Fallen workers in Welland cemeteries
Alexander Penteskul’s resting place is in Welland’s Woodlawn Cemetery, near the end of a row. It is unremarkable save for a vase with flowers at one corner of its base.
They made it easy to locate on soggy, mid-Monday afternoon.
The gravesite is in what was known as the foreigner section, with those of others of eastern European descent; years ago, Bill Lewis, the late Welland historian, pointed out this section during a walking tour of the cemetery.
The vase and flowers denoted the resting place as the gravesite of a Welland Canal fallen worker. It is what brought us here and to nearby Holy Cross Cemetery on Monday, for tours and stories about the fallen workers. But angry thunder and a long and sudden downpour had made us vacillate, consequently we arrived to empty grounds.
At Holy Cross, we found three sites, each with its own vase and flowers. Woodlawn had nine, unless I counted wrong or unless we missed one of the bright orange pylons that stood sentinel-like at the beginning of rows where the markers — many old and weathered, and a few new — were found.
By this time I was already regretting giving short shrift to the Welland Canal Fallen Workers project: to missing speaking engagements here in our hometown over the past year, and following only sporadically the stories about these men that appeared in our local newspaper, and still do.
Maybe it was being in their presence in these hallowed grounds that brought the message home. Maybe it was the realization that Aug. 6 was the 85th anniversary of the completion of the Welland Ship Canal, and that 137 lives were taken during its construction. Maybe it was this amazing story that is in our midst, and that it had remained buried for all these years and the regret of paying so little attention to it.
Thanks to meticulous, painstaking research that was done for the project, a compilation of the 137 fallen workers is available on line. From it I’ve culled this shorter list, about the fallen workers in Woodlawn and Holy Cross cemeteries, with information provided in this order: name, age, year of death, cause of accident and birthplace:
John Swan, 21, 1926, drowned, Scotland;
Alexander Penteskul, 45, 1926, struck by dragline bucket, Austria;
Janos Koran, 36, 1927, fall, Hungary;
Peter Joseph Boyle, 28, 1927, crushed under (rail)car, Wigan, Lancashire, England;
Andrew Harkness, 38, 1928, drowned; lock wall tunnel, Ireland;
Peter Szolonyik, 27, 1928, blow from bucket, Hungary;
John Bode, 27, 1928, smothered; slide of earth, Hungary;
Charles A. McInnis, 24, 1928, struck by falling pole, Prince Edward Island;
Francis Fernley Bassett, 23, 1929, crushed; locom crane, England;
Thomas W. Pollard, 34, 1929, fall from Bridge 5, Newfoundland;
William Francis Bassett, 43, 1929, crushed, Bridge 21 ct. weight, England;
Note: name of deceased and other info on one of the markers in Woodlawn Cemetery could not be read.
As for Mr. Penteskul, the inscription on his grave marker says he was from Bukowina, Austria. He lived in Welland for 14 years, according to a story by Robert W. Sears, president of the Canadian Canal Society.
Mr. Sears also wrote: “For two years prior to his death, Penteskul was an employee of Atlas Construction Co. On July 12, 1926, he was working at a pit at the site of the intake channel of the syphon culvert in Welland. He had his back to a large dragline shovel when it dropped its bucket on top of him and the drag chain wrapped itself around his body.
“The bucket, which weighed more than two tons, crushed him. With a dislocated spine and a broken leg, he died of shock before medical help could arrive.”
Mr. Penteskul had a wife who lived in Austria and a sister, Rosie Manger, who lived in Welland with her husband Mike, according to the story.
The marker for Janos Koran, also in Woodlawn is inscribed in Hungarian, which was translated for me by a learned friend. It said he died May 29, 1927. The marker has two inscriptions in Hungarian. One translates to “May angels announce his arrival in heaven with song.”
Many other stories on the fallen canal workers have been written and can be found online. They are well worth your while to look up and read.
I have in my archive a copy of the book released for the opening of the Welland Ship Canal, Aug. 6, 1932, a gift from a former managing editor of the newspaper, T.N. Morrison. It’s a wonderful history of the four Welland canals, with information about everything related to this amazing construction project, from total rock excavation, total earth excavation etc, to names of government ministers, engineers, main contractors and more.
In retrospect however, what seems a glaring omission is reference and thank you to the thousands of workmen whose blood, sweat and tears made it happen, especially the canal workers whose lives were lost.