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By Martha J. Shimek |
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Frank completed his secondary school education in Czechoslovakia at
the age of fourteen, and then trained for the shoe making craft for
three years. At seventeen he decided to come to Texas. He traveled
by train to Germany and boarded the ship, Chemnita, which
sailed from Bremenhaven with sixteen hundred immigrants of various
nationalities who were traveling to the United States. About eleven
hundred disembarked in Baltimore, and the remaining five hundred
came to Galveston. The trip from Bremenhaven to Galveston took
twenty-one days, the food was bad, and Frank was seasick for many
days. From Galveston, Frank traveled to Temple to join his brother,
sister, and brother-in-law at Seaton, and lived there for one year.
After that we went to Delia, Kansas, to visit an uncle and other
relatives. He lived there for two years and worked for area farmers,
and at the same time attended night school to learn to read and
write English. The class was taught by cousin, George Hejtmanek, who
had received his education in Kansas. Frank came back to Texas,
spent some time at Rowena with his mother’s only sister, Anna Batla,
and then moved to a farm in Needville. Later he moved to Rosenberg,
and it was there that he met and, on June 1, 1913, married Albina
Wetzel.
Albina Wetzel was born on April 2, 1897, at Rosebud, Texas, of Czech
and Swiss descent. She attended school at Travis and Fairchild,
Texas. Albina’s father, Fritz Gottlieb Wetzel, was born in
Switzerland on February 8, 1862, and died on June 6, 1905. About
1879 he came to Austin County with his mother and stepfather
Heffelfinger. Fritz Wetzel had two half-sisters and two
half-brothers, Mary, Lizzie, Ernest and Walter Heffelfinger.
Albina’s mother, Anna Pitrucha, was born on January 29, 1869, and
died on December 18, 1928. She came to Austin County with her
parents, Steve and Mary Pitrucha, from Hostalkov, Moravia, about
1880. Mary was widowed and later married Steve Koslovsky. Her
children were: Anna, John, Steve and John Pitrucha; and Frank,
William, Rose, and Frances Koslovsky. Mary and Steve later moved to
Rosebud. Fritz and Anna Wetzel and Mary and Steve Koslovsky are all
buried in the Rosebud cemetery.
Frank and Albina farmed for a time near Rosenberg, then moved to
Rosebud, and later to Temple where he worked in a shoe repair shop.
In March of 1919, they moved to Matagorda County with their three
small daughters to a home situated one mile north of Hawley
Cemetery. The two older daughters, Anna Mae and Georgia, attended
the Macek School. Frank’s sister and brother-in-law, Rosalie and Joe
Macek, had moved to Matagorda County from Seaton, and Albina’s
sister and brother-in-law, Ida and John Ondresek, owned a farm near
El Maton. This had encouraged Frank and Albina to move also.
During the next ten years, a large number of families of
Czech-Moravian descent moved to this area and they formed an active
community. Frank helped organize, and was the first secretary of
local Lodge #148 El Maton of the SPJST, a life insurance and
benevolent order. He also helped organize and was first president of
Lodge #138 RVOS, a mutual property insurance group. He was active in
the church, the Evangelical Czech-Moravian Brethren, now The Unity
of the Brethren in Texas. He helped organize the congregation which
met for a time at the church near Hawley Cemetery, and he also
taught Sunday School there.
In 1928, Frank and Albina and their six children, who ranged in age
from nine months to fourteen years of age, moved from the El Maton
area to the Ashby community, and the children grew up there. The
road from El Maton to Collegeport, now FM 1095, was the first paved
road in the county and was completed in 1928. That road was concrete
in the middle and oyster shell on each side. The Hejtmanek home was
beside that road, and was located about a mile south of the Ashby
School. The paved road and the close proximity of the school were
factors that encouraged the move to that community. All six children
attended the “two-teacher” school. Frank served as a trustee for
this school. Frank died on July 17, 1962, and was buried at Hawley
Cemetery.
Frank and Albina’s children were: Anna Mae, born 1914, who married Henry Jurek, resided in Pasadena, and was the mother of Henry, Jr., Glenn, Patricia, and Alice Marie Georgia, born 1916, who married Arthur Lostak, resided in Highlands, and was the mother of Allen and La Nelle Alice, born 1918, who married Hubert Jurek, resided in South Houston, and was the mother of Shirley, Karen and Sandra Frank Henry, born 1920, who married Alice M., resided in Pasadena, and was the father of Frank, George and Louis Martha Jane, who married Ottmar Shimek, resided in Bay City, and was the mother of Janice, Ottmar, Jr., and Sylvia George W., born 1928, who married Dovie Spoor, resided in Ashby, and was the father of George, Jr. “Billy,” Ronald and Cheryl.
Historic Matagorda County, Volume II, pages 231-233 |
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