Queer Places:
Saint Adalberts Cemetery, 3801 S 6th St, Milwaukee, WI 53221, United States
John Andrew Jastroch (March 2, 1881 - April 9, 1942) was born on March 2, 1881, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Andrew Jastroch (1857–1925) and Anna Spick
(1861–1928), immigrants from Prussian Poland who raised their family in a devoutly Catholic environment. The family eventually settled in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, where Jastroch grew up alongside his siblings: Frank Alois (1883–1956), Mary R. (1885–1970), Anna (who died in infancy in 1887), Walter John
(1888–1943), Joseph (1890–1965), Sister Klara "Mary Loyola" (1893–1952), and Reverend Andrew John Foster (1896–1942).
During his grade school years in Milwaukee, Jastroch experienced an unreciprocated crush on the parish’s young curate. Recognizing his religious
background, an uncle who served as a priest in the Order of the Holy Ghost arranged for Jastroch to attend a Catholic boarding preparatory school in
Pennsylvania. While attending the preparatory institution, he observed that many of the male students had special friends and paired off together during
recreation hours. At sixteen years of age, Jastroch met a student from Villanova College who introduced him to homosexual acts inside the trunk room of a
railway station. He subsequently enrolled at Villanova College and earned his degree.
Following his graduation from Villanova, Jastroch returned to Milwaukee, where he took up a position teaching at a Catholic junior high school. In
1908, he married Anna Brzezinski (1883–1950), with whom he had a daughter, Rose Jastroch Dusick (1914–1960). His adult life involved periods of travel,
including a European tour, after which he spent time in Boston where he was kept by an older man for a duration.
Upon returning to Milwaukee, an evening of heavy drinking and partying culminated in a sexual encounter with a bartender. Because the bar owner’s
sixteen-year-old son was sharing the same room at the time, a legal complaint was filed, and Jastroch was brought before a judge. Desiring to keep the
matter private from his family, Jastroch refused to contact his brother, an attorney, for legal counsel, choosing instead to plead guilty. While his
co-defendant retained legal representation and received one year of probation, Jastroch was sentenced to two years at Waupun State Penitentiary by the
Catholic presiding judge, who remarked that Jastroch had thrown away the graces of God. Reflected on his imprisonment, Jastroch admitted his own guilt
but observed that the crimes of those inside the prison walls were nothing compared to the unpunished actions of people walking the streets who simply
had never been caught.
John Andrew Jastroch spent his remaining years in Milwaukee County. He died on April 9, 1942, at the age of sixty-one, and was laid to rest at Saint
Adalbert's Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
References:
Other references:
- John Lewis Gillin, The Wisconsin Prisoner: Studies in Criminogenesis (University of Wisconsin Press, 1946)
- Andy Soth, "Defrocked Priest's Prison Bio a Window into Gay Persecution" (PBS Wisconsin / Wisconsin Pride, 2023)
- United States Federal Census Records (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940)
- Wisconsin State Vital Records & Cemetery Indexes, Birth, Marriage, and Death Registrations: Legal certificates documenting Jastroch's marriage to Anna Brzezinski in 1908, the birth of their daughter Rose, and his death on April 9, 1942.
- Saint Adalbert's Cemetery Records (Milwaukee, WI): Interment records for John Andrew Jastroch and members of the Jastroch family.
- Court and Penal Records of Milwaukee County & Waupun Correctional Institution (c. 1930s)
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