Kanapka Family Story

Life in the homeland

The Kanapka family’s roots are in the Biržai district in modern-day Lithuania. Vilis Kanapka was born there to a family of tenant farmers.

Vilis’ wife Elizabeth Gegners (nee Hemmelreihe, in the US this surname changed to Schmidt), who he later married in the US, was also born in modern-day Lithuania, in Žagare district. She married Rudolf Gegners in 1914 in Lithuania, and in 1917 their son Oswald was born. Rudolfs died of pneumonia in 1917 during the war, where he worked as a doctor’s helper.

Travel and Arrival in the USA

Vilis Kanapka left home at the age of 19 to avoid military service in the Czar’s army, and arrived in the United States in December of 1904, immediately heading to Lincoln, where his uncle had moved approximately ten years earlier.

In 1922, widow Elizabeth Gegners arrived in the United States with her son Oswald, and headed to Minneapolis, where her parents already lived. They had adopted the surname Schmidt. Elizabeth worked in the Munsingwear underwear factory for approximately two years.

Life in Wisconsin

After arriving in Wisconsin, Vilis Kanapka first worked in a sawmill, where he earned good money. Sawmill and logging work were the main sources of income in those early years, since the area was mostly covered in virgin forest. After awhile, he moved to New York, where he worked in a slaughterhouse, then returned to Wisconsin in 1907 and bought a farm, where he raised and slaughtered cattle.

Lizzie Mossak, who lived in Lincoln, but whose husband worked in Minneapolis, is believed to have introduced Vilis with Elizabeth Gegner. They married in 1924 and bought a farm in Lincoln.
As with all Latvian farmhouses, it was properly kept and ready to always accept guests – Elizabeth always had a cake in the cupboard, while Vilis had blackberry brandy to offer to visitors. They had two gardens – one with flowers, the other with vegetables.

Vilis and Elizabeth had three sons and three daughters, and all left to the cities for work.

Family Today

Some Kanapka family members still live in Wisconsin, in the Lincoln area, in the city of Wausau, while others are all over the world, including Germany.

Cynthia Wachsmuth says that her Latvian roots have become more important “…now having visited Rīga and learning more about what life was like in [the Baltics] when they immigrated to the US. My grandparents were very brave, hardworking, kind, religious, and good neighbours to their community of Gleason. I also have a love of flowers just like my grandmother, and a love of sour cream and dill, maybe that’s genetic?”