BIO: Martin RUSNAK, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, page 938.
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  MARTIN RUSNAK, proprietor of the Empire Hotel, at Hawk Run, Morris Township, 
Clearfield County, Pa., was born November 11, 1869, in Austria, and is a son of 
Steve and Elizabeth Rusnak.  The mother died in Austria and the father then came 
to America but subsequently returned to his native land and still survives, 
being now in his ninetieth year.
  Martin Rusnak had some educational advantages before coming to the United 
States when fourteen years of age.  He first found work in the mines at Snow 
Shoe, in Center County, Pa., and afterward at the Morrisdale mines in Morris 
Township, Clearfield County.  He was then seventeen years of age and he worked 
in the mines there for seventeen years, and was a miner twenty-six years in all.  
He followed that dangerous calling through all this period without accident but 
for the past two years has lived a safer and easier life.  He took charge of the 
Empire Hotel at Hawk Run, which had been destroyed by fire in 1909.  He rebuilt, 
putting up a modern brick structure, four stories high, and has twenty-three 
well furnished rooms for the use of the traveling public.  This house in its 
management, appearance and equipments would be creditable to a much larger place 
the Hawk Run and Mr. Rusnak is a popular host.
  Mr. Rusnak was married in 1890, to Miss Bertha Striks, of Snow Shoe, and they 
have a large and happy family of thirteen children, all of whom survive:  Mary, 
Martin, John, Steve, Joseph, Mike, Paul, Ludwig, Luke, Elizabeth, Annie, Bertha 
and Susie.  The eldest daughter is the wife of George Veras of Hawk Run.  Mr. 
Rusnak and family are members of the Roman Catholic church.  In politics he is a 
Democrat.