Emil and Tekla Vukelic with their first-born, my father, Edward
My paternal grandfather, Emil Vukelic, was born in Kosinj, Croatia in 1896. He died in 1972. Recently, I was rummaging through some old files and came across this memo:
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March 9, 1996
I spoke with Emily Larson today and learned a few things about my grandfather
Emil Vukelic. According to Emily, the youngest of dad’s siblings, Emil and
Tesla moved from Reeder to Beach, North Dakota in 1933 because Emil went broke
in Reeder. This was during the Great Depression and Emil extended credit to
local customers who were unable to pay for the goods from his grocery store.
A Hettinger native, Abe Tennis, loaned Emil the money to buy the grocery store
in Beach. The pattern continued in Beach and the only arguments Emily recalls
her parents ever having centered around Emil’s extension of credit to customers.
However, when he retired from the grocery business in the 1960s, all of his
accounts had been paid.
Emily said the word was out about Emil’s generosity and that there wasn’t a
“bum” that Emil ever turned away. He’d cut some slices of meat and give that
together with some crackers and overripe fruit to anyone who stopped in and was
hungry but couldn’t afford to pay for food. “They’d always leave with a sack of
something,” Emily said.
Noting my dad’s affinity for a good poker game, I asked if Emil was a gambler.
He liked to play whist and rummy but seldom gambled and then only for nickles
and dimes, she said. He also was not much of a drinker. There was usually a
bottle of wine on holidays and they kept a small bottle of whiskey on hand which
was mixed with lemonade and given to family members who had a cold.
This whole conversation started when I mentioned that two women in the past
month, on separate occasions, told me that they grew up north of Beach and
remembered going to Emil’s store when they were kids. One of them told me that
Emil always gave her candy when she came in and that she could remember the
boxes of fruit propped up at a 45-degree angle and smelling delicious.
I had previously heard stories about how men riding the freight train that
stopped in Beach would make their way to Emil’s store where they could count on
getting a free sandwich. “He was a generous man,” Emily summed up.
Front row: Mary, Tekla, and Alvina Back row: Edward, Emil, Mike, and Emily
They are standing outside the back door of the apartment above Vukelic's Grocery where they all lived.
Emil at our house, circa 1965
After a big dinner -- does this scene look familiar kids?
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Emily passed away in 2010. She was the last of the Vukelic siblings.