who was the first girl born of Bohemian parents in Russell county, Kansas.She was born July 20, 1877. The first couple married in the Bohemian colony were Mr. Anton Oswald and Miss Mary Kvasnicka, sometime in 1877.
Fortunately the winter of 1874–’75 was very mild. If it had not been it perhaps would have killed what little live stock there was left here. There was scarcely any feed of any kind, and the prairie grass—the good, nutritious buffalo grass, was burned off. Mr. Wullum on the Cow creek flats had a fireguard plowed around the northeast quarter of section 23, township 14, range, 10, so the grass on that one hundred and sixty acres was saved. My two mares and a colt ran away from the hay I had bought at a high price, from John Jellison of the same flats, but I did not wonder at the dumb brutes. It was the poorest excuse for hay I ever saw—short, moldy, mixed with weeds and other dirt.
I was the only head of a family that spent that winter in the proposed colony. I did some writing. Notwithstanding the desolation caused by drought and grasshoppers and fire, I had a vision of the future greatness of this land of promise, and I never gave up putting into execution my plan to found a Bohemian colony there. I wrote about the possibilities of the country and of its being the best escape for the unemployed of the congested cities, as well as an escape from the cruel tyranny of the Austrian Empire. I wrote to all the different Bohemian papers published in the United States. This brought me many inquiries, letters coming from persons in different parts of the country wanting some special particulars. I had as high as a dozen letters at a time in the post office at Wilson, and answered them all, and nearly always had to use my own stamps. Be it here remembered, I had no pecuniary interest in the project as I was not agent of any land company or individual and got no commission or salary. By correspondence I found an organization in New York City that wanted to get into an agricultural country, but did n’t know where; and still another just like it in Chicago. They had spent money on committees, sending them to discover locations for colonies, but all in vain. The committees traveled by railroad and other ways, but found nothing to suit. So my messages were very timely, and very welcome—were in fact messages of great joy, of deliverance from low-wage slavery, and from worse—enforced idleness.
As soon as the spring of 1875 opened emigrants began to flock in from all directions. The first couple that came were not a married couple, but two old bachelors, brothers, Josef and Václav Klima, from the Sable pineries, Michigan, where they had worked some three years and raised a stake of about $800 each. Detroit had been their headquarters, and they had friends and acquaintances there who soon followed in their wake. Ján Cizek, another old bachelor and a chum of the Klima brothers, came next, with two families, Jacob Jedlicka and Martin Miegl, both having marriageable daughters, and boys big enough to be of great help on a farm. The club in New York City, above mentioned, decided to come to my colony, and secured reduced rates on the railroads through the assistance of the city authorities, with the privilege of a car for themselves. I found free homes for them all near me in Wilson township, Ellsworth county. The three bachelors and Jacob Jedlicka and family I located on section 28, township 14, range 10 west, between one and two miles from Wilson in a direct line. Martin Miegl settled on the northeast quarter of section 34, Wilson township, Josef Dyma-
