At the time of the mass immigration of Czechs to America, in the midst of the 19th century (1), as Tomáš Čapek wrote, the first immigrants, as a rule, settled near seaside cities, near lakes and waterways and, later, also along the railroad lines. Thus, at the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, they formed colonies in New York, Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, and Galveston, and on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, in San Francisco. (2)
Czech emigrants are waving from the S.S. President Harding, which landed in New York City on May 25, 1935. They later joined relatives in Ohio.
Near Lake Michigan, most Czechs settled in Chicago, Waukegan, Kenosha, Racine, Caledonia, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and Kewaunee. Near Lake Erie, they moved, above all, mostly to Cleveland and Detroit, near Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, they stopped at Fond du Loc, Oshkosh, and Winnebago and near Lake Superior, at Duluth.
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The strength and fortitude of these early settlers and pioneers is something I wish we had in the people of today. We’ve gotten complacent and lazy as a culture, and it is going to lead to our demise.
Amen. You said it well.
I don’t know how the people survived. They had strength and determination mixed with a toughness and grit. We can never forget how hard our ancestors fought for us.
They didn’t have it easy. All the troubles they had to go through just to get established in a new place. From crippling diseases to wagon accidents, dangerous weather, wild creatures, and attacks by Native Americans, life was very difficult for those early Czechs.