MARY FIKAC JILEK 1859 - 1944
September 10, 2022
Today Mary Fikac Jilek would have been 163 years old. She was my maternal great, great-grandmother.
10 SEP 1859 - Born to Matej Fikac, age 30 and Anna Faktor, age 41, in Malovia, Netolice, Bohemia.
This is the only information I have about her family. I haven’t been able to locate any information about her having any siblings.
22 FEB 1881 - Married Frank Jilek, in Lomecka, Natolice, Bohemia, when they were both 21.
When visiting my sister back in October of 2021 we found several letters that were from the Jilek side of the family to my maternal grandparents, Rudy and Mary Chlastak. The letters contained family history for the Jilek family and invitations to the Jilek Family Reunion. These documents contain a wealth of information on the Jilek family. I reached out to a distant relative, who I have a DNA match with and he told me that they have a reunion every two years in Moulton, TX. The last one was in 2021. I look forward to going to the next one in 2023.
I am a little confused about the information in one of the documents entitled “History of the Jilek Ancestors.” The information below in blue is taken from this document.
“Grandfather, Frank Jilek, Sr., and grandmother, Mary Fikac, were married February 22, 1881, in Lomecka, Natolice, Bohemia. They were married by Father Vaclov Majer, and their witnesses were Matej Stropek and Mntoj Riha. Immediately after their marriage, they left their homeland, weeping, sobbing and waving their last farewell to their parents, brothers and sisters, a farewell that was for eternity, and sailed for America, landing in New York on May 25, 1881. From New York they came by train to Flatonia, Fayette, TX.”
20 MAY 1881 - Arrived in Baltimore, MD on the Koln from Bremerhaven, Germany.
Frank Jr.’s death certificate does say he was born in Europe and lists his parents as Frank Jilek and Mary Fikac. He would have been around one when they arrived. The passenger list shows Frank Sr.’s mother, Elizabeth Reindh, was with them, as well as his step-father, Johann Reindh.
20 NOV 1879 - Birth of son, Frank Jr. [Bohemia].
The document continues with the following information.
“Grandfather Jilek had one silver dollar left after the journey which he kept in his pocket for over a year. He took it out of his pocket quite frequently, examined it, and then put it back saying, ‘I must not spend it, but keep it…it will multiply for us.’ And it did.
After several months in America, grandmother received her first letter from her mother in Europe. In this letter her mother advised her to be kind, faithful and true to her husband…to have faith in God and to always pray to Him for guidance. There is no doubt that her prayers were answered. This letter she cherished very much and always kept it in her Bible It is very probable that the letter and Bible are still in the possessions of our seniors.
Their first four years in America were spent in Fayette County. Grandfather worked for two years on the railroad as a section hand and earned from .80¢ to $1.00 a day. Grandmother washed clothes for some of the railroad workers. She carried water in a bucket from a nearby creek and washed the clothing in a wooden tub, hued out of a large tree trunk. For this chore she received only a few pennies, but better a few pennies than nothing at all. She also made shirts for the railroad workers, by hand, and charged .25¢ per shirt.
The two years that grandfather worked on the railroad he was able to come home but once a week. Grandmother had to live alone with the small babies and had several frightening experiences, but her faithful dog always came to the rescue.
After two years of hard railroad work, grandfather had accumulated enough money with which to buy a team of horses, a wagon and a turning plow, and to rent a so-called ‘improved farm’ (because the tree stumps had been cleared away).
The farm consisted of thirty acres of cultivated land with a log cabin on it. All the land was tilled with a ‘mold board’ plow, and the seeds dropped into one furrow by hand and were covered with the next furrow by the plow. Their crop was cultivated in like manner.
Their first cotton was taken to a small gin, which was operated by hand and the lint was pressed with the feet into a box and then tied up into a bale.
At that time, grandfather had the honor of being the first man to invent the ‘walking planter,’ which was quite an improvement over the hand dropping seed method. (I’ve researched to see who first invented the walking planter and I don’t see that Frank Jilek was credited for it. Maybe she meant he created a version of it in Texas).
After their first crops were harvested and sold, there being no banks in which to deposit their money, it was placed in old shoes and buried in various places on the premises.
Corn, ground into meal, and wild game which was plentiful, were some of their principal foods. Their weapon was the ‘muzzle loader.’ Wearing apparel was mostly made of cotton and was known as ducking and calico was available from .5¢ to 12 ½¢ a yard.
At Christmas the parents and children would gather around the fireplace. Apples and a few pieces of candy were their only gifts.
While in Fayette County, their nearest trading post was Flatonia, TX, and the worshiping place was at Praha. They attended church services about once a month and the only transportation was a wagon drawn by a team of horses.
They also had a daughter named Marie “Mary” but her information is conflicting as well. Her death certificate says her birthday was December 4, 1881 but her tombstone says December 4, 1880 so someone made a typo somewhere. Mary was born in Fayette County, TX.
15 AUG 1883 - Birth of daughter, Johanna “Janey” [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
26 JUL 1885 - Birth of daughter, Anna "Annie" [Praha, Fayette, TX].
After four years in Fayette County the family moved to Gonzales County and farmed on the Thompson and Bailey farms for a number of years.”
While on the Thompson place, grandfather and his eldest son, Frank, accompanied by their little black dog, often hunted squirrels in a large live oak tree which stood near the road. They had often noticed a large, inscribed rock, fastened with barbed wire to one of the lower branches of the tree, but it never occurred to them that there might be a buried treasure directly under the rock. One afternoon, two covered wagons with several elderly men drove up, started a fire and camped out for the night. They made themselves at home under this old live oak tree. They cooked their meals, spread out the bedding and retired for the night. In the morning the wagons were gone. Upon investigating, grandfather found that the campers had dug up an iron kettle, presumably full of money, and departed leaving only rust from the kettle as evidence that there had possibly been a buried treasure.
After living in Gonzales County for a number of years, the family moved to Lavaca County, 3 ½ miles south of Moulton, TX and purchased 200 acres of land at $17 per acre, on which they made their permanent home. A few years later, they purchased an additional 100 acres of land and paid $50 at a cost of $50 per acre.
This is where most of the Jilek children were raised and married. The older grandchildren still recall the wonderful times they had at “Grandma’s” playing baseball in the pasture every Sunday afternoon.
26 DEC 1886 - Birth of daughter, Agnes J. [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
24 May 1889 - Birth of son, Anton J [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
26 JAN 1891 - Birth of daughter, Albina [Lavaca Co., TX].
1893 - Birth of daughter, Theresia [TX]. Died in infancy.
15 JAN 1893 - Birth of daughter, Carolina "Carrie" Marie [TX].
24 DEC 1894 - Birth of daughter, Emelie "Millie" F. [Moulton, Lavaca, TX]. This is my great-grandmother.
18 JUL 1896 - Birth of daughter, Christine Mary [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
2 AUG 1899 - Birth of son, Alphonso Frank [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
1900 - Residence - Lived in Justice Precinct 6, Lavaca, TX.
24 JUL 1901 - Birth of daughter, Helen [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
1910 - Lived in Justice Precinct 6, Lavaca, TX.
1920 - Lived in Justice Precinct 6, Lavaca, TX.
5 AUG 1930 - Death of mother-in-law, Elizabeth "Alzbeta" [Moulton, Lavaca, TX], at the age of 94.
1930 - Lived in Precinct 6, Lavaca, TX.
After grandfather and grandmother retired, this same property was sold for $100 an acre. They spent their remaining years on a small farm one mile south of Moulton. They were blessed with thirteen children. One daughter, Theresia, died in infancy and the remaining three sons and nine daughters grew up to manhood and womanhood.”
16 JAN 1936 - Death of daughter, Helen [Shiner, TX] at the age of 35 from terminal pneumonia and a cerebral abscess.
19 JUN 1936 - Death of husband, Frank, at the age of 78 [Moulton, Lavaca, TX] from chronic myocarditis and chronic nephritis. They had been married 55 years.
25 APR 1937 - Death of son, Anton J, at the age of 47 [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
1940 - Lived in Justice Precinct 6, Lavaca, TX.
26 NOV 1944 - Passed away at the age of 85 from pneumonia [Moulton, Lavaca, TX].
Burial
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