Obit: Musil, Charles (1875 - 1971)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Musil, Hruza, Kucirek, Maurer, Embrey, James, Nickel

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co, WI) 6/17/1971

Musil, Charles (28 September 1875 - 15 June 1971)

Funeral services for Charles Musil, 95, father of Jas. A. Musil, Neillsville banker, will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. from the Georgas Funeral Home. Burial will be made in the Neillsville City Cemetery. The Rev. Melvin Nickel of the United Methodist Church in Neillsville will be in charge of the service. The body will lie in state starting at 1 p.m. today (Thursday).

Mr. Musil died early Tuesday in Memorial Hospital. He had been a resident of Memorial Home for some time prior to his illness.

The Musil family came to Neillsville in a covered wagon back in 1911, accompanying James and Charles Embrey, friends and employers of Mr. Musil. Also accompanying them were Mrs. Musil (Mary), their son James, and a brother and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Musil. The latter couple was enroute to New York State to take up residence.

The trip from Robert, Lincoln County, Nebr., was told in a biographical sketch written on the occasion of the 60th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Musil 12 years ago. It recalled:

“The trip to Wisconsin was made in a covered wagon drawn by four head of mules. Brother Adolph Musil and his wife Marie had made up their minds they would go to New York State, and induced Charles and Mary to make the trip. Two of the mules were sold in Northfield, Minn., the town where Jesse James committed his last bank robbery.

“They bought an 80-acre farm three and one-half miles south of Neillsville and farmed there until 1917. Charles Embrey went off to World War I and James went to Neillsville High School. Then they traded their farm for a home in Neillsville. Charles worked in a cheese factory for a while, and later in the milk Condensery in Neillsville.

“They sold the residence and bought another (which was later sold to James) and went to California for a year. Upon returning to Neillsville they bought another house and Charles went to work for the American Stores Dairy Company. After a while he rebelled at being required to punch a time clock morning, noon and night, or no income, so they bought a small farm at the north city limits and still own it. They built three houses on this 67-acre farm. . . “

The Musils were married February 8, 1897, at the home of her mother, Mrs. Fanny Hruza, in Hayes County, Nebraska. They rented an 80-acre farm in Franklin County, making the five-day trip to the farm following the wedding, taking with them chairs, a feather-bed and pillows, three dozen chickens, two pigs and four horses. There, they moved into a sod house. After two years they moved back to Hayes County, where their three children, Oscar, Rosie and James, were born. Oscar and Rosie died in childhood. His wife died eight years ago.

Mr. Musil was born September 28, 1875, in Saline County, Nebraska, to Frank and Barbara Musil. He was one of a family of seven boys and three girls. A brother, Harry L. Musil of Sutherland, Nebr., survives. Other survivors include besides James: two grandchildren, Mrs. Charles A. Kucirek of Stratford, and Mrs. Edward Maurer of Lockport, Ill.; and five great-grandchildren, Richard J., Patricia and Mary Jo Maurer, and David and William Kucirek.