FAMILY STORIES

acreage west of Lincoln. Submitted by Paul C. Stark

   My grandfather, John Friedrick Stark, was born July 4, 1860 in, or near, Riepsdorf, Germany. When quite a young man, he came to America, and later, got a job working in a dairy near Omaha, Nebraska. He met and married Elisabeth Armbrust, and in 1892, they moved to Washington, Nebraska where he made a living farming. Six of their seven children were born there, Henry, Anna, Charles, William, Chris and Fritz. In 1911, he bought and moved to a farm near Ceresco, Nebraska. It was here that their youngest child, Paul, was born. My grandmother, Elisabeth, was born September 22, 1872 and died April 12, 1922. My grandfather died October 10, 1946.

Larry and Patricia Stark Family. Left to Right: Kevin, Sandra, Lisa, Tim, Sherri, Larry, Pat.

   In 1926, my father, Chris, went to Holt County Nebraska and worked as a hired hand. He married my mother, Wilma Moss, in 1927. In 1929, they moved back to the home place near Ceresco. It was here that my sisters and I were born: Beulah, May 8, 1929, myself, April 21, 1932 and Shyla, December 21, 1939.

   In 1955, after spending two years in the army and Korea, I married Patricia Quick, the daughter of Roy and Iva Quick of rural Ceresco. We lived on a farm next to the original home place and made our living farming. Patricia also worked as a registered nurse. To this union three children were born, Larry Kevin, Nov. 23, 1956; Timothy Lee, born March 24, 1962; and Lisa Kay, born April 18, 1963. Timothy married Sherri Dowding, November 5, 1982. Kevin is planning to marry Sandra Kliment, April 23, 1983.

   Patricia's father, Roy, was born March 28, 1901 and died August 29, 1971. Her mother, Iva, was born June 9, 1907, and now lives in Ceresco.

   After the death of my father on March 22, 1970, my mother moved to Ceresco, where she lived until her death March 16, 1982.

   As a bit of history, the original location of Ceresco was located on the farm that was bought by my grandfather and on which I still farm. One can see a depression where the basement of a store once stood. The town was later moved to be nearer the railroad. Submitted by Larry B. Stark

   I am Gladys Starmann Kuhr, the oldest daughter of Herman and Martha Hirsch Starmann. My father, an orphan, came from Germany to escape service in the army. His only family was a foster sister in Hamburg, Germany. We knew her only as Tante Auguste, losing all contact with her during World War II.

   My mother came from Germany as an infant with her parents, Ferdinand and Fredrika Kraneis Hirsch. Martha was the youngest of 15 children. Thirteen grew up. The three oldest were married and remained in Germany. My grandparents lived in New York, Illinois, and Iowa before settling in Yutan where Grandpa was a blacksmith. He died in 1904 and Grandma in 1917.

   My parents were married in Yutan in March, 1902. Papa was Yutan's postmaster.

   There were four children. Gladys married Henry Kuhr of Mead.

   Their children are Martha Rohwer, Norma Heiser, Joyce Lanik, Kaye Roels, and Jeanette Herrera. There are 16 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

   Viola, who lived in Yutan all her life, worked at the Yutan telephone office and the Post Office. She died in November, 1971.

   Laverta married Herbert Matzen of Yutan. They had one daughter, Sylvia Jacobson, and one grandson. She died in August, 1970.

   Eleanor married Herbert Karloff of Yutan. Their three children are: Carol Ecklund, Mead; James, Hastings; and Janet Behrens, Mead. They have nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

   Both of our parents were killed in the tornado at Yutan, Easter Sunday, March 23, 1913. At that time, my mother's sister, Reka Hirsch, came from California to raise the four sisters as her own. This she did through hard work, love, and her deep faith in God. She made it possible for each of us to receive enough education to teach. She died in June, 1953, loved and respected by all.

   John L. Steinbach and Joan M. Fospisil were married at SS Cyril and Methodius Church at Plasi on October 11, 1949. John is the son of Joseph J. Steinbach and Rose Polacek of Prague. John attended Rural School Dist. 51 near Prague, and graduated from Prague High School in 1946. He served in the United States Army from January of 1954 to December of 1955. He was stationed in Korea. He is active in the American Legion Post 308 and is a Past Commander.

   Joan attended school at Malmo Public School and graduated in 1947. She was employed by Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph at Wahoo until the exchange was converted to the dial system. Joan was severely injured while on her way to work on a foggy February morning in 1957.

   Joan and John have two sons, Tom, born October 8, 1959, and Ted, born April 9, 1962. Tom and Ted attended school at Rural Dist. 24, Malmo, and graduated from Bishop Neumann Central High School at Wahoo. Tom graduated from Southeast Community College in Milford, in Building Construction and is presently employed in Lincoln by a construction firm. Ted graduated from Southeast Community College at Milford in Diesel Farm Equipment. He is employed by Hamilton International of Lincoln.

   Joan and John had two sons and a daughter who died in infancy.

   The Steinbachs are members of SS Cyril and Methodius Church at Plasi. They have been active community members, serving as School Board President, Neumann Booster Club President, and Band Parents' Officers.

   They are Grade A dairy producers on their farm, Steinlane Acres, which is 2 and three-quarters west of Malmo. By Joan Steinbach

   Charles Stepanek and Delphine Sedlacek were married on October 20, 1956 in St. Mary's Catholic Church, Schuyler, Nebraska. They lived in New Ulm, Minnesota for 12 years. They lived in Fremont for 12 years, and in 1979, they moved to an acreage in Saunders County near Fremont.

   Charles was born in Howells, Nebr. to Charles and Bessie (Hartl) Stepanek. His maternal grandparents, the Anton Hartls, lived in Saunders County near Morse Bluff before moving to, and living the rest of their lives in Stanton County and the surrounding area. Charles is the eldest of 9 children. He served in the Merchant Marines.

   Delphine was born to Emil and Katheryn (Vanek) Sedlacek at Prague, Nebr. Before their marriage she taught school in Butler and Colfax Counties.

   Charles and Delphine's first child was Roxanne, 1-11-58, who is married to Galo Merizalde. She was a foreign exchange student to Quito, Ecuador, South America, where she met her husband. They live in Omaha where both are employed. She attends UNO part-time. They have a daughter, Ana, born 10-14-76.

Andy, Charles, Chuck, Laurie, Delphine, Angie, Russell and Roxanne Stepanek

   The second child was Chuck, 11-16-59. He is married to the former Leigh Weed. Chuck attended Kearney State College and is presently the program director for Radio Station KQ106 in Kearney. The third child is Russell, 12-19-62. He attends the workshop training center for handicapped students in Fremont. He lives in an apartment which he shares with another mentally handicapped youth, and an ENCOR employee. Russell works for the Village Inn.

   Laurie, 10-14-66, the fourth child, is a student at Bergan High School. She is active in 4-H. Angela, 3-11-68, the fifth child, is also a student at Bergan and an active 4-Her. The youngest child of Charles and Delphine is Andy, 12-18-69. He is a student at Dist. 105 and enjoys 4-H activities and video games.

   The family is busy with a variety of activities. Charles works for ConAgra, enjoys viewing the planets and stars with his 3 telescopes, and raises poultry, both fancy breeds and plain varieties. Delphine has a part-time job at Memorial Hospital of Dodge County and sings with the New Life Choir at St. Patrick's Church where they all attend church. Charles and Delphine are members of the Dodge County 4-H Council. They all enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside. Submitted by Delphine Stepanek

   Sidney Phillip Stevens was born in 1823 near Scranton, Penn. He was a carpenter and owned a match factory. He married Arthusa Peck. They had 5 children: Charles, Mary, Frank, Cyrenus and Byron. His wife died in 1860 and he later married Elizabeth Porter. They had 3 children: Sidney, John and Fay. In 1870, they moved to Nebraska and bought a farm 3½ miles north of what is now Wann. He later moved to Wahoo and died in 1893. His son, Cyrenus (Rene), was born in 1854, and at the age of 16, came to Nebraska with his parents in 1870. He attended school in Ashland. He later purchased land from the U.P. Railroad, west of Wann, where his father and brother helped him build a house and barn. In 1885, he married Clara A. Carr of Yutan. They lived on this farm until their deaths, hers in 1923, and his in 1934. They are buried in the Carr Cemetery north of Ashland. They had 3 children: Frances Mae, Floyd Manual and Dessie Mildred.

   They were active members of the Plainview Christian Church, until 1913 when it closed. He was a Deacon there for many years. They transferred their memberships to the Wann Church, where they were active as long as their health permitted. Their daughter, Frances, took up a nursing career. In 1936, she moved to Santa Cruz, Calif. where she did special nursing in the Santa Cruz hospitals. She was a member of the Christian Church there until her death in 1962. She is buried in the Carr Cemetery. Floyd died in childhood. Dessie attended Dist. #20 school and Luther College at Wahoo. She majored in Piano and Elocution. Dessie married Jesse F. Wilson in 1933. By Dessie Wilson

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   Clarence Stewart and Evelyn Patzloff Stewart, both born in Saunders County, were married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, Iowa on Feb. 22, 1941. Both of us attended rural schools for elementary education, and Evelyn attended Midland College. Clarence was in farming and we began our housekeeping at his parents' farm, 4½ miles west of Ceresco.

   We purchased this farm in 1949. This same farm, for which homestead rights were purchased by Clarence's grandfather in 1879, was honored by AK-SAR-BEN as one of Saunders County's 100-year farms in 1979.

   As this item goes to press in 1983, our daughter, Carol, and her husband, Fred Richart, a minister of the United Methodist Church, are serving their second year as missionaries in Nigeria. They are the parents of two sons: 4½ year old Jeremy and 2½ year Jamison. Carol was a 1971 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan. Fred graduated from Omaha Westside, attended Colgate, and graduated in 1976 from Yale Theological Seminary.

   Our son, Keith, who married Kathryn Carlson from Chappell, Nebr. in 1982, is now the 4th generation farmer on the farm in Rock Creek Precinct. He graduated from University of Nebr. in 1978.

   Both Clare and I have been active members in the United Methodist Church in Ceresco with Clare, serving on the Board of Trustees, and I, in other organizations, including the Building Committee when the new church was built in 1966.

   During the Nation's Bicentennial year of 1976, I was employed as Village Clerk for Ceresco and was assigned the task of applying for a grant for the new Community Building. Monumental paper work and hours of time were rewarded when, on December 22, word came from the office of Senator Charles Thone that we had been awarded the $161,000 grant towards a building, which now houses the municipal offices, the library, a new Sr. Citizens center, as well as adequate housing for rescue squad and firefighting equipment.

   We knew sadness and grief when cancer took the lives of our first born, a son, Robert, in 1947 when he was 3; our second child, Jean, a daughter at 15 years in 1962 and our fifth child, 4-year-old James in 1963.

   I have been especially fortunate the last 6 years to be traveling, part-time as an escort for motorcoach tours. Thus, Clare and I have seen much of the U.S. and Canada. A recent trip to Nigeria and a 1962 trip to South America makes us keenly aware and thankful to call Saunders County HOME. By: Clarence Stewart

   My father, Frank M. Steyer, was born in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia on October 5, 1888. The military regime required all young men to give three years of service, and my grandmother, after the death of her brother in the Army, decided that her sons would not go to war. She sent the older one, Joe, to the United States to live with relatives. My father was almost 16 years old when he and his parents, Joseph and Marie Steyer, his sisters, Marie, Agnes, Anna, his brothers, Anton, Rudolph, Emil and his bride of one month, Anna, and his maternal grandmother, Frances Cerman, came to Weston, Nebraska in July, 1904. They stayed with the Frank Kadavys until they could find a place of their own. They brought very little, but Grandma Steyer insisted on bringing a large Holy picture of Jesus at Gethsemane which they donated to the then new St. Vitus Catholic Church in Touhy.

   My dad attended school two months to learn English. He could read and write German and Czech. He worked as a farm hand. The people he worked for didn't provide a meal at noon so he'd look for eggs in the barn, and eat them raw when he was really hungry.

   My mother, Josephine Furasek Steyer, was born on a farm near Touhy, August l, 1897, to Andrew and Marie Tomcak Furasek who came to this country from Czechoslovakia.

Frank M. and Josephine Furasek Steyer, Sept. 17, 1918

   My parents were married at St. Vitus Catholic Church in Touhy on September 17, 1918 and lived on a farm near Valparaiso. They had five children, all born on the farm. Marie, born May 13, 1921, married Tony Cuda May 20, 1942 at St. Vitus, Touhy; Bessie, born May 3, 1925, married Tony Voboril August 23, 1948 at St. Vitus, Touhy; Rose, born February 8, 1929, married Raymond Walla April 19, 1948 at St. Vitus, Touhy; Blanche, born April 14, 1931, married George Walla November 21, 1953 at St. Vitus, Touhy; Andrew, born September 16, 1933, married Ruth Clark Harrison October 2, 1965 at Sacred Heart in Lincoln.

   Christmas was special when we were growing up. We didn't exchange gifts but somehow always had a Christmas tree (artificial) with the same treasured decorations year after year. On Christmas Eve Mom would light the candles and they would cast a blessed glow on all of us. At Christmas Eve supper, each person had a bowl by his plate which was filled with fruit, nuts and candy. Whatever money each one had was put by his plate to ask God to bless it and make it last throughout the new year. If weather permitted and the old Model T Ford would start, we would drive the five miles to Touhy to Midnight Mass at St. Vitus.

   My dad died on June 10, 1968 and is buried at St. Vitus Cemetery. My mom lives alone in Lincoln now and takes care of her many flowers and has a small vegetable garden. Bessie H. Voboril

   I was never privileged to meet either my maternal or paternal grandparents. I was the second-born (the firstborn died) to Clyde A. Stickney and Minnie Mae Rush Stickney on April 7, 1916, and named Mabel Alice. The family moved from Adair County, Iowa to Saunders County, Nebraska when I was about two years old.

   My father wanted to purchase property near the Salt Creek Bridge. Upon viewing the site, my mother put her foot down, "Absolutely not!" This has proven a wise decision indeed.

   The family bought an acreage with a house at 2466 Ash Street. On the north, adjoining the kitchen, was a large, well-stocked icehouse. The ice was harvested from Swift's Lake, north of town. This ice lasted well into summer, packed in lots of fresh straw. You could get good straw, as wheat was threshed by big machines, saving the straw in a big sack. There was a sorghum operation on the opposite hill to the north (Judge Bryant lived there at one time). The operators were from the south. My father planted sorghum cane and we had some. I don't recall anyone else raising any.

Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dean, June 15, 1937

   Around 1922, the family bought the Robbins place, 120 acres, 1½ miles west of Ashland. I usually walked to and from school, weather permitting. I seemed to enjoy this. On the way home, I stopped at the Revis place to see his beautiful rabbits. Mrs. Revis quite often gave me a cookie. I wonder which was the greater attraction. When the wild plums were ripe, I would stop there. Earl Wollen let me pick violets that bordered all along his north lot line and I picked a little blue flag iris outside the cemetery fence.

   In April of 1925, my mother died. A few years later my father married Mable P. Rush. I then enjoyed two half-brothers, Clyde M. and Glen L.

   My mother had taught school for some seventeen years before she married and I wanted to become a teacher. It was her wish, too. I graduated from Ashland High School in 1934, receiving a scholarship to Peru State Teachers' College. I think if cholesterol in eggs is bad for you, I must surely have a problem, (I don't.) I lived outside the dorm, ate eggs morning, noon, and night, it seemed. The hard times only allowed me to go one year, something I was to regret. I taught in Saunders and Cass Counties and, at least, got my desire. I truly liked to teach.

   On June 15, 1937, Vernon Keller Dean, son of Ralph S. and Ada Keller Dean, and I were married. We had three daughters, Marilyn, Sharon, and Barbara. We lived twenty-five years in an old stone house at the edge of town. The house had been built by Dennis Dean. There were three of these houses in the near vicinity, this one being the smallest. The motor material was gathered from the neighborhood.

   Back in the pasture was a spring or two. The railroad piped water all the way down to the tracks for their engines. Mrs. Fricke came over one day to see if I knew about this. I had seen something laid across the rock bottom ditch. We went to look and were most disappointed. It had disappeared during heavy rains. It was a man-made cement pipe.

   Vernon was in business with his father. They had been in a number of businesses together but were ahead of the times with the Dean Insulation Co. started in 1934.

   In April, 1963, Vernon suffered a disabling stroke. The life we were living came to a grinding halt. With my devotion and his grit, he is still alive today, 1982, 19 years later. We hope to enjoy life a few years more with the help of our daughters and six grandchildren. Submitted by Mrs. Vernon Dean

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