Silt

Speculation is a red balloon, subject to lightning zaps, crazy wind currents, territorial birds, and BB (or other) guns.  I was trying to answer Cousin Linda's questions about Grandma Koftan's becoming a teacher right after her eighth-grade graduation.  I could find no Sacred Heart school of any kind closer to the Peters in Rock County than Norfolk.  Stuart had a St. Boniface; O'Neill has always had St. Mary's.  No Peters is among the alumni of the latter, at least those listed online.  Batting around, I happened on Rock County High School, Bassett, which has on its alumni lists "Lawrence Koftan" with a w twice, 1908 and 1911, as well as Roy [LeRoy] Koftan, 1910. 

I had selectively forgotten Velma's (Mom's) high school report card, proof that she took Normal Training courses, which was the name for classes for prospective teachers.  I've already mentioned that Nebraska Normal was the forerunner of Wayne State Teachers, now part of the state university system, where Mom took summer sessions to keep her teaching certificate renewed and I ultimately graduated with both the bachelor's and master's in education.  So whether Grandma Koftan took Normal Training classes at some high school equivalent or merely at some special educational school ends up my hazardous speculation, even if I claim to have known at one time.

I also happened upon a Delayed Birth Record Index, 1879-1905, for Rock County, Nebraska, where the Peters and Koftan families lived.  "Kofton, Fern E. Peters" (sic) with 6/5/1895 is listed, as is "Peters, Nellie Mae" with 6/25/1988, the only two entries for both families.  Gives a whole new twist to the Shakespearean cliche about a tangled web.

The Tyndall (SD) cemetery has Great Great Grandfather Martin Hlinovsky, Frances'/Fannie's father.  (Martin's wife, Rose, is buried at Beranek Cemetery in Pawnee County, Nebraska, which county was where the Hlinovskys went before South Dakota.)   Two Kaftan couples lie there in Tyndall, apparently preceding Grandpa Koftan's cousins, the Emil and Elsie I knew, Emil dying at nearly 103 merely a year or two ago.  Vincent and Elnora Koftan, Great Grandfather Joseph Koftan's brother and sister-in-law, are buried there, the ones Aunt Babe said were responsible for Joseph and Fannie's moving to the Bassett, Nebraska, area.  Also, the three infant/young daughters of Joseph and Fannie, Eva, Edith, and Clara, who died of diphtheria, are buried there.  So are six Zelenkas, including Fannie's sister, Katherine/Kate.  On the Delayed Birth Registrations for Bon Homme County, South Dakota, are just three Koftan names:  Laurence John, 04/27/1891, sits between his cousins, Uncle Vincent's daughters, Belle Violet, 08/30/1895, and Mattie Louise, 05/17/1898.  As long as I'm dealing with cemeteries, Grandpa Koftan's sister, Bessie/Bozena, and her husband Levi/Lee Chapin, with their daughter, Josephine, are in the Olive Branch Cemetery at Mills in Keya Paha County, Nebraska, along with other Chapins.  

In the meantime I will finish this particular headachy entry with more interesting data, courtesy of Robert Clayton/Hlinovsky, who explored Martin Hlinovsky as a family connection.  He included the ship log for the SS Leipzig out of Bremen, Germany, that came into Baltimore in 1871 with the Martin Hlinowsky family, Martin, 52, farmer; Rosalie, 42; Maria, 21; Catherina, 18; Josefa, 9; Rosalia, 7; Franzisca, 5.  (Love that ethnic spelling for Frances/Fannie.)  Their homeland was cited as Austria, but I've told him I think that's because Czechoslovakia didn't exist in name or country; Bohemia and Moravia, its two most famous provinces, were part of the Austrian Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs.

LATER NOTE:  I've got to stop adding postscripts.  This is why I usually mull topics over for a few days before I commit myself to print.  First, I'm going to stick with my initial memory as the correct one:  Grandma Koftan taught after completing the eighth grade.  I recall too well being flabbergasted that she was allowed to do that, since I lost Mom to summer institutes and such as she maintained her teaching certification, besides which I was familiar with teaching from [Great] Aunts Nellie and Myrtle.

Secondly, about our Great Great Grandparents Hlinovsky, Martin's dates in the Tyndall SD cemetery records are simply 1819-1891, which seem correct enough, because that makes him 52 as the ship log above says he was.  The Beranek Cemetery in Pawnee County NE has his wife's (Rose's) death date as 29 August 1877 at 47 years, which means she lived only five years in the United States and died when Great Grandma Fannie was 10.  Which further means that Martin was a widower who moved his family to the Tyndall area and apparently did not marry again.  In the meantime, surprised as I was to discover that the Hlinovskys came by steerage through Baltimore instead of the more usual Ellis Island in New York City, I also discovered while fussing with Ancestry.com briefly only that Josef Kaftan also came through Baltimore in 1867.  (I wouldn't commit my credit card to the two-weeks' "free trial.")