Failure is not Fatal

James Bratush, author of the book Historical Documentary of the Ukrainian Community of Rochester, New York, pages 16-17 writes, “Ukrainian immigrants who came to Rochester settled among the old Jewish immigrants on Joseph Avenue, Clinton Avenue, Hudson Avenue, and Saint Paul Street, because the Jewish people had come from Russia and Poland and our people could speak those languages. The Jewish people had their stores in that area and the Ukrainians, quite naturally, became their customers.”

“Another large group of immigrants, the Polish, had their own section of the city and their own church. Although every Ukrainian could speak Polish, and while it would have been very convenient to settle in the Polish neighborhood,” there were some centuries long, unsettled historical animosities between Ukrainians and Poles. “Therefore no one wanted to live in the Polish neighborhood. Later, however, the old antipathies diminished and Polish merchants began to serve the Ukrainians. For example, they delivered groceries, especially meat and bread, for the convenience of those Ukrainian women who took in boarders.” One of the Polish grocery stores, even had a special office where “immigrants could get help in sending money to the old country.”

“Some of the Ukrainian immigrants began to think about ways to serve their own people, rather than having to remain dependent upon Polish and Jewish merchants. In order to do so, money and business education were essential. The Ukrainians had neither, but one man, Wasyl Kuchmy, was courageous and intrepid enough to open his own business. It was a small store where he sold ice cream, soft drinks, candies, books, and magazines. The venture was unsuccessful and the store was closed, its owner going to work in a factory”.

In the book Free Cossacks, Anniversary Jubilee Book of the Ukrainian Civic Center, Rochester New York, published in 1970, on page 348, it is written that: “There are about fifty Ukrainian business firms and seven manufacturers. The largest is the Pluta Brothers Factory. Also there are 4 restaurants, 5 tailors, 6 gas stations and garages, 5 real estate and insurance agents, 2 liquor stores, 3 meat and grocery stores, 5 contractors for building houses, 1 funeral home, 2 furniture manufacturers, 2 printers, 1 barber, 1 hardware and 5 other firms.”

A wonderful legacy of entrepreneurship was ignited in 1914 by a determined, industrious young immigrant Wasyl Kuchmy, who arrived in the United States only six years prior. Wasyl Kuchmy, born 1890, immigrated from Putyatyntsi, Ukraine to Rochester, New York in 1908 at 18 years of age. He was a founding member of the Ukrainian Civic Center and maintained his membership in the organization even after he moved to New Jersey, where he continued to work and support his family as a machinist. Wasyl passed away on April 11, 1959 at the age of 69.