ALBERT V. AND MARIE [ERET] DOBRY
Vojtech Dobry was born January 29, 1864, in the village of Tremosna,
a few miles from Plzen, in Bohemia. The Vojtech name never
completely disappeared - some early documents use the German form of
the name, Adalbert, and after he began to use the English form, it
was still Albert V. Dobry as a reminder.
Not that there was a good deal to be nostalgic about. His mother
died when he was eight and his father when he was fourteen,
according to his obituary. About that time, when his education in
the common school would have ended anyway, he went to work in the
coal mines. Probably in June of 1885, just before he would have been
conscripted into the Austrian army with his age group, he emigrated.
(He had one brother, Joe, who also emigrated.)
When he got to this country, Albert Dobry went straight to North
Bend, in Dodge County, Nebraska, where he worked on the Union
Pacific Railroad for at least six months. That fact argues that he
had probably read a promotional brochure put out by the railroad
company, printed in Czech, and circulated in Bohemia, or that upon
arrival he had been steered hence by the railroad company’s
ubiquitous agents.
Somehow or other he conceived the notion of taking up farming. There
is no indication that he knew anything about farming. There was,
however, a certain Mr. Noteware, a Czech, also employed by the
railroad, who sedulously promoted agricultural settlement in
Saunders County, across the Platte River, so this may be an
explanation.
There was also another factor. At some time late in 1885 or early in
1886, Marie Eret had come to the United States from her native
village, Tremosna. She stayed with her cousins in Ypsilanti,
Michigan. Somehow the two former residents of Tremosna found each
other, and in March of 1886 they married.
While Albert Dobry was an orphan with one obscure brother, Marie
Eret, who was born June 13, 1866, had a family back in Bohemia. Her
father, Jan Eret, and his wife, Eva Kriz, operated an inn and store
and owned property in Tremosna. There was a younger sister and three
brothers, Vaclav, Joseph, and Frank. (It is generally assumed Marie
was the eldest, but it is not certain she was older than Vaclav.)
The two younger brothers eventually emigrated, as did a son of the
sister, and lived their lives in the United States. Nothing more is
known of the cousins referred to earlier.
Yet if Albert Dobry settled into the unusual mode of agriculture
(for even if he was familiar with the agriculture of his native
village, the soils and practices of Sauders County must have been
rather different), it was not to homestead; all the land had already
been homesteaded or taken up in one way or another. If one wanted to
become a landowner in Saunders County, he had to plan to buy. To do
that, one had to rent and save his money. Perhaps, Albert Dobry
intended to do just that. From 1886 to 1907 the family rented three
different farms, the first one probably in Bohemia Township and the
last two in Morse Bluffs Township. (What was to be their town, Morse
Bluff, did not exist in 1886.) There were almost certainly setbacks
during the drought and depression of the early 1890s, but after that
money accumulated. There simply was not enough of it to buy good
land in Saunders County.
The children came: ten of them and an eleventh was born a few months
after the family moved to Knox County. One died. All but the last
three were baptized at Sacred Heart, a rural church at Cedar Hill;
Mary Dobry was then a strong Catholic. Baptisimal certificates from
there helped to establish the true age of the children born before
birth certificates were required.
Albert Dobry was probably what would have been in European terms a
“social democrat.” His affiliation here was with the Democratic
party (which by itself was not then what it became in the 1930s) and
in the 90s he may well have been a populist. Many farmers were. He
was affiliated with the Farmers Union and with the local CSPS, later
ZCBJ Lodge, which would have been appropriately Lodge Plzen No 9 at
Morse Bluff. The fraternal order was considered at least mildly
anticlerical. It was this latter affiliation which was apparently so
offensive to the priest, who seemed unwilling, so the story goes, to
baptize the children unless Albert gave up his lodge. He guessed
wrong. Mrs. Dobry stopped going to church - and of her own accord.
In 1907 another break with the past came. A friend and neighbor,
Frank Brozovsky had moved to Knox County some years earlier. He
owned a farm in the southeast corner of Section 36 of Sparta
Township. His health was forcing him to move into town. Would not
Albert come to farm that land? The decision was made - animals, farm
implements, household goods, personal possessions and people came
together by train.
Mr. Brozovsky might have sold the Dobrys that farm but it did not
please Albert Dobry that the property was short of water. He looked
about and found that Patrick Rodgers, a widower in Bohemia Township,
was willing to sell his land. The money was there; Mrs. Dobry made a
trip to Saunders County to get it. The deal may have been made in
1909 but it was not until 1910 that the Dobrys moved to the farm,
which included the Northeast Quarter, the South Half of the
Northwest Quarter and the North Half of the Southwest Quarter of
Section 32. The house was small. Part of it was made into the
kitchen of an otherwise new house. A barn was built.
Prosperity came with the First World War and the demand for grain
and meat products,. In 1917 Mr. Dobry bought a farm from Joseph
Parez just across the creek in Jefferson Township. They were
burdened by increasing age and the deaths of his children, including
all sons. Albert Dobry’s intentions are not entirely clear but
eventually he began to sell this farm to his son Anton.
On the threshold of a new mechanical era, Mr. Dobry began to be
troubled by a heart condition which had made itself known on a visit
to the State Fair in 1920. The farm work was increasingly placed in
the hands of his son Edward, the other sons having left.
In 1930, a short time before his son Edward married, Albert Dobry
and his wife Marie moved into the village of Verdigre. He had
purchased the home (on the southeast corner of Third Avenue and
Third Street) from Frank Brozovsky. His illness was serious; on June
11, 1932, he died.
Mrs. Dobry lived in this house with her daughter Ann. In
increasingly poor health, she died August 16, 1940. She and her
husband are buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery at Jelen.
The oldest son, James, was born March 7, 1887, according to his
obituary. Married to Mary Yiengst on September 5, 1911, he farmed
first in the Broken Bow area, then around Verdigre and finally near
Sumner where he died February 14, 1966. He is buried at Sumner.
There were four children: Kenneth, James Francis, Vladimir (Pat) and
Grace (Mrs. Ron Carman).
The second son, Frank, who was born May 24, 1888, is profiled
elsewhere.
Caroline (Carrie) was born December 29, 1889 (or 1890). On January
4, 1910, she married Vac J. Vakoc. A child, Helena, was born, but
she did not live long. On October 20, 1912, Carrie Vakoc died. She
was buried at the ZCBJ (now Hillcrest Cemetery) where her daughter
had been interred.
Anton was born September 13, 1893. He farmed most of his life in
Jefferson Township, retiring to Verdigre in the fall of 1977. After
an unsuccessful marriage, he was united in wedlock, to Helen Hrbek
(daughter of Frank and Christina Wirth Hrbek) on October 28, 1936.
He died July 3, 1984, and was buried at Jelen.
Emil was born in August of 1895 (three different dates are given).
The first member of the Dobry family to attend high school, he
continued his education at Wayne Norma. In 1918 he enlisted in the
Marines, arriving in France towards the end of October, 1918, too
late for anything but guard duty. One of the founding members of
Verdigre’s American Legion Post, he served as Post Commander and
delegate to state conventions. After working for some years in the
courthouse as deputy treasurer, he moved to Illinois, where he
operated a typewriter agency in Decatur. He died July 5, 1972, and
his remains are interred there.
Edward, born October 29, 1897, is profiled elsewhere.
Ann was born September 20, 1899. After keeping house for her mother
and working in Verdigre until the latter’s death in 1940, she moved
to North Bend, Nebraska. On January 28, 1944, she married Alton
Karsk.
Albina was born April 2, 1902. On April 6, 1920, she married Tony
Scheinost. The couple lived in various places in Nebraska and South
Dakota. (Tony Scheinost was the first person to operate a butcher
shop in the new building erected by Ben Roubicek in 1929.) They
finally settled in North Bend where they operated a store and locker
plant. There were four children: Eileen (Mrs. Leonard Dahlheim),
Norma (Mrs. Paul Hamilton), Evelyn (Mrs. Gale Winkleman) and Donald.
Marie was born March 28, 1904. In September of 1933 she married Jack
Tracy. The couple lived in Florida and California. After their
divorce in the late 1940s, she married Chris Sparks, a military man,
and much of their married life was spent abroad. After his death she
moved to Fremont, Nebraska.
Joseph F. was born in Knox County on July 24, 1907. A school teacher
early in life, he married Edythe Rish on December 5, 1933. The
couple had one child, Sharyn (now Mrs. Bill Wagner). During the war,
he worked in the Grand Island Ordinance Plant and the family lived
in St. Paul. After the war they moved back to Creighton. Joseph
worked in the county welfare office, becoming director of welfare in
1957. The first Mrs. Dobry died August 31, 1949, and on June 7,
1951, he married Ann Christensen. She died March 3, 1963, and in the
fall of that year he married Margaret Hans Eberly. He died January
25, 1972, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery at Creighton with his
first two wives.
[pg 232 PHOTO Albert and Marie [Eret] Dobry family - back from left:
Frank, James, Caroline; front: Anton, Albert, Emil, Marie, Edw]
Pages
231, 232
