Per: Find A Grave contributor sticksandstones

Frank Machacek Family. Frank Machacek married Anna Svoboda in Czechoslovakia where he worked as a blacksmith during the spring and summer; in the winter months he would work in Vienna where he learned to speak German. Two children were born to them in Czechoslovakia before they emigrated to America in 1862. They traveled on a sail-ship, the least expensive way to travel. A change of wind direction extended their time at sea to more than 6 weeks, causing a severe shortage of food during the trip. When they landed in New York they went on to Chicago, arrived in Minneapolis, and then traveled on foot from there to Jordan. They spent some time at St. Joseph's Church there. All they really had to their names were the few clothes and 2 feather-ticks. The youngest child was in diapers and they would stop to wash a diaper in as stream and fasten it to their backs so that it would dry as they walked along. At Jordan they heard that a Czech settlement had started in New Prague, so again they walked, carrying their 2 children and the feather-beds. As they approached the settlement early evening in the fall, they saw a light in a cabin which belonged to an Anton Philip family. Apparently the German that Frank had learned in Vienna proved him in good stead and the Philips took him and his family in for the winter. The next spring Frank was able to open a blacksmith shop in New Prague. Later in the year he bought a farm near Veseli and this is where he and Anna settled to raise their family of 8. Mary married Joe Moyha, died at age of 25, leaving 3 sons and 1 daughter; Kathryn married Michael Sirek. The following children were born in America--Anna, married Frank Vobydu and they moved to the Dakotas where she died in a prairie fire. Her husband came back to Veseli and persuaded Anna's sister, Barbara, to marry him to bring up the 2 sons born to him and Anna and they had 3 children born to their marriage. Mike, who married Anna Drozda, was one of the founders of New Prague foundry and later founded the Northfield Foundry. Joseph married Elizabeth Ziskovsky who died in 1926 and he then married a widow named Mary Machacek. Frank K. married Mary Skluzacek. Vaclav (one of set of twins, other one died) was married to Agnes Dvorak and Elizabeth was married to John Zeman. Frank Machacek died in 1907 at age 74 and Anna died in 1931 at age 96.