Z for Zagray
ZAGRAY Family
In 1909, Agnes Kowalczuk Zagray (1890-1970) and Stephen Zagray (1889-1972) came to America as immigrants from Galicia, an area located in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. They were married in the Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church on 7th Street in New York City on January 31, 1915. In December of that year, their first child, Stanley (1915-2003), was born. In 1916, having relatives and friends in Colchester, they purchased property on Amston Road to begin a life of farming.
Their family grew quickly with the arrival of their second son, Harry (1917-2001) who was followed by their third son, William (1922-2000). The Zagrays were a largely self-sufficient and independent family who worked on the farm their entire lives. The property had several buildings, including their modest home, a dairy barn for their cattle, a machine shop, a foundry, an antique sawmill, and various sheds. When their first barn was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane, the family rebuilt it only to have the second barn destroyed by a fire two years later. Again, they rebuilt the barn, and the third large gambrel-roofed barn still stands.
Never marrying, the brothers chose a life that shunned everything modern, preferring their three-seater outhouse to indoor plumbing and heating their home with wood. After the death of their parents, Willy became the family caretaker, maintaining the family dairy farm, bee keeping, growing and canning vegetables. Always striving to “live off the grid”, Stanley, Harry and Willie fashioned a turbine powered by a nearby brook and successfully generated enough electricity to augment the needs of their farm.
During their lives, the Zagray brothers considered their farm to be a “gathering place” where neighbors and friends, mostly farmers, would get together to chat, barter or exchange farming techniques. In 2001, with no heirs, the farm was bequeathed to the Colchester Historical Society to be preserved as a “Snapshot in Time”.
“Z for Zagray” Extra Documentation