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Note: INTERVIEW WITH TONY STIKA, YOUNGEST SON OF FRANK STIKA, ABOUT 1975
When the Stika's first came, the creek near their house (about 1/2 mile away) was their only source of water. This creek was so full of fish that they could grab them by their hands.
They ate bread and syrup and fruit from the apple trees. The bread was also spread with bacon grease for a meal. They had cows and a lot of hogs. Their grandson, Peter Stika, used to herd the hogs.
Frank Stika's bought their land in 1883, having arrived five years earlier, in 1878 and homesteaded. They came to America because they were crowded in Bohemia, The land there was very expensive. They knew a lot of people who had already come here: Pete Rudolph, Franta's, Bedzeks'. They wrote for the Stika's to come over. They came in a flagship, which was a sail boat, and they had to said the way the wind blew. It was a long, awful trip. They bought lumber from the Czech Republic to build their house!! (was still there in 1995)
John Stika was unable to come over with the rest of the family because he had to stay back and fufill his military dute (apparently six months). When people came from the old country, they would stay at the STika house until they got settled, sometimes a half year or so.
The original Frank Stika house was fairly small. It was made of rock, little rocks with mud in between (or rather a poor quality cement). It faced the East, had a porch and a big living room, with a kitchen on the North. There was a granary, chicken house, barn, dug well and a cellar.
When they first homesteaded, there was no town at Marion. The homesteaders had to haul wheat to White City, to get it gound into flour, The trip took one day going and one day back. Sometimes they would go to Florence to trade eggs and butter. Coffee was 10cents a pound and Sugar was 100 pounds for $3.00.
The Priest would come once a month for mass. Communion was usually once a year.
Marion County Vital Statistics: Book C, Page 65 Deaths Frank Stika, Lincolnville, 59 years, male, white, married. Cause of death: Occulusion of bile duct. Farmer, Nativity: Bohemian. Place of death: Home. Duration 12 weeks, Died: March 22, 1909
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