Vondra Oral History

Recorded July 4, 1978
by Dr. William Scott, grandson of John and Marie Vondra

The Vondras determined to come to America because they wanted a better life for their large family. The sea trunks were made from pear trees in the yard at the Vondra home in Hoslov and the hardware and nails were made by Grandfather Vondra who was a blacksmith. They started out with three chests, but one was lost which held the blacksmithing tools. They sailed from Bremen, Germany in 1884 on a sailing ship. The journey took 6 weeks. The story is told of Grandfather Vondra on the passage to America. He was robust and hearty and not a bit seasick, so he walked around the ship, visiting other people. Some were very sick and complaining of the continuous rocking of the ocean liner with the swells of the ocean. He said, "Why complain? You're getting all that rocking for free!" The family arrived in New York, frightened and uncertain, speaking no English. The family was sent to port immigration and the people were divided according to nationalities and sent to areas of the country where there were large numbers of emigrants from that specific area. The Vondras were sent to Chicago because Grandmother Vondra's sister, Josephine Mencel lived there.

Grandmother Vondra handled all the financial affairs and was the business woman. She was very sociable and friendly. In the wintertime, the women would go from house to house and tie quilts and strip feathers. The children especially enjoyed the women coming because their mother would bake such extra special dishes. She baked bread every day for the family. The excess was not saved, but thrown to the chickens and the ritual repeated daily.

Grandmother Vondra had a spinning wheel made by her brother in Wisconsin from apple wood. She spun yarn for stockings and mittens. She dyed her own wool many colors. The children carded the fleece by hand for their mother. She stripped feathers and all the family slept in feather beds and never got cold even in the bitterness of the South Dakota winter. She was cheerful and happy, and their home became the gathering place of the neighborhood.

Grandfather Vondra bought a violin at a farm sale and Grandmother Vondra was a little irked because they were short of money at that time. Grandpa started to play the violin and little two year old John began to dance in natural response to the music. Grandpa turned to Grandma and said, "Isn't it worth the price of the violin to watch John dance?"

The children played musical instruments, with a player piano and organ in the home. Jim and Will played the trumpet, John played the saxophone, and Frank played the trombone.

Grandfather Vondra was an expert blacksmith. People came from miles around to have him do blacksmithing. He burned coal for the forge and the children pumped the  bellows, constantly being told to keep it slow, easy, and even. He was an avid reader until his eyesight faded. He took an interest in all the children's activities.

Grandmother Vondra was soft spoken and in fragile health. But she was also a determined woman who stood up to her husband. She was a hard working woman but expected her children to work hard too. She fixed potato dumplings, sweet rolls, kolaches. She was well-liked in the neighborhood and helped to deliver babies. She sand in the choir in the old country. Bessie took after her mother in having a beautiful, strong, singing voice. Grandmother Vondra never really learned to speak English.

Grandfather Vondra was a blacksmith and very successful in Czechoslovakia, but was not very compulsive about making collections. If people could afford to pay, that was fine; if not, that was fine too! This made Grandmother Vondra angry! He prospered in spite of his kind heart. Grandfather Vondra was a "putter-offer". He was always procrastinating and was more easy-going than Grandmother. He was very mild-mannered and even-tempered, but was a wild man if the boys used up the last of the tobacco. He always wore a wide brimmed black hat, and had his pipe in his mouth. At night, he took off his clothes, put his hat on the floor, then took out his pipe. He repeated the ritual in reverse in the morning. He was a handsome man with a mustache who had a full head of hair even at 98 years of age. He only learned to speak English slightly. The children learned to speak English at school, and when they had secrets, they spoke English and their parents, who could not understand, didn't like it. However, Grandfather Vondra in his later years could understand more than he wanted his children to know he did.

"Potato dumplings were all right for the blacksmith, but killed the tailor", meaning that hard laborers such as the Vondra family could eat a great deal of food, but those who sat as they worked could not tolerate it.

The Vondra boys never married. Jim was engaged to a Methodist girl, but broke it off because of religious differences. Frank was engaged, but died before he was married. Will had a heart condition. John was busy running the farm and never took time to marry.

Jules Sandoz, Mari Sandoz father, kept a whiskey bottle under the porch. He reached down to get the bottle and grabbed a rattlesnake instead which immediately hit him. He grabbed his gun, held out his hand and shot off the swelling flesh. He healed and he never went to the doctor.

Grain was harvested with a header. A wagon was driven with a feeder box on the side to catch the grain. Annie and Jessie would drive a team of four horses. There were two people in each header which moved continuously through the field. One man did the stacking.

The Vondras had the first binder in the area, which kicked the bundles out of the rack. The threshing crew ran alongside and grabbed them off and put them on the ground because they didn't understand how the binder was supposed to work.

One day the children were at a ball game. Everyone was supposed to come home afterwards for watermelon. The girls caught a rid home in a car ad Jim and his friend rod horses. When the car pulled into the driveway, there were two fellows sitting on the porch, leisurely eating watermelon. Jim and his friends' horses had been spooked by the automobiles and they made it home far more rapidly than they had expected to.

Jessie went to a card party and was asked by the other ladies to sing a song in Bohemian. She was embarrassed to admit that her memory was limited so she sang the only song she could remember, which happened to be very questionable in taste. All was well until they asked her for a translation of the words to the song.

The children were very careful to obey their parents. The girls herded the cattle barefoot and always took a dog along to protect them from snakes and other varmints.

Helen was raised by Jessie and her other sisters. Someone said they used to tie Helen to a table leg to keep her out of mischief as a toddler. This was denied by Annie and Jessie who said they loved her too much to do that. Besides, her brothers would never allow it because they spoiled their baby sister. Helen came to Faulkton to high school in 1923. She taught school at schools and lived with Jessie. She had a Prince Albert hat with an orange ostrich feather cocked to one side and a coat with a fur collar. She was very stylish and fashionable. She really loved hats of all kinds. One day Scotty, explaining this fetish to a friend, said, "She may look like she's crazy, but she's really all right!"

Helen had some problems driving a Model A Couple, knocking down two trees on either side of the driveway at Jessie's home. One time when Jessie was washing, Helen nearly drove down the cellar.

One day when the circus was coming to town, Annie gave the circus men permission to put a sign up on the barn. After they left, she noticed they put huge signs on all four side sides of the barn, with brightly colored pictures of lions and tigers. Grandfather Vondra and her brothers were really upset when they saw what she had given permission for. They said all she needed to do was walk around the barn, saying, "Pink lemonade for sale!" It was a long time before the paint wore off.

Will was a large framed man, handsome and well built. He bought expensive custom made clothes. He was an excellent dancer, and his little sister Helen loved to dance with him, especially the Waltz Quadrille. He took Helen to a dance in Faulkton during prohibition time when neighbors were making bootleg whiskey. Will kept trying to approach the neighbor to say hello, not being aware of his clandestine activities. Hall Jarvis was the dance floor manager. The neighbor approached Hall and asked who that big guy was, to which Hall replied, "He's a government man from Sioux Falls." The neighbor was frustrated because he couldn't sell any liquor that night and he had to work hard to avoid Will. Finally at midnight he realized that Will was a neighbor, and he was really irked at Hall Jarvis for giving him misinformation.