BENEDICT FRANKLIN AND ROSE [VAKOC] MASAT
Ben, the youngest son of Albert, Jr., and Mary (Sladek) Masat, was
born October 6, 1913, a premature baby weighing only three pounds.
He grew strong and healthy and loved farming, livestock, hunting,
and fishing. As a young boy he attended District 93 school through
the eighth grade. Ben loved dancing and singing to polka music, and
on May 1st, 1937, he married his dating companion, Rose Vakoc,
daughter of John and Mary (Holan) Vakoc.
Since it was during the depression and times were difficult, they
ventured to western Nebraska where Ben had heard of a decent living
to be made hoeing sugar beets. They found this work in Scottsbluff
where they worked the sugar beet fields during the day and Ben
worked in the beet factory at night. The next job, working in a
hatchery, gave him a route through Hemingford which is how he met
the Barta family who enabled him and his wife to start farming for
them twenty miles west of Hemingford. They continued to farm,
gradually buying land of their own in the Hemingford area and also a
farm northeast of Verdigre in Sparta Township.
During this time, three children were born to them: Larry, who live
in Verdigre, Patricia Rose (Masat) Reynolds of Plymouth, Minnesota,
and Maryann (Masat) McElhose of Verdigre.
[pg 325 PHOTO Ben and Rose Masat on 25th Wedding Anniversary in
1962]
They farmed around Hemingford until 1963 when they had a farm sale
due to Ben’s bad back and asthma. At this time they returned to
Verdigre where they bought and operated Ben’s Bar in the building
which now houses the Bohemian Lounge.
In January of 1966, Rose died suddenly of a heart attack. Ben
continued to operate the tavern but his health began to deteriorate
and forced him to sell. He was a resident of the Niobrara Rest Home
and the Good Samaritan Home in Bloomfield before his death in
February of 1981.
Pages
325, 326
