MATEJ AND ROSA [SAFRANEK] HRBEK
The short, but not heavy, bewhiskered Matej (Mathias, Michael or
Mike) Hrbek whose surname in Czech means “rugged as a mountain” was
indeed a survivor. Much of Matej’s early history in this country was
told by relatives, and conflicting stories still emerge.
Probably his parents were Matej Hrbek and Anna Kubek who were born
in or near Bohemia and married in the early 1800s. In 1892,
according to Margie Sobotka who listed Matej in her book, his
birthplace was the village of Podhori near the town of Milevsko in
the county of Tabor in Bohemia, Austria. He then owned 363 acres of
land in Sections 7, 17, and 18 in Western Precinct of Knox County.
It is not known exactly when Matej arrived in the United States
after a difficult journey of nine weeks and four days in a sail
ship. Most reports indicate that he arrived in the U. S. before or
during the Civil War.
Matej probably met his wife, Rosa Safranek, an Illinois girl born in
Bohemia, when she was a nurse during the Civil War. It is possible
that Matej had been married previously in Bohemia or the U. S. and
that Rosa had been married before and had two children who died.
After the Civil War, Matej, as did many Czechs in the Chicago area,
worked on the construction of the new railroad which was “going
west.”
Matej (born February 24, 1829) and Rosa (born March 13, 1832) were
married in Ft. Dearborn, now Chicago, Illinois. Two children born in
Chicago, John and Anna, accompanied them to Nebraska. Certainly the
hardships they endured were not for the weak-willed and many other
settlers had homesteaded in Knox County and left. The Hrbeks sold
wild fowl and wood in O’Neill in order to survive.
Five children were born to Matej and Rosa: John, Anna, Mike, Jr.,
Frank, and Adolph.
As a young man, John, born in Chicago in 1867, lived in Colorado
where he took up mining. While in Colorado he met Katie Pospisil
(born 1874, Bohemia) where they spent the greater share of their
lives. They had two sons, Emil born in Denver and Stanley born in
Christopher, Illinois. John died in a mining accident in 1905.
Anna Hrbek (born July 25, 1869, in Chicago, Illinois) was married to
John B. Uhlir. They lived on a farm southeast of her parents. They
had 14 children (See John B. Uhlir.)
Mike, Jr., was born February 24, 1872, at the home place in Knox
County, west of Pischelville, Nebraska. He married Katie
Dobrichovsky in a “home wedding.” (See Mike Hrbek, Jr.)
Frank (born February 6, 1873) married Christina Wirth and resided on
a farm west of Verdigre. (See Frank Hrbek.)
Adolph Hrbek (born May 5, 1875) married Marie Uhlir, sister of John
B. Uhlir. John B. was married to Adolph’s sister, Anna Hrbek. (See
Adolph Hrbek.)
Matej and his wife Rosa survived this wide-open, but almost
uninhabitable county. Eventually they moved to Verdigre. Rosa died
June 24, 1908, and was buried at Pischelville. Matej was listed as a
member of the John B. Uhlir household in the 1910 Federal Census. He
and John A. Uhlir, the fathers-in-law of the John B. family,
occupied separate rooms. Matej died January 3, 1922, and was buried
in the Pischelville Cemetery.
According to the 1870 Census, Matej was listed as being 40 years
old, his wife Anna was 38, son Frank, 12, and Anna, 3. Later census
material lists Rosa or Rozena instead of Anna, John instead of Frank
(born 1867), and Anna born in 1869.
Matej Hrbek, Sr., told the story of his trip from Chicago, Illinois,
and the first months of settlement in L’Eau Qui Court County with
two other Verdigre families to a journalist for an article for the
Bohemian Almana Pionyr. This article was translated and retold in
the story of the Brabenec family in the book Czechs and Nebraska
Matej related that he became acquainted with the Brabenec family in
Chicago, Illinois, in 1869 at the time of the “Ceska (Osada) Kolonie,”
a Czech Society founded to locate government land for its members
who desired homesteads. Two expeditions left Chicago in 1869 to
settle in L’Eau Qui Court County in Nebraska. The Hrbeks, Brabenecs
and another family, the Praseks, traveled with a third expedition.
When they arrived in Niobrara in early 1870, they left their
families while they explored the land in the Niobrara River Valley
about eighteen miles from Niobrara. Liking this pristine, relatively
uninhabited, slightly wooded country along Steele Creek, they
returned to Niobrara for their families and with them moved to the
new and promising land. Later the Czechs referred to this area
located about five miles west of Pischelville, as the “Third
Bottom.”
At the time of the 1870 Federal Census, the Brabenec family was
listed as including Thomas, 50, wife Magdalen, 48, and two children,
Caroline, 13, and John, 11. The Prasek family included John, 52,
Anna, 39, and children John, 14, and Mary 16.
Each of them built a temporary dwelling, a semi-dugout covered with
brushwood and weeds with a hole in the sod roof for the stovepipe
and beds on the floor. Afterward, they worked together to build long
cabins on each homestead.
While the women busied themselves with the cooking and gardening,
the men worked the fields with spades and built log cabins. They
decided to build the Brabenec cabin first. On April 29, 1870, they
were down by the river about ½ mile from the Brabenec home when they
heard some gunshots coming from the Brabenec dugout. They hurried
through the trees and foliage which had obstructed their view of the
cabin and found Mrs. Brabenec wounded inside. John and Caroline were
missing. After getting their wits together, they searched for the
children and found Johnny about 100 feet from the dugout shot in the
back, the neck, and the left shoulder blade by supposed renegade
Sioux Indians. The immediate search for Caroline was futile.
Completely discouraged the group decided to return to Niobrara. On
the way, Mrs. Brabenec received care at the Carl Schindler home.
Enroute to Niobrara they were stopped by Ponca Indians, who
indicated that if they would stay they would protect them from the
Sioux.
Ten days later they returned for their belonging and on the way they
found the body of Caroline, almost decomposed and partially gnawed.
She was buried about thirty feet from Johnny in the yard. (See
Czechs and Nebraska)
Matej and family decided to stay on the homestead. The story is a
bit confusing concerning what happened to the Brabenecs and Praseks.
One version indicates that they packed their belongings and left at
this time. Matej related that nothing more was heard of them. Others
mentioned that they stayed at least one year and that the Praseks
had a child about a year later. The land records indicate they
stayed for some time.
- `Submitted by Hazel Devine
Pages
275, 276
