Conversation with Eugene Wicka of California

I received an interesting call from Eugene Wicka, whom I had contacted regarding the Wika family history.  Eugene was able to fill in some gaps as well as to give me Wika family history. I will try to recount the conversation as I best understood it.

The Wika family comes from the town of Wiele, Poland.  The parish is Ugofzcz, know today as Bitof, which is sister city, I believe, to Winona, Minnesota.  Jan Wika came to this country in 1859 through the New York Harbor.  One of the things that most confused Eugene's search for Wika family history is that Jan's brother Paulus is actually a half-brother.  Paulus came to this country in 1869, also through the New York Harbor.  Other siblings included Joe Wika, Amna Eve (spelling?) and Mariana, the two sisters settling in Montana.  Apparently there are Wikas in New York.

Jan's children included Henry, Andrew who died quite young, John who disappeared with his wife and two children in 1900 after they left for the Dakotas, and Phillip who settled in Montana and Vince, my grandfather.   Phillip was very active in Montana and the town of St. Phillip is named in his honor.  There is also a lot of Wika history to be learned from Wiebow, Montana where there is a museum with Wika artifacts.  There is also a lot of Wika history in Beach, North Dakota.  John, son of Jan, who disappeared was married to Valeria.  His two children were Frances and Vince.  (I do not know if Frances was male or female).  Eugene Wicka did a lot of research on this family but could not get anywhere.  He learned a lot from Dennis Kasperson (spelling).  Eugene also got a lot of information from my aunt Rose, my dad's sister.
The mother of Eugene's wife was a close friend of Rose; so Eugene got a lot of information that way.

Jan's half brother Paulus had one son named Leo.  Leo is the father of Eugene Wika so Paulus would be his grandfather...if I have that right.  Leo eventually went to Montana for a time.

My grandfather, Vince owned a farm near Dodge, Wisconsin.   According to Eugene, Vince tried to sell the property in 1940 but could not find any buyers.  So he held a raffle, and his cousin, Leo won the farm which is still in the Wika name.  Leo and his children, brothers of Eugene Wika owned and still owned property very close to this farm.  These farm's are in Boelle's Valley (pronounced Baileys).

Eugene noted that the family tree history provided by the Bambenek sisters (he mentioned Felicia of Mankato) is not all correct.

One of the main things to sort out are the two wives of Jacobus Wika, father of Jan and Paulus, the half-brother.  One of the wives is M Palubika and the other is speculated to be Magdelena Piecharski.  More work needs to be done to follow this trail.

This  information is garnered from my notes of a telephone conversation with Eugene Wika.  I have a disclaimer that I may not have gotten the information down correctly.  I will use it though to help me with my search.  I will also work with Eugene to try to clear up any mis-information that I may have written.