Haralson County GAGenWeb

Biography

Istvanko/Estavanko/Estvanko

a proud part of

Contributed by Joe Conley (need updated email address please)

Jakop and Pavel Istvanko were brothers and arrived from Kosice, Slovakia. They are to have arrived in New York and then

settled in Pennsylvania, near the coal mining region in Luczerne County. Once they were in America they were known as

Jacob and Paul and no longer Jakop and Pavel.

Jacob and his wife Mary (Czimar) had 2 sons that were also born in Kosice, Adam and Joseph. This family now spelled their

names as Estavanko and no longer used the Istvanko spelling. In essence they spelled their name the way it sounded to them.

Paul and his wife Eula (Timon) had 4 sons, John, Paul Jr., Joseph L. "Little Joe" and Frank. This family spelled their name as it sounded to them, Estvanko. ** Note ** they do not use the "a" in the middle as did Jacob's family.

Jacob and Paul's family settled in Haralson County in about 1897. They were early settlers of the Slovak settlement known as
Nitra. They farmed mostly and Jacob also was a trader and barderer as well.

They lived and farmed on what is now Estavanko Loop Road. Both Jacob, Paul and their wives rest in the Estavanko Cemetery located on Old Ridgeway Road.

ADAM ESTAVANKO FAMILY

Adam Estavanko was the oldest of 2 sons born to Jakop (-aka- Jacob) Istvanko and Mary (Czimar) Istvanko. Adam was born in Kocise, Slovakia on 12-24-1874. He arrived with his parents from Austria-Hungary (-nka- Slovakia) and lived in Luczerne County, Pennsylvania and worked int he coal mines at a young age.

He moved with his family to settle in Haralson County in about 1897. They lived in the Slovak settlement of Nitra.

He married Maria Grega, another Slovak settler in 1898. She was a daughter of Michael and Anna Grega.

Adam and Maria then moved back to Luczerne County, PA. They lived in the town of Hazelbrook. They had 8 children, 3 of whom

died and are buried in St John Nepomucene Cemetery in freeland, PA. Maria (Grega) Estavanko died on 7-3-1915 and is

buried in Freeland also.

Adam and Maria had 8 children:

        Maria Estavanko                 * died young - buried in Freeland, PA
        Michael Estavanko                       * died young - buried in Freeland, PA
        Anna Elizabeth Estavanko                * married Noah Ezekiel Maddox - lived in Atlanta, GA
        Joseph Michael "Joe C" Estavanko        * married Alma Beatrice Adams - lived in Detroit, MI
        Steven Estavanko                        * married Lorraine Pastorre - lived in Detroit, MI
        Pauline Estavanko                       * married Albert Joseph "Red" Rado - lived in Lorain, OH
        Margaret Estavanko                      * died young - buried in Estavanko Cemetery in Haralson County, GA
        John Estavanko                          * died young - buried in Freeland, PA

Adam had a younger brother, Joseph Estavanko who lived near his parents in Nitra. He died at the age of 19 and left a widow, Mary (Majda) Estavanko and 2 children (Joseph S. Estavanko and "Kate" Estavanko).

Joseph and Mary had 2 children:

      Joseph Stephen "Big Joe" Estavanko * married Lucy "Cappie" Chambers
                                                 * married Blanch Woods
                                                * worked in Atlanta, lived in Bremen and is buried in Bremen at
                                                   Forest Lawn Cemetery

        Catherine "Kate" Estavanko       * married Charles Hutchinson
                                           * married Carl Flatt
                                                * lived and worked in Detroit, MI and is buried at Grosse Point, MI

Adam's father, Jacob Estavanko, played matchmaker and sent his widowed daughter-in-law to Hazelbrook on a train to

assist Adam in caring for his children after Maria's death.

In the fall of 1915, around October, Mary agreed to marry Adam "if" he would return to Haralson County. He agreed to this

as he was feeling the effects of "black lung" from his work in the coal mines.

When they arrived by train in Bremen the neighbors from Nitra met them with mules and horses and wagons to cart them

and their belongings back to Nitra where they made their home. Adam dismantled a home near Beech Creek by the Priest

House and marked each log. He reconstructed this on Estavanko Loop Road for his home.

Adam and Mary then had 2 children together:
Mary Agnes Estavanko      * married Selma James "Pete" Shadrix
Helen Elizabeth Estavanko       * married Thomas Riley Brooks

Adam died on 2-18-1940 and is buried in the Estavanko Cemetery located on Old Ridgeway Road. His second wife

PAULINE (ESTAVANKO) RADO

Pauline Estavanko was a daughter of Adam and Maria (Grega) Estavanko. She was born in Hazelbrook, PA on 3-15-1910.

After her mother's untimely death on 7-3-1915, she moved with her family to the "Nitra" community of Haralson County, GA.

She married Albert Joseph "Red" Rado, born 10-2-1893, a resident of the nearby Hungarian settlement of "Budapest".

They were married in Buchanan in the fall of 1929 and married in the Catholic Church in Rome, Georgia in the Spring of 1930.

They made their home in the Budapest settlement. Albert and Pauline had 3 children:

Helen Rado   * died stillborn on 1-17-1931 and is the first person buried in the Budapest Cemetery
Elizabeth Ann "Betty" Rado    * married Roy Hansel Conley and lives in Lorain, Ohio
Catherine Marie Rado   * single and lives in Lorain, Ohio

Albert and Pauline moved to Lorain, Ohio in 1936. He worked at National Tube Steel Mill and retired in 1958. Pauline worked

also in the Steel Mill in the early 1950's and also for Service Overall Supply in the late 1950's until Albert took ill.

After Albert's death she worked at Lorain Towel Supply for 15 years and retired in 1975 at age 65.

Albert died on 4-10-1960 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio. Pauline died on 12-18-1993 and is buried beside him.

This page was last updated on -04/01/2025