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Somehow, in its own way, amid its beautiful upstate New York location centered amongst the rolling hills and valleys adjacent the shores of Lake Ontario, Sterling has attracted notables and historic figureheads from throughout this nation and world.
At first there were those such as the famed Seneca Indian Red Jacket; Gen. Philip Schuyler, commander of the continental Northern Army in 1776-1777, whose pro-American sentiment was also nurtured in the future land of Sterling; Capt. Abraham Swarthout, who fought at Fort Stanwix in 1777; Revolutionary War Gen. William Alexander Lord Stirling (for whom Sterling is named but erroneously spelled with an “e”); and abolitionist Elinor Kirk Buck, whose home in Sterling Center was a part of the Underground Railroad frequently visited by the famed African-American orator Frederick Douglas.
These individuals were, in time, followed by others, such as the lucky Titanic ship survivor Walter Palenkovych and W. Averell Harriman, a business giant and later America’s ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II who, in the 1920s, was in business with Howard Doggett, a captain in our nation’s industry. Both resided in Sterling during the iron ore mining era. Harriman resided in the home of Mrs. Mary Keville, granddaughter of Capt. Swarthout the home now owned by Larry and Susan Lemons. Writer William “Bill” Knott pseudonym Tabor Evans, who authored the western “Longarm” series, amongst other works; Rod Serling, creator of “The Twilight Zone”; Dylan Guy, actress/play writer who starred in Rod Steiger movies; and, most recently, country western singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw — these are just some of the notables who, at one or time or another, traversed upon the soil of Sterling. Along with these personalities, there once existed a foreign political activist who, in time, likewise made Sterling his home.
In late 1907, a young widow, 32-year-old Emelia Batrack, arrived to the United States. Her husband, a successful farmer, had just recently passed away. Arriving to New York City, she eventually would be joined by her three children: daughter Julia and sons Eugene and Walter. Emelia, an Austrian citizen who in blood was Ukrainian, hailed from a very cultured family and sang in the Lemberg Opera House. As for the city of Lemberg, located on the eastern fringes of the Austrian empire, it was the capital city of the province of eastern Galicia. A very beautiful and cosmopolitan modern city with electrical street lamps, trolley cars, numerous shops, cafes and restaurants, the city was known as the “Vienna of the East,” “The Jewel of the East” and “Little Vienna.” In near future years, via her daughter Julia, Emelia Batrack would connect to a personality and a soon-to-be Sterling resident who not only shook the entire Austrian empire, but created an international sensation that reverberated to the United States and left the town of Sterling as a historic site far overseas.
His name was Myroslav (Myron) Sichinsky, born on Oct. 11, 1886, in the town of Chernehivtsi, eastern Galicia. At this time the province of Galicia encompassed the entire eastern edge of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) empire. Bordering on Galicia was the empire of imperial Russia.
In 1848, and prior to Sichinsky’s birth, a conference known as the Congress of Vienna was held in Vienna, Austria. At this time, Vienna was the capital of the entire Austrian empire. A vast empire stretching many hundreds of miles eastward and southward, it encompassed what now are the modern-day states of Austria, northern Italy, southern Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, much of Romania, southern Poland and west Ukraine. During this Congress, the empires various minorities stood up and, one after another, demanded not only more autonomy from the Austrian empire, but some even requested complete separation both from Austria and Russia. Among those who expressed such a sentiment was the Ukrainian delegation that hailed from east Galicia and advocated total independence from both Austria and Russia.
Though the 1848 conference achieved little, by 1900 the Austrian empire had been tremendously weakened. In fact, it was collapsing. To maintain firmer control of its minorities and safeguard the empire, Austria’s rulers, such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand II, appointed a number of non-Austrian officials to high positions in hopes of maintaining a tighter and stronger control. One such official was Count Andreas Potocki, who hailed from a very prominent Polish family dating back several hundred years. Potocki served as governor of the Austrian province of Galicia.
At that time, western Galicia was overwhelmingly Polish; eastern Galicia was overwhelmingly Ukrainian. Though officially an Austrian citizen and a high-ranking Austrian official, Potocki was secretly seeking the establishment of a Polish state. But as Austria’s minorities sought to break away, geographical-political animosities also arose amongst them.
On April 12, 1908, as Potocki appeared for a presentation in Lemberg, Galicia, he was suddenly approached by Myron Sichinsky, a young University of Lemberg student. Firing three shots, the Ukrainian activist killed Austria’s appointed governor of Galicia. Sichinsky’s actions were undertaken as a protest against Austria’s rule because Sichinsky advocated complete separation from Austria; he promoted an independent Ukrainian nation totally free from both Austria and Russia, and grievances against Potocki. Within 24 hours, news of the killing flashed across the world via special cables as heralded in The New York Times newspaper of April 13, 1908 — “Student Murders Governor of Galicia.” The Times reported that “The Governor of the Province of Galicia, Count Andreas Potocki, was assassinated today by Mieroslap Sziczynski (Sichinsky).” In the following weeks and months, further news of this action electrified the world. Following a speedy trial, news flashes worldwide heralded “Death For Potocki’s Slayer” as evidenced by another Times article dated July 1, 1908.
Though Sichinsky’s activism was based against a regional administrator, in actuality he was lashing out against the entire Austrian system. Overwhelmingly, not only did Ukrainians sympathize with Sichinsky but so, too, did many moderate Poles as well as the Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Balkan peoples, Germans, Italians and Jews. In support of Sichinsky, from Vienna to Lemberg, numerous riots, protests, strikes, sit-ins, street fighting with Austrian police and militia forces took place. In the north Adriatic Sea ports, dock yard workers refused to load and unload ships.
Austria’s empire was paralyzed. Overnight, Sterling’s, soon-to-be resident had not only become a national hero for tens of millions but, likewise, he succeeded in virtually shutting down an entire empire, and the Ukrainian ideologist further weakened the crumbling Austrian empire. In response to this massive protest Austria’s leader, Archduke Ferdinand, was forced to suspend the death sentence. Sichinsky’s sentence was commuted to 25 years with a review of the sentence after 12 years. For the moment, the archduke’s decision calmed the situation.
In the meantime, as Sichinsky was sitting in a prison cell, two other events were underway: Emelia Batrack was making arrangements for her three children to emigrate to the United States and throughout America, and Canada Ukrainian organizations such as the Federation of Ukrainian Social Democrats of Canada were raising huge sums of money on behalf of Sichinsky. Along with their fellow countrymen in Eastern Europe, an escape attempt was also being plotted.
In November 1911, after three-and-a-half years of imprisonment, Sichinsky escaped. Austria issued an international “most wanted” warrant. With a fake identity and passport, he boarded a ship bound for Canada. Soon after, Sichinsky entered the United States and arrived to New York City. Shortly after the November escape, Emelia’s children entered the United States and, by mid-1912, mother Emelia with daughter Julia and sons Eugene and Walter were residing in New York City. Noting that Julia possessed a very talented voice, Emelia commenced voice, piano, and bandura (an oversized guitar) training for her.
Informed that Sichinsky was now hiding in America, Austria demanded his immediate return. A very hot international argument ensued. Worldwide, notables such as the famous American anarchist Emma Goldman, along with Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, a Jewish Zionist from Russia’s Ukraine and one of the first to advocate the creation of a future Israeli state, as well as New York City Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia defended Sichinsky. At a massive pro-Sichinsky rally held in the Cooper Union auditorium in lower Manhattan, New York City’s mayor screamed from the podium to a supportive crowd of 30,000 gathered for blocks around “that as long as I’m running this town, no one is handing Sichinsky to anyone!” Regardless, immediate upcoming events such as the Balkan War of 1912-1913, the assassination of the archduke and the eruption of World War I in 1914 soon followed, with the collapse of the Austrian empire in 1917 concluding any disputes for the deportation of Sichinsky who, by 1915, had achieved political amnesty from the American government.
By late 1917 the war, along with nationalistic revolts, finished off the imperial empires of Austria and Russia. New nations arose. Some prevailed while others, such as the newly established Ukrainian republic, collapsed. During this time, Sichinsky and his fellow American and Canadian compatriots worked hard to support those overseas. Such was evidenced by Sichinsky’s lengthy letter published in The New York Times on June 25, 1919, saying that the region of eastern Galicia, overwhelmingly Ukrainian, should be a part of the Ukrainian nation and western Galicia, with its overwhelmingly Polish populace, should be within the Polish nation. Regardless, by 1921, Ukraine had ceased to exist and in 1923 the League of Nations and the United States stipulated that eastern Galicia would, for the time being, remain an autonomous state within Poland until 1948 when, that year, free elections supervised by the league would determine the region’s final status.
In 1921, Sichinsky walked into a theater in New York City. By now, Julia was a well-known singer who sang with various opera and theater groups which toured the entire North American continent. Thrilled by both the beauty and voice of this young Slavic girl, he approached her and soon after, Julia Batrack married with Myron Sichinsky. In 1922, they relocated to Rochester. Seeking a rural way of life and land, they arrived to Sterling, rented a farm and were joined by mother Emelia and Julia’s two younger brothers, Eugene and Walter.
Sichinsky, between his farm work and studies at the University of Rochester, always remained an activist promoting the Ukrainian cause, and forever he cited the United States as an example where people live in freedom and harmony. As for his brother-in-law Eugene Batrack, in 1942, though he was 41 years of age, he enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps. Fluent in seven languages, including Russian and Chinese, in the rank of staff sergeant he served in the China and Korea peninsula regions. Sunk off the coast of China in 1944, the family still possesses the telegram sent to his wife that Staff Sgt. Eugene Batrack, U.S. Marine Corps, is missing in action, presumed killed. Reaching mainland China within a Japanese occupied region, Sgt. Batrack and a number of his fellow service members established contact with a Chinese guerrilla unit and, with their assistance, reached safety. As a linguist/translator, Sgt. Batrack translated for such notables as Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. Stillwell, Douglas MacArthur and various British, Australian and Soviet generals, field marshals and Allied political dignitaries. Honorably discharged from the Marines on Dec. 11, 1946, out of Buffalo, he returned to Sterling, purchased the farm, found employment in the Kodak plant and retired from there. But his happiest moments were always on the farm affectionately named “Sterling Acres Farm” by daughter Dorothy. In 1969, he suddenly passed away. As for Myron Sichinsky, though he always remained close to his in-laws and cherished the farm in Sterling, he also resided in Rochester, Arizona and Michigan. On March 16, 1979, he died in Westland, Mich., at age 92.
In conclusion, the author, a Sterling native, upon his return from a U.S. Army tour of duty in Kuwait-Iraq several years ago, traveled to Ukraine, his ancestral homeland. There, in the city of Lviv (formerly Lemberg), he entered one of its museums. Soon, a discussion arose and in response to the inquiry of “Where are you from in America?” he mentioned Sterling — such was their immediate response: “Interesting! One of our city’s most famous opera singers and, of course, national heroes, Myroslav (Myron) Sichinsky, ended up in Sterling.”
Indeed, this is fascinating! Sterling has seen them all.
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