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

FRANK JELINEK

Frank Jelinek was born in Bohemia December 4, 1869. His mother died when he was two years old, and when he was 17, he came to the United States. For some years he lived with various relatives in Saline County, attended school, and later worked as a farmhand.

In 1882 he came to Knox County and here he married Johanna Stoural (1869-1929), daughter of Albert and Katherine Zahorka Stoural. In 1895 the couple took up a homestead near Spencer in Boyd County. When drought and grasshoppers compelled him to seek work to supplement his income, he became a freighter, carrying freight and supplies to government agencies and to the homesteaders of the area.

With the prospect of the railroad expanding into the area, Frank Jelinek gave up his business and his homestead and moved to Verdigre. In 1900 he built the Commercial Hotel with the materials salvaged from an exhibition pavilion at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition at Omaha in 1898. This hotel was operated initially by John and Felix Stoural, his wife’s brothers, before he sold it to Ernest C. Sandoz. He was later a partner in a newspaper enterprise. He also owned and operated a barber shop. In later yeas, he was primarily in real estate.

About 1900 Frank Jelinek became the owner of what had been the city park in the northwest part of Verdigre. He built a large house on the hill overlooking this park. Various groups, including the Catholic Turners, ran Jelinek’s, later Turners’ Park, which then had a bandstand, a bowery, and concession stands. In 1918 he transferred this land to his son William, who in turn, cut the land up into lots. It became Jelinek’s First and Second Additions.

By his first wife, Jennie, he had three children: William, Gertrude, and Felix. Jennie Stoural died in 1929 and, in January of 1933, he married Mary Frances Vecera Havlicek, widow of Frank Havlicek. Frank Jelinek died March 1, 1945.

After the death of her first husband, Mrs. Havlicek was a partner with her son Gordon in the Havlicek General Store. This business failed and creditors closed out the store early in the Depression. After her second husband’s death in 1945, Mrs. Mary Jelinek ran a millinery shop in her home. She died February 28, 1967.

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