ALBERT AND ANNA [SLICE] MASAT, SR.
Vojtech (Bohemian for Albert) Masat, Sr., was born in May of 1884,
in Malinec, Presice, Bohemia. He left the county of Prestrichehn,
Bohemia, in 1882 to come to America with his family. They came
directly to Knox County, Nebraska, in April of 1890.
Albert worked for his brother-in-law John Tikalsky before taking up
his homestead - the legal description being the Northwest Quarter of
Section 11 in Township 30, North of Range Six, West of the 6th P. M.
in Nebraska.
Albert Masat, Sr., is said to have been a stoutly religious
Catholic. When he first came to Verdigris Valley, as it was first
known, religious services were held in individual family dugouts,
log houses, and later in public schools when they were built. In
1884 the first catholic church was built and he was one of the forty
charter family members of the new St. Wenceslaus Parish. His
homestead was located four miles east of Verdigre, and he walked to
town every day that mass was said.
He was married to Anna Slice in the old country of Bohemia in 1868.
To this union were born six children - four sons and two daughters.
Albert, Jr., Vac, John and Tommy, who died in infancy in Bohemia,
Mary (Masat) Sedivy, and Minnie (Masat) Smolek.
The elder Mr. Masat spent his remaining days on the homestead he
started, living with his son Albert, Jr., and family. His wife Anna
died in 1909 and he on September 16, 1934, at the age of 90 years.
They are buried in the St. Wenceslaus Cemetery.
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