Casper Koralewski was married to my grand aunt, Rose Przybylski. He was the son of Piotr and Katarzyna Obarska. His father was born in Grabowo, Nowa Wies Krolewska, Opolskie Poland, and his parents were married in this village. It’s very likely this is where Casper was born.

Casper arrived in the US on 22 April 1891, landing in Baltimore and then traveling west to Ohio. His parents arrived two years later, and siblings also arrived during the same period.

Rose and Casper married 26 February 1900 in St. Anthony’s parish. The marriage produced eight children, all but one survived to adulthood. The only son, Daniel, did not survive childhood.

Rose died of tuberculosis at age 32 on 21 January 1916, leaving Casper to raise the family himself. Both the 1920 and 1930 census show him as widowed, he never remarried.

On 26 May 1923, Casper was involved in an auto accident with a child. The story was fairly prominent on the first page of the Toledo News Bee, transcribed below

“Robin Hood” is Victim of Sword

Sherwood Forest is a lovely place, entirely surrounded by fence and house, and overhung by bower of foliage. And it’s at 640 Dorr St. But the bold young Robin Hood who roamed its shaded nooks with his fellows, Alan-a-Dale, Friar Tuck, and the other merry men, has it only in his mind’s eye on Saturday as he lies in Toledo Hospital, recovering from a vicious sword thrust. Albert Zbinden, 8, son of Dr. Theodor Zbinden, was made Robin Hood by “divine right” and the wish of his followers. a most prosaic Maid Marian, not at all like the story (or Douglas Fairbanks, for that matter), called to Robin Hood Zbinden right when he was going to do something heroic on Friday afternoon, and sent him to a grocery. “Who ever heard of Robin Hood going to the groceree (sic),” mumbled the otherwise jolly roamer. But he went all accoutered up, sword in hand. Along came a stranger in an auto. It’s different had he been on horseback. The auto struck Robin Hood Zbinden and drove the sharp (wooden) sword into the lad’s abdomen creating a fearful wound. Casper Koralewski, 1039 Tecumseh St., was the auto driver. He rushed the late roamer of Sherwood Forest to Toledo Hospital, where he is making a brave struggle to get well. Meanwhile a sad looking Alan-a-Dale and mournful Friar Tuck sit on their coaster wagons wishing for their Robin Hood to come back to the fun in Sherwood Forest.

Although the boy was severely wounded, he made a complete recovery. Police determined the accident to be unavoidable. Albert Zbinden lived to marry, have a family, and he died in 1980 in Tiffin, Ohio.