Joseph smoked a pipe. He was known as "the bull" by workers on the railroad. During the Depression era, men would seek him out to get work with the railroad. His mother died when he was 7 years old. Raised by his grandparents, they sent him to America to escape conscription in the Prussian Army. He had relatives (aunts/uncles/cousins) in Dunkirk.

His father was an officer in the German Army, his mother was Petronella GRACZYKOWSKI, the daughter of the local Magistrate. The magistrate forbade his daughter to marry the (hated) German, so Joseph was raised as an only child. Petronella died when Joseph was 7 yrs old (abt. 1877), and then he was raised by the Grandparents.

In 1886, when Joseph was 15 or so, his grandfather learned that Joseph would be inducted into the German/Prussian Army. So the boy would not have to endure the Army (of the hated Germans) he was shipped off to Aunts and Uncles in Buffalo/Dunkirk, NY. These folks were Petronellas' siblings and Joseph lived with them until about 1894.

One day an aunt and uncle, Jacob and Cecelia CIESIELSKI, decided to locate to the Polish community in Polonia, WI. In about 1892-3 Jacob and Cecelia moved to the Buena Vista township, and Joseph soon followed and lived with them until about 1900.

He then went north (with many of the local Poles) to Ashland, WI. Here there was much work in the mining and lumber camps, and also the railroad. Joseph began working at the ore docks and began a friendship with John Wanserski (A.K.A Van Serke). John was married to Helen KLUCZYKOWSKI. One day they invited Joseph to dinner (to meet Helen's sister, Anna KLUCZYKOWSKI. Many of the Kluck/Kluczykowski familiy were in the Ashland area at this time. Soon the romance blossomed and the two were married on Nov. 17, 1903 at Ashland.

About this time a cousin of Joseph's arrived in Wisconsin. This was Stanley B. Graczykowski. He soon met Margaret "Maggie" Kluck and they were married in 1904 at Polonia, WI.

In 1904, Joseph and Anna went to live on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation, about 80 miles from Ashland. Joseph was now working for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad as a Section Foreman. The couple ran the "Section House", a sort of primitive roadhouse for the loggers, miners, and rail hands. Anna's brother, Joseph KLUCK lived here for a time. The couples' first 5 children were born at the road house.

They were the first white children born on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation. Rose, Harry, Lawrence, Thomas, and Wesley.

In about 1911 Joseph saw that the north woods were gone and the mines were slowing. He asked for a transfer to the "Manitowoc rail yards" and arrived there in 1912. They had five more children: Stanley, Josephine, Casimir, John and Phyllis.

After Joseph and Anna arrived at Manitowoc, Anna's sisters' families went there in about 1919 - John and Helen Van Serke (Wanserski), and 1920 - Albert and Verona (Kluczykowski) Sobieski. They all stayed in Manaitowoc the rest of thier lives.