As written by Neola Skala

"Neola was a retired journalist, teacher, member, Theta Sigma Phi journalism sorority, Phi Betta Kappa. Received Sigma Delta Chi Honorary Journalism Award. University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate, 1927. Master of Arts degree, 1929, UNL. Assistant editor, Nebraska Educational Journal. National Chairman of Rural Educational Committee, 1938.

" It took the Anton Wostrel's (and their fellow passengers) 13-14 weeks (over 3 months) to cross the Atlantic ocean in a little sailboat, which, of course, had no engines or motors, and was at the mercy of changing winds. What progress they made one day toward America (from Czechoslovakia), was countless times nullified by a shifting wind which drifted them back for miles and miles over the route they'd just traveled. It took courage of the highest order to set out in such a small sailboat over a little-known route and to an even - less-known country. The Anton Wostrel's and their small daughter, Annie, entered this country as strangers in a strange land, thousands of miles from their birthplace and the rest of their family, with just one tool or implement, a short-handled ax which Mrs. Wostrel packed in their trunk with her two dresses, their few other clothes, and their two featherbeds (one served as mattress, one as cover). The salt sea air those many weeks enroute badly rusted the ax onto their clothes, including the only two dresses Mrs. Wostrel owned. As a destination, they settled on Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where some acquaintences (don't recall their name) had preceded them a few years before. Louise often said that the Anton Wostrel's had only about $16 when they reached Cedar Rapids. Shortly after they arrived at the home of their acquaintances, Mr. Wostrel became ill. Everyone those days was petrified with fear about cholera, which was rampant in Europe at that time, so the acquaintances fearing Mr. Wostrel's illness might be cholera, immediately requested the Wostrels to leave their house.

Mrs. Wostrel was completely stunned...overwhelmed...desperate...her husband ill and obviously worsening...knowing no one else in the entire country...having no place to go...having scarcely any money...having a small child. For some days then the little family lived under a heavily- foliaged oak tree which she discovered as she collapsed to her knees to pray on the banks of the Iowa river, some distance from the home of their acquaintances. She made a sort of pallet by chopping, with the ax they'd brought, saplings, branches and twigs, over which she put one featherbed to make a bed for her sick husband. She covered the ailing man with the other featherbed. The acquaintance brought meager food once a day...placed at some distance from the little family to avoid contact and possible contagion.

Some days later, seated beside her desperately-ill husband, Mrs. Wostrel was startled by the approach of a strange man. Unable to understand the man's language, Mrs. Wostrel trembled with fear as to his intentions. He continued gesticulating, but to no avail. He left, returned later with some boys, and together they picked up Anton, pallet and all, motioned Mrs. Wostrel to follow with the child, and took them to a neighboring farm to a small building used for grain storage, but now swept clean and containing but one thing...a bed. Again the man and boys left, but returned later with a man carrying a grip...a Doctor. The benefactor's daughter came to administer medication as the doctor prescribed, and from her, Mrs. Wostrel learned (by watching) what to do for her husband. He had a bad case of lung fever...not dreaded cholera.

In deepest gratitude to her benefactor (not sure of name...it was not Czech...vaguely recall it as Anderson), Mrs Wostrel worked for the family in every way she could. When Mr. Wostrel recovered, he, too, worked for this family...later bought a small tract of land from the benefactor, and on it, Anton built a little log home himself, since he was a carpenter.

In time, the Wostrels acquired a team of oxen, covered wagon, and two cows. Hearing more and more about Nebraska, Wostrel's decided to sell their Iowa land, loaded belongings (including the two featherbeds and a two-hole stove for cooking) into the covered wagon, and with two cows tied behind, they trailed to Nebraska. They walked much of the way behind or beside the wagon from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area, to West Point, NE.

The first night the Wostrel's reached West Point, there was a fearful rain storm. It leaked badly into their home...the covered wagon...and soaked many or most of their few but priceless possessions, including the featherbeds. When sun finally shone, Mrs. Wostrel unloaded and dried the soggy things...including the feather beds which served even yet as their beds.

The first year that Wostrel's planted crops on their farm west of West Point--crops growing luxuriantly and showing gratifying promise--a devastating grasshopper plague destroyed those precious crops raised by long months of hard grueling work, in a matter of hours. The family now had neither money nor seed...and little food. So Anton walked to Fremont, some fifty miles away to seek work. Failing there, he walked on to Omaha, (a total of some 85-90 miles from home) where he secured employment. Took him six months to save enough money to buy seed for planting crops the ensuing spring, along with his sending some provisions home to keep his family in barest food needs. Then, through cold and snow, he again walked all the way home, from Omaha.

" The Wostrel's must have been living on the farm west of West Point during the blizzard of 1888. Louise recounted on many an occasion, the fact that the older Wostrel boys had bad colds when the storm began and were in bed. She (Louise) was too small to walk the 3.5 miles to school and 3.5 miles back, alone, so the children were all at home when the blizzard started...fortunately for them, since many lives were lost in that storm which struck suddenly after an unusually balmy morning.

" Later, when the children were growing up, Mr. Wostrel realized he needed more land, so he bought a part of what was then known as the Creamery Farm in Logan township. The farm was badly run down...buildings ill-kept and falling into ruins...huge sunflowers everywhere...cockleburrs were a good stand, it took months and years of hardest work to improve the property. A year after the Wostrel's moved onto this larger farm, dire misfortune struck again...promising and badly-needed crops were seared by hot winds.

"

"Note: Neola Skala was daughter of Louise Wostrel & John Skala. Evelyn is her cousin (daughter of Marie Wostrel & Jacob Lundenburg.

"

"

"The following was __WRITTEN BY EVELYN LUNDENBURG to Linda Wostrel. Evelyn is the daughter of Marie Wostrel__

"Anton Wostrel was a carpenter, farmer and musician. In Europe he played the violin a lot, and I guess, also in NE. for dance bands, or orchestras, whatever they called them then. He suffered from Asthma most of his life, and dropsy (as the doctor called it then)(Note by Don Schreiner; the current terminology for dropsy is "congestive heart failure"). He was told that gradually the swellig would rise in his body, and when it reached the heart---finish. The doctor gave him gunpowder to swollow, shich kept the swelling down for a time, but it reoccured until it didn't help anymore. My guess is that today it woud be referred to as heart problem. After all, many heart ailments cause the feet to swell.

"

"Anton had four brothers I'm told, but I don't know their names. One brother had SEVEN sons, one of who came to America in the late 1800's. He lived with my Grandma & Grandpa Wostrel for a time, but Grandpa kicked him out because he refused to find a job and wanted to sit around the house all the time. Besides, Mother said he was always making advances to her which Grandpa didn't like. He went to Racine, Wisconsin, and later Mother ran across an obituary notice in a Czech paper that he had died in Chico, CA. He was married twice, and I do not belived there were any male descendants to carry the name. He had one daughter.

"

"Grandpa Anton Wostrel was born in Policka, Chrudima, Bohemia, but I am enclosing the family tree as I have it today, so that gives you the information. Also enclosed, a picture of Mother at age 79, when Dad was very sick. The wicker chair, has been passed down to Penny today, who has it in her living room apartment. It dates from 1920. Larry has the straight back wicker which was my father's favorite. (children of Evelyn)

__The following is by Evelyn Lundenburg, daughter of Marie Wostrel & grandchild of Anton & Louisa__

"__A CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD AND STORY OF THE WOSTREL FAMILY OF ANTON & LOUISE__

"

"_

BEFORE THE YEAR 1864__

"

"__Anton Wostrel__ (Vostrel in Czech), about whom this story is written, was born in april of 1844, in the Central Moravian Higlands of Moravia, in a place called Policka.

"

"The Czech name for the highland is "Czech C??ko-Moravaska Vrchovina), and athe south-eastern boundary ranges to the Bohemia and Moravia, today in the country of Czechoslovakia. They extended approximately from the basin of the Dyje (tributary to the Morava) in the south, to the upper basin of the Morava river in the north. The average height of this hill country is 2,000 to 2,500 feet, but the Oihlava heights in the south rise to 2,743 ft. (Devet Skal). On the Moravian side, the Drahanska Plains group of hills are of Devonian limestone and contain the famous Moravian Karst (the Macocha abyss and caverans), or caves of Moravia, "Jesykyne Moravske".

"

"The highlands are bleak, sparsely populated country from which there has been a steady exodus. After the thirty year war, the Czechs had survived only as a nation of serfs and that until the beginning of the 19th century, any middle class that there was, had consisted of a handful of intellectuals. It is also true that until 1919, Bohemia and Moravia remained the home of huge estates owned by a German-speaking aristocracy.

"

"Such was the environment into which Anton was born. As was common at that time, he learned a trade-the carpentry trade. He was one of five boys, and had two or three sisters. None of the remaining family ever came to America to our knowledge.

"

"__Louise Ventura__ was reared in a place called "Frantisky" evidently near Prague (from a Pospeshil writeup). It was poor farming country, Louise had two brothers, Joseph and Frank. She was born August 9, 1844

"

"As this story is written in review in 1969, Czechoslovakia is now under U.S.S.R. domination, since the end of World War II. It is known that a nephew of anton's also came to America; his name was Alois Wostrel.

"

"Anton & Louise were married sometime before 1864, that is, before April, 1864, both apparently around the age of 20. (How did they meet, anybody know?)

"

"_

1865__

"

"They were not to know any time alone- for their first born arrived on Jan. 6, 1865, they named her Anna. The adventuresome spirit was evidently strong, dissatisfaction with their conditions hard to bear, compulsory military service for a period of three years made many a youth seek America for escape. History tells us the revolution of 1848 saw the final liberation of the peasants, and that none profited more than the Czechs from the act of Emancipation of 9-7-48, which abolished the feudal system of land tenure. In 1859 (five years before Anton & Louise left Europe), Francis Joseph announced that in secondary schools in predominately non-German districts, education need not be completed in German, provided that the pupils had a thorough knowledge of the german language, from about the same time elementary schools in the Czech villages were conducted only in Czech. Since Anton and Louise in 1859 were fifteen, we assume therefore that they had already become well aware of the German language, as well as their own.

"

"Thus Anton and Louise were two who made the decision to come to America. Louise was already pregnant with her second child, and-still nursing baby Anna. She felt this would give the daughter a better start, no doubt they knew the hardships they were about to face! They hoped to embark on a successful new life, for they were filled with the dreams of youth, as youth is prone to, they were full of vigor and good health. With a sum of about $60, in money, together with two prized possessions, Anton had his good axe so that he could build them a home in the wilderness, and Louise had a precious feathertick to keep them warm. Probably it was the only security her mother could give her for a new home in a new country.

"

"We should like to think they started over land to the ocean to make the trip by boat, in the early spring of the year, but we do not know when they left. Ah, if only we could see them on that journey in a sailboat that took, no doubt in all, from the time they left their home in Europe, to the actual arrival in Shueyville, Iowa, probably a year. In later years, Louise, when her family had grown up, had time to reminisce of the horrors of that journey. To her youngest still at home, she often spoke of the hard and rough lives they had led. Lots of passengers became ill on that journey. Some died, not having the physical endurance to withstand such hardships. The dead were buried at sea-and as their bodies slid into the ocean the sharks would devour the corpses. It must have had a tremendous depressing effect on those left on the boat, wondering who would be next. Imagine the heartaches and tears of losing a loved one thus. We would like to think they were greeted and welcomed in Baltimore-but we know they were strangers in a strange land.

"

"The dampness and wet of the long ocean journey held for them their first great dissappointment. Anton's axe had rusted, and having been wrapped between Louise's feathertick, in addition to which the wet had molded the feathertick beyond use. Then too, before the end of the journey, the passengers lived on dried fish and water, and even that was rationed! Was it a forerunner or omen of hard luck which would dog their footsteps in this new world?

"

"_

1866__

"

"The surviving passengers must have indeed rejoiced when the boat landed in Baltimore. The journey had ended, they were in America! From their very modest savings of $60, it was now necessary to supply themselves with a covered wagon, horse and food staples, and perhaps, a gun. Thus they left Baltimore in a covered wagon and headed directly west-with little Anna, then between eighteen months and two years, to the state of Iowa. Limited funds meant looking for work to earn money to buy land in order to sustain one's family. Both found work in the fields of a farmer near Shueyville, Iowa. Little Anna would be left with the farmer's wife. What a long day it must have been for her! Left to her own devices, when she got hungry, there was always the corn crib with corn on the cob to nibble. Nobody worried about germs then. If germs bothered you, you just didn't survive; if they didn't bother you, you were indeed physically strong. And Louise, pregnant with her second child--working in the fields!

"

"Oddly enough, although Anton and Louise didn't live too long at this location, Anna had already met the boy who was destined to be her future spouse. Many years later, John Pospeshil would joke about it and say he knew his wife when she was in diapers! True, not many today could claim that distinction. But, that was for the future.

"

"Anton was a musician, and had belonged to a band in Czech. He joined, and later directed a band after he came to America. Often he would arrange the music for his own musicians. Music was to play a large part in their lives in America, and in some of their descendents.

"

"Like other newcomers coming to America, they did not speak English. So one did not settle just anywhere, he sought one's own people in order to get along more easily. In Shueyville, Iowa they PROBABLY LIVED IN A DUGOUT FOR ABOUT TWO YEARS. In reading the encyclopedia, it tells us that a large segment of Czech settled in Iowa, as members of the Moravian Church, they settled together.

"

"After about two years of living in the dugout, and earning money together, they had saved enough to buy 20 acres of their very own farm land. They thought how wonderful, it would be their land, their very own. They had worked hard, paid for it, and thus industrious and determined, they set their course-they would be farmers.

"

"_

1867?__

"

"Here, the second born, another daughter, Frances, must have been born, although the date is not accurate. So while working the fields, she carried a child, who was born in that period. Mere existance must indeed have been a tremendous struggle. Imagine an Iowa winter in sub zero weather in a dugout? With two babies? What provided the heat, we wonder. Was it corncobs, wood or what? Anna and Frances would have tgo be as strong as their parents in order to survive.

"

"_

1869__

"

"By 1869, it is probable that the move to a piece of land near Cedar Rapids, Ia had been accomplished. Here Anton & Louise built a cabin, and she would lock the two girls up in the cabin and would go to work to do cleaning in a tavern. Anna then must have been 4 or 5, Frances 2 or 2 1/2. The tavern keeper's wife would pay Louise with vegetable seeds and other produce with which to start her own garden. How important seeds were to a farmer! About 1869, too, the birth of their third born, a son, occured. Perhaps the hardships of the past years were catching up with Louise. Little Tony, as they named their son after his father, died in infancy. He was buried somewhere in or near Cedar rapids, IA. He would not have to struggle in the new world to find a place among men.

"

"_

1873?__

"

"A fifth born, another boy, whom they named Frank (after Louise's other brother) entered the world on Dec. 11, 1873. Here a clearer description is given of the area, being stated "Frank was born on a farm 12 miles south of Cedar Rapids, Iowa".

"

"__THE ANTON WOSTREL FAMILY__

"

" It took the courage of an astronaut to set out in a small sailboat over an unknown route, endless water, to an unknown country. But in 1867, the Anton Wostrel's, with their little daughter, Anna, and their fellow passengers determined to seek a more rewarding life, and ventured on their perilous trip. It took 13-14 weeks (over three months) to cross the Atlantic ocean. Having no engine, the little sailboat was at the mercy of changing winds. Progress they made one day, was countless times nullified by shifting winds which drifted them back miles and miles over the route they'd just traveled.

" The Wostrel's, entered on their move as strangers in a strange land, thousands of miles from their family, with __just one tool__... a short-handled ax, which during many weeks of salt sea air, rusted on to their clothes in their trunk.

" They headed for Cedar Rapids, Iowa where aquaintances preceded them some years before. Reaching their destination, they had only $16 to start life in a strange, new world, America.

" Shortly after arriving at their friends's home, Mr. Wostrel became ill. People those days were petrified with fear of cholera (rampant in Europe), so the friends, fearing cholera, requested the Wostrel's to leave their home.

" Having nowhere else to go, Mrs. Wostrel took her child and ailing husband to the only shelter she could fine--a heavily-leafed tree to protect them in some measure from rain, on the banks of the Iowa River some distance from the friend's house. Desperately worried, she built a make-shift bed of tree branches for her sick husband...and prayed for help and guidance. The friends brought meager food once a day...placed at a distance from the famialy to avoid contact and contagion.

" Days later, a strange man approached the couple. Mrs. Wostrel, unable to understand the man's language, trembled with fear as to his intentions. He left, but soon returned with some boys. Together they picked up Anton, motioned to Mrs. Wostrel to follow with the child, and took them to a neighboring farm, to a small building used for grain storage, but now swept clean.....containing one item...a bed.

" The man and boys left, only to return later with a man carrying a grip...a Doctor. The benefactor's daughter came to administer medication as the doctor prescribed, and from her, Mrs. Wostrel learned, by watching, what to do for her husband. He has a bad case of lung fever...not dreaded Cholera.

" Fervently grateful to her benefactor, Mrs. Wostrel worked for the family in every way she could, and when Mr. Wostrel recovered, he, too, worked for the family...in fact, later bought a few acres of land from the family and built a little log home himself, since he was a carpenter.

" Hearing favorably about Nebraska, they, after eight years, sold their bit of Iowa land, tied their two cows behind their covered wagon pulled by oxen, and went to Nebraska in 1875. They walked much of the way behind or beside the wagon from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area, to West Point, NE.

" Settling on a farm west of West Point, their first year's promising crops and months of hard work, were destroyed in just hours by huge clouds of grasshoppers.

" Without money or seed...and little food...Anton walked fifty miles to Fremont, NE. to seek work. Finding none, he walked to Omaha (85-90 miles from home) where he found a job. He worked for six months...sent some provisions home to keep his family in barest food needs, and saved enough money to buy seeds for planting.

" As the children grew up, Mr. Wostrel felt he needed more land, and bought part of what was then known as the Creamery Farm in Logan Township in Cuming County, NE. It took years of grueling work to restore the farm..badly run down, overgrown with sunflowers, and buildings falling into ruins. The next year after their move, misfortune struck again...promising and desperately-needed crops were, this time, seared by hot winds.

" When the sons grew up and took over the farming, Anton and Louise Wostrel retired to a home in Beemer, Nebraska, where Anton died Nov. 20, 1907. Mrs. Wostrel later sold her home and went to live with her daughter in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she passed away July 5, 1916.