An overwhelming proportion of the first comers were tillers of the soil. This quality of their temperament explains the somewhat frequent mention of saloons and dance halls in pioneer times. They are a strong proof that our pioneers hungered for intellectual food, while being denied, in many cases, sufficient food for the body.Ĭzechs brought to this land their love for music, drama, dancing and singing, so much more common on the European Continent than here, where Puritanism has left traces. The clubs just described are the first of which we have record and it is significant that they were formed at a time when life was a struggle for existence in a bare, unsettled country. In 1874 the rural settlement Tabor in Colfax County also had a reading society. Zerzan founded a reading society in 1875, which became, later, a lodge of the Bohemian Slavonian Benevolent Society (Lodge Zapadni Jednota). Later it became affiliated with the Western Bohemian Fraternal Association. 19, Bohemian Slavonian Benevolent Society, was founded. The dramatic club Klicpera (the name of a Czech play-wright) in Omaha was founded by F. For these latter also a benefit ball was given. This club disbanded in 1875 and the money remaining in the treasury was divided as follows: $50.00 was given to the reading circle of the dramatic society Klicpera, for the purchase of books $20.00 was sent to Professor Ladimir Klacel, a former monk and philosopher, who was unable to adapt himself to earning a living in this country and subsisted mostly by support of his countrymen and $22.00 went to Czechs in Nebraska who were victims of the grasshopper plague. Frank Mares was president, Matej Nerad secretary and Vaclav Kucera treasurer.
On January 26, 1873, officers of the organization, called The Reading And Benevolent Society, were chosen. Vodicka) called a meeting in 1872, for the purpose of forming a society to foster the Czech language and social life. In Omaha, Frank Mares (brother-in-law of V. It was the first Bohemian society or Club in the state and was changed later to a Sokol club and still later to a lodge of the Bohemian Slavonian Benevolent Society, of which mention is made elsewhere. Thus in Crete, Saline County, Joseph Jindra was instrumental in founding a reading society in 1867, two years after the first Czech set foot in that vicinity. So we find that within a very few years after the first settler came to any locality, a club was organized. In truth, for immigrants in a strange land, with little or no proficiency in the English language, with no social opportunities, it was all the more pressing. The gymnastic, dramatic and singing societies supply needs of a social character and no community of any size is without at least one.Įven in pioneer days this need was evident. Indeed, the social part of it is very important to people from a foreign country, for they naturally have a sentiment for their native land and like to meet with others of their kind. They serve a twofold purpose-material help in time of need and a means for social gatherings, so dear to Czechs. The benevolent or rather fraternal insurance orders do not pay high sick benefits or insurance, but they are directed by people who draw moderate salaries (compared to large English-language orders) and have been a great boon to many who could not otherwise afford life insurance. To the latter belong the gymnastic (Sokol), dramatic, singing and social societies. They are of two classes generally: Benevolent or confraternal, and non-benefit. Indeed, organizations are more numerous among them than probably most nationalities. This proves that organization meets a real social and economic need and Czechs are no exception to the rule. Humankind has discovered this fact long ago and since the days when guilds of medieval times came into being, societies, clubs and lodges have multiplied and prospered.
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