[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 101 (Thursday, June 21, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S8227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SVIHOVEC FAMILY TRIBUTE

 Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this year marks the 100th 
anniversary of the last great wave of homesteading upon the prairies of 
America. Mr. President 1907 was the high water mark of the western 
boom, the last real chance for entrepreneurs and pioneers to capture 
160 acres of free land.
  Homesteading was one of those singular inventions that proved a 
triumphant success--one that gave families of modest means a genuine 
opportunity to share in the American dream.
  Among the tens of thousands who surged west to take part in this 
great enterprise was a family of Bohemian emigrants--the Svihovecs. 
They are particularly intriguing because seven brothers homesteaded 
side by side. While it was not unusual for family groups to homestead 
near each other, the uniqueness of seven brothers doing so was 
unprecedented in homesteading history.
  Although only two decades removed from their near feudal farm 
existence in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Svihovecs were shrewd 
enough to strategically locate their homesteads to nearly surround a 
section of railroad-owned land, thereby protecting it for their own use 
and future purchase.
  These brothers and their equally hearty Czech spouses were Frank and 
Rose Svihovec, Charles and Anna Svihovec, Vincent and Anna Svihovec, 
Joseph and Annie Svihovec, Emil and Barbara Svihovec, and two single 
brother, James, and Louis. Their homesteads were in southwestern North 
Dakota, along the Hettinger and Adams County line. Two more brothers, 
Rudolph--and his wife Nellie--and Edward--and his wife Terezie--opted 
to become businessmen, one in Minneapolis and other in the New York 
City area.
  The homesteaders' beginning was inauspicious. There was a train wreck 
on the way west. Upon their arrival, they were met by the blackened 
desolation of one of the great western prairie fires which had burned 
the expected winter feed for their livestock. Snowbound the first 
winter, they ran out of food.
  There were other setbacks and tragedies, but a life was created for 
themselves and almost 40 offspring, so many children that the school 
became known as the Svihovec School.
  A hundred years later, descendants of these Svihovec pioneers are 
scattered from London to Los Angeles. A number still remain near the 
homesteads, in the communities of Mott and Hettinger, and one couple, 
John and Arlyce Frieze, still actively farm and ranch part of the 
original homestead lands. Most of the original homesteads, in fact, 
remain in the ownership of one of the Svihovec families.
  It is a remarkable saga, a tale of grit and courage, one that 
illustrates the kind of strength of character and hardy determination 
that has served America so well for so many years. The Svihovec tribe 
has a proud, vital, and continuing legacy that I am honored to 
acknowledge and salute today in the Senate.

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