The Patriarch of the Fill Family

Our Fill family story begins with the youngest of three brothers, Andro who became the Americanized Andrew Fill. Born 10 Dec 1886 in Volovec, Galicia (now the Ukraine), he landed in America aboard the Francesca at the Port of New York, better known as Ellis Island, on January 3, 1906 and made his way to Cleveland, Ohio where his elder brothers had already settled.

Hritz (Fred) Fill was the eldest and was born on 25 Jan 1879. The middle brother that came to the United States was Peter Fill who was born on 15 Jun 1884.

According to the legend related by George Fill, one of Andrew's children, in his memoir "As I Recall" Harry was excited to get his baby brother a job at Bethlehem Steel Company. Harry and Peter already worked there as laborers and they proudly took Andy to work with them the next day. It was Andy’s first and last day on the job in the steel mills. Working in a steel mill is hard manual labor; he had to lift large pieces of scrap, clean them off with ammonia and haul them over to the huge ovens where they would be melted. This was not the job for Andy.

Andy had big ideas. He found an old boarded up store on West 7th Street on the old Southside of Cleveland and decided he would open up for a Grocery and Meat Market. A loan netted him enough money for lumber for shelves, a large metal wash tub that could hold ice blocks for refrigeration, some knives and a small butcher's hatchet. Andy also arranged to get his hard canned goods on a 30 day payment plan. Before long "Andy's Place" was open for business.