The Wilson Sokol Club was the forty-ninth organized. The Black Wolf Sokol, No. 48, preceding it one year. In 1897 Wilson Sokol Club was admitted to the Sokol Union of the United States, but it had been organized and chartered by the state of Kansas September 7, 1895. The charter members were, V. Hubalek, Frank Michalicek, M. Somer, J. W. Somer, Henry Tobias, A. Pokorny, Frank Gregor, Fred Michalicek, J. A. Somer, Joseph Podlasek, Frank Swehla and Romeo Swehla.
“Na Zdar”—“May sucess attend thee”—is the hailing salutation of the “Sokol.” May their number increase.
I have come now to the close of my story, which I shall end with some personalities. The years 1893 to 1896 were made up of days that tried man's ingenuity in making both ends meet. There was crop failure after crop failure, and the result was not seen at once but had its influence for a long time after. Mortgage foreclosures were frequent occurrences, and public sale posters were seen on every corner. We all suffered, the big farmer as well as the small one. I lost my farm and all my live stock, and began again under sore affliction and a heavy load of debt.
In May, 1893, our home was destroyed by fire and two of our children burned to death. From this my wife received a mental shock from which she never recovered; she died May 29, 1912. During all these misfortunes I was under medical treatment for an affection of the eyes. At times I suffered untold agonies and was practically blind. I have recovered from the disease, but my sight can never be entirely restored. Now, in conclusion, I must say that I heartily regret a more able writer could not have been secured for this worthy task of recording something of our Bohemian settlers. But, be it ever so poorly done. I think it is better than not to have done it at all, and I at least have shown good will, if not great ability in the art of writing. This effort may be an incentive to some capable person who will write the story of our settlement properly, and in the near future, before we old pioneers leave for “that bourne from which no traveler returns.”
“Lives of great men oft remind us,
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing, leave behind us,
Footprints in the sand of time.”
May my “footprints” mislead no mortal, but guide him in the path of virtue. That is the last and best wish of the writer.
RUDOLF J. SMISCHNY.[1]
Rudolf J. Smichny, member of the house of representatives for Ellsworth county in 1913, was born March 27, 1871, in Bohemia. In April, 1873, his parents immigrated to the United States of America, coming to Chicago, Ill. In 1874 they moved to Elgin, Ill., where young Rudolf attended public school four years. When he was ten years of age they moved to South Dakota, going by rail as far as Mitchell, that being the end of the line; then traveling by wagon sixty-five miles to the central part of Brule county.
- ↑ These sketches of representative Bohemians came to the Historical Society through Mr. Swehla and therefore follow his paper.
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