Pioneer Czechs
In Colfax County
Written in 1926.
(Continued from last week.)
CHAPTER 13.
Pioneers who came after 1876.
FRANK COUFAL, born in Petrovice, Trebic, Moravia, in 1823, came with his wife and three sons. They settled on a farm eleven miles north of Schuyler, where he died in 1908 and is buried in Heun.
JOSEPH M. MUNDIL, born August 14, 1856 in Frantisky, County Skutec, Bohemia, finished the village school at the age of twelve and helped his father, a weaver, until the spring of 1870, when he went to live with his uncle Joseph Bren, a teacher, to learn German. A year and a half later he again took up weaving, which prevailed as a calling in the village and entire vicinity. His mother died in 1876 and he entered into business with his uncle Bren, They made and sold linen in the town of Svitava, Moravia. In 1878 he came to this country, to his uncle, Frank Mundil, a Colfax county pioneer. It is interesting to note that the ship on which he came was wrecked on its next trip over, that being its second trip, and only nineteen people were saved, among them being Frank Pliska from Frysava, who also settled in Nebraska. Mr. Mundil came to his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ventura, near West Point in Cuming county on Thanksgiving Day, which was being celebrated with a dance on Pospisil’s farm. That very evening a prairie fire occurred nearby, so that Mr. Mundil was immediately initiated into pioneer calamities. Shortly after that he went to his uncle Mundil and later worked in the saloon of Frank Pesek in Schuyler, for $4.00, board and laundry per month. He was porter and hostler for the farmers’ horses. Then he worked in Luneberg’s store, for $10.00 a month and board. In the spring he lived with his uncle, so he could learn English, going to school for that purpose and then again worked in a store in Schuyler. In 1879 his parents and sister came. His father bought an 80 acre homestead adjoining his brother and Joseph M. worked on the farm until 1889. In 1882 he married his cousin Frances Mundil. June 8, 1889 he settled in Clarkson, then a town three years old, and engaged in notary and insurance business, being assessor also. Under president Harrison he was postmaster of Clarkson, until August 31, 1897, when he resigned and then continued again in real estate, insurance and notary work. He was a member of the city council for several years, for twelve years a member of the Board of Education, one of the founders of the Clarkson Milling Company and secretary, treasurer and manager for four years. In 1891, when Frank J. Lepsa came from Wahoo to Clarkson and established a bank, Mr. Mundil became a stockholder and vice president and ever since has been active there. His son Fred F., who married a daughter (Irma) of F. J. Sadilek of Wilber, lives in Linwood and is half owner of the Folda bank there. The other son, Joseph, is assistant cashier of the Clarkson State Bank, also a Folda bank. Mr. Mundil helped to establish the C. S. P. S. (Bohemian Slovanic Benevolent Society) lodge Zapadni Svornost in 1888 (it later went over to the Western Bohemian Fraternal Union) and in 1889 the Bohemian Slovanic Cemetery, being president of the latter and active in its affairs for years. With his assistance this cemetery has been improved until now it is one of the nicest of any small town cemeteries. Mr. Mundil is and always was a good Bohemian patriot and supports all national and cultural objects. He used to act in amateur performances, spoke at various gatherings and funerals, and does so yet occasionally. He lives in Clarkson with his wife and son Joseph.
JOHN CHLEBOUN was born in 1844 in Budislava near Litomysl, Bohemia. In August 1864 as a single man he came by sailing vessel to Baltimore, being on the ocean nine weeks. The passengers encountered two big and two smaller storms. The vessel was swept out of its course and for two weeks could not find its way, so that famine threatened. After spending two weeks in Baltimore, they set out by train for Chicago, accompanied before and behind by trains filled will soldiers, for the Civil War was raging and conditions were unsettled: From Nebraska Mr. Chleboun went to Cedar Rapids, lowa and in 1868 to Nebraska City, Nebraska, where he worked in town and on farms. In 1870 he married Anna Placek there, she having been born in Cerna Hura, County Kralove Hradec, in 1850 and having come with her parents to this country in 1868. The couple moved to Saunders county, Nebraska, where they took a claim and erected a sod house, living in same for seven years. This was twenty miles northwest of Wahoo, the only town in the county, but trading was done in Fremont, thirty miles away and numbering 1,000 inhabitants. In 1892 they sold their farm and moved to Clarkson, where they were succeeded in 1903 by their children, having had twelve, four having died. The following are living: Vaclav, Frank and Katherine are in the store; John lives on a large farm in South Dakota; Oldrich; Anna, (Mrs. Joseph Pechanec in Idaho); Marie, (Mrs. Frank J. Miller, whose husband owns a furniture and undertaking establishment) and Emily, (wife of Jos. S. Severa, cashier of the bank in Beemer).
Ondrej (Andrew) Konopik, born in Lohov, Nova Kdyně, in 1832, came with his family to Saunders county in 1872 and in 1882 to Colfax county, where they settled on a farm thirteen miles northwest of Schuyler. He died in 1911, his wife in 1916, both buried in Wilson cemetery.
JOSEPH FILIPI, born in 1863 in Teleci, near Policka. Settled near Clarkson.
FRANK BRODECKY, born November 19, 1826 in Liblin, Kralovice, died March 25, 1899.
JOSEPH HAJEK, born in 1810 in Lipnik, died March 11, 1886.
The foregoing is not intended to be a complete list of all the Bohemian pioneers of those years, it is all regarding which it was possible to obtain data. They poured in by large numbers, so that within a few years all the land about Schuyler was taken up and the newcomers settled further until they spread over the whole county. Thus, the first Bohemian settlements were near Schuyler, on Maple creek and Tabor (near the present town of Howell). When the North-western railroad, in those days called the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley, built a branch west of Scribner, Howell and Clarkson sprang up, during the first half of the 1880’s. Both are lively and almost entirely Bohemian towns. Bohemians live all over Colfax county, most densely in and about Schuyler, Clarkson, Howell and Leigh.
THE TOWN OF SCHUYLER
Schuyler is the county seat of Colfax county, both being named for Schuyler Colfax, vice-president under President Grant. It is situated on the Union Pacific (built in 1868) and Burlington & Missouri (built in 1887) railroads, 65 miles west of Omaha and a mile north of the Platte River. It has 3,000 inhabitants, of these 232 families being Bohemian.
(To be continued.)
