This story is taken from "Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories," Volume 6
Frances Wodarck (or Frances Fager, as she was known when she left New York City), arrived on an orphan train about 1901. She was two and a half years old. The train she rode arrived in Royalton, MN.
The priest from Holy Cross church in North Prairie announced there would be a train with children coming. He asked that anyone who wanted a child should put their name in for one. There was a family who was expecting to receive a boy and a girl. Only the wife was at the train to receive the children. The boy was four years old and the girl was two and a half years old. Her name was Frances Fager.
The children were all given numbers and when Frances’s number was called, the woman saw her and thought she looked too fragile, so she said she didn’t want the little girl. She said her husband would be very angry with her for bringing home such a child.
Another woman was there, Frances Puchalla. She was the mother of fourteen children. When she saw the woman was not going to take this little girl, she said that she would take her. And so she did. She took little Frances Fager home to the farm.
Frances’ “parents” were good people and treated her well. They were immigrants from Silesia, Poland. They weren’t ones to show much affection, but they were good to her.
Joseph Puchalla was a religious man who displayed little humor or fun. He carried a rosary all the time. Frances Puchalla, the mother, was a lively woman who liked to dance around the home and enjoy life. Their meals were simple with almost never any sweets, but her mother could bake the best Caraway Rye bread.
When Frances went to school, her mother would make her lunches of bread and butter. (This was a good meal in those days.) However, little Frances didn’t like butter. She wanted bread and onion lard, but her mother wouldn’t let her take it. She thought people would think she wasn’t being treated right if she didn’t have butter.
Her mother told her, when she first came to live with them, that if she dropped any food when she was eating, she would have to get down and pick it up. She soon quickly grew out of that habit.
The fourteen brothers and sisters were: Michael; Bridget; Joseph; Agnes; Thomas; twins - Albert & Katie; twins - Peter & Paul; Frances and John who were gone from home when Frances arrived; but Stephen, Frank & Robin were still at home.
Emma was Frances’ little friend who lived close by. She often would come over and play at Frances’ house. By the age of seven or eight years old, each day (in the summertime) Frances would leave home at 6:00 a.m. with the herd of cows and not return until she heard the six o’clock p.m. church bell ring.
Frances attended school at District #6 in North Prairie (MN). Even though it was a public school, it was taught by nuns and the children went to mass every morning.
On February 27, 1911, Joseph Puchalla, Frances’ father, died of pneumonia. He was 63 years old. Frances, her mother, and brothers Stephen and John lived together until Stephen died at about the age of 30 and Robert married. When Robert married, he got the farm and built a small 2-room house on the farm land where Frances and her mother lived. The agreement was for Robert to supply food to Frances and her mother because he had the farm.
At the age of 13, her mother told her that Robert’s wife, Anna, did not want to feed Frances, but would care for the mother. Frances would have to leave and find a home elsewhere.
Frances went to Royalton to work and a place to live. Here she found work at a home where both the wife and husband were mail carriers. She cared for their children, learned to cook, and baked pies, even green tomato pies.
Eventually Frances moved to Little Falls (MN) and found work in a hotel doing laundry. On her days off, she would visit her sister, Agnes, who was married to a horrible man. Frances helped take care of Agnes’ 13 children. Agnes was very good to her, and they were very close. One day, while visiting Agnes, they went to visit the next door neighbors, the Wodarcks. The Wodarcks moved to Little Falls from Philadelphia.
Frances said she had always known she would marry the first man who asked her, as she was tired of asking people for work. Stanley Wodarck (the neighbor’s son) and Frances married and lived in Little Falls where Stanley worked at the paper mill. They lived in Little Falls for at least 20 years. When the depression came, they moved to Minneapolis (MN) so Stanley could find work.
In November of 1921, Frances (Switalln) Puchalla passed away, surviving her husband about 10 years. She was 72 years old and had heart problems. Frances (Fager) Wodarck had just given birth to her third child at that time. All together, Frances and Stanley raised nine children, successfully.
Dianne Rowe, daughter of France’s Wodarck, asked her mother about some other memories and feelings about her life. Here are her replies:
“I asked my mother what were some of the first things she remembers. She said it was sitting at a long table with a bench and chairs, eating and everyone who wasn’t married was there.
One day her brother Mike came home and asked Frances to sing a song called Red Wing. Frances always had a good voice. Mike gave her $1.00 for singing, and her mother bought her a hat with the money.
When she was 15 years old, for activity during the long winters, they would have surprise parties. The boys would bring beer and the girls would bring the lunch - cake and pickles. They would dance all eventing. John, her brother, was usually her partner.”
Frances Fager Wodarck passed away on June 18, 1996, at the age of 98. Her daughter, Dianne Rowe, would like to know more about her early life in NYC before she was placed out.
If you can assist with this research, please write to: OTHSA, Inc.,
P.O. Box 322,
Concordia, KS 66901.
