Nicolae Stoica. He Just Wanted His Family to Have a Better Life.

Nicolae Stoica. He Just Wanted His Family to Have a Better Life.

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Greetings ~

I hate for people to be forgotten. And when it's someone who was killed on the job, it's even more sad. Nicolae Stoica was killed, not really, on the job, but in connection to the company he worked for.

This is a short blog because I have found so little information about him. Sadly, I have been unable to find a photograph or drawing of him. If anyone out there has a photo, please let me know.

Victims of the January 1909, 68th Street water intake crib disaster.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 8-1-2024

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THANKS TO Karl Brunjes for the following information: ~

At 3 A.M. on August 14, 1901, an overheated boiler stack set fire to the roof of the temporary residence of the 42 employees of the Shailer & Schniglau Corporation working on water intake crib number two on the five-mile pipeline.

Five men were trapped in the crib and burned beyond recognition, three more drowned due to not being able to maintain their grip on the wreckage and one more died being overcome by the gas in the tunnel while attempting to save another man. Three additional deaths of the men working underground when the fire broke out were confirmed the next day bringing the death toll to twelve. The coroner’s investigation held the sub-contractors, the city and the engineer responsible for the disaster as no means of safety was provided nor was it mandated. Since construction began on the waterworks tunnel in 1896, nearly 50 men had died. (One week after the August 14 incident, another accident occurred claiming an additional five lives.)

The five unidentified burned bodies were buried side-by-side in individual graves at Erie Street Cemetery on August 16 with a newspaper headline proclaiming, “Not A Tear Was Shed.” Though this may have been the case, this did not mean that people didn’t care. It would take eight decades but eventually Nicolae Stoica would be identified as one of the victims.

Stoica came to America from Vistea de Sus – Fagaras, Romania planning to earn money to provide for his wife Rafira and their nine children. He likely would have had the same anonymous fate as the other four men had it not been for the attentiveness of his landlady. After the accident, she found letters to his wife and wrote to her informing her of the accident and her husband’s death. Three of the sons came to America to find his remains but were unable to locate them. His youngest daughter Maria came to America in 1920 but was also not able to locate her father. However, she stayed in Cleveland and was married to Joseph Grovu on January 31, 1922.

After many years of research by Maria’s daughter Aurelia and her husband Ralph Kleinpeter, Nicolae’s resting place was discovered at Erie Street Cemetery in 1983. Mr. Kleinpeter contacted the Cleveland Landmarks Commission about placing a marker to honor the five men killed that day. In partnership with the Early Settlers Association of the Western Reserve and Kotecki Monuments, the memorial headstone was dedicated on December 12, 1983. Maria, the last remaining Stoica child was able to see the father she never knew honored by the city. She would pass away 14 months later, on February 3, 1985.

[As mentioned, there had been many accidents during the construction of the five-mile pipeline. Over the years, the details of these events have been mixed which has created inaccurate information. The main confusion lies between the 1901 and 1916 disasters. The sources for this biography are the Cleveland Plain Dealer Archives and the Cleveland Landmarks Commission files.]

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