Geography

Geography and related matters, like politics, history, religion and immigration.

Most of my ancestors immigrated here from Bohemia. Some came from Germany, and one great grandfather came from Denmark. Most were farmers, and all settled in east central Iowa. In America, the Homestead Act of 1862 offered free land to immigrants who promised to become citizens. States like Iowa actively recruited immigrants from Europe.

The Chaloupeks, Yarosheks, Posekanys, Staneks and Sevciks were part of a wave of immigration from Bohemia, and more generally, from Czechoslovakia, in the years after the 1866 Austrian War, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed. Under Austrian rule, Catholicism was illegal, and the official language was German. Every aspect of life was tightly contolled by German officials. Many Czechs risked everything to take their families to a place where they could be free to live as they chose. Those that came to America settled mostly in the large cities, and in the northern great plains states.

Czech immigrants usually came with thier families, in contrast to immigrants from other parts of Europe, who tended to come individually. The Czechs were not very interested in assimilation American culture. Instead, they wanted to live the way they had before, only without the German repression.

A good account of Czech American history can be found here.

From the beginning, the Bohemian American community has been deeply divided, between those who retained the Catholic beliefs of their forefathers, and those who abandoned them. The latter group called themselves the freethinkers.

Here is the story of one immigrant family.

The immigration process involved a lot of paperwork, which is useful to genealogists, but a hassle for the immigrants!

Here are some really nice pictures of South Bohemia including Tábor.

Many of my realtives came from Tábor, Bohemia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. Take a look at modern Tábor.

The Stanek family came from Vlceves, about 12 miles WSW of Tábor. If you want to see what the countryside around modern Vlceves looks like, check out this "sustainability project" called Nový Mlýn. They have some nice pictures on their Facebook page.

All of my ancestors seem to have settled in a fairly small region in east central Iowa, near the intersection of four counties: Tama, Benton, Iowa and Poweshiek. The Iowa River runs from northwest to southeast through this area. There are some nice maps at geology.com that show all the counties and the rivers in relation to the counties.

The town of Chelsea lies on the northeast bank of the Iowa River. The population was 287 in the 2000 Census, making it a middle-sized town for Tama County! Chelsea has been the scene of many catastrophic floods. Several attempts have been made to encouarage people to move to higher ground, but much of the town is still in vulnerable areas.

Chelsea is in Salt Creek Township, in the southeast corner of Tama County. This map from 1916 shows the farms and their owners. The resolution is not too good, but you can make out the names of Frank Posekany (spelled Prosekany) on a plot about a mile east of Chelsea. Albert Posekany has his name on two plots, and Charles Posekany on two more. Anton Poseknay has a large plot of land just north of these. All together, they have well over a square mile of farmland. Just north and west of Anton is John Behounek. And 2 miles south of Chelsea is John Polka. A little further southeast is Joe H. Behounek.

The smaller town of Vining, population 70, lies about 5 miles north of Chelsea, and Clutier, population 229, is 7 miles north of Vining.

About 6 miles east of Chelsea, across the border into Benton County, is the big city of Belle Plaine, population 2,878. Not quite as close to the river as Chelsea, it should have been safe from flooding. But there was one event that surprised everyone.

Belle Plaine is the place where the Jumbo Well made big news in 1886. Due to local geography, the aquifer in this part of the state is under pressure. When you drill throught the bedrock, the water rises to its natural level. If the ground elevation is low, as it is in Belle Plaine, the water shoots out of the ground, and you have what is called an artesian well. No pump is needed. The water forms a fountain that reaches as high as the natural level, which in this case was about 53 feet above ground level. This is great for those who need drinking water, but there is some danger that it could turn your town into a lake. Jumbo was gushing out some 3,500 gallons per minute! Belle Plaine was becoming world famous. Thanks to some frantic and heroic trench digging, the worst outcome was avoided. It took 13 months, and many tons of iron pipe, cement, sand and clay, to stem the flow of the Jumbo Well.

Check out Iowa Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff for more stories like this.

There is a good map of Benton County here, and several older ones here.

Getting back to my relatives ... most of them originally settled in the general vicinity of Belle Plaine, Chelsea, Vining and Clutier. In the early 20th Century, some of them moved to neighboring Elberon, Keystone and Tama. Some even went as far as State Center and Marshalltown to the west, and Blairstown to the east. The last half of the 20th Century saw them scattered all over the United States, to Washington and Oregon, North Dakota, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and many other places.

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