CzGen by Radomir Zelenacek

My Father: The Josef Suda Family Story

Media file
Title: My Father: The Josef Suda Family Story
Media type: story
Format: htm
Record ID number
3277a506-0a44-4744-a80a-00e274dc7c16
OBJE:_DSCR
by Agnes Suda Rueth Bargander
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<metadataxml><content><line>My Father: The Josef Suda Family Storyby Agnes Suda Rueth Bargander&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Josef Suda was born March 3, 1871 in Bohemia. The family had planned on coming to America three months before they came, but Grandma was pregnant with my father, so they waited until he was born. He was two weeks old when they came across. There were two other children: two boys, John [Jan], born in 1864, and brother Francis [Frantisek], born in 1869. It took them three weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived at Baltimore, Maryland. They were there about three weeks before they came to Muscoda, Wisconsin.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Grandpa&amp;#39;s first job was working on the wing dam on the Wisconsin river and then he worked for the Muscoda brewery operated by a Mr. Postel. Grandpa Suda&amp;#39;s salary was $1 per day. He stated they raised three boys and three girls and saved up enough money to buy a 120-acre farm on Oak Ridge, seven miles from Muscoda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When my father was a young man, he said many times he swam across the Wisconsin River. He also told how he and his brothers helped build St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Muscoda. It is an all-stone building; very beautiful, as it stands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He went to school in Muscoda, but when he was in the third grade, he went to work for different people on farms, digging potatoes, shocking grain, husking corn, etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While he was still a young man he worked for his father. He saved enough money to buy 60 acres nearby. The land was very hilly, but productive.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He was married to my mother, Antonia Parizek, on August 2, 1902. The family had heard that a girl from the old country (Bohemia) had come to Blue River, a small town near Muscoda. There was no church in Blue River, so the people had to come to Muscoda to go to church. A couple of years later, they met at church; it was a quick romance, as the distance with horses took all day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Well, anyway, August 2, 1902, they were married in Muscoda at the same church Dad helped build. We were all baptized there. Mother&amp;#39;s brother, Milton, and Dad&amp;#39;s sister, Katherine, stood up for the wedding.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Dad began to court Mother, he built a new house a few blocks from Grandpa&amp;#39;s house. That is where six of us were born. We lived there until I was four years old, then my Dad traded farms with his brother Frank. That was about five miles across the hill, a place called Basswood. It was very hilly. There were many maple trees on the hills and they used to make a lot of maple syrup.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was a large apple orchard there. There were natural springs coming out of the ground below the hills, one beautiful spring near the house. Dad built a cement floor and shed over the top. It was so cool there. It never froze in the winter. There was a small lake where the water ran into, and the ducks and geese would sit on the water in the coldest weather.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We had a mile and a half over a big hill to walk to school. I can remember so well! One day each fall the older boys were excused from school to help drive cows to market at Muscoda, a nine-mile distance. All the neighbors bunched up and drove together. They marked the cattle so they could tell them apart. The women followed with horses and wagons loaded with pigs and chickens. They always bought us winter clothes and shoes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was nine years old when we had a baby sister. We named her Helen Marie. She was a beautiful child. She sure was my daddy&amp;#39;s favorite. She was a little over two years old when she got spinal meningitis and died. Father especially took it so hard. We all did, but it was worse with him. After that he seemed so depressed. This was in March, and one day in July he came home from town and said he put the farm up for sale. The following week it was sold. The new owner immediately sold off the best timber and rented the farm to a Mr. Jensen, who had a large family.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dad bought a house in Muscoda near the river. I was so excited thinking I would be attending Catholic school that fall. Mother was very unhappy there. We had Grandma, mother&amp;#39;s mother, living with us. The boys were growing up and there was nothing for them to do. So one day, about two months later, Dad talked to a fellow in town and he asked Dad to go along up north with him. He said he had a friend in real estate he would like to see. So Dad went along. They took him to a small place called Atwood. There was an 80-acre farm for sale. It was so pretty. There were a lot of green pines aroung the house. Dad fell in love with it, and gave the fellow a $500 down-payment. But when he got home he was so sorry. He hated to leave Muscoda. But mother and the boys kept after him, so the first of September, 1919, we moved. Dad and brother, Joe, moved by train with the family belongings and the rest of us moved with a Ford car. Three of us were still in grade school. I wanted so bad to go to high school. I wanted to become a nurse. I was denied the opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We lived on that farm for nearly two years, when Dad thought he would like a larger farm. It just so happened that for Thanksgiving we were invited over to [the home of] some Bohemian people that we had gotten acquainted with, and there were neighbors there. They had a big farm across the road, 320 acres. So he and Dad got to talking and before the day was over, they traded farms. Dad did not have a very good education, so when they made out the papers, he thought it was all made out for five years, ad Dad took over the other fellow&amp;#39;s mortgage. We didn&amp;#39;t live there scarcely one year and he got a notice his mortgage was due and they didn&amp;#39;t want to renew it. To top it all off he got a notice from the federal government that he owed $3,500 for selling his place in Muscoda. Boy, what a terrible winter we went through. We were on the verge of losing everything. The winter was severe and Dad lost nine cows. But we all prayed and worried, then finally Dad found an insurance company that bought the mortgage. In less than eight years he was clear of debt and he bought his first tractor. One by one we got married. Then Dad rented the farm to the boys and my parents moved to Loyal, Wisconsin. Again Dad was restless so he bought a 40-acre farm near Greenwood, Wisconsin and he was there until he died. Grandma was still with them, and she passed away on July 4, 1939. She was 83 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dad was the first one of his brothers to die. John soon followed, then Frank. Theresa and Katherine died later. Dad is buried in Muscoda, where he always wanted to be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we were still living on the big farm, mother got a letter from someone in Haugen, Wisconsin. It turned out to be Dad&amp;#39;s first cousin, the Juzas. After that we visited Haugen many times. Ted Juza came twice to visit us, and Grandma Juza sure could bake good kolachy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</line></content></metadataxml>
Created at
2010-12-18 17:12:04.007
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OBJE:_CLON:_DATE: 2009-10-27 18:38:19.403
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