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

VERONIKA FRANEK

Veronika Franek, daughter of Frank Jedlicka and Catherine Horejsi of Repci, Tabor, left the village of Dobronice, Bohemia, where she was born January 10, 1843, after the death of her husband, Joseph Franek, in 1889. She was accompanied by her two sons, John, 12, and Anton, 10. She was the second wife of Joseph Franek of whom nothing else is known.

According to stories told, the ship they were aboard, “The Atlantic,” collided with a Polish ship. The Polish ship sank and they had to lay over for three days while their ship was repaired. They finally landed at New York City on April 30, 1889.

Veronika Franek and her sons came to Norfolk by railroad and from there they went on to Verdigris, as the town’s name was often spelled then. Veronika’s daughter, Josephine, had come to Knox County earlier to marry John Kalal (she had crossed the river to Niobrara by ferry). The Franeks thus had a place to stay when they first arrived. Mrs. Franek was also a cousin in some degree of Vaclav Jedlicka.

Veronika Franek homesteaded the northeast Quarter of the Southwest Quarter and the Southeast Quarter of the Northwest Quarter of Section 3 in Verdigre Township. She proved up on this homestead June 27, 1895. The family lived in a one-room house on this homestead for a number of years, walking over the hill to town to get mail and groceries.

On May 9, 1892, Veronika Franek married Frank Kalal, father of her daughter’s husband John. They rented out the 80 acres and moved into a two-room house in Verdigre. Here they made a living stripping feathers from chickens they had raised and from gardening.

Veronika Franek Kalal died October 29, 1930.

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