Leopold Ferdinand Cosky
Leopold Ferdinand Cosky (Coskey) came to this country from Germany on
April 26, 1874 at the age of 14. As
far as we know, neither his parents nor any other family members are known to have
been with him. No record of his
departure from ships with immigrants coming to this country could be found, so
we assume that the family legend, that he was a stowaway on a ship, just might
be true. He became a citizen on
Oct.8, 1887 when he was 27 years old.
Leopold Cosky was a very talented and creative man.
He won a first prize
at a World’s Fair for a wrought iron sculpture of a bouquet of
flowers. In
1897 he obtained a
a patent for a dumping
wagon. This invention was the first truck that was able to raise the back part
up in order dump the contents in a
given place. We have copies of his patent, and we have pictures of the sculpture.
As far as his personality, he was known as a strict disciplinarian with
an authoritarian disposition.
Leopold took off for parts unknown while his children were all quite
young, leaving the family to fend for itself. His son, Joseph, told us that he had to quit school after only 3rd
grade in order to work and help
support the family. Joseph and his brothers were known to be rough, tough guys, but you would
never guess anything like that if you knew the man that Joseph became. He was
a sweet, gentle, funny man who loved children. No one could have asked for a better father or a better grandfather. Leopold's first wife, Frances, then married a man named Winters, and they had a son named Jimmy
Winters, who was Joseph's favorite
person in the family when they got older. In recent years, Pat became
very involved with genealogy and has managed to track down and contact many
family members, both here in the east and in California. She has also gathered
many pictures from the past from these relatives.
Joseph died in Jan. 1976 and I don’t think anyone is missed more that
he is. He was a man loved by everyone who met
him.
---Jean Johnson
Poland and Germany had many skirmishes and some wars. During these times Poland and Germany were occupied by whatever political power had won the
fight. (See
A Brief History of Prussia) Emigration took place as a normal course of events in every country and all through human history, so some Germans found themselves in Poland and under German rule. Then, Poland came into power again and the Poles ruled. They graciously decided not to throw the Germans out and said they could stay if they added a Polish ending to the families' names. I believe that the Kimmenkowskis added the Polish ending "ski" at this time. It could make sense. The family could have been from Germany way back when and I have written to a family with the name Kimmenkowski living in the Alsace-Lorraine area of France/Germany. They claim the name Leopold is an old name used frequently in their family line and that the name surname Kimmenkowski had been changed along the years somewhere. His
granddaughter, Janet, from his marriage to Ethel Kate has a family bible which
lists Leopold's name as Von Kimenheimcosky. There's a lot of speculation in genealogy and I don't like to lock in on information I feel may have a misunderstanding along the line. When dealing with uncertainties, I try to say "could be" or "appears to be", perhaps, or the like. Maybe someone researching the line can chime in and give a logical full explanation for things I can only speculate
over. 
Leopold married Frances Kennedy, and they had
7 children:
Robert, Theodore, John,
Joseph, Emma, Leopold and Charles.
Emma died at about the age of 12 from what our father told us was
appendicitis. Most of that family spelled the family name “Cosky”,
while our father (Joseph) and some of his brothers spelled it “Coskey”. We have never found a logical explanation for the difference.
Leopold eventually ended up in Australia and married a woman by the name
of Ethel Lovelock. Later, he made his home in California where he started a new family with
5 more children: Seth, Albert, Leonard, Clarence and Serita. Our family knew just about nothing about this second
family. Our father
never talked about it and wanted nothing to
do with his father or any of his new family in California. His brother, Bob, however, did keep in touch
with his father over the years and had pictures and post cards. In later years we obtained
copies of some of these items. His
brother, Leopold, known as Leo, moved to Monterey, California, but we are not sure
how much contact he had with his father. Leopold died in February, 1927.
Where was Leopold From, Really?
--Pat Davis
