Anton Shonka, son of Frank Shonka and Anna Tupee, was born in 1884 by Abie. He married Mary Cemper, daughter of Joe Cemper and Mary Roh. Anton was a great orchard man, carpenter and farmer. Mary was a good seamstress, lover of flowers and homemaker.
   They built up a comfortable farm home by Garrison, which Grandpa Frank Shonka homesteaded and bought. To them were born four children, Valerian Shonka, Caroline (Shonka) Adamy, of Shelby, Erma (Shonka) Bartek of Wahoo, and Mary (Shonka) Allen of Georgia. He always wanted level land, so he bought a farm on the river road, east of Bellwood. After some hardships and hard labor, they built a nice brick home and farmstead. They lived there till they both passed away at 66 and 74. The farm was sold.

     Anton Shonka   Mrs. Anton Shonka

   Fay Smith is the only surviving World War I veteran in the Bellwood community.
   His grandfather, Chauncy Smith was born in 1836 and came to this community with his wife, Melvina in 1877. He farmed 80 acres in the NE1/4 of section 30 in Savannah Township. This land is now part of the Don Birkel farm.
   They raised 3 boys and 2 girls. One son, Alva, lived in this community all of his life. After his marriage to Stella McCully he farmed east of town on the SE1/4 of section 20, the farm operated by Ray Hough for many years.
   Alva's son, Fay, has lived nearly all his life in this community. Except for his time in the armed services he has been an auto mechanic most of the time. He worked as a mechanic for Adolph Kosch for 34 years, in the Kasparek Garage in David City for 7 years and in the Chrysler-Plymouth Garage in Columbus for 3 1/2 years. From 1926 to 1936 he farmed on the NW1/4 of section 30, part of the land now owned and operated by Harry Schmit.
   Mary Smith is the daughter of Phil Smith who came here from Wisconsin in 1872. He homesteaded 80 acres on the south bank of the Platte River in the NW1/4 of section 8 and farmed for 25 years.
   Phil married Mary Buffaloe in 1882. Their daughter, Anna, married Ernest Gaither who was the Methodist minister in Bellwood in 1920. Their son, Dayton, was the barber in Bellwood most of his life and built the front part of the present barber shop on lot 1, block 6, operated by Joe Wilson. Phil Smith, Jr. was a rural mail carrier for several years and operated a grocery store on the west side of the main street.

He built the brick store on lot 5, block 6 in 1924. He operated this store a few years and was followed by George Dworak, Carl Carson, Clyde Cook and Louis Oborny. It was last used as a cabinet shop by Jerry Oborny and is now idle.
   Phil and Mary's son, Fay, became a doctor and had a brilliant career. An account of his professional career is related elsewhere in this book. Their daughter, Mary, graduated from the Bellwood High School and Wayne State College. She taught school near Bruning, in Waterloo and at District 13 school west of Bellwood. On Jan. 3, 1920 she married Fay Smith and thus created some confusion by bringing another Fay Smith into the family. They had one son, Deryl, who drowned in the Platte River on June 8, 1952 at age 31. Deryl left his wife, Donna and a son, Lloyd who are living in Columbus.
   Fay and Mary celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this past January. They live a block west of the main street (Lot 10 Blk 6)

Fay and Mary Smith

John Speicher Family

   John Speicher (1882-1909) was born in Luxembourg, a small country in western Europe, and married Margaret Kurt (1887-1907). While living there, their home was a small house on approximately ten acres of land near Alzingin in the southern part on the Alzetta - Lorraine Plateau near the French border.
   In 1874 they set sail for America with their six children. On the sixteenth day they arrived in New York and slowly made their way westward, first stopping in Pennsylvania and Iowa to visit relatives and finally settled in Nebraska at Morse Bluff.
   Five more children were born to them there. A set of twin sons died in infancy. John Pier, the eldest married Margaret Schlentz and they lived in the valley near Presentation Church. Pier, another son, was also a farmer. Martin owned a men's clothing store in Columbus. Nick's wife died in 1916 leaving him with three small children so his sister, Kate, came to help care for them until her death in 1944. Another son, Peter, also lived in Columbus. Julia married Theodore Sauser from the Cedar Rapids area. August stayed on the farm east of David City after his parents moved to Columbus where they remained until their deaths. Martha was the youngest child born on October 2, 1880, near Wahoo. On April 23, 1907, she married Cornelius Jacob Schmit. His parents were Henry Schmit (1841-1893) and Marie Frank (1841-1919). Henry was born in Gustingen Cantan, Grevemaker, Luxembourg. Marie was born in Berbanary Cantan,

Grevenmaker, Luxembourg. Their children were Margaret, who married Nicholas Medinger, Ann (Sister Burgenia), Peter, Jacob, Henry, Joseph, Cornelius, Susan, Nick and John. Ann entered St. Joseph's convent at Milwaukee, Wis. on November 11, 1912, receiving her habit in 1913, her First Profession in 1919, Novitiate in 1918, Final Vows in 1925 and celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1963. She died on January 16, 1980, after 94 years of life.

   John Sprunk was born in Luxembourg, Germany on Dec. 24, 1831. He came to America in 1866 with his two brothers. His brothers remained in Cook County, Illinois, the heart of Chicago today. There they did truck gardening until the city of Chicago grew and their land was sold to the city. Most of their estate was donated to the Catholic Church, St. Jerome's Parish in Chicago.
   John went on to Butler County, Nebraska. On July 25, 1876, John and his wife Mary homesteaded an acre farm east of Bellwood on which St. Mary's and St. Peter's Cemetery is located today.
   In 1878 on the 23rd of April, they donated 20 rods square of their farm to the St. Mary's Congregation of Platte Valley for a cemetery. This being the original part of the cemetery now used today by people of the Catholic faith of the Bellwood area and now known as St. Mary's and St. Peter's Cemetery.
   John and Mary had one son, John Jr. Mary died in the late 1870's or early 1880's.
   John's second wife, Agnes Seidel, and her daughter, Anna, came to America in 1883 from Austria. They were married around 1884 and two children were bom to this union: William and Minnie.

  They moved from this farm to a farm south of Bellwood, then to Polk county, and then to Platte county northwest of Columbus.
   They were married for 42 years at the time of John's death in 1927. He was 96 years old and apparently the oldest man in the area at the time of his death.
   His wife Agnes died in 1930.
   Anna married William Welsh of St. Paul. They had five children.
   John Jr. never married and remained at home with his parents until their deaths. He then resided with William.
   William married Clara Beierle. To this union five children were born. William continued farming northwest of Columbus as four of his children and their children do today.
   Minnie Sprunk married Joseph F. Mick. (See Mick history)

Agnes and John Sprunk

The Nicolas Steiner Family

     Back row, left to right: Margaret (husband-Nick Coiling), Mary (husband-N. Medinger), Elizabeth and Ann (husband-John Colling).
     Front row: Nick (wife-Mary Sand), Nicolas Steiner, Lena Kramer Steiner, Katherine (husband- Benjamin Homan), Frank and John.

   Nicholas Steiner was bom in Rollingen, Luxembourg on Jan. 9, 1841. He was the son of Peter and Magdelena Steiner. He came to the USA with his widowed mother and three brothers by sailboat, the trip taking 42 days. They stayed in Albany, N.Y. for a time before going to Cascade, Iowa, and about 1871 they moved to Butler County, NE and homesteaded two miles east of Bellwood. When Mr. Steiner went to purchase the land, it was also being considered as an Agricultural College by the state of Alabama, but it was decided to sell it to Mr. Steiner for farming. On June 4, 1866, he married Lena Kramer of the Cascade, Iowa area. They were the parents of eight children: Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, John, Frank, Nick and Katherine.
   Mr. Steiner served for a time in the Civil War. During this time, he mentioned once seeing Abraham Lincoln riding a horse.
   He had other interests besides farming, such as a flour mill in David City and a grocery store in Cheyenne, Wyoming. His mother, Magdelena, was born in 1799 in Luxembourg and resided with the family until her death in 1896. The family all married and left home except Katherine who married Benjamin Homan and remained on the family farm. Mr. and Mrs. Homan had nine children, one of whom remains on the family farm. He being Arthur Homan and his wife, Rita (Shuele) Homan, who are the parents of five daughters: Donna (Homan) Bell (deceased), Patricia (Homan) Marquis, Theresa, Rose, Ann, and Susan. Arthur is the grandson of Nicholas and Lena Steiner.

James Albert and Phoebe Jane West came to Nebraska in 1871, and settled on a farm southwest of what is now the Villege of Bellwood. Besides farming, Mr. West was also a blacksmith. There were seven children in the family. Minnetta Simms died shortly after the birth of her son, George A. and Milton died in infancy. Mattie married George Taylor and had three daughters, Grace married Everett Knight and had five children. John married May Bock and had two children, Harry married Anna Ladwig and had seven children. The youngest child, Dessie, married Gomer Jones and had three sons.
   James (Al) and Phoebe moved to Bellwood in 1891, where Mr. West continued the blacksmith work for many years. Mrs. West died in 1921 and Mr. West died in 1934.
   James Albert West enlisted on February 11, 1864 in Co. R First Regiment of Michigan Light Artillery. He was honorably discharged on July 28, 1865.

Anna and Harry West

 

Henry A. Whitney

   Henry A. Whitney came to the Bellwood community from Wisconsin in about 1885, and worked on the Frank Loomis farm. In 1892, he married Millie Flaxell who lived west of Bellwood. Three children, Julia, Mabel and Allen were born to this union.
   Later they farmed north of Bellwood. He also ran a hay baler and corn sheller. They moved into Bellwood in 1904, where they operated a grocery store. He also had a threshing outfit for which service he was better known.
   In 1912, a tragic accident took the life of Julia. The accident happened at the 4th of July celebration when she was struck by some fireworks while working in Hayek's stand.
   In 1913, Henry became postmaster and served in that capacity until 1922.
   The second daughter, Mabel, died in 1926. Their son, Allen, served as a rural mail carrier for 45 years, retiring in 1961. He now lives in Columbus.
   Henry died in 1942 and Millie in 1966.