Colon

Our Czech ancestors were early settlers of several towns in Saunders County. We often think about Wahoo first, but Wahoo was actually later for many of them. Many settled south of Cedar Bluffs and all-around Colon.

As a reminder, the Černík clan immigrated to America and settled in Saunders County, Nebraska in 1875. Our Matej “Mike” Cernik (the father of Frank Mathew) was only 3 years old at the time. The five male Cernik sons—Frantisek “Frank”, Johann “John”, Matej “Mike”, Charles, and Peter—all had farms circling Colon and just north of Wahoo.

 

The Vybíral clan immigrated to America and also settled in Saunders County, Nebraska in 1882. Two of the Vybíral sons František “Frank” and Jan “John” had several farms around Colon. The mother of Frank Mathew was Marie Vybíral and the sister of these sons. One of those farms abutted one of Mike Černík’s farms.

The Zimola and Fila clans immigrated to America and also settled in Saunders County, Nebraska in 1904. The Filas never purchased any property as they were much older and lived with their daughter Antonia and her husband Josef Zimola. Josef had a farm just north of Colon.

 

The proximity of these farms and their shared Catholic faith (there were few Catholics in Saunders County at that time) drove the marriages that led to all of us.

A Černík son married a Vybíral daughter. A Cernik offspring of theirs then married a Zimola. It also led to many double cousins, which are equivalent to siblings genetically speaking. Two Černík daughters (Matěj’s sisters) married two Meduna brothers. Two Černík sons (Matěj’s brothers) married two Tesina sisters.

From a website called TheSteepleChase.org, I found information about the two churches with which our family has some considerable history.

 

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The history of Catholicism in Colon, Nebraska is an interesting one. The town of Colon was platted in 1886 and later incorporated in 1894. Having few Catholics in the area, Colon and surrounding settlements were cared for by priests from Fremont during the period from 1869 to 1888. Shortly after the Diocese of Lincoln was established in 1887, Lincoln diocesan priests were sent to northern Saunders County, thus relieving the Fremont priests of the treacherous journey across the Platte River

 

By the early 20th Century, the Catholic population in northern Saunders County had begun to shift. Parishes in earlier settlements were closed and efforts were focused on building a church in the town of Colon. Construction of the present church began in August of 1918, and the cornerstone was blessed on November 26, 1918, by Bishop Charles O’Reilly, the first time he had presided at the laying of a cornerstone. Nearly a year later on November 19, 1919, Bishop O’Reilly returned to Colon to dedicate the new church.

Even from the beginning of the parish however, cultural clashes were an issue.

The History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, 1887-1987 by Sr. Loretta Gosen, C.PP.S. recounts a particular issue:

The tension between the members of the two cultures, Czech and Irish, continued after the completion of the church. Each group feared that its customs, traditions, and language were being threatened. In an attempt to ease the tension, Monsignor A.J. Klein suggested a plan that seemed to be a logical solution to the problem. He said that since the Czechs constituted about one-third of the membership of the parish, a sermon in Bohemian once every third Sunday would suffice. The Czechs, however, were not satisfied with such an apportionment. They wanted equal division between the two languages. They stated that they would be satisfied with nothing less than half English and half Bohemian. This aroused the ire of the English-speaking people. In the post-World-War I atmosphere when anyone speaking a foreign language was disdained, the English-speaking members of the parish insisted that as American citizens, they would not conform to the customs and rules of the Bohemians.

Gradually, tensions eased and both groups learned to co-exist. However, the stained-glass windows of the church give a silent nod to this conflict, as they predominantly depict both Czech and Irish saints.

Cousin Chris Cernik had sent me some photos of the stained-glass windows there several years ago and I wanted to see them for myself. When Brian, Susan, and I went last week to see St. Joseph (a CLEAR nod to those pesky Irish Catholics around Colon) we saw and photographed the many stained-glass windows at the church. Each of the windows was either of Czech saints or Irish Saints. It was easy to tell by the names of the people that donated the windows. Some said, “In Memory of” while others said, “Donated by.”
The following windows were Donated by our ancestors.

Joseph and Antonia Zimola (FILA), the parents of Grandma Bozena “Bessie” Cernik (ZIMOLA).

Charles and Teresia Cernik (ZACHOREK), the younger brother and sister-in-law of Matej “Mike” Cernik. Charles and Tersia are Frank Mathew’s uncle and aunt.

Jan Anton Vybíral, the older brother of Marie Vybíral, Frank Mathew’s mom. Jan “John” was Frank Mathew’s uncle.

Jan Anton Vybíral was married to Frances “Fannie” STASKA, but she had died before the church was started. However, Jan donated a second window in her memory.

Marie Vybíral’s older sister, Katerina, married a man by the name of William Fanning. William immigrated from Ireland. Either the two families ran out of Catholic children from their own respective communities (Czech vs Irish), or they were trying to bring the two communities together. Or, who knows, maybe they just were another Romeo and Juliet. What IS clear, is that the ONLY name on the window is the Irish husband and not the Czech wife, and the Saint is presumably an Irish saint (St Brigid). So maybe they weren’t as happy as we hope, or family pressure was just too strong.

Interest in beginning a Catholic parish in Wahoo can be traced back to 1877, when a local group of Catholics began planning to build a church named after the patron of their former country, Bohemia. Construction on the present neo-gothic church, St. Wenceslaus, began in June of 1920 and was consecrated in September of 1923.

 

Since the parish was much more of a Czech community consecrated for a Czech saint, as opposed to St. Joseph in Colon, our ancestors seemed to have adopted it going forward. All of the land around Colon was eventually sold and they moved closer to Wahoo.

 

St. Wenceslaus is the church where the statue Frank and Bessie purchased from Italy and donated. It is located in the front.