JOSEPH AND HARRIET [PAVLIK] SEDLACEK, JR.
Harriet Florence Pavlik, the daughter of Charles and Emma (Mlady)
Pavlik, was born on the family farm approximately one mile north of
Verdigre on July 15, 1896. She was the oldest of three Pavlik
children, including Charles Jr., born in 1898, and Wilma, born in
1900. The Pavlik family resided on the farm until 1910 and then
moved to Verdigre. During this time Harriet attended the Verdigre
school from which she graduated in 1915. In the summer of 1915 she
attended Wayne State Teachers’ College and then taught in the Sparta
school, northeast of Verdigre in 1915-16. She returned to the
Verdigre school and graduated again in 1917 from the 12th grade
which had been added since her previous graduation. The Pavlik
family returned to the farm in 1917 and Harriet assisted with the
farm work. She continued to play in the Pavlik family band and
participated actively in the life of the community.
[pg 392 photo Wedding photo of Joseph Sedlacek, Jr., and Harriet
F. Pavlik [seated] on October 2, 1923, at St. Ludger’s Catholic
Church, Creighton. Attendants were Charles Pavlik, Jr., brother of
Harriet, and Ann Sedlacek, sister of Joseph.]
On October 2, 1923, she married Joseph Sedlacek, Jr., of
Springfield, Nebraska, at the St. Ludger Catholic Church in
Creighton. Joseph had first come to Verdigre on March 24, 1913,
after being enroute to Omaha on the day before at the time of the
March 23 tornado there. Joseph had left home at the age of 16 to
work on a farm, as was the custom for many young men at that time,
to earn money to start farming on his own. He worked for James
Duffek for a short time and then left Verdigre. In the early 1920s,
he returned to farm in the Verdigre area with his brother James.
Their sisters, Ann, Marie, and Rose, came to take turns doing
housework for their brothers and all became involved in the
community life of Verdigre. Eventually, James Sedlacek married Elsie
Duffek, daugher of James Duffek, and the couple later left to farm
near Springfield, Nebraska. Rose married Adolph Ondracek, son of
Joseph Ondracek, but later left Verdigre after the untimely deaths
of both Adolph and their infant son in 1927.
Joseph and Harriet farmed several miles north of Verdigre, and a
son, Charles, was born on living. A few months after that,
the family left Verdigre to farm near Gretna, Nebraska, where the
drought conditions of the 1930s were not quite so severe. They
continued farming near Gretna, near Ithaca, and near Papillion,
until 1963.
Joseph passed away on January 23, 1965. Today, both Harriet and
Charles, who is a Professor at the University of Nebraska, live in
the Omaha area. Harriet’s keen recollection of Verdigre events
during her lifetime has assisted greatly in the compilation of
several histories of families whose roots trace to the Verdigre
area. Even though he left Verdigre at a very early age, Verdigre is
still “home town” to Charles.
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