Marianski, John
(Jan. 26, 1893 - )John Maryanski, who came from Zubolo?, Poland, to work in the coal mines of Minooka, annexed later to Scranton, Pennsylvania, was referred to as Marianski in his petition for naturalization (No. 9980, Vol. 40, p. 228, and Ancestry.Com) in the federal courthouse at Scranton. The misspelling of the name will remain here in order to make it easier for searchers to find it.
In his lifetime, while he preferred to spell his name Maryanski, 1485 persons of the clan in Poland favored Marianski, 597 Marjanski, and 35 Maryjanski in 1990. These names have Polish suffixes instead of the Latin form Marianus.
In 1920, when Minooka was part of Lackawanna Township, the census taker found 3,052 persons there, 315 of them from Poland. The families in Minooka were predominately Polish. During the First World War, Minooka sent more soldiers to fight in Europe than any village of its size in the country. On August 10, 1916, even before the United States entered the bloody conflict, John Maryanski joined the army and for two years was trained to fight out of trenches. He received an honorable discharge on May 19, 1919, and showed it on October 2, 1919, in the federal courthouse in order to receive his citizenship papers.
Shortly after he became a citizen, Emily Marianski was just 18 and fresh out of Poland when she married the war hero of Minooka. The story of the war could be told through the soldiers from Minooka, tales of bravery and sacrifice and of battles won and lost. Nobody has the names of the volunteers from Minooka.
Marianski raised three daughters and almost 80 years later nobody of the same name is left in Minooka. Not enough of the family is known to bring this story to a tidy end. It kind of make you wonder about the lost heroes of Scranton, what their life was like, what they did.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)