Pioneer Czechs
In Colfax County
Written in 1926.
Chapter No. 7
(Continued from last week.)
JOHN LAPACEK SR. was born in the village of Bezdecin, County Pacov, Bohemia, in 1836. His wife, born Clara Plzak, was born in 1826 in Porin, County Pacov. He died in 1871, she in 1884, both are buried in Heun. They came to this country, to Chicago, in November 1868, there being three sons and two daughters: Charles, John, Thomas, Anna and Josephine. They came to Omaha April 1, 1869, bought a team and other supplies and went to find a homestead. They stopped with Vaclav Maly, near West Point, who advised them to go to Colfax county, which they did and in the fall of that year (1869) settled on a homestead near the present settlement of Heun.
CHARLES LAPACEK was born in the village of Bezdecin, County Pacov, Bohemia, in 1844 and in 1868 came with his parents to Chicago. In 1869 they settled in Colfax County, where he and his father each took claim near the present Heun, eighty acres each, and began to farm. In 1871 Charles Lapacek married Mrs. Agnes Mytiska, a widow, who had four children: Frances (Mrs. F. Zlabek), Antonia (Mrs. Joseph Vanicek, deceased), Marie (Mrs. Anderson) and Anton. Four children were born of the second marriage: John (deceased), Charles, Frank and Joseph. All the children of Charles Lapacek are in good circumstances and he is living in retirement with his son Frank. His wife is in the sanitorium in Norfolk.
FRANK WASKO was born in Chrudim, Bohemia, in 1832. He came to St. Louis, Mo, in 1866 and three years later came to Colfax county, where he bought 80 acres twelve miles northeast of Schuyler. He died years ago and is buried at Heun. His son, Edward, resides in Schuyler.
JOSEPH SOBOTA was born in the village of Losina, County Blovice, Bohemia, in 1819 and died in 1901. His wife, born Katherine Slais, was born in the same place and died in 1912. Both are buried in Heun. They had nine children: Mary (Mrs. Martin Lodl, deceased), Katherine (Mrs. Sklenar), John, deceased, Barbara (Mrs. Jos. Krenek), Anna, (Mrs. Shreeder), Lidmila (Mrs. Vaclav Kudera) and Joseph, deceased. They settled in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, in 1861, where they bought twelve acres of land, later forty more, and farmed for eight years. In the fall of 1869 they came to Colfax county and took two claims of eighty acres each eleven miles northeast of Schuyler. They prospered and bought more land. When their children grew up and married, they established homes of their own and the parents until their death lived with the youngest son Joseph.
MARTIN LODL was born in 1836 in Bucek, Bohemia, and came to Colfax county in 1869 from Wisconsin. He died November 1, 1919, and is buried in Heun. He left three sons, Frank, Rudolph, Albert (Peter died at the age of seventeen) and a daugher, Mary, (Mrs. Vaclav Brichacek.)
VACLAV DVORAK was born in the village of Nebuzele near Melnik. Bohemia, in 1824. He came to Wisconsin in 1855. In 1869 he settled in Colfax county on a homestead twelve miles north of Schuyler. In 1873 he sold out and engaged in the grain business in Schuyler and in that year built a mill on Shell Creek, five miles northwest of Schuyler, where he prospered: He had three sons: Adolph; Stephen and Emil (all deceased) and a daughter, Mrs. Creminson. His biography would have been very interesting, but no particulars have been preserved. He died in 1916 and is buried in Schuyler..
In 1870 the following came:
VACLAV VITEK, born in 1828 in Hnevetice near Vysoke Myto, Bohemia. He emigrated to Iowa in 1868. In 1870 he came to Colfax county, with his family of wife and son, Joseph, and daughter, Mrs. Papousek, both deceased. They settled on a farm on Maple creek, near Heun, eleven miles from Schuyler. Vitek died in 1913, his wife Christine a year prior thereto, both are buried in the cemetery, Sion. His son, Joseph Vitek, born 1853 in Cachnov, Hlinsko, married Frances Jurka in 1882 and they had three children: John, who farms the old homestead, Anna (Mrs. Julius Kuzel, deceased,) and Christine, Mrs. Joseph Kuzel. He and his wife live in retirement in Schuyler.
JOSEPH HOUFEK, born in the village of Knezice, County Caslav, Bohemia, May 8, 1816, came with his wife, daughter Josephine and three sons, Frank, Vaclav and Joseph, to Omaha in 1869, with no means. They all worked in the brickyards there for a year. When they had saved enough for a yoke of oxen and a wagon, they went by wagon to Schuyler, where they took a claim on Dry Creek, Houfek first and then his sons, as they became of age, nlne miles north of Schuyler. Houfek died in 1878, he is buried in Dry Creek cemetery. His wife died in 1888, buried in Schuyler.
JOSEPH SMATLAN, born August 11, 1844, in Teleci, County Chrudim, Bohemia. When he was eighteen years old, his father died and he was obliged to assist his mother Anna, born Zvacek. October 28, 1866, he married Anna Telecky from Siroky Dol and the next day they emigrated to America, accompanied by the mother. They went by sailing vessel, spending seventy days on the sea and arrived in New York in January 1867. They set out for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the mother’s two sisters and a brother were living. It was shortly after the close of the Civil War, there was little work and wages were low, but food, clothing, etc. were high. Smatlan began to work in a brickyard, for $15.00 a month. Then he farmed three years on a rented farm. When people began to move westward in 1870, to South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, several families set out together by ox teams for Nebraska and all settled in Colfax county, fifteen miles north of Schuyler, where they took homesteads. Smatlan farmed there eight years, then moved to Schuyler, where with John Novotny he conducted a lumber and coal yard. In 1891 he bought out his partner and with his sons continued in the business until 1901, when he handed it over to his three sons, who are his succersors under the name of Smatlan Bros. Mr. and Mrs. Smatlan had three sons: Joseph E., born 1876, married, and living on the farm near town and managing the business established by his father; Edward, born in 189, single, proprietor of a big farm near town and Victor, born in 1886, married. Daughters: Anna (Mrs. Thomas Molacek, lives in Oklahoma); Josephine (married Dr. Vojtisek, died May 15, 1918 in Los Angeles, Cal.) and Marie, married to Rev. Kadlec, living In Minneapolis, Minn. Joseph Smatlan, the father, lives with his son Edward. He gave all his children a good education and enjoys a calm old age, after many hardships suffered in youth. He is respected by all the citizens, regardless of nationaliiy or religion and is beloved by his children. He is a good patriot, a member of several lodges, in which he was active while younger, and has raised all his children to be proud of their Bohemian origin.
(To be continued.)
