Editor, Times-Union: My name is Patricia Sopko, and I live in Berwick, Pa. I have recently begun to trace my family history, and have discovered one branch of my relatives helped settle Burket.
My rellie, Susan Kivler, was born in 1852 in Pennsylvania to Joseph and Sarah (Shupp) Kivler. Susan married Adam Horn Jan. 26, 1870. Adam was born in 1849 in Ohio to Martin and Christena (Kemmer) Horn.
Adam established the first permanent drug store in Burket in March 1884. On April 28, 1885, Adam was commissioned the first postmaster in Burket.
I have also traced some of their children. Minnie was born in 1871 and married John Berriman in 1891 and they had six children. Joseph was born 1875 and married Luretta in 1897 and they had two children. P. Charles was born 1882 and I haven't found any information on him. M. Grace was born 1896, and again I haven't been able to find anything on her. Joseph and Luretta had two children. Their son Esco married Helen and they had one child, Doris, born 1921. Their son Lewis married Marie and they had one daughter and I believe her name to be Lowla/Lola. Minnie and John Berriman had six children: Ida, born 1894; Thomas, born 1897; John Jacob, born 1898; Forest, born 1899; William, born 1903; Mary, 1907. But I have no further information on them. I don't know if they moved out of the area or what. The women's names are harder to trace because of marriage.
Would you please be so kind as to print this in your newspaper? Perhaps someone might see a familiar name. I would appreciate so much if they did and if they would contact me. I have rich history on the Kivler family, going back to Philip and Dorothea (Kurr) Kivler. Philip was born 1730 in Wurttenmburg, Germany. I also love to meet new people, especially relatives, even if they are oh-so-distant!
I have several ways to be contacted.
You can send a letter to: 232 W. 8th St., Berwick, PA 18603
Email: stargazer21659@yahoo.com
Phone: 570-752-5885, 570-759-0111
Cell: 570-204-8493 Pat Sopko, via e-mail Berwick, Pa.
Twilight Zone
Editor, Times-Union: One of the really neat things about our western civilization, versus some of the other civilizations proliferating around the world right now, is that we tend to move forward and reach certain collective conclusions over a period of time through which we grow and advance our democratic society. At least ideally, in other words, we move forward - rather than backward - over the years.
So, in a respectable community like ours in which we try to raise our children to a higher standard, we should obviously view the extraordinary comments in Wednesday's letters to the editor of the Times-Union ("Hitler Story") as a throwback to a day gone by and to an individual who clearly has lost himself in a time warp.
Reading this letter, in fact, I wondered if I had suddenly lapsed into the "Twilight Zone," a place in which Rod Serling is the host and groups like the Nazis and the KKK hold some general credibility. Luckily, however, I awoke instead to a gorgeous Thanksgiving morning in a really nice lake community inhabited by fairly polite 21st century people who are a heck of a lot more credible and advanced than a throwback like this "author" and letter writer.
