"I thought I came to God's country and that I would be alright. But the same time I did not find very much improvement,” wrote Feliks Skibicki in a 1933 affidavit while requesting another increase in his pension.1 A Prussian-Polish immigrant, Feliks had been working in a shoe factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he lived since the 1890s. His name comes from the Latin word felix, meaning “happy, lucky, or fortunate,” though his name should probably have been infelix instead.
He was 22 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1898 and fought in the Spanish-American War. Some of his fellow soldiers called him the strongest man they ever knew. Within a year he contracted dysentery, which eventually progressed into an abdominal tumor. He spent sixteen months in the hospital before he was discharged on account of his disability. Feliks claimed he was 210 pounds upon entering the service, and nearly dead at 90 pounds upon his discharge.
When he returned to Haverhill, he gained weight and his health improved slightly. He returned to the shop for a few months, receiving physical accommodation whenever possible. His tumor disappeared, though his health troubles were just beginning.
Wedding portrait of Feliks and Arnie (Bartoszewicz) Skibicki, 24 Aug. 1902.
There was a period of 2 ½ years in which he was bedridden, receiving medical care in Haverhill, Boston, New York, and Chicago. In 1907, his doctor recommended a change of climate. “He told me that I would have to take a trip to Europe if I wanted to get well again,” Feliks wrote. “I was so sick and weak that I could not sit in my own bed for one minute, and I told him that it was impossible for me to go to Europe. He told me to either go there or stay here and die.”2
His wife Annie hired two men who dragged her husband out of the house in a rocking chair and put him in a sack. They carried him to the train station in Haverhill, rode to Boston, and put Feliks on board a steamship. He returned to Haverhill four months later after hospitalizations in Germany and Austria.3
Feliks’s health temporarily improved, but he continued to battle rheumatism flare-ups and heart trouble. As a result, he was unable to maintain steady work in the shoe factories. Annie also worked and helped to carry on the home, though Feliks constantly requested pension increases to make up for his inconsistent employment. Ultimately, Feliks lost his job operating shoe-lasting machines in March 1929.4
Months later, Annie died suddenly at the age of 44,5 causing Feliks to request another pension increase “to hold the home together.”6 His three minor children went to live with their older siblings in Maine, as he could not physically care for them.
While he had no active income, it is possible Feliks had more money than he may have let on. He reportedly withdrew his life savings of nearly $12,000, fearing his Boston bank would close due to the Bank Holiday of 1933. He placed his money, much of which he had earned working in the factories, in a safe deposit box in Haverhill National Bank.
All the while, Feliks continued seeking medical care out of the state. He reported suffering from stomach trouble, a weak heart, rheumatism, weakness, piles, dizzy spells, rupture, asthma, gas on stomach, arterial hypertension, arteriosclerosis, varicose veins, and chronic colitis. A doctor in Maine wrote he could not care for Feliks as they could not keep close enough contact, and he was denied entry into a New York hospital for the sick-poor as he wasn’t a resident. He considered leaving the life he established in Haverhill and returning to Poland altogether. He wrote a letter begging the government to send his citizenship papers or a pass allowing him to come and go from the United States as he pleased. He petitioned for American citizenship, renouncing his affiliation to the German Reich. Until he was granted his naturalization, it appeared he would have no hopes of financial or medical improvement.
However, Feliks found a marital ad in the Polish newspaper Gwiazda Polarna. It roughly translated to: “Rich Woman, single lady, wants to get acquainted in regards to marriage, (not with a young man) but with a nice, quiet, sober, and saving man of good character. He is to write the first letter to A.K., care of Gwiazda Polarna, Stevens Point, Wisconsin.”7 Feliks exchanged three or four letters with this woman, and she traveled from Detroit, Michigan to Haverhill to meet him.
Miss Anna Kolass arrived on the afternoon of Tuesday, 31 October 1933. Feliks’s daughter Veronica made a trip to her father’s house to protest the marriage, which resulted in an argument that sent her back north.8 After all, his mind was made up, and she was “in good faith.”9 They even made a trip to the bank to put her money with his
Feliks was chopping wood in the cellar of his home that Saturday when Ms. Kolass announced she was going downtown by herself to get something for dinner. Despite assuring her fiancée that she could manage her way around the unfamiliar city, she failed to return hours later. A missing person’s report was filed with a wide search commencing the next day. The Haverhill police recommended Feliks check his safe deposit box when the bank reopened the following Monday, 6 November 1933, which was the day they were meant to be married.
That was when Feliks discovered his $12,200 in life savings, along with Ms. Kolass’s $6,000, were missing from the box. When Feliks had turned his back to speak with the bank clerk a few days prior, Ms. Kolass had swapped out the cash for a small parcel of celery. She even praised Feliks as they left the bank that day, saying he kept his money in such a safe place. The wilting celery said otherwise.
An investigation showed that “Ms. Kolass” intended to kill Feliks, if necessary. She left behind a bag containing chloroform, a stiletto knife, nurse’s uniforms, and a book with the alias “Alma Borwart” written inside. The rest of her belongings, including the letters they wrote to each other, disappeared with her.
Headlines from a Polish newspaper in Buffalo, N.Y.10
The story grabbed news attention nationally, and Ms. Kolass’s fingerprints and physical description were spread throughout the United States. Despite this, she was never found, and it was feared that she may have fled back to Poland.11 By the end of his ordeal, Feliks was broke, totally disabled, and unable to take care of himself.
Feliks Skibicki died minutes after setting foot in a Haverhill hospital on 9 February 1934. An article published in Haverhill two days after, “Broken Heart Causes Death of Lone Man—Search for Mate is Inception of Tragedy,” tied his persistent heart trouble to his recent stressors. He was buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Haverhill in the same lot as his wife.12 He left Veronica as the sole executor of his personal estate, which amounted to $1,200.13
Sources
1. Pension Claims File, Feliks Skibicki, Private, Co. M, 13th Mass. Regt. Inf., invalid pension application no. 1258637, certificate no. 1037935, photocopies made for Elizabeth Stanhope and Andrew Powell in 1999, now privately held by the author, unpaginated, image 125.
2. Pension Claims File, Feliks Skibicki, invalid pension application no. 1258637, certificate no. 1037935, unpaginated, image 135.
3. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,” Ancestry.com, NARA Series T715, Roll 1064, image 109, Feliks Skibicki, SS Main, arriving 22 Dec. 1907 from Bremen.
4. Pension Claims File, Feliks Skibicki, invalid pension application no. 1258637, certificate no. 1037935, unpaginated, image 110.
5. Haverhill, Mass., Death Certificates, 1929, 31:212, FamilySearch.org, film no. 115543587, image 213 of 585.
6. Pension Claims File, Feliks Skibicki, invalid pension application no. 1258637, certificate no. 1037935, unpaginated, image 106.
7. “Shoeworker is Victim of $12,200 Marriage Hoax,” Haverhill Gazette (Haverhill, Mass.), 6 Nov. 1933, pp. 1, 7.
8. “Haverhill Romeo, 72, Fleeced of $12,200 in Mail Romance,” Boston Daily Record (Boston, Mass.), 7 Nov. 1933, p. 3.
9. “Shoeworker is Victim of $12,200 Marriage Hoax,” Haverhill Gazette (Haverhill, Mass.), 6 Nov. 1933, p. 7.
10. “F. Skibicki Padł Ofiarą Oszustwa Na $12,200,” Dziennik Dla Wszystkich (Buffalo, N.Y.), 7 Nov. 1933, vol. 28, no. 256, p. 1.
11. “Shoeworker is Victim of $12,200 Marriage Hoax,” Haverhill Gazette (Haverhill, Mass.), 6 Nov. 1933, pp. 1, 7.
12. FindAGrave.com, memorial no. 94080918.
13. “Unusually Busy Term of Probate Closed,” Biddeford Daily Journal (Biddeford, Me.), 17 Feb. 1934, Newspapers.com, citing vol. L, no. 41, p. 2.