At the Tuesday Kalona Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting, Phil Ropp announced that he was stepping down as an ad hoc member of the board, and he was stepping down as President of the Kalona Economic Develop group.

Phil’s service and wisdom for both boards will be greatly missed, as he has always been able to give both boards solid input and advice, and was more than willing to share his wisdom gained from many years as co-owner of Farmers Supply Sales, Inc.  Phil wishes to spend more time at his home in Florida, especially during these winter months.

Thanks, Phil, for all your many years of working hard to help make Kalona a better and more robust community.

Community Foundation

Banquet

Monday evening Helen and I attended the annual banquet of the Community Foundation of Washington County at the Wooden Wheel Winery near Keota. There were about 110 people in attendance, with the highlight of the evening being Dwight Duwa doing a masterful job of Auctioning 33 desserts. Those present graciously donated over $9,250 to help fund the foundation.

The meal was prepared by Mid-Prairie Nutrition director Cory Evans and Mid-Prairie Culinary Class director Glenda Seward, with help from members of the culinary class. Nancy Roth and Kim Bowlin of the Kalona Historical Village also assisted.

Members of the culinary class did an excellent job of serving the food and cleaning the tables. Eichelberger Pork donated the pork tenderloin as the entre for the meal.

Family genealogy

Have you ever thought about where your family surname originates? Doug Aberhasky of John’s Grocery spoke to the Kalona Rotary Club, and he related how he and his family had gotten in touch with genealogist Jiri Souhrada in the Czech Republic to get background on his family’s history.

In my Western Civilization textbook, I read that the surname Slechta was of the noble class of Bohemia, now part of Czech Republic. Doug gave me Jiri Souhrada’s email address and he confirmed what I had learned in college.

Jiri Souhrada emailed that he searched the archives for Slechta ancestors and their places of birth, marriage and death.

He wrote, “It is certain that your ancestors originated in South Bohemia. The village of Libkova Voda, which is very small, is between the towns of Tábor and Pelhřimov.  Šlechta in Czech means a noble family in Czech, royal or noble, but as far as I have researched, the predominant occupations are master shoemakers, tailors, master carpenters, or farmers. They were truly masters of their craft. Some even built houses in Vienna, Austria and Prague, Poland.

Jan Šlechta from Všehrdy studied at the University of Prague. From 1490 in the service of King Vladislav d Jagiellonian II as scribe, prothonotary and secretary.

  The Šlechta family had their own coat of arms and belonged to the important personalities of Czech history. Burjan Šlechta of Všehrd came from a Bohemian royal family with a coat of arms of half a gray wolf with a red tongue jumping out of a golden cloud on a red shield.

In the United States, there are less than 700 people with the surname of Slechta.  In the Czech Republic there are 2,049 people with surname of Slechta.

I won’t bore you with any more details, but I found this very interesting. Now I need to do more research on my mother’s side of the family, which came over from Sweden. When I visited Sweden in 2006, I was not able to find any family members. I did learn some on my grandmother’s side worked as blacksmiths.

After hearing that the Slechta family had roots in nobility, I wondered what happened to the Slechtas when they moved to America.   Then Jiri Souhrada noted that the poorer Slechtas moved to America.  That helps explain why life was such a struggle for my family in my youth. Those of noble status stayed in Bohemia.

Many of the American Slechtas have also worked hard to be masters of their trades. My late brother Darrell was an accomplished masonry worker who mastered his trade and started his own business, which his son and grandson now operate and are doing well. Some Slechtas have become master musicians and college professors. My father, Chester Slechta, became Superintendent of Water Works of Central Illinois back in the day when steam engines powered trains across America.

As far as I know, I am the only one that ventured into journalism and newspaper ownership.  But there are several hundred other Slechtas in America, and I am not sure what they do.