1876 Lipusz - 1945 Winona
Proud to be Polish by virtue of my birth
Proud to be American by virtue of my service
I bore all my days, in old and new homelands
The name Reinhold Albert Eichendorf:
Son of Ludwik and the former Anna Palubicka,
Younger brother to Berta, Julianna, and Angelina.
I grew up in Koscierzyna, apprenticed to the tailor
Who paid me only with room and board
But he taught me to play the violin.
I would scrap with the German boys who called me Polish
And the Polish boys who called me German.
I dreamed of going to Winona, Minnesota
Where my married sister Julianna lived with her husband.
They sent for me, and found me work with the tailor Kadletz.
I served my new home against Spain in Company E,
Twelfth Minnesota Volunteers, in the rank of Musician,
Rising, before war's end, to the rank of Corporal
And to start a family with Mary.
Our children got good American names:
Gertrude, William, Edward, and Leonard.
When Mary died, I started my own tailor shop
At 255 East Third, and flourished.
My contributions to the Winona town orchestra
Were noted in the Winona Republican-Herald
As was the December morning I was found at Fourth and Vine
Dead drunk, with my hands and feet frozen stiff.
Had the doctors been forced to amputate
My livelihood would have vanished, leaving me
With no wife, a worthless first son, and no name.
I refused to give in to the doctors, or to the whiskey.
I ran my firstborn off to the Twin Cities.
My business flourished.
In Winona, the name Reinhold Albert Eichendorf
Stood for a proud Polish American:
Husband, father, tailor, musician, veteran.
To this day you can stop at the Armory on Johnson Street
To view a piece of hardtack I carried during the Spanish American War,
Donated by my second son, Edward Eichendorf.
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