THE STORY OF JOS. FRANCL.
Translated by Fred Francl.
Edited by Rose Rosicky.
FOREWORD.—As far as is known, the first Bohemian to enter Nebraska was Joseph Francl. In 1854 he travelled through what was then the territory of Nebraska, on his way to California, to the gold mines. In that year (1854) Nebraska Territory was organized, but it embraced a much larger area than does the state of Nebraska now, for it included what now are the states of North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. In March and April of that year the Otoe, Missouri and Omaha Indians by treaties ceded their lands along the Missouri River to our government. In that year too the city of Omaha was founded.
Joseph Francl was born in 1824 in Svojšice, County Čáslav, Bohemia. His father owned a brewery and glass works. He studied music in the Prague Conservatory and later, as a member of the firm Marschner & Franzl, directors of an orchestra, made many trips to cities in Bohemia, Austria and Germany, for the purpose of giving concerts. About 1851 he came to the United States and about 1852 he married Miss Antonia Procháska, who had emigrated to Wisconsin with her parents. Mrs. Francl was born in Kutná Hora, Bohemia, February 17, 1834 and died in Crete, Nebraska, November 21, 1911.
Francl kept a diary while on his journey west, part of which has been lost. His oldest son Fred has loaned what there is to the publishers of the Hospodář and the following is a transcription of same, for the original is written in German script and is very faded, so that deciphering it was quite arduous. However, the matter is not only interesting but historically valuable and was well worth the effort. Francl was living near Watertown, Wisconsin, at the time he set out, and had a young wife and small son Fred, for whom he hoped to find a fortune in California. Some of the rivers he mentions are not found on the maps today, probably the early names having been changed since that time.R. R.
*
THE STORY OF JOSEPH FRANCL.
“God be with you, hope for a happy reunion, although I do not know how long my absence from you
