ˇ ´ VESTNIK
Volume 101 Number 38
S P J S T Benevolence
H E R A L D
★ Humanity
★ Brotherhood
October 2, 2013
Celebrating Czech Heritage Month! ISSN —07458800
October is Czech Heritage Month in Texas!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Czech Heritage Month in Texas! What does that mean? Czech Heritage Month provides us the opportunity to inform and educate Texans of the contributions of individuals of Czech heritage in Texas history. Owing to the constraints of time and space, knowing where to start is a daunting task! Let's give it a try: We are Americans first and Te x a n s second. Adding to that, we are the descendants of our forefathers. With that as our premise, SPJST members share a common bond even as our cultural and ethnic backgrounds differ. It is through understanding and celebrating these differences that we come to know, accept and appreciate each other. Once again, through the Vestnik, through our lodges, and through our statewide sponsorships, SPJST is happy to help foster the pub-
lic’s awareness, understanding and appreciation of Czech culture in October — Czech Heritage Month. Czechs have contributed greatly to Texas history dating back to the arrival of writer Karel Postl, who may have visited Texas as early as 1823 and Frederick Lemsky, who came in 1836 and played the fife in the Texan band at the Battle of San Jacinto. On November 6, 1851, 74 men, women and children from the Czech villages around Nepomuky and Cermna set sail for America looking to make a better life for themselves. Initially, that wasn’t what they found. Conditions aboard the ship were so bad that only 38 members of the group reached Texas alive. Their first settlement was at Cat Spring in Austin County.
Interest Rates.......................................3 Important Dates ...................................3 Readers Write ......................................3 100 Pennies Donations .......................4 District News........................................5 Lodge Section......................................9
Youth Section.....................................19 In Memoriam ......................................21 SPJST Cookbook Order Form..........23 Czech Culture ....................................24 Advertisements ............................28-29 Lodge Calendar .................................30
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Texas Historical Marker Dedicated at Machu Cemetery
Descendants of Pavel Machu, Mar- ther Pavel nor his wife, Rozina (Trtin Machu, and Josef Machu, brothers lica), could read or write, so no records from Seninka, Moravia, unveiled and exist. The first recorded burial in the dedicated a Texas Historical Marker at cemetery was that of Katarina Safarik Machu Cemetery on County Road in 1892. Pavel died in 1904 and Roz348, just east ina died in of Granger, 1920. Both Texas, on Auare buried at gust 17, 2013. the Machu The marker Cemetery. designates In 1975, as this cemetery plans were as a Texas being made to Historical build the Site. Laneport The Machu Dam, which Cemetery was was expected established to flood the between 1890 Machu land and 1892 on a Standing next to the marker are members of and the cemeportion of the Historical Marker Committee. They are, tery, decisions P a v e l from left, Darwin and Nancy Machu, Albin had to be Jr., and Terry Loessin. Darwin and M a c h u ’ s Machu, Terry are members of SPJST Lodge 20, made about farm. One Granger and Nancy and Albin are members where to day Pavel was of Lodge 29, Taylor. move the bodapproached ies resting in on the road by a lady with her children this small country cemetery. With the and her deceased husband in her direction and help of the United States wagon. The lady had been trying to Corps of Engineers, the cemetery was find a place to bury her husband all relocated to its current site, a short disday and had been turned down nu- tance east of the city of Granger on merous times. Pavel’s act of charity County Road 348, where the historithat day, providing a place on his farm cal marker was unveiled and dedicated for her need, launched what became on August 17 in a very fitting cerethe Machu Family Cemetery, located mony. about five miles southeast of Granger. No one knows who the man was. NeiContinued on Page 18.
Inside Th is Week’s Vestnik
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Insurance Department says goodbye to Don Strickland
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District One youth ride SPJST Float in Caldwell
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TCGS Texas Czech Pioneers exhibit coming soon