Pytereks in Chicago, Illinois

Alexander Pyterek 

Alexander Pyterek was born in 1851 in Gulcz, Poland in the parish of Lubasz. His parents were Walenty (Valentine) Pyterek and Catherine Polfus. Walenty Pyterek was listed as an agricola (small farmer) on his children's birth records and his death record in 1864. He was listed as a wirt (German word for innkeeper) on the civil registration of his marriage record found in the Czarnkow records.

There were several brothers and sisters in the family.

In 1854, Catherine (Polfus) Pyterek died and Valentine Pyterek  married Julianna Polfus. Julianna was a distant cousin of Catherine Polfus. Valentine and Julianna Pyterek had several Children:

Walenty Pyterek died on 23 June 1864 and Julianna (Polfus) Pyterek married Roman Kosmider in Lubasz parish on 11 Dec 1864. They had several children: 

Alexander Pyterek immigrated to America in 1873 and settled in the old Chicago Polish parish of St. Stanislaw Koska. In 1876, he married Helena Murkowska, who was from Kcynia, Poland. Her parents were Stanislaw Murkowski and Marianna Nalepinski. Helen Murkowsk'a mother also came to Chicago and died there in 1897. 

Alexander Pyterek was listed in the 1880 US census as Alex Pitrick living at 28 Bradley Street with his wife Helen, his children Ladislawa and Mary, and his mother-in -law Mary. At that time he was working in a tannery. He moved to South Chicago in the 1880s to work in the new steel mills. He built a house at 8640 Baltimore Avenue. He was an express man (delivery man) for the B&O Railroad and would often ride on top of the coal cars. One day he fell off a car and badly injured his ribs. He developed cancer and relatives say a doctor would periodically visit and burn off the cancer with a red hot poker. He succumbed to the disease in 1909.

Alexander and Helen Pyterek had several children: