Bio: Smrecek, John A. & Eva

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Smrecek, Petka, Shain

----Source: Family Scrapbook

In 1920 John A., his parents Andrew and Eva Smrecek and his five year old sister, Anna, came to Willard from Argo, Illinois to settle on a farm. John went to the city to earn a living for the family as there was no income on the wild land. There was a three room house and a two horse barn on the land.

In 1922 John and Eva Petka were married in Chicago. They came to live on the farm April 24th of the same year. In August of 1922 John's parents and Anna left for Argo, Illinois as there wasn't enough income for all of us. Andrew said the work was too heavy for them and Anna, and John and I were young so we could take over.

With hardly any income, the only feed for the cows was ferns, which don't produce milk, we made it with a lot of hard work. In 1928 we built the small barn to put the cows in while milking. The log barn was torn down to start building the large barn, at the cost of $2000.00. We got the loan from the Federal Land Bank. We had a saw mill on our place to saw all the lumber from our own farm for the whole barn. This was when the "Depression" set in. Was that fun with no income!

For two years we could not pay the interest or principal but they stood behind us. Soon after the depression we started to pay and the mortgage was finally paid off. Electricity was installed in 1945 and later the plumbing was put in.

Nine children were born to John and Eva; four boys: John, Daniel, Ralph and Thomas; five girls: Josephine, Wilma, Marge, Theresa and Mary Ann. All are still living.

In 1964 I sold the farm to son, Ralph. In 1965 I moved here to Marshfield, where I bought my home. Mark and Judy Shain now own the family farm.

Submitted by Eva Smrecek