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Hynek Dostal was twenty-seven years old when he began teaching at the parochial school in Spillville. The school building was built in 1871, but it still stands today. The exterior looks much as it did a century ago. Inside, years of neglect and decay are apparent. The building currently is being used as a storage facility. Still, a certain fascination fills the air. The rooms at one time must have echoed with the excitement of young immigrant students. 
The census taken June 9, 1900, shows that several Dostals had moved to Winnesheik county. The census counted a total of 157,000 Czechs living in the United States. A third of them supported themselves by agriculture in the Midwest and Texas. A family photograph taken in front of the Spillville schoolhouse in 1900 shows most of the Dostals who had arrived. The parents had not yet arrived, which would indicate that the children made the trans-Atlantic voyage on their own. All the dostals who lived in Iowa in 1900 could read and write English, but Valinka and Anna couldn't speak it.  By the turn of the century, the schoolhouse was overcrowded. One hundred children were packed into only two small classrooms. Father Joseph Dostal presented a plan for expansion of the schoolhouse. The parishioners took the plan a step further and decided to build a new school house next to the old one. The new school house has since been town down. But Around 1900, Archbishop Keane of Dubuque issued an order which stated that all parochial schools must be taught by nuns. Forced out of his job, Hynek moved to Chicago where he was associate editor of the daily paper, Narod. 
On December 16, 1900, Hynek and Anna's first child, Ludmila, was born in
Chicago. Ludmila eventually would grow up and become my grandmother.Hynek moved to South Dakota to the town of Yankton, where he ran a drugstore for Dr. Sebiakin Ross. Hynek worked there for three months while Anna remained in Spillville. Ludmila, would later write that her mother Anna was "slaving away at Rev. Dostal's in the kitchen - she who had three cooks in her home in Czech. Life can be cruel." Supposedly, Dr. Ross was an alcoholic and bilked Hynek out of $800. In a letter dated June 20, 1901, Anna wrote to Hynek at either 11th or 18th St. W, no. 304, Yankton, SD. Little else is known about Hynek's time in South Dakota. Ludmila later wrote, "Poor mother. Papa was gone three months while she was stuck with me at 690 Alport St. in Chicago and Spillville. Every time he told her to move furniture and a huge trunk full of linens, she had to do it all by herself besides giving notice to the landlord... I was a sickly child causing her to worry and (have) lack of sleep." Other letters during that period included one dated April 11, 1901 from the State's Attorney for Law and Real Estate in Miller, S.D. One to the Vanderbuilt Hotel in Miller, S.D. dated April 21, 1901 and one to Tabor, S.D. dated April 8, 1901. Hynek then returned to Spillville to be with Anna and Ludmila. He must have wondered about his dream of only four years ago. The dream of serving his country, and even giving his life, must have seemed remote as he found himself unemployed on a small Iowa farm, with a new wife and a baby. |