Pioneer Czechs
In Colfax County
(Continued from last week.)
In 1888 my father rented his farm to a tenant and sold the stock, etc. We moved to David City, Butler county, Nebraska, with three younger brothers, so they could attend school. But it was a mistake and we should have not undertaken it. My two older brothers conducted a meat market in David City and my father, thinking to help them, invested the proceeds of his sale in their business and assisted them. It often happens that those who are good workmen for others are poor business men, and this was what happened in our case. Three families depended on one business—it was too much and failure ensued, which brought about family dissension. Father and the two younger brothers moved back to the farm and worked to remedy the mistake.
In 1904 he moved to Oklahoma, with my two brothers, William and Vincenc, having sold his farm for $50.00 per acre. My brother, Vaclav, and family followed him within a year. There my parents died, mother died January 18, 1918, aged 78, father March 17, 1924, aged 85. We bless their memory and are grateful to them for coming to this country, where they put us in a position to prepare better and more comfortable homes than would have been possible in Bohemia.
My brother Frank died in Chicago, Ill., in 1915, where he was cattle buyer in the stock yards for seventeen years. My brother Vaclav lives in Wilber, Nebraska. His first wife was a sister of my wife, after her death he married Mrs. Katherine Semilsky Bartos, in 1913. My brother Edward lives on a farm once owned by Matous Papousek, whose daughter Josephine he married. William and Vincenc live in Oklahoma, with their families and the families of brother Vaclav’s children by his first wife. All live in the vicinity of oil fields, let, us hope they will become millionaires some day. (Editor’s Note: Their dreams of riches came true. The goodship came in for the Sudik family in Oklahoma two years ago when oil was discovered on their lands. They were fortunate in bringing in one of the greatest oil producing gushers found in Oklahoma. The gusher was named in honor of Mary Sudik on whose land the well was found and the name became familiar all over the United States, newspapers having contained extensive reports on the Sudik oil wells.)
I, Joseph Sudik, was born in the village of Zelezna, County Unhost, November 10, 1859, my parents being Vaclav and Marie (born Bartos) Sudik. At the age of twelve years, having finished the four-grade school in our town, I began to learn the blacksmith trade with a Mr. J. Cada. That year a new law took effect, children were required to attend school to their fourteenth year and so I had to let the trade go. After finishing school, I never went back to blacksmithing, for we were preparing to go to America. Originally, we intended to go to Wisconsin, where a good many Bohemians were living, and for that reason we took along axes, saws and whatever is useful in a timbered country. But our plans were changed by a Mr. Chaloupka, with whom we became acquainted on the ship. Mr. Chaloupka was from Cleveland, Ohio, and he advised father to stay in that city, there already being a large colony of Bohemians, or go to Nebraska. Father decided for Nebraska, where homesteads and cheap lands were still available.
January 21, 1882, I married Miss Barbara Jonas, daughter of Anton Jonas and wife of Chynava, near my birthplace. The Jonas family emigrated to Nebraska in 1881, where their brothers, Frank and George, had settled earlier. A year later my wife and I began to farm on our own eighty, bought from the railroad company, on terms. We began with almost nothing—two mares in foal, one cow without calf or milk, four pigs and a few chickens. A cabin, barn and chicken house were put up for one hundred dollars—my wife’s dowry. One mare died in giving birth to her foal and then both foals died. A fine beginning, was it not? But we did not lose courage, for we were both raised in the hard school of life. We take everything as it comes, nothing surprises us, pleasant or unpleasant. We experienced the hardships of the pioneers, to whom the present generation can never be too grateful and must, willy-nilly, admire their courage, industry and persistency, which made of the bare prairies a garden-spot of beautiful farms and fine cities. But one remembers longer the unpleasant things. Storms, hail, cyclones, hog cholera, losses of cattle and other hardships, year by year, take their toll and it is no wonder that, as old age approaches, one’s head grows gray and the body weary.
What more can I say? If I had literary ability, I could write an interesting book taken from memories. However, my thoughts seem to dissemble. After farming for a quarter of a century, inasmuch as we had no children and felt the weight of the years, we retired to live in Schuyler, in 1909. My wife suffered an accident which threatened her life, during a runaway of our horses and if it were not for failing health, we would feel quite satisfied. But old age brings on its physical disabilities and scarcely anyone escapes that.
The life of the average farmer resembles one and another like two peas in a pod. Work, hurry and work. However, we recollect the past as we would pleasant and unpleasant dreams and look forward to the future calmly.
Written in Schuyler, Nebraska, June 1927.
A HISTORY OF BOHEMIANS IN COLFAX COUNTY
(The larger portion contributed by Joseph Sudik of Schuyler).
Colfax County was formed when Platte County was divided March 15, 1869, in accordance with a law passed by the state legislature. Inasmuch as it was republican by majority, the county was named Colfax and the town Schuyler in honor of Schuyler Colfax, vice-president at the time. A later law made Schuyler the county seat. Prior to that time it was the property of the Union Pacific railroad and consisted of a railroad station, a section house and several small buildings.
After the formation of the county in 1869 the first meeting of the county commissioners was held on March 20th. Messrs. Wm. Davis. Q. B. Skinner and Robert C. Kennedy were named commissioners and the meeting was held in a house built by Wm. Brown, tinsmith. C. M. Greenman was named county clerk pro tem. William Davis was elected chairman of the body and the county divided into three districts. In a meeting held March 22nd, the commissioners could not agree on the election of a probate judge, but Daniel Hashberger was appointed treasurer for Buchanan district; Levi Kimball, constable James McAlister, justice of the peace for Center precinct and David Anderson, constable. April 5th, M. B. Hoxit was appointed county attorney and J. C. Maple, county supervisor of schools. However, Maple did not care to accept the the office and Nathan Woods accepted it. “Judge” Corson refused to qualify for probate judge and Obadiah Hall was named in his stead. In June of that year (1869) all school lands were selected and put up for sale. E. E. Greeman, Levi Kimball and George Lawrence were appointed a commission for the sale of same.
On November 6th, the commissioners received a request from the inhabitants of Schuyler settlement, asking that it be incorporated as a town. The request was received favorably and B. F. King, W. P. St. Clair, H. P. Upton, C. M. Greenman and S. P. Van Doozer were named trustees.
(To be continued.)
