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Czech America · Nebraska

From the old country to Nebraska

No state has a larger share of Czech families than Nebraska. The first settler, Charles Culek, arrived in 1856; from 1865 Czechs filled Saline County, and around 50,000 came in all, most of them from Bohemia. Omaha became one of the great Czech cities of America, and Wilber was proclaimed the Czech Capital of the USA in 1987 — it still holds Czech Days every August.

Many Nebraska Czechs were freethinkers, gathering in ZČBJ lodges and Sokol halls rather than churches. Their Christmas was the old Bohemian one: Christmas Eve as the great evening of the year.

Most Czech Nebraskans came from Bohemia.

See Christmas Eve in Bohemia, the way it was kept back home.

Other Czech states

Sources

  1. Czechs — Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
  2. Czech Capital — History Nebraska