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My great-great grandparents were Ignatius Dostal and Marie Gabrial. They came from the town of Borsice u Buchlovic, located in southern Moravia. In Borsice, the Dostals farmed 1 and 1/2 acres of land where the raised fruit and made jam for sale. Today, Borsice appears as a sleepy village, nestled among the green pastures and blue skies of the Czech Republic. 
Nearby is the sanctuary of Velehrad. The monastery and church were established
in 1205. Pope John Paul II visited in 1990. The birthplaces of the first
president of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masaryk and the world-famous psychologist,
Sigmund Fraued also are nearby.Moravia, like Bohemia and Slovakia, experienced oppression by foreign rulers. Humans first inhabited the Czech lands some 600,000 years ago. More numerous remains were left by mammoth hunters about 25,000 years ago. Around 4000 BC, permanent farming communities were established in the low-lying areas. German and Celtic tribes ruled the area until the 6th century, when the Slavs entered. A Celtic tribe, called the Boii by the Romans, was the origin of the term Bohemia. The Great Moravian Empire lasted from 830-906 and included Moravia, western Slovakia, Bohemia, Silesia and parts of Germany, Poland and Hungary. The second ruler of the empire, Ratislav, asked the Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople to send Christian emissaries to his empire and introduce Christianity to the region. In 1526, the Czech kingdom once again came under control of the Hapsburg empire. Prague initially became the seat of the Empire, but following the Thirty Years War, the seat was moved to Vienna. A loss at the Battle of White Mountain on November 8, 1620 sealed the fate of the Czech lands. Twenty-seven nobles who started the revolt were executed, and the Hapsburgs would rule the Czech lands for the next three centuries. 
During the 19th century, Prague became a center for the Czech National Revival
movement. The city quickly became a focal point for literature, journalism and
theatre. The revival was not a political movement, but rather a linguistic
one that reinstated the traditional Czech language. Throughout much of Europe,
anticlericals and religious freethinkers revolted in 1848. It was during this
tumultuous year, on January 26th, that my great great grandmother, Marie
Gabrial, was born. Two years previous, Ignatius, her future husband and
my great great grandfather, was born.The Dostals lived in house number 9. On March 11, 1870, Marie and Ignatius had their first child, Joseph. The following year in 1871, my great grandfather Hynek, was born. Over the next twenty-two years, Ignatius and Marie Dostal continued to have children, eleven in all. Their names were Marie, Filomenka, Josefinka, Valinka, Hedvicka, Methodius, Stanislav, Vaclav, Ludmila, Joseph, and Hynek. The family also adopted a child, Julia Lassack. 
In addition, Ignatius had a brother, Raymond. Raymond and his wife Anne also lived
in Borsice. Their house eventually was sold to the school director of
Borsice and since has been completely remodeled. Raymond and Anne had four
children, Joseph, Anthony, Mary and Vojtech. Joseph was born around 1909 and was the oldest of the children.
Some of Raymond's descendents still live around Borsice. The house was
later sold to the Tatak family. An elderly lady, Kornelia Tatak, recently lived in the house.The revolution of 1848 was soon crushed and a wave of immigration to America began. In America, the Homestead Act of 1862 offered free land to those who promised to become citizens. By the 1870s, Iowa had established an immigration office in Europe that sought to recruit new citizens. Posters, written in both German and English, urged immigrants to come to Iowa and work the land. No doubt the Dostals must have been tempted by the offer of free land as well as religious and political freedoms in the new world. 
Many Czech immigrants followed the Elb river toward the German ports of Hamburg
and Bremen. Sometimes it could take weeks before transportation to
America could be arranged, leaving immigrants to take the first available sailing
vessel, regardless of the port for which it was destined. Popular ports included
New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston and Quebec. Initial excitement must
have been high as the ships finally left port. But conditions were harsh. Many
ships were originally built for carrying cargo. Passengers were crowded
between decks. During the 1850s the average trip was five to eight weeks at
sea. During the winter, the trip could take three months. Water was scare
causing sanitary conditions to be primitive or non-existent. Diseases such as
cholera and smallpox were common. In 1854, about ten percent of the passengers
would never live to see their new home.The first wave of Czech immigration occurred from 1848-1870. The immigrants tended to arrive in New Orleans and worked their way up the Mississippi river to St. Louis. The second wave, from 1870-1920 used the St. Louis Bohemians as a springboard to travel further north to Chicago and the Midwest. The Dostals arrived during this second wave of immigration. |