HERALD Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE
VOLUME 53 — NO. 30
HUMANITY
BROT II E R
Postmaster: Please Send Fern' 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. 0. Box 100, TEMPLE, TEXAS
FROM THE
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JULY 28, 1965
I
AND THEN THERE WERE THREE .. .
CROWING OLD
From the Czech cover of this issue our readers can see that we are paying special tribute to the last three surviving Charter Members of the SPJST. A little further along in this column, we will review briefly the lives of these three esteemed members. • • When one starts going through the old records, old issues of the Vestnik, and starts checking the various historical dates relevant to the establishment of our Order, we find that we actually have our pick of about four dates, depending on how you look at it, and what date you regard as the true beginning of the SPJST. The first date we come across is 28 December 1896, when 26 Czech settlers met in a special meeting in the court house in La Grange, for the expressed purpose of breaking away from the old northern-based CSPS and establishing a new and separate fraternal society in Texas. On that occasion a three-member committee was elected and empowered to write the first bylaws of the "SPJST," a name they agreed upon in that first December meeting. The second date we might choose is 20 June 1897, when the First Convention of the new SPJST met in La Grange. Twenty-two newly-established
There are advantages and disadvantages to every stage of life. God has work for us in old age as well as in youth. James A. Garfield said, "If wrinkles must he written upon your brow, let them not be written upon your heart. The spirit should never grow old. Age is relative; not to the years we have lived, but to dreams, hopes, and aspirations that we keep alive in our hearts. Robert Browning wrote, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to 'be — the last of life for which the first was made. Our times are in His hand who saitia: 'A whole I planned, Youth shows but half." lodges were represented at that first convention. The third date could be that of 10 July 1897, when the first Charter was drawn up and signed by three members, L. V. Vanek, I. J. Gallia, and J. R. Kubena. The last of the four choices could be 12 August 1897, when the new Charter was presented to and accepted by then Secretary of State, J. W. Madden. Somewhere, someone, along the line, decided that 1 July 1897 should be the
official date of the establishment of the SPJST, and that's the way it's been fcr a good many years, based probably upon the fact that July was the month in which the new Charter was drawn up and si gned by the three men mentioned. It might be a small ma tter, and when the author of the history of the SPJST gets around to the task one of these days, he will have to decide just what date to choose. In any case, it has been the practice for many years to designate those members Charter Members who joined the Order on or before 1 July 1897. In the beginning, of course, there were several hundred. Down through the years, the number of Charter Members has dwindled. Time, as with all things mortal, has taken its toll. As of 1 June 1956 there were still 39 Charter Members living. The latest of this dwindling group to pass away was Sister Aloisie Wotipka, who passed away the latter part of June of this year. That left only three. These remaining three are Sisters Terezie Valchar, Veronika Baca, and Frances Zissa. (Pictures are on the front cover, Czech section). We bring you here an abbreviated account of the lives of each of these three members, taken from past issues of the Vestnik, and in the case of Sister Zissa, we quote from a letter from her that
"CZECHOSLOVAK SPECTACULAR" AT LODGE 66, ELM MOTT
SEPT. 19th, 1965