ROZALIE [BRTEK] KREYCIK
Rozalie Brtek was born June 10, 1840, in Jestrabi, Lhota, a state in
Bohemia. She spent her childhood there and obtained her education.
In this land she was united in married to Matej Kreycik. To this
union nine children were born.
Foreseeing that the land of her forefathers held no opportunity for
their children to prosper beyond the peasantry, they decided to
brave the journey to America.
On March 17, 1880, this family set off for the new country,
forsaking forever the land of their birth, going westward over the
horizon to a new home and its advantages. Coming directly to
Nebraska beyond the outposts of civilization, the family settled in
Knox County on the Niobrara River in what is known now as Western
Township.
The family consisted of Mrs. Kreycik, her husband, and six children,
as three had died in infancy in Bohemia. They rolled up the plowed
strips of sod in this strange land of adoption to build their castle
on the prairie.
When completed, their soddy consisted of one large room, one door,
and two windows, and the windows came overland from Yankton, Dakota
Territory. The door was made of hand-hewed planks and a latch made
of wood operated with a buckskin thong which hung on the outside
fashioned after the other settlers. When night closed in, the
stillness of the frontier with queer sounds frightened these
settlers and no doubt like all other frontier mothers, Mrs. Kreycikk
gathered her children around her and spoke words of kindness and
encouragement to her loved ones even though her own mind was
suffocated with fear and lonesomeness.
In this strange land where customs and language were unfamiliar,
where at night the moon seemed larger and the stars shone brighter,
out of the stillness of the night would come to them the
blood-curdling cry of the Indians. It may have been a war-whoop or
the cry of an Indian hunt, stalking elk or antelope. It mattered not
to Mrs. Kreycik for her heart was filled with fear and the tales of
massacres and of burning homes with loved ones left to lie on the
ground. These scenes flashed through her mind and she would appeal
for spiritual aid from God. She knew that deep in the frontier of
civilization the same God was present as the one to whom she
appealed while at her mother’s knee thousands of miles away in the
land of her birth.
Out of fear and her weakness there also came gladness and strength;
out of the hardships and trials gradually came comforts. During
these times their last two children were born. She helped mold
civilization. Schools were built that their children might be
educated; townships and counties were laid out that there might be
local government.
They helped organize the Pischelville community, (before the 1900s).
Rozalie was a charter member of the ZCBJ Lodge Sladkovsky No. 8.
Her husband and partner in life passed away on December 28, 1906,
and like a true pioneer mother, she carried on until her death on
April 21, 1939. All eight of her children are now deceased: Joseph,
Louis, Vaclav, Mary, Stephen, John, Emil, and Anna.
-Submitted by Mrs. Jerry Mashek
Pages
307, 308
