Janos Suri - - John Schury

JOHN SCHURY - Birth 2/20/1874 • Moderdorf, Austria - - Death 3/4/1954 • Pittsburgh, PA

John Schury (Gram Rose's father) came over to America on 7/24/1906 by himself and sent for the family later.

Mom would like to know if he was related to the Habsburgs as there was something said about that at one time.  She said that Gram remembers a fancy family carriage and Schonbrunner Gardens in Vienna.

From Mom's story:

The Schurys settled on the South Side of Pittsburgh.  John worked in a steel mill which was on Carson Street near Smithfield Street Bridge on the West End Side.

 
The Rivers of Steel website shows that this would be the Clinton Rolling Mill:

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Clinton Furnace

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Calling card

Clinton Rolling Mill & Furnace/Clinton Iron & Steel Correspondence

The Clinton Furnace was Pittsburgh's first successful blast furnace for making pig iron at the Clinton Iron and Steel Company. Operations began in the modern day Station Square in 1859, using Connellsville coke as fuel. The Clinton furnace was a metal-encased vessel, an advanced technology for its construction date. The success of the Clinton Furnace played an important role in establishing Pittsburgh as the center of iron and steel making. The furnace ceased production in 1927.
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WWI Draft Registration records show John in 1918 to be living on 142 Brownsville Avenue, and that he was tall, medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair.  It also stated that he worked for the A.M. Byers Co. 

A.M. Byers was apparently the world's largest wrought iron mill.

There is a site:  http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/6359

this has all the employee records, you have to log in to download.  The history includes wage rate, occupation, date of hire, length of time on the job, and reasons for leaving.

LINDA LOOK INTO THIS

Here's a picture of A.M. Byers inside the mill:

John Sury was naturalized in 1922

Sadly, the 1940 census on Montooth Street was without Antoinette. 

This census gives us more clues though.  John was 66 and retired.  He lived with Pauline, Steve and Betty. 

 - John only had a 4th grade education

 - Pauline worked as a seamstress and had two years of high school

- Steve worked as a waiter in a night club and had an 8th grade education

- Betty worked as a manicurist in a department store and it's hard to say if she had an 8th grade education or more as it's kind of scratched off

How about if you look a few names below theirs, my other great-grandparents are there on the same street, Charles and Maude Albitz.  Charles was a laborer in a road project. 

I'm not liking some of what Mom said about John Schury:

- He beat his wife and children frequently.

- He was a playboy.

This is interesting, though: 

His family in Austria considered him a "black sheep". because he came to America. 

He died of larynx cancer at the age of 80.

Great-Grandfather Schury worked hard all his life - a life where he was first named Janos Suri and died as John Schury and in between was also known as John Sury.