AOL

In 1998 Matt and I visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia a second time.  In addition to visiting Drahovce again, I wanted to research the roots of my mother’s family, the Jondles.   I knew that they had come from Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic, but I had no idea from which village or city.   Betty told me that her grandfather Michael had come to Iowa when he was a little boy, but that was all she knew.

A few weeks before we left for the trip I sent an email to all email addresses on AOL that had "Jondle" in the address.  That was back in the days when if you had an AOL account you could search all of their email addresses by name.  I sent out a request asking if anyone knew the history of the Jondle Family.  Before we left on the trip, I got a few replies from Jondles across the country.  However, none of them knew where the family had come from.

So we left on our two-week long trip with little hope of finding the origins of the Jondles. Then on our second to last day in Prague before our return flight to Iowa, I was checking my email at an internet café.  I had received a reply from a John Jondle who lived in Texas.  He had traced the family roots back to Netolice and Hrbov, which are a couple of hours drive south of Prague. He had been there himself a year or so earlier. He gave me the name and phone number of the Town Clerk in Netolice, where the Jondle family, (Čondl in Czech) had lived before coming to Iowa in 1869.   We had just enough time to rent a car and drive there. Vojtech Svec, the Town Clerk, showed us around the town and took us to the church where Michael Jondle (Betty’s grandfather) had been baptized. It was very gratifying to see the home villages of my mother's grandfather.

When we returned to Iowa I corresponded for a while with John Jondle’s father, who grew up in Fort Dodge, but was then living near Buffalo, New York.  He told me that there was a photo of the Jondle family in the possession of Marvin Stanik, whose deceased wife was a Jondle.  He had asked Stanik for a copy of the photo once but was not successful in getting one.  I wrote Mr. Stanik and told him that I would pay him if he took the photo to a photographer to have a copy made.  When visiting Clare I drove to the Stanik house, which was just down the road from Bohemian Hall to pick up the copy. I have been sharing the photo and the story of how the family came to American whenever I run into a Jondle.  You can see the photo in the April 29 post.

Here is a picture of Michael Jondle and his family. Michael came to Iowa From Southern Bohemia when he was one year old (click on the photo for a larger view). Michael and his wife Christina (maiden name Blaha) are seated. The small girl is Julia (Betty said that she had red hair and was deaf - she lost her hearing because of polio). Edward is the tall young man in the middle.  He was Betty’s father.  His brothers are Henry and William.  This photo was likely taken in a photographer's studio in Fort Dodge (there are several photos in the history book of St. Matthews Church in Clare that have the same fake church windows as a background).   I estimate that this photo was taken about 1910. It was given to Betty by her father or her grandparents.

When Pauline and Irvin Ball were first married, they shared a duplex with Michael and Christina Jondle. Pauline wrote that Christina was a sharp lady.  She knew that Pauline was pregnant with Doreen, before Pauline knew herself.

THE JONDLES

We are going to spend a little time learning about the Jondle family, because for good or bad, they are about to become a big part of Steve’s life.

The Bohemian Hall that we knew was built by Czech immigrants and their decendants, who settled in Elkhorn Township, southwest of Fort Dodge. Many had first settled in Johnson County, Iowa, but later moved to Webster County.  They included the Jondle Family.

Albert and Mary Jondle and their family came from the villages of Netolice and Hrbov in Southern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). They first came to an area of Johnson County, (Newport Township) located north of Iowa City, in 1869.  Michael Jondle (the father of my grandfather, Edward Jondle) was about a year old at the time the family immigrated to Iowa.

In the Czech language the Jondle name is written as Čondl. The letter Č is pronounced similar to "ch" or "j" so that is how the American version became Jondle.  If you ever meet a person with the last name Jondle, you can almost guarantee that they are descendents of Albert and Mary Jondle, and therefore a relative of our branch of the Miklo Family.

I am curious as to why the Jondles moved from north of Iowa City, where they had lived for about 12 years, to south of Fort Dodge. Michael (Betty’s grandfather) would have been about 13 years old at the time. My assumption is that the farmland was better in Webster County.

Here is a description of the settlers of Elkhorn Township, which is generally located along and south of Highway 20 and along and west of Highway 169: “Many of the first settlers in the central part of the township were people of Czech descent usually coming here from Wisconsin or Johnson County, Iowa. Many of these early Czech settlers lived in sod houses because of the shortage of timber….” (this quote is from Webster’s Prairies: the Township History of the County, published by the Webster County Bicentennial Commission, 1976. It also appeared in Slovo Magazine, a publication of the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library) I don’t know if the part about the sod houses applied to the Jondles.

Here is a photo of the Jondle Family (click on the photo to enlarge the image). In this photo Michael Jondle is in the insert on the right side. His image turned out blurry, so the photographer apparently inserted this image of him into the photo.   Michael was Betty Miklo’s grandfather.  His son was Edward, the father of Charles and Elizabeth (Betty).    This photo was probably taken in Fort Dodge some time around1900. The father Albert (his first name in Czech was Vojtech) died in 1899 - perhaps this photo  was taken at his funeral.  The others in the photo are Michael's brothers and sisters and his mother.     In the photo - back row:  Thomas, Joseph, John, James, Frank and Michael.  Front row: Kathryn (married Wencil Stanik), Albert, Jr., Mary (married Wencil Hotz) and Mary, their mother.

BALLROOMS

There were three large ballrooms in the Fort Dodge area, the Expo, the Laramar and the Bohemia Hall.  They hosted all kinds of dances, including polka dances that Steve and Betty often attended.

As Betty told us the Expo Dance Hall was more popular in the summer because it was cooler due to cross ventilation.  It was located in Exposition Park (Expo for short) that in addition to the dance hall, contained a swimming pool, a racetrack and other attractions.

The Expo swimming pool is where many kids from Clare, including the Miklos, Balls and Yetmars, took swimming lessons sponsored by the Red Cross in the 1960s and 70s. On beautiful summer days we would gather at St. Matthew’s parking lot for the ride on a yellow school bus to the pool.  There was a small grocery store across the street from the pool where we would buy penny candy to eat on the bus back to Clare.

The smallest kids started lessons in the shallow end of pool, where we were taught the basics like the backstroke and the crawl. As we got older we were moved into deeper water. I remember when I was 8 or 9 we were being taught how to dive. When it became time to dive off of the tall diving board, I jumped as instructed and promptly sank to the bottom of the pool like a lead weight.  The swimming instructor had to jump in and rescue me.  I have not been on a diving board since.

Click here to read a little bit about the history of Fort Dodge and the Exposition Park (the Expo is on page 109 and 110):

http://books.google.com/books?id=U4V1ejm0h1sC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=expo+ballroom+fort+dodge&source=bl&ots=3ngRWRonD2&sig=bIASN7aaL1G0zozH2-yJFNSKI8o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kw56UaWWJo2Q8wSyu4DYBw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=expo ballroom fort dodge&f=false

The Laramar is located in the building that was originally  built as the National Guard Armory 1904. Buddy Holly performed at the Laramar on Friday,  January 30, 1959. His final performance was just three nights later at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake.  His plane crashed after midnight on February 3 on the way to Moorhead, Minnesota. Click here to read more about Buddy Holly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died

Sadly, the Bohemian Hall burnt on August 3, 2012. The first Bohemian Hall was built of wood in 1899.  A new Bohemian Hall, built of clay tile blocks, opened in 1939 (the building that burnt last year).  There was a dance to celebrate the grand opening.  I asked Betty if she and Steve had gone.  She told me that they had not, because they were home with their newborn baby, Helen.

Officially the Bohemian Hall was the Žápadní Česko-Bratská Jednota (ZCBJ) Lodge, which translates to Western Czech Brotherhood.  The ZCBJ was a nationwide organization that provided insurance benefits and social gathering places for Czech immigrants.  The organizaton still exists today under the name Western Fraternal Life Association (WFLA).  There were several “Bohemia Halls“ built across the United States, wherever there was a large population of Czech immigrants. More on the Bohemian Hall and our family's connection to it in the next post.

Here is a photo of the fire that destroyed the Bohemian Hall (Fort Dodge Messener, August 4, 2012)

THE BLUE SKIRT WALTZ

In the summer of 1936 Steve Miklo met Betty Jondle for the first time at a Thursday night dance in the Expo Dance Hall. She told me the story in the context of what her family did for entertainment; polka music.

Betty said that first night Steve asked her to dance and they were waltzing when one of the other dancers accidentally elbowed Steve in the head and he got a nosebleed.  He bled onto Betty’s new blue dress. So the Blue Skirt Waltz became their song.

The following Thursday, Steve was waiting to meet Betty at the dance hall door.  They were together from that point on.  Here is the story as Betty told it:

Bob: So, what did your parents do for entertainment?

Betty: Go to the Bohemian Hall.  As far back as I can remember my dad always took me out for one dance.  Those days, people didn’t hire baby-sitters; they took the kids with them.  Now, I remember…. Bohemian Hall, that was just a mile, and you turn, and another mile – half a mile down the road.

Bob: From your farmhouse?

Betty: Yeah.  Bohemian Hall, that was entertainment, and I guess I’m so much like my dad, how he loved that music.   They (her parents) had a phonograph.  You had to wind it up and then those 33 speed records – one at a time, the 33 speed.  He would put them on, and in the wintertime we kept warm in the kitchen, we hardly ever used the other room, but sometimes he would get the heater going in there, he would start the fire in there and he would take a chair, he’d wind up that phonograph, put those records on and he sat there in the evening, listening to that music.

Bob: So, was it polka music?

Betty: Polka music.  Definitely.  Nothing else but polka music

Bob: So, did your mom like to dance?

Betty: She danced, but there were times when she didn’t.  Oh, that Bohemian Hall (laughing), but later on, when I got to be a teenager and just before I met your father we went to the dances at the Laramar and the Expo (ballrooms in Fort Dodge). That was before there was any air conditioner so it was cooler at the Expo in the summertime and that’s where I met your father.

Bob: That was up where the swimming pool was?

Betty: Well, there’s a nursing home there.  Where that nursing home is, there was a dance hall.  I was just a kid but I looked older and I was sitting there with a bunch of girls on the dance floor and your father came up, never seen him before.

We danced.  And then somebody accidently hit him in the back of the head dancing and he got a nosebleed and I had on a brand new blue dress.  It had a double collar and it got blood on it.  My mother worked real hard to get the blood out; well she did get it out.

Those were Thursday night dances.  Then, the next Thursday night, he was in the entryway when we came in, he took me by the hand, I never wanted anybody else, I just wanted to dance with him, that was it. (end of quote)

Here is a picture of the Laramar, one of the three ballrooms in the Fort Dodge area, where Steve and Betty often danced.  Their 50th wedding anniversary dance was held here in 1987.

Click here to listen to the Blue Skirt Waltz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiRc5H4Fg4g

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Now that we have celebrated Pauline’s birthday, here is a reminder of the purpose of this page: a celebration of Steve Miklo’s 100^th birth date.

If you haven’t already, look back over previous posts for the story of Steve’s life so far.  We will post more stories and photos over the next several weeks. 

Make plans to attend the Miklo Family Reunion on Saturday, July 13^th in Dolliver State Park. There will be live music, including Steve and Betty’s favorite polkas; a picnic, including some Miklo Family recipes; and contests.

There will be prizes for:

1) the branch of the Miklo family with the most members in attendance,

 2) the family members who come the farthest, the second and third farthest,

 3) the top three scorers on the “Miklo Family Quiz”,

 4) the best homemade kolache, and

5) the best homemade nut rolls. 

For those who need lodging we have reserved a block of rooms at the American Inn located at the intersection of Highways 20 and 169 about 10 miles northwest of Dolliver State Park. The rooms have two queen beds and have a discount rate of $115 per night. To reserve a room call 800-634-3444 and let them know that you are attending the Miklo Family Reunion.

For those who want a more rugged experience and a thriftier night's stay we have two cabins reserved in Dolliver State Park for Friday and Saturday night. Each cabin sleeps six people - in bunk beds. The cost is $35 per night for the entire cabin. Email Bob at robertmiklo@mchsi.com if you would like to stay in one of the cabins. And for the real campers consider reserving your own camping space in the park at: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Destinations/StateParksRecAreas/IowasStateParks/ParkDetails.aspx?ParkID=610107

Pass this information on to Miklo family members and encourage them to attend.

BIRTHDAY CAKE

Birthdays were special in the Miklo house.  Betty made the birthday boy or girl a homemade angel food cake with white icing and colorful decorations spelling out a message like, “Happy Birthday Pauline!” on the top of the cake.

The frosting was “seven minute frosting,” which takes some skill to make.  When fresh it is soft and fluffy, but if it is not eaten within a day, the frosting hardens like concrete – it still tastes good. Here is a recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/7-minute-frosting-recipe/index.html

But the cake was the best part.  It was made in a special tube pan: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angel_Food_Cake_Pan.JPG

Here is a recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Angel-Food-Cake-105741

When Betty took the cake out of the oven, she would invert the pan onto a pop bottle to allow it to cool.  There would be a golden crust on the underside of the cake.  Betty would scrape the crust off and allow the little kids to eat it as a preview of the cake.

This is your last chance to wish Pauline a Happy Birthday this year.

TELEPHONE

April 27 is Pauline Ball’s birthday. If you haven’t sent a card it is too late – but NOT too late to phone.  Speaking of phones, here is a picture of Pauline and her baby sister Beth that was taken around 1955 in the kitchen of the Miklo farmhouse north of Clare.  For the benefit of Pauline’s great-grandkids, who are only familiar with “smart phones,” that is a TELEPHONE hanging on the wall.   

When Pauline was in her 30s, she was a telephone operator.  I was in high school and was a pretty good kid. Unlike many other high school kids, I did not drink. Well, not very much.  But one Friday night I was hanging out with friends and one of them had a bottle of Jack Daniels. He was talking about what a great drink it was. It was the first time I drank whiskey. I must have liked it, because my friends ended up having to take me to a pay phone in front of the Crossroads Mall so I could make a collect call to my folks and let them know I was not feeling well. I was going to be spending the night in Fort Dodge.   Guess who the phone operator was?   

 Wish Pauline a Happy Birthday!

ANOTHER MOMENTOUS DAY IN MIKLO FAMILY HISTORY

We are going to step forward in Steve’s life from the early 1930s to April 27, 1938, to celebrate a momentous day in Miklo Family History.  Steve and Betty’s first child was born in their rented house on an acreage that is now on the Coalville backtop. The houses are gone and the area is part of the gypsum mills.

Pauline was named after Steve’s mother, Paulína.  Her first weeks of life were not easy.  Betty came down with Scarlet Fever and was not able to breastfeed her baby.  Here’s a story where Betty explains why she did not breastfeed any of her children.

Betty: I tried breastfeeding the first ones. With Pauline, I come down with scarlet fever. I think she was 3 weeks old and they quarantined us in those days and everything.  Daddy slept out in the car and my mother got her friend, Josie Kriblehoby, to take the baby and yeah, I had scarlet fever.

And then Helen, I did some hemorrhaging so I didn’t have the strength for the milk. And then Johny, one of my breasts got sore so that ended that.  Jim was the first one born in a hospital, I said, “I’m not gonna fight it. Put him on a bottle.”

Bob: Was that common back then?  Were bottles common back then?

Betty: Oh yeah. They were glass bottles and they had to be sterilized.  We had a great big kettle-like sterilizer, had a little rack in it and they had to be boiled so many minutes. It was Carnation.  Yeah, for a while it was a Carnation canned milk (formula).  That milk and so much boiled water, everything had to be boiled, on a cook-stove that was fired by cobs or wood.  Oh, yes.  (end of quote)

Here is a picture of the proud parents with baby Pauline.

Wish Pauline Ball a happy birthday on Saturday, April 27!

GIRLFRIENDS

Despite the troubles he had with his father, Steve did find joy in life.  Betty told me that before he met her he had several girlfriends. She described the east end of Fort Dodge as a melting pot, where the Italians, Slovaks and a few Czechs lived. Steve seemed to have a girlfriend from each nationality.  Here is a quote from Betty:

He and his stepmother had a small dairy and that was the days before pasteurized milk was the law, they sold raw milk. So, he would deliver, he was the milkman, he delivered in the morning and then he delivered in the evening and in the summertime he would deliver the milk and he had his little accordion and he and a bunch of young people would gather at Olsen Park and kind of get together and have a good time. From what I understand, that used to be about every evening in the summertime.   They’d go out to the park and horse around. (end of first quote)

Betty also told me about meeting one of Steve’s girlfriends.  She also mentions the Italian girls:

This woman I met said, “So, your name is Miklo? You know Steve?"

"Yeah, he’s my husband."  She said, “Oh, I used to go with him.”

Poor guy.  Oh, shoot.  That was funny.  “I used to go with him.”  I never heard of her, I heard of a lot of others, I never heard about her. I heard about those 2 X 4 Italian girls, wearing those dresses...Oh, God, he had his fun before he met me. (End quote)

Steve had had lots of girlfriends, but he told Betty that she, herself, was his “Sunday Girl.”  

Compare Steve's passport photo that was taken when he was 16 going on 17, to the photo on the right that was taken when he was about 20 years old. He matured and lost his baby fat.  

RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME (Part 2)

Betty told me about a difficult episode between Steve and his father.  Here is a word for word conversation when she described the time that Steve ran away from home.

Bob: So Dad got along with his stepmother pretty, pretty well?

Betty: I think he got along better with her than he did with his own dad because his dad was a drinking man and he was mean.  You heard about the time he, your dad, ran away?

Bob: Hm-mm?

Betty: Oh, you didn’t know about that?  Well, you know, Mike Bednar?  You know who he is?  Who he was?

Bob: Right.

Betty: He was good friends with the Bednar’s.  And then there’s Mary.

Bob: The Bednar’s they were from Czechoslovakia too, right?

Betty: Yeah.  They were Slovak. There was Mary, Mike’s sister, and they used to go to the dances and I remember Mary, her mother didn’t believe in cutting the girl’s hair, she had the most beautiful blonde hair down to her waist.  You could pick her out anyplace because no other girl was like that.

And they went to the dances and she and I were friends when we were little.  Those days people didn’t hire babysitters.  They took the kids along with them.  Yeah, we used to get out there and dance right there, together.

But, your father told me he ran away when his father got drunk and beat up on him, he ran over to Bednar’s and they took him in.  I did not know how bad it was until after your father died.

At his wake I walked back to the back row and then Mary says, “Betty?”   She says, “I’m Mary, Mary Bednar.”  Yeah, I wouldn’t have known her.  And she, yeah, I told her what I was doing and stuff (selling Avon).  She says, “Betty, stop (at my house), I like Avon, so stop.”  So, I did stop and she was telling me the shape your father was in when he ran over there, he was all bloody and cut up.  He was in bad, bad shape.  Now, your father never told me that, Mary did.  So, I never knew before.  So, you learn a lot later on, about people and what happens.”  (end of Betty’s quote)

It must have been very traumatic for Steve if he had not told Betty the details of this story himself. She learned them almost 70 years later.

NO ICE CREAM (Part 1)

Steve told a story about a hot summer day, perhaps a Saturday or Sunday.  He was chopping wood when his father, stepmother and four siblings came out of the house. They were wearing their Sunday clothes.  They all got into the family car and drove into town.  Steve was not invited.  When they returned they were licking ice cream cones, but they had not brought any home for him.   

Although Steve never said anything directly against his father, he told this story several times over the years.  So this incident must have deeply hurt him. I thought of Cinderella whenever I heard it.  

I had assumed that his stepmother was the one who was mean to him. After Steve had died, I asked Betty about that. She said that Emera had treated Steve fine, but that his father could be cruel. Betty once told me, “Your father’s father, Old Grandpa Miklo, he was mean, he was a drinking man, he was a mean son of a gun, he beat up on him and your father ran away.”

More on that in the next post.

THE ENGLISH TEACHER

When he arrived in America, Steve knew no English. He was fortunate that both his father and Emera spoke both Slovak and English, and as we have learned there were other Slovak families living in Fort Dodge.  His younger sisters and brothers did not speak much if any Slovak, so they must have been a big help teaching Steve to communicate in a new language.

At Steve’s wake, I visited with Mike Bednar. He told me that when he himself, was about 9 years old, he had helped Steve, who was then 17, learn English by reading the newspaper comic strips with him.

But it was a next-door neighbor that taught him the most. Betty Miklo told me this story about meeting his “English Teacher.” She thought she was a regular teacher, but based on her age, I suspect that she was a helpful neighbor or a girlfriend who taught Steve how to read and speak in English.  Here is the story in Betty’s words:

Betty, “Now, not many years ago, when I still was going to the Wolfe Eye Clinic, there’s a lady heard my name as she’s going to the doctor.  Then, when I was reaching for my coat, I was ready to leave, she recognized the name Miklo.  She came up to me, she says, “Do you know Steve Miklo?”  I said, “He was my husband.”  “Oh, I taught him how to read.”  Lived next door to him and she says, “He didn’t want to learn out of the little kids books” – She must have been a teacher. – “He didn’t want to learn out of the little kids, he just wanted to get to regular reading right away quickly.”  And how he loved to read, you know that.”

Bob, "Yeah."

Betty, "He read and he read and he read and he knew what he was reading.  So, anybody comes to this country and doesn’t know the language – there’s no excuse for not learning."

Bob, "Well, at his funeral Mike Bender was there, Earlene’s dad, and he told me that he taught him how to read because he taught him how to read through the comic strips in the newspaper."

Betty,  "Well, that could have been, could have been somebody else taught him something too.  Yeah, but this lady taught him how, and he did tell me that a neighbor lady helped him.  Now, he never told me about Mike, so that’s a thing I learned tonight, Mike helped him too."

FROZEN PIZZA AND BEER

So far the source of most of what I have been writing for the Miklo Family History has come from stories that Steve told me over the years. I have supplemented this with research from websites, such as Family Search https://familysearch.org/ and the Ellis Island Foundation http://www.ellisisland.org, where I have found official documents.  These include immigration records, birth, marriage, and death certificates and draft registrations.  My visits to the Czech Republic and Slovakia revealed more direct information.  I also have gathered stories from those who knew Steve and his parents, including Helen Miklo, Steve’s sister-in-law, my brothers, sisters and cousins.

We are at the point where Steve is about to meet Betty Jondle, who became his wife.  The next several posts will include direct quotes from Betty. Late in her life I tried to visit her once a month. During my weekend visits, we would spend Saturday evenings around the kitchen table with a pizza and beer or wine (Miller High Life was Betty’s favorite).  She would tell me stories about their courting and early married life and the family’s years on the farm north of Clare.  Knowing the importance of her stories to our family history, I began to record them on a small digital recorder.  I have had them transcribed word for word and will be quoting from them.

Betty spoke some about her father-in-law, Steve, Sr. Her stories did not paint a very favorable picture of the “old man” as she called him.  She said that he drank too much and, in her opinion, he did not treat his oldest son well.  Although Steve never said anything directly against his dad, some of his stories seem to confirm Betty’s opinion. I do not intend to offend any of Steve, Sr.’s, relatives by reporting these stories, but I am trying to write the story of my father’s life - both the good and bad.  The stories about Steve, Sr., are brief episodes in his and our family’s complex life.  Others knew Steve, Sr., in different contexts and may have a more favorable opinion of him based on their experiences.

HARD WORK

Steve got a job along with his dad at the U.S. Gypsum Co. mines and plant located on the southeast side of Fort Dodge. Steve described the mining process:  the miners would go underground, break gypsum from the walls with pick axes and drills and load it in the form of rock into carts. The carts were on metal tracks (similar to small railroad cars).  When the carts were full, mules would pull them above ground where the mills would crush the rock to be made into plaster and wallboard, often referred to as drywall.  I think that Steve once told me that the miners were paid based on the number of carts they filled in a day.

Here is a post card of the U.S. Gypsum Mills in Fort Dodge. Where Steve and his father worked. (Click on the  image for a larger view.)

Even though it was the Depression there was some work at the mines and mills.  Here is a link to a brief article about U.S. Gypsum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USG_Corporation

And here is a link to a brief video within a look at an abandoned gypsum mine:
http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/eightwest/Tour_the_Gypsum_Mines

IT'S A SMALL WORLD

(Now that Štefan has arrived in Iowa I will refer to him by his American name, Steve.  His father will be referred to as Steve, Sr.)

In addition to being greeted by his father, Steve met his new family in Iowa.  There was his stepmother Emera, his half-sisters Mary (she was 8 years old in 1930) and Annie (6 years old), his half-bothers Pete (5 years old) and Joe (3 years old).  They lived in a house near the gypsum mills southeast of Fort Dodge.  There was a group of houses there that were built by the U.S. Gypsum Company for its workers

The Miklos were a hard working family.  In addition to his job in the gypsum mines, Steve, Sr., had a large vegetable garden and ran a small dairy. Steve helped his father and Emera bottle milk and deliver it to customers and small neighborhood grocery stores through out the south-side of Fort Dodge.

There were other Slovak families living nearby. There were even other families who had come from Drahovce including the Petras and the Bednar families.  It must have been comforting to Steve that in addition to his parents there were a few others who spoke Slovak.

Speaking of the Bednar Family: Mike Bednar was about 9 years old when Steve came to Iowa.  Although Mike was born in Fort Dodge, his father's family came from Drahovce. Later in life Mike married Helen Davis and adopted her daughter, Earlene. Earlene married Steve's son James. The expression, "It's a small world" comes to mind.

Here is a picture of Steve, Sr., with Mary on the left, Emera on the right, Pete, Annie and Joe are in the front row.  This photo was taken in the late 1930s. Steve told his daughter Pauline that he felt bad that he was not included in the family photo.

NEW CLOTHES

Steve told me that he remembered the day he arrived in Iowa. He recalled his father crying when he met him at the train station.  And  he remembered that he himself was wearing Slovakian-style clothing.

As he described it he wore shorts similar to lederhosen with colorfully embroidered suspenders (like the ones in his school photo – posted on March 23 and April 13). If you look closely at a blowup of his passport photo you can see a corduroy jacket with decorative ties rather than a zipper or buttons. While traveling through New York and Chicago and riding on the train he must have noticed that his clothes did not fit in.  Although he did not mention it, I suspect his father bought him “American” clothing shortly after he arrived.

He turned 17 about a month after his arrival. He was transitioning from a boy to a young man so it would have been a good time for a new set of clothing. If you look at his passport photo you will notice he still had a little baby fat in his cheeks.  I will post a photo in few days that was taken when he was about  20 years old.  You will see how he had  matured and slimmed down.

In addition to clothing he probably also noticed a difference in architecture and farming between Iowa and Slovakia.  Almost all of the buildings in Slovakia were made of brick and covered in stucco.  The houses were built close together or even connected to their neighbors.  The farmers lived in the village rather than in individual farmhouses out in the countryside.

In Iowa there were one or two farmsteads every mile and the important buildings, like the train station, banks, the stores along Central Avenue and the churches where made of brick and stone, but almost all of the houses were made of wood.

His father’s house was just outside of Fort Dodge amongst a group of houses built by the U. S. Gypsum Company to house their workers.  It was a wooden foursquare. There was a lot of open space between houses.  There was space for a large garden and a barn for dairy cows (not attached to the house as in Drahovce).

He would have also noticed that there were a lot more cars in Iowa. He told me that there were very few cars in Drahovce. You had to be very rich to own one. In Iowa even his father could afford a car.

FAMILY REUNION UPDATE

I hope you are enjoying reading about the life of Steve Miklo.  His story illustrates how our family history is intertwined with important world events.  Although we can’t trace our American roots to the Mayflower, our family’s story reflects important points in history:  from the empires of Europe, World War I, the massive movement of immigrants during the first quarter of the 20th Century, the immigration “reform” that followed and then the Great Depression.

Over the next several weeks I hope to add to the family history and encourage your interest in attending the Miklo Family Reunion on July 13, just three months away.  It will be a celebration of the life of a great man and the many families that he and his wife, Betty, launched into the world.

The reunion will be held in beautiful Dolliver State Park. For those who need lodging we have reserved a block of rooms at the American Inn located at the intersection of Highways 20 and 169 about 10 miles northwest of Dolliver State Park. The rooms have two queen beds and have a discount rate of $115 per night. To reserve a room call 800-634-3444 and let them know that you are attending the Miklo Family Reunion.

For those who want a more rugged experience and a thriftier night's stay we have two cabins reserved in Dolliver State Park for Friday and Saturday night. Each cabin sleeps six people - in bunk beds. The cost is $35 per night for the entire cabin. Email Bob at robertmiklo@mchsi.com if you would like to stay in one of the cabins. And for the real campers consider reserving your own camping space in the park at: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Destinations/StateParksRecAreas/IowasStateParks/ParkDetails.aspx?ParkID=610107

FRONT PAGE NEWS (Part 2)

The article appeared on June 21, 1930 in the Fort Dodge Messenger with the headline “Fort Dodge Man Meets His Son For First Time.”  The article related the story of Steve Sr. meeting Steve Jr. at the train station in Fort Dodge. The newspaper article had some inaccuracies –It was not the first time that Steve Sr. met Steve Jr.  Štefanko was about nine months old when his father left him in Drahovce.

The article also said that Steve Jr. lived with his relatives in Prague after his mother had died while he was still an infant.  His mother did not die until he was about five years old and he lived in Drahovce not Prague.  The article described Steve’s Slovakian home as being a forest-clad mountain range. Although it is true that parts of Slovakia have great mountains, the area around Drahovce looks much like the Iowa countryside.

Here is the article that appeared in the newspaper:

FORT DODGE MAN MEETS HIS SON FOR FIRST TIME
Steven Miklo, Sr., of Fort Dodge, and Steven Miklo, Jr., of Prague, Czecho Slovakia, father and son, met for the first time this week.
It is easier to imagine than to  tell about such a meeting.  The father, worried and happy at the same time, ashamed of his tears, waiting a long time at the Chicago, Great Western station for the train to come in. The son, rolling west across the prairie, so strange to one familiar only with the forest-clad mountain ranges of his native Slovakia, wondering and puzzled and filled with anticipation.
Steven Miklo, Sr., came to America seventeen years ago, before his son was born. Steven Miklo, Jr., losing his mother while still an infant, has lived in Prague since, or rather until he followed his father here this week.
Since his mother died Steven, Jr., has lived with relatives in Prague. Two weeks ago he left for the “new country,” untrained in American ways and with no knowledge of the English language. It would be adventure, and a new home and a father he had never seen.
People were kind to Steven on the way and he made the trip without mishap. At every big stop officers were there to meet him, and guide him to the next train. In Fort Dodge he found his father waiting, and a stepmother and step-brothers and sisters.
He went with them to their home at 34 Cooper township, near the United States Gypsum company’s mills, where Steven, Sr., works.
The young man was admitted to the United States without argument, for his father is a naturalized citizen.

FRONT PAGE NEWS (Part 1)

Several years ago Steve had told me that there was a newspaper article in the Fort Dodge Messenger about his arrival in Iowa. Before my first trip to Slovakia in 1996 I went to the Fort Dodge Public Library to search the microfilms of the Messenger for the article. I was looking for clues about Steve’s home village. I thought the article might have some helpful information.  I knew he had come in the summer of 1930 so I scanned papers from May, June and July. Reading newspapers on microfilm was a tedious task. I could not find the article and began to think that Steve’s story about the newspaper piece was made up.

A few years later one of Jim Miklo’s friends was tearing apart an old house and found a yellowed newspaper in a wall. He read the paper and noticed an article about Steve Miklo Sr. meeting Steve Miklo Jr. for the first time. Recognizing the Miklo family name he gave the newspaper to Jim, who gave it to me.  The newspaper was crumbling so only part of the article was present.  Having the date of the newspaper I returned to the Fort Dodge Library and was able to print the full article from microfilm.

Here is a picture of the crumbling newspaper. Look for FORT DODGE MAN MEETS HIS SON FOR FIRST TIME toward the bottom of the fourth column. The complete article will appear in the next post.

NEW YORK TO FORT DODGE

I have a vague memory of Steve telling me that during the trip from New York to Iowa, he had a cardboard sign attached to him that read “Steve Miklo, Fort Dodge, Iowa.” He was like a package to be delivered.

The train from New York arrived at a depot in downtown Chicago--perhaps it was Union Station, which still stands on Canal Street. He had to go from there to the Chicago Great Western Railroad Station, which was located at Madison and Canal Street, where he would catch a train to Iowa.

His father had arranged to have agents help him to find his way. There was a Polish woman who he met at some point along his journey (Polish and Slovak are similar languages so he was able to understand her). He said she sold him a cookie for $5, a very expensive cookie in those days.  Not being familiar with U.S. currency he did not realize at the time that she was cheating him.

Can you imagine the trip as Štefan, a 16-year old boy, would have experienced it?  Traveling from a small village first through the magical city of Prague and then Germany.  Sailing on a large ship across the Atlantic Ocean to America’s largest and most bustling city, which even then was full of skyscrapers.  He had to find his way from the ship dock to the train station where he caught a train to Chicago, and there he had to go from one train station to another to switch trains to Iowa. He had to accomplish this without being able to read or speak English.

In addition to all of these new sights and sounds, consider the emotions he was experiencing on his journey to meet his father, a man he did not know.  He was leaving behind his Uncle Ján, Aunt Maria and the young cousins, who had been his family after his mother had died.  He had been told that he was going to the “promised land." What will he find there?

Here is a picture of the Chicago Great Western Train Depot where Steve met his father. It was located in Fort Dodge on Central Avenue at 12th Street where the State Bank is now located.

TWO SHIPS PASSING

Steve told a story about his voyage across the Atlantic. He said that while his ship was sailing west toward America it passed a ship that was travelling east toward Europe.  He said that the ships got close enough to exchange mail. The passengers on the  other ship yelled to the American-bound ship, “Go back! Go back to Europe! People are starving in America!”  

I suspect that this story was one of Steve’s tall tales.  It is unlikely that ships would get close enough for the passengers to exchange vocal messages.  But it is true that in June 1930 the Great Depression was starting to have devastating economic impacts on the lives of many Americans.  But even then the unemployment rate was just under 9%. It got as high as 25% in 1933.

Here is a picture of the SS Berlin that brought Štefan to America.  An interesting piece of family history, Helena (Rumbova) Jondle, Steve’s mother in-law, came to America aboard the SS Berlin in 1920.

A SECOND CHANCE

In 1930 Steve Sr. again made arrangements for Štefanko to join him in Iowa. As noted in his passport he traveled via the steamship Berlin arriving in New York Harbor on June 15, 1930. I previously thought that he had come through Ellis Island and then to New Jersey where he boarded a train to Chicago. But I was mistaken. After 1924 immigrants were no longer processed at Ellis Island. 

In the early 1900s, similar to today, immigration was a controversial issue. Millions of immigrants were arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe. There were concerns that many of the newly arriving immigrants were Jews and Catholics and that they would change the Protestant character of America. The Italians, Slavs and Hungarians were seen as inferior to the Northern and Western Europeans (mostly British, Irish and Germans) who had immigrated to America earlier.

Congress passed quota laws in 1921 and 1924 that severely limited immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe. The wave of immigrants slowed considerably and Ellis Island was no longer needed. Immigrants were required to get their papers processed in their home countries prior to boarding ships. That is why Štefan’s passport has a stamp from the American Vice Consul in Prague on June 2, 1930. He was issued a non-quota Immigration Visa, which allowed him to enter the United States despite the immigration quotas, because he was an under 18-year-old child of a U.S. citizen.

Rather than going through Ellis Island, his ship docked directly in New York City at the piers along the Manhattan waterfront. He then had to find his way to the train station for the series of trains that would take him first to Chicago and then Iowa. Here is a picture of the boat docks on the New York City waterfront taken in the 1930s. And here is a link to the details of immigration law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924GYPSIEShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924GYPSIES

ŠTEFAN'S LIFE SO FAR

We are about to start a new chapter in Štefan’s life, but first let’s review his experiences so far: His father leaves him when he is about nine months old. He endures hardship during the First World War. His mother had to steal potatoes to feed him. She has to leave him when he is five years old. She then dies and he never gets to visit her grave. He lives with his grandparents who kick him out so he goes to live with his uncle. His father sends for him when he is eight years old, but he is turned back before he gets onto the boat. He is treated for a serious eye infection that could have caused blindness.

After such a hard start to life it amazes me that the Steve Miklo I knew was such a happy man. As a parent he would sometimes be angry with his children, but as I remember that was very rare. He worked hard so he was sometimes tired and a little withdrawn, but mostly I remember his warm smile and eagerness to tell a story.

GYPSIES

Steve talked about the gypsies who traveled through the village of Drahovce. Although the gypsies (Roma) are a disliked minority in Eastern Europe, Steve described them as having a certain kind of cleverness. He said that the during cold weather the gypsies would make a large fire to warm the ground and then when the fire was out they would set up camp over that spot so that they would stay warm throughout the night.

A joke he often told – A gypsy man knocked at the gate of the priest’s house. When the priest answered the gypsy attempted to impress him by making the sign of the cross. He said, “In the name of the Father and the Holy Ghost, amen.” Noticing that the gypsy had left out a crucial part, the priest asked, “and where is the Son?” The gypsy responded that his son was out in the wagon waiting for the gifts that the priest was going to bestow upon them. Steve would laugh at that point.

At Steve’s wake the priest said that when Steve was housebound the priest would bring him communion on Friday mornings. He described the scene at the Miklo house. When he arrived Betty would be in the kitchen. She would tell the priest that the German Lutheran farmers who lived in Deer Creek Township east of town were always better at paying Steve for his work than the Irish Catholic farmers of Clare. Steve would then rattle into the kitchen with his metal walker. His hearing aid would be buzzing so he would have to fiddle with it. Betty would nag Steve about one thing or another. And then Steve would tell his story about the priest and the gypsies back in Czechoslovakia.

THREE STICKS

Another story that Steve often told was a tale about a king who had three sons. The king took three sticks and one at a time he broke them across his knee.

He then took three sticks and wove them together. He attempted to break them across his knee but they would not break. The king told his sons that this should be a lesson that if they stick together then they would not be broken. But if they quarrel amongst themselves they can be defeated.

This was perhaps a story he learned in school. The three sons and three sticks may have represented Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, the three parts of the newly formed country of Czechoslovakia.