Julianna Kurtz Gilda

Born: ca. 1845 – Biezun, Poland

Married: Johann August Gilda

Died: 15-Jun-1899 – Philadelphia, PA.

Submitted by: Barbara Jean May – Penndel, Pennsylvania

Julianna Kurtz was born ca. 1845 to Daniel Kurzcyn and Petronella Tuchel. She married Johann August Gilda on 20-Feb-1868 in Sierpc, Poland. Juliana and their children arrived in the United States on 12-Mar-1891 through Ellis Island, her husband having immigrated a few years before in 1888 to get settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On June 15, 1899, Julianna suffered severe burns from a kitchen fire. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on June 16, 1899, “Mrs. Julianna Gilda, 56 years old, of 744 South Front Street, was preparing supper last evening and had built a wood fire in a stove in the kitchen. As the fire did not burn rapidly enough, she ported oil over the wood.

“Flames shot out, enveloping her. Her daughter Margaretta tried to beat out the flames and was severely burned about her hands. The daughter finally succeeded in dragging her mother into the yard and placing her under the hydrant. She turned on the water and succeeded in extinguishing the fire, but not until her mother had been so seriously burned that the flesh hung in shreds.”

Julianna died later that day.

I often think of Julianna. She was my 2nd Great Grandmother, and her death is horrifying. I cannot image the pain she went through. I also cannot imagine what the daughter who attempted to save her felt. The Inquirer listed the daughter as Margaretta, but there was no daughter with that name. All of the daughters were married by the time of the fire, so I do not know which daughter it may have been. What I do know is, Julianna, a Russian-Polish immigrant, died much too young in the City of Philadelphia.

The fact that she made the journey from what was then the Russian Empire (since, in 1891, Poland did not exist) to the United States with her three youngest children is heroic in itself. She is certainly someone I want my descendants to remember. Although most of what I know of her life was because of her death, I keep her in my prayers.