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Note: N8 Owned 160 acres in Section 5 Big Blue Precinct. Purchased the land from Anton Bruza, (his wife, Anna's brother) on November 23, 1885. It's possible that the Bruza's acquired the land from the railroad earlier. It doesn't appear that the land was homesteaded, since the research on homesteads performed by Rose Hulse does show that particular section of land as being a homestead.
Causes of Czech Emigration
Prior to 1848 there were no more than 500 Czechs settled in America. Many Czechs came and settled in America in the period from 1848 to 1918. Emigrants were seeking religious freedom from what is now the Czech Republic (then known as Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.) Some 350,00 Czechs left their homeland to come to America's shores.
While the reasons of Czech emigration varied by individual and changed over time, certain trends and patterns may be discerned. The Revolution of 1848 produced the first significant wave of Czech emigrants to this country, as radicals and intellectuals fled Austrian political persecution in the Czech homelands. The 1884 revolution also severed the last bonds of servitude between the Czech peasants and their feudal lords, making emigration possible for rural folk. As reports of gold discoveries in California circulated in Europe during the 1850s, a growing number of Czechs began to venture to America in search of economic gain.
The passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, which promised abundant free land to those willing to farm it, attracted many enterprising Czech farmers and villagers to the US. Young men seeking to avoid conscription into the Austrian Army also came during the 1860 as rising European military tensions led to the Austro-Prussinan War of 1866.
An increasing rural population and a dwindling supply of farmland had begun to put pressure upon the rural economies of Bohemia and Moravia. Many farmers were forced to earn their livelihoods from increasingly smaller farming plots. In 1873, an economic crash shook the Austrian Empire, resulting in a serious agricultural depression in the Czech countryside.
Crop failures, falling grain prices, and farm foreclosures further contributed to a second major wave of emigration that occurred during the 1880s and 1890s. Thousands of small Czech farmers, rural laborers, and village artisans now came to America to escape the economic hardships at home.
The third major wave of Czech emigrants arrived in America between 1902 and 1914. These emigrants were primarily skilled workers such as tailors, miners, carpenters, and shoemakers. They came to America seeking better opportunity and prosperity, and in some cases to avoid service in the Austrian Army amidst rising European militarism that preceded the outbreak of World War I .
Czechs In America
The influx of Czechs to America dates back to the mid 1800s. Their most valuable contribution in the building of our nation was brawn, skill, and manual labor. Untold acres of land in Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Texas were cleared and cultivated by these hardy immigrants.
The Czechs have always been renowned as especially gifted musically; literally, tens of thousands of beautiful folk songs have been written and played by them. The oldest Bohemian relisious hymn, "Hospodine Pomilujny" (Lord, have mercy upon us), from the eleventh century is the oldest monument of all Slavic music. During the Hussite Wars, in the 15th century especially, songs of unusual melodious force emerged. The most famous, "Kdoz jste Bozi Bojovnice" (Ye Warriors Of God), allegedly put to flight whole armies of foreign invaders by its mere sound. The first Bohemian opera, "Dratenik" (The Tinker) by Frantisek Skroup, was performed in 1826.
In the 19th century, Bohemian literature flourished. Jan Kollar, with his poetry proclaiming the idea of Slavonic unity, leads a list of names that is long and impressive.
The early Bohemians came to Nebraska mainly because of the Homestead Act and Timber Claim Acts. Beginning in 1854, under the Homestead Acts, a Nebraska settler could obtain 160 acres of land, and after residing on it for five years and making improvements, own it outright by paying a filing fee of $14. Or, alternatively, after six months the settler could pay $1.25 an acre in place of the residence requirements (pre-emption). Later, the Timber Claim Act of 1873, a settler could obtain title to 160 acres by planting 10 acres of it into trees and caring for them for 8 years.
These laws remained in force until 1891 and enabled settlers, who seldom had monetary resources, to begin a life in a new land. In the process, they braved severe hardships and had to deal with Indian tribes that were unlike people they had ever known in their native land. But, in spite of these trials and with the added burden of learning a completely new language, they worked and suffered to gain a place of their own in America, raising large families who became good American citizens.
"With empty hands you came to the wilderness uncharted,
Lo, gaze upon it now, O pioneers bravehearted,
From Father of Waters west to the Rock Mountain's base,
Prosperity's sweet streams those prairie grace,
You triumphed over hardships, weary and heartbreaking,
None censures you today, for joyful pride you're taking,
In your fair handwork, which far and wide you view,
Instead, success we wish - success to you!"
(A poem of Praise to the Czech Pioneers of Nebraska by Bartos Bittner. Translated from the Czech)
The Czechs Move to Nebraska
Many immigrant groups found ways to get used to the cultural shock, and none in more numbers, proportionally, than the Czechoslovakians. Why did the Czechs leave their homeland and come to the United States and why particularly to Nebraska? Neither political nor religious reasons primarily accounted for Czech immigration to the United States. What pushed the Czechs out was worsening economic conditions and overpopulation in rural Bohemia and Moravia. Specific crises like crop failures of the 1870s, and agricultural depression beginning in the 1880s resulted in greater numbers of people leaving. Some also left to acquire greater political freedom and escape the control of the Habsburg Monarchy and constant conflict with Germans.
What pulled Czechs to Nebraska was a steady stream of advertisements and glowing reports in Czech-language newspapers and magazines published here and sent back home. Railroads, like the Burlington & Missouri Railroad, advertised large tracks of Nebraska land for sale in Czech. Magazines like the Hospodar (husbandman or farmer), an Omaha agricultural journal, helped promote settlement. Many families emigrated on the basis of information in such magazines, as well as letters from friends and relatives.
Most of the Czechs who came to Nebraska tended to be farmers, but many tradesmen and professional people came, too. Consequently, the population of many early towns was predominately Czechs. Between 1856 and WWI, over 50,000 Czechs chose Nebraska as their new home. Nebraska ranked number one in per capita Czech immigration.
The experiences of groups like the Czechs resulted in more than two-million Europeans immigrants settling on the Great Plains between 1870 and 1900. And in 1870, fully a quarter -- 25 percent -- of the population of Nebraska was born in a foreign country.
Railroads and Settlement
Imagine yourself as a farmer living in Europe in the mid-19th century. You own little or no land, have a large debt, and your taxes are due to the government. Then one day a friend comes to your door carrying a brochure printed by the "Union Pacific Railroad." The brochure says that the Union Pacific owns millions of acres in a place called Nebraska. The railroad will sell you land for a very cheap price, and you can take up to ten years to pay for it. Not only is the land cheap and reasonable, but the climate is mild and there are no heavy taxes. Wouldn't you be a fool not to move?
The building of the railroad across the Great Plains meant more settlers and more competition with the Native Americans for the land. The transcontinental railroads wanted rights-of-way through tribal lands and needed white settlers to make their operations profitable.
Land Grants For The Railroads
At the same time that homesteaders were getting free land from the government, large tracts of land were granted to railroads by both the states and the federal government. The goal was to encourage the railroads to construct their tracks where few people lived, and to help settle the country. The federal government was especially interested in creating a transportation system that would link the eastern seaboard with the western coast. Not only would a transcontinental railroad help populate the Great Plains, but it would tie the country together and also provide links to the potentially rich Asian trade.
Approximately 16 percent of Nebraska's total land mass was given to various railroad companies, either by the federal government or by the state. Along the lines of the state's two major railroads, the Union Pacific and the Burlington, every other square mile of land (called a "section") went to the railroads. This checkerboard of land extended back twenty miles on both sides of the track. So, the railroads owned a total of twenty sections of land for each mile of road constructed.
Thousands of pioneers traveled to and through Nebraska in covered wagons. But after the first railroad was completed across the state in 1867, thousands more took the train to Nebraska. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, people could travel from coast to coast in relative luxury. The Oregon Trail was gradually abandoned. Railroads encouraged settlers to move to Nebraska and had a tremendous impact on settlement.
Why Buy Land When You Can Get It Free?
Through the settlement years, there were four major laws that made land available to settlers for free -- the Preemption Act of 1841, the Homestead Act of 1862, the Timber Culture Act of 1873, and the Kinkaid Act of 1904. But, other settlers bought and paid for land from the railroads. At the same time that a settler paid $15 in filing fees for a homestead, the railroads were charging around $800 for 160-acre farm. Why did they do that when they could have had land for free?
For one thing, the railroads had more to gain, so they advertised. The railroads were given public lands to capitalize construction and create markets. The federal government wanted private industry to build the transportation infrastructure into the west. Once the railroads had located and patented their land, they were very anxious to sell the land beside the tracks as quickly and profitably as possible. They wanted paying customers who would ship goods to markets and buy things from the urban retailers.
From the settler's perspective, the closer a farmer was to the railroad, the easier it was to ship crops and livestock to market. Land agents were hired by the railroads and sent to major cities in the East and to most northern and central European countries. Fliers flooded those cities extolling the virtues of land in the West and Nebraska in particular. If you were interested, the railroad would put you on a special land-seeking train, and if you decided to buy, the price of the train ticket would be applied to the price of the land.
By 1905, all of the Burlington's lands in Nebraska had been sold and paid for. The Union Pacific had only 12,307 acres remaining unsold in Nebraska by 1921. Together, the two companies had sold more than 7-million acres to private purchasers. That compared to over 9.6-million acres obtained free of charge under the Homestead Act. The railroads did not abandon settlers after they sold them the land. They supported agricultural improvement programs that would help make farmers more successful and in the process create markets for their transportation services. The more the farmers prospered the more the railroads prospered. And as they prospered, the railroads remained a dominating force in the politics, economy and history of Nebraska.
Early Life Of A Czech Pioneer
The first objective of the settler after securing a piece of land to live on was to build a shelter for his family. Sometimes these were merely "dugouts" (a room or two dug into the side of a hill); sometimes, if trees were available, they were hewn into boards and fashioned into a house, with mud tamped into the cracks to make it tight. Where trees were not present, sod from the prairie was cut and layered, with small openings left for windows and a door. These early houses were not snake or rodent proof. They were, at best, very plain, small, and sparsely furnished.
Early Czech wives had to improvise even the most simple things in order to feed and care for their husbands and for the babies as they came along. Birthing in those days was almost always done without medical assistance; if a neighbor woman was available, she stepped in and took care of mother and child as best she could.
While the head of the household worked the land and cared for any livestock he might be fortunate enough to have, more often than not he had to call upon his wife to help sow and harvest the crops. It usually fell to the wife to milk the family cow and take care of the poultry. Poultry were important to the early settlers. In addition to providing eggs and meat for the table, chickens, ducks, and geese gave up their feathers which were made into quilts and pillows for the family. Goose fat was rendered to make a "rub" for winter colds.
Cows gave the family precious milk, which could be transformed into butter, cottage cheese (made with milk placed on the back of the kitchen range and left to warm and curdle), and clabbered milk (which was often eaten with just bread for supper).
In the pioneer kitchens, parched rye served as coffee. Noodles were made for the endless pots of soup, and ovens fairly burst with bread. If the summer gardens produced a plentiful supply of vegetables, huge crocks of sauerkraut and dill pickles evolved. Wild berries evolved into jellies if sugar was available. Cream was churned into butter by shaking it continuously in a jar; when a paddle type churn was used, it took many a push up and down to get the butter to form. SInce no refrigeration was available, caves were dug and mounded over with earth, making a cool place to keep vegetables, crocks of pickles and sauerkraut, milk, eggs, and butter.
Clothing was scarce. It was carefully sewn, mended, made over, made to do, and handed down. Before it could be laundered, soap had to be made. Soap was made by dissolving lye in water, then adding "cracklings" (the remains of pork fat fried out to get the lard used in cooking). After adding the cracklings and any old lard that might be available, the mixture was cooked and stirred over a hot fire until it began to thicken. Then it was poured into an old box bottom or any such container, allowed to cool, and finally cut into bars. This "soap" provided for laundry needs as well as a cleaning agent for hands and body.
On laundry day, boilers of water were heated. If the water was hard, lye was added. As the water heated, the hard water scum formed on top and was skimmed off. Then, the washtub was filled with clothes which were soaped, rubbed up and down many times on a "washboard," and finally rinsed and hung to dry in the open air. White clothes were actually boiled on the stove, hence the old saying "He wore a boiled shirt."
If schools were established, these were of the one-room variety. Children often had to walk several miles to attend, in all sorts of weather. Sometimes the school year was shortened to accommodate needs at home, but generally children were given the best education that circumstances would permit.
Czech Christmas Traditions
The Czechs and Slovaks get off to a good start with a traditional housecleaning at the beginning of December. This is no ordinary house cleaning, but a weeklong effort.
The Christmas Holiday season officially begins with St. Nicholas Day (December 6). This marks the start of baking Vanocni Cukrovi (Christmas candies and sweets). Each family has its special goodies to share with other families and friends. Part of the Holiday includes visiting friends and celebrating together. It is customary for those who have quarreled during the year to forgive each other publicly.
A tree is bought, secretly hidden away; no one is allowed to see it until after dinner on December 24. Only the head of the household trims the tree, done on Christmas Eve morn, and only he or she can see the tree until that magic moment when Jezisek, the Christ child, arrives (which always happens after dinner). The Christmas tree is decorated with handmade ornaments using walnut
shells wrapped in colored paper or gilded. Some use eggshells decorated to look like fish or angels. Colored pin wheels resembling snowflakes and stars are hung by a thread. A small creche (Nativity Scene) is placed at the base of the tree. Gifts are put under the tree before 6 o'clock in great secrecy.
On December 23, people go out to buy the traditional Christmas carp for dinner. Several days earlier, huge wooden barrels appeared in the cities with live carp swimming around in them. The buyer points to the fish he or she wants and the fun of trying to catch it begins. Most often the carp is taken home alive and allowed to swim in the family bathtub until Christmas Eve morning. Best cuts of the carp are covered with flour, dipped in egg, covered with bread crumbs and fried. Lesser cuts are baked with dried prunes and served with dumplings mixed with butter-fried cubes of bread.
Some carp is made in plain gelatin as Rosol and served cold with salad. The head and tail are wrapped in white cloth, broiled, and the stock is made into soup with vegetables and served with croutons.
There was caroling in the streets and homes on Christmas. Sometimes the carolers carried miniature Bethlehem scenes along. It was customary to invite them in for a glass of wine and vanocka, a sweet bread made with nuts, raisons and candied fruit. There is much dancing and eating after the fasting which ends on Christmas Eve. Sometimes little boys dressed as The Three Kings go out singing for treats.
Dinner begins at 6 o'clock with members of the family standing and praying together, and then when the mother gives the signal, they all sit down at the same time to dinner and no one is allowed to get up, no matter what! They may also share aplatky and honey before the meal. Christmas Eve
supper might include pearl barley soup with mushrooms, carp, potato salad, fruits and decorated cookies. In some families there is a custom of putting a small coin under each person's plate to symbolize wealth in the coming year, and that coin is carried around for good luck. When dinner is over they all stand at the same time and wish each other a Joyous Christmas Stastne a Vesele Vanoce. Then they embrace and finally rush to the tree and the gifts are distributed and opened. A quiet evening is spent until Midnight Mass. Sometimes the children slept on a bedding of straw on the floor under a table or the Christmas tree. This custom allowed them to take part in the Lord's poor and humble birth.
Christmas dinner might consist of giblet soup with noodles, roast goose with dumplings and kraut, braided coffee cake, kolaces, fruit, nuts and coffee.
Some Christmas Games were played. One is the placing of tiny lit candles into nutshells and floating them in a tub or water; the player whose candle burns the longest, is the winner. Many games revolved around predictions of whom a girl would marry. At the beginning of Advent a branch of cherry tree was broken and placed in a pot of water in the kitchen. It usually burst into bloom around Christmas and was considered a good luck omen. The girl who tended it was supposed to find a good husband within a year if it bloomed exactly in Christmas Eve. Girls drew sticks from a pile of
kindling; a long stick meant a tall husband, a thick one a stout husband, and so on. A future husband's occupation was forecast by dropping melted lead into a pan of water and seeing what shape it took as it cooled.
Vesele Vanoce
Stastlivy Novy Rok
Vicky L. Kobes
> Department of Animal Science
> University of Nebraska
> Lincoln, NE 68583-0908
> Phone: 402/472-9398
> Fax: 402/472-6362
> E-mail: vkobes1@@unl.edu
Matias Nohavec
The entire community received a shock last Sunday morning when learning the sad news that Mathias Nohavec had died very suddenly at his home on the west side, after a sickness of only a few hours.
He was born in Trebesinka, Bohemia, February 24, 1855, and at the time of his death was 60 years, 2 months and 1 day of age. He came directly to Saline county from Bohemia in 1872 and devoted his time to farming. In 1878, he was married to Miss Anna Bruza. To this union nine children were born - seven daughters and two sons, one daughter being dead. The children, who all live in this vicinity, are Joseph and Carl, Mrs. Mary Andelt, Mrs. Emma Marcelino, Mrs. Alice Kucera, Mrs. Louise Husa, Mrs. Albia Mace and Lillian Nohavec, also eleven grandchildren.
Funeral services were held from the late residence at 2 p.m. Tuseday, April 27, conducted by J. J. Elias. Interment took place in Riverside Cemetery.
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