September 3, 2003

All in the family

Kratochvil clan celebrates 150 years in the region

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

      From 8 months to 91 years old, nearly 150 members of the Kratochvil clan gathered to celebrate 150 years in the area.
      Representatives of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh generations ate, talked, shared memories and renewed acquaintances Sunday afternoon. (The family boasts an eighth generation but no members could attend.) Members came from around the state and country to the farm of George and Clara McManus as 94 adults and more than 40 children attended the event.
      Clara McManus is a fifth generation descendent of Frantisek and Anna Kratochvil, who came to the Traverse City area in the late 1850s from what was then known as Bohemia. Their hometown of Ondrejov, situated 25 miles south of Prague, is now in the Czech Republic.
      "I don't think anybody knows the reason they came over," said Kathy Cole, a member of the sixth generation. "There were several other Bohemian families who also settled here."
      After brief stops in New York and Chicago along the way, the Kratochvils and their seven children arrived in the Traverse City area. They were loggers and farmers, comprising some of the earliest settlers in the area. Descendents of these original settlers and their children are spread around the region and country, with many still living in and around Traverse City.
      In addition to the typical food, games and chatter of any family gathering, the reunion also was time to reconnect the emerging seventh generation with their roots.
      "To cover 150 years in any detail would take a long time," said Dick Kratochvil of Traverse City. "The intent of the reunion was to interest young people in the family tree and the heritage of their family."
      Coming from Seattle, Kathy Cole traveled one of the furthest distances to attend the reunion. For the past few years, she has been compiling an extensive genealogy chart, which she displayed Sunday and invited family members to pencil in corrections. Other attendees also brought photos, photo albums and other historical documentation to share and swap copies of.
      "The reason I've gotten into this is that for years my mother had talked about aunt so-and-so or other relatives," said Cole, who has 28 first cousins in the family. "My mother's first cousins have been getting together for years, those who live in the area. This year we wanted to celebrate the 150th anniversary."
      Many of the assembled were descendents of Julius Kratochvil, who was Frantisek and Anna's great grandson. In addition to Clara McManus, her siblings Dick Kratochvil and Eileen Milner, both of the Traverse City area, attended, as well as sister Louella Wilson of Green Bay, Wis. The siblings' widowed sister in law, Janet Chouinard of Traverse City, also attended as well as an aunt, Frances Alpers Tapp.
      While proud of their Czech heritage, by the fifth generation much of the customs, lore and language of their ancestors had been lost. The family followed the typical trajectory of immigrants of the era, assimilating themselves as Americans. However, Julius' children do recall him using a sprinkling of Czech sayings.
      "We didn't know anybody who spoke Czech," said Eileen Milner, who grew up on a farm on Secor Road and is a member of the fifth generation.
      Over time, Kratochvil family members married into other long-time Traverse City families. These include the Courtades, Alpers, Rennies, Wheelocks and McManuses. These alliances kept many third- and fourth-generation Kratochvils in the area and continuing to farm.
      The children of Julius Kratochvil grew up in a stone farmhouse on Secor Road, raising livestock and crops. They attended the Howard School, a one-room schoolhouse situated on East Long Lake Road near Herkner. While their father quit school in the seventh-grade, his efforts helped bring bus service to the area and his children attended high school in town. The Howard School closed soon after.
      The family was also privileged to have electricity in their home before most other families in their area. They lived near the Armor estate, one of the first to have electrical service in the township. The children recall having electric lights and an electric water pump but not an electric stove or refrigerator, amenities their nearby Kratochvil cousins did not have for years.
      But the family worked hard at farming, despite a few modern conveniences.
      "I grew up a farm boy and I would ride into Traverse City with my granddad and go to the Maxbauer Creamery to deliver milk," recalled Dick Kratochvil of Traverse City, a retired veterinarian. "Then we'd to go Lautner's saloon to play cards."
      When the children of Julius Kratochvil were growing up, girls worked in the fields and milked cows just like the boys, recalled Milner. With many young men away fighting in World War II, brothers and hired hands were scarce so young women pitched in to keep the farms going.
      "The girls did everything, we pitched hay, drove the tractor," said Milner, who received her driver's license when she was 12 so she could help on the farm. "The older ones worked line men in the fall, all the schools closed for two weeks for potato digging vacation."
      "But it wasn't a vacation, the kids worked like dogs."
      Besides an extensive network of cousins and other relatives, the Kratochvils were also active in the Silver Lake Grange, attending dances and other social events. The grange was located in what is now the Brass Owl on West Silver Lake Road.
      "They had the Kratochvil Family Orchestra play there," Milner recalled, alluding to a musical talent in the family that she jokes skipped her generation.