JOE LAKE


The Fire Station in Skrzebowej, Poland

Joe was born Joseph Leja in Skrzebowej, Poland on 7 July 1884. John Leja (his father) emigrated from Poland in 1886 came thru the port of Baltimore MD. You had to have $50 to be able to emigtate to the US. He settled in Duluth, MN. and started working for the Duluth Street Railroad. John sent the money back to Poland so Katherine could come two years later. There were two boys Joe and Frank. Joe only went to school for about three years.

About 1900 the family moved to Allen Junction, Mn (located north of Two Harbors) here a daughter Helen on 22 May 1904 was born. In 1900 Joe was in Allen Junction working for his father, but he was working for the Duluth Street Railroad before coming to Brainerd. By 1907 John had bought a farm in Sturgon Lake where the youngest daughter was born 31 Oct 1907. Katherine and John had ten children.

In 1917 Joe and his friend Casper Marchel, were headed west. They ended up in Brainerd where they settled and raised families and both worked for the NP Railroad. Joe's brother Nick setup a blind date for Joe with Mary Ann Guzek in Duluth, where she was working as housekeeper, her family was living in Superior WI. Joe married Mary in Sturgon Lake at St. Isidore Catholic Church, on 18 July 1910.

Abt 1910 Joe bought his home at 421 No 10th St in Brainerd. Joe started building the train in 1912. He got the blueprints from the NP Shops and down scaled them to a foot to inch. He worked on the train in his garage in the summer and then worked on it in his basement during the winter months. He would work all day at the NP Shops and most of the night he would work on the train. After his wife died in 1946, he moved his workshop into the kitchen. But later he moved a housekeeper into the house and she wanted the kitchen, so he move it into the living room.

Before he died he tested the Locomotive with compressed air. He ran it thru the living room picture window. Not once but twice .

When the train first went into the Duluth Train Museum, Joe's nephew Hank Lake cleaned and painted the train.

In 2003, I and my nephew removed the train from the Duluth Train Museum, I oiled the trucks and ran the cars on the St Croix Railroad in Hudson, WI. Then I took it to my house in Sauk Rapids.

In 2005, my sisters and myself donated the train to the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association in St Paul, MN. It is in the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

Update 29 June 2011