see how Lithuanian teenagers interactedwith each other, and even though I couldnt

understand what they were saying, I could stilltell what they intended to say sometimes from thetone of their voices. I tried to pick out what words I

could, but wished that Iwas fluent in Lithuanian.I felt like I was at a hugedisadvantage because allof these people could dosomething that I couldnt.Then, however, we were

universal. It doesnt matter what language its in, it

still has an impact on you. Watching the dancerswas really fun because it reminded me of seeingLithuanian dancers in Chicago and Toronto. It waspretty funny when the whole audience starteddoing the wave, and then there were fireworks atthe end which was unexpected but exciting.

The next morning we ate breakfast in the hotelrestaurant for the first time, and after unsuccessful-ly tr ying to order daug sulciu I learned a new

word which was daugiau. After breakfast weheaded to the nearest MaXima which was a threeX one as opposed to a one X or a two X (themore Xs, the more stuff the store had) so wecould buy some basic toiletries and some under-wear to try and replace what we had lost. Anotherthing I noticed about Lithuania, was that a lot ofpeople walked everywhere and that there werent

too many obese people inthe country. In fact I could-nt remember seeing asingle obese person.Everyone was skinny. AtMaxima, all of the signswere in Lithuanian and I

ld d f h

Song Festival

Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Vilnius



8/12

used to, like coca-cola for instance. Also, sizing was

different because everything was small, medium,or large. That afternoon we met up with mycousins, and my aunt and uncle who were visitingfrom Lafayette, Indiana, and we walked to theLithuanian Song Festival. The Song Festival wasexciting because we got to listen to manyLithuanian songs such as Trys Milijonai. Evenmore exciting, however, was when I got to trykibinai for the first time. It was extremely

delicious, and I was hungry for more Lithuanianfood. On our way back to the hotel from the songfestival we saw a new rock statue that was unveiledright before the song festival to commemorate thethousand year anniversary of Lithuania beingmentioned in an historical document.

The next day was the start of the 3 day tour ofLithuania, which we would be undergoing with myaunt, uncle, and two cousins. We met at the churchof Saints Peter and Paul which housed a beautifulglass boat. I hadnt seen anything like it before,and the church was beautifully ornate as well.When my uncle arrived in the rented mini-van, weall piled in and left for our first destination:Gustonys, which was the site of the school wheremy great grandfather and great grandmothertaught. The current teacher of the school was

there to open it for us and we got to go inside andlook around to see where my Senelis had lived andwent to school during his youth. There was even apicture of my Senelis visiting with the studentsfrom his recent trip. We also gotto see the place where my uncledug up the dishes my greatgrandfather buried during thewar over 50 years ago. Nearby

the school was a lovely gardenthat had fresh vegetables grow-ing in it. It was cool to see whereour food comes from and thatsomewhere people were gettingfood the old fashioned way. Ieven took a bite of a carrot that

surrounding it. There were beautiful flowers,plants, a small pond, and even a little playgroundthat had fun things to play on, some of which I had

never seen in America. We alsosaw a couple of poles that hadstork nests on top. I had neverseen a stork nest before, andthey were huge! Another thing I

had never seen before inAmerica was antennae on top ofa water tower. It was interestingto see the way they utilized all oftheir energy and the way thewater towers had a dual purpose.Next we went to Siauliai to see

Windmill

Continued from page 11



9/12

were and it blew me away. Although a book saidthere were 200,000 crosses there, I figured therehad to be a lot more. There were so many crosses:Big ones, little ones, ornate ones, simple ones.

Many different people had been here and left theirmark and it was a very powerful experience. I feltlucky to be able to leave my own cross, which Iput my name on so Id be able to find it later, onthe hill. Now the hill bore my mark as well. Thatevening, we drove to Palanga which was near theBaltic Sea. After a picnic, the food was bought at alocal MaXima, we went down to the beach. Thewater was freezing, but I waded in anyway. It wasthe first time I had seen the Baltic Sea and Ienjoyed it. I have always loved lakes and oceans.Theyre very calming. We tried, unsuccessfully, tofind amber which we knew would be hidden in theseaweed, and then we watched the sunset untilthe sun had completely disappeared. After thesunset we walked through the town of Palangaback to the hotel and got to experience a little bitof the night life. We saw rides there, and manypeople were out and about. Much to my surprise,unlike stores in the United State, shops inLithuania closed around six or seven so theemployees could go and enjoy the night life. I alsogot to try a waffle on a stick with chocolate sauceon top. It was very good!

WaterTower

Dear Ms. Dorr,

I am an avid reader of Bridges. Years ago I lookedforward to finding Saturday Evening Post, Colliersand Life magazines. Now I eagerly await the nextissue of Bridges. Fortunately, it keeps coming. Do nottire! When I see photographs/ articles of universalinterest I photocopy and send them to select friends inthe hope that they too will subscribe.

I am thrilled to see the West 69th Street story (BridgesJuly/Aug 2009). In 1948, my parents and I came tothis country and Marquette Park where this street islocated became the gathering spot. Chicago turnedinto a magnet of sortsdrawing Lithuanians from elsewhere.

My memory box wont stay shut. Hopefully yours,staff members and a multitude of readers wont stayshut either.

Sincerely,John Vazbys, New Jersey

BARAVYKASOne of Lithuanias little treasures


10/12

SG

12 n o v em b e r 2 0 0 9 bridges 13

SG

SG

SG

SG

SG

SG

JS

Photo Album

2009

Traku pilis

JS

JS

JS

JS

JS

SG

SG

SG

SG

SG

SG

Photos by: SG- 14 year oldSaulius Gecas, Phila., PA

JS - Julie Skurdenis, Bronxville, NY

SG

SG

SG

SG

JS

Trakai Castle, Trakai, Lithuania


11/12


12/12

Name (please print)Address

City State Zip E

ORDER FOR

bridges

L I T H U A N I A N - A M E R I C A N N E W

Please enclose the subscription

Please check:

New Renewal Gift

Bridges - November 2009

Documents

Transcript of Bridges - November 2009