A transcription of pages 195-469,
Family Histories from the Verdigre Centennial Book
Thanks to the Verdigre Library and its volunteers for making this available.
 
The index below only includes the husband and wife for each family.
The maiden name for the wife is used if listed.
For other names, use the search on the Home Page.

Index's A-I, J-P, & Q-Z

JAMES J. CHALUPNIK

When James J. Chalupnik and his bride (nee Anastazie Beran) arrived, it was the beginning of a new era for Verdigre.

Born in Podesin, Bohemia, September 14, 1884, he settled, at the age of ten, with his family near Beroun, Minnesota. At the age of 21, he left his parents’ home with their blessings on his forehead and five dollars.

Not yet able to speak English, he lived the life of a hobo working his way to San Francisco. Arriving there just after the 1906 earthquake and fire, he found work rebuilding cable car lines. When a labor union strike erupted into a shooting war, Jim decided to board a steamer for Alaska to find his fortune. He got a job building the railroad to the gold fields near Nome. It was here that he drove the railroad spike the farthest north in the world.

After two years, homesickness struck. He collected his pay, bought a pretty, boot shaped, gold nugget (that he wore on his watch chain for fifty years), a needle and thread to sew his money into his underwear, and a steamship ticket to Seattle.

[pg 216 PHOTO The J. J. Chalupnik family - standing from left: Lillian Swoboda, Gertrude Ulrich, Henry Chalupnik, Marianne Hospodka, and Beatrice Collins; seated: Anastazie and James Chalupnik]


On his first Sunday home he saw his bride-to-be for the first time at Mass as they both approached the Communion rail.

Looking for a way to make a living, Jim saw an unused cheese factory. He was interested but didn’t have a license to operate the steam engine and boiler. A nearby brewery was operated by steam and
Jim asked for a job to learn. Told he wasn’t needed he replied, “That’s okay. I’ll work anyhow.” In five months he got his license and began looking for a job in a creamery. Turned down at seven places, he returned to Seattle where he learned every phase of the work.

In Minnesota he enrolled in a butter making course at the State University. After graduation he worked for a week or two at any creamery that would have him, piling up a storehouse of information. He then leased the Beroun cheese factory and was married. His bride was his bookkeeper. Cheesemaking there was discouraging.

The Beran family had returned to Verdigre. A visit to them showed Jim that prospects in Anna’s home town were better in his chosen field. They moved here on December 15, 1909.

He bought three lots near the flour mill by the creek and built a small frame creamery. It was open for business on March 1. 1910, but all the cream he could get his hands on filled two ten-gallon cans. For his first shipment of butter to Omaha, his commission was 67 cents. Nevertheless, his business soon outgrew the plant. In 1915 he moved into his new cement block creamery, on Main Street, complete with a modern, electric plant to power the machinery. When his neighbors began to clammor for electric lights, he put up power lines and supplied them.

In the early 1920s Jim had a dance pavilion built on the edge of the Beran homestead overlooking Verdigre. It was used by the Catholic Sokols for their rehearsals, and dances were a source of revenue for their activities until it was demolished in 1939.

In 1930 Chalupnik built a gasoline station south of the creamery. Later he expanded it to include a Chevrolet garage, repair department, and body shop. After the local banks’ failure, he joined with other businessmen to form the Verdigre Cooperative Credit Association. It served the community well until they formed the State Bank of Verdigre.

During the depression and drought of the “Dirty Thirties” Jim was Verdigre’s staunchest promoter. To bring trade to his adopted town he often gave free ice cream cones. During the grasshopper scourge he published an ad promising to trade a pint of ice cream for a pint of dead grasshoppers.

After WWII he leveled lots west of the creamery, seeded them, and planted trees. He deeded it to the town for the park now designated the “Chalupnik Veterans’ Memorial Park.”

In 1953 he was instrumental in building the Verdigre Livestock Market.

When the Chalupnik industries were at their peak, the creamery was churning two million pounds of butter annually. The building included the electric power plant that served the community, a modern locker plant and meat market, and a new ice-making plant. Across the street was the Verdigre Motor Company with a bulk oil plant.

Jim now enjoyed his grandchildren. It amused him when he asked one of them how they were and they would shake his hand and reply, “Pretty well, thank you.” He rewarded such politeness with a popsicle. Before long many of the town kids knew the magic words and held out a hand for a handshake and a handout.

When Jim had been a Verdigre booster for 55 years, he was presented the Ak-Sar-Ben Good Neighbor Award at a dinner with 250 of his admirers attending.

Jim and Anna’s children are: Henry J. Marianne Hospodka, Beatrice Collins, Gertrude Ulrich, and Lillian Swoboda. There are 27 grandchildren.

Jim followed Anna to her eternal reward six weeks later on Christmas morning, 1972.

It was the end of an era for Verdigre.

-Submitted by Lillian Swoboda
Pages 216, 217