On this date one hundred and ninety-three years ago Rosalie Duscheck, one of my second great grandmothers, was born (3 February 1829) She was known in the Village of Sun Prairie and its environs as Grandma Duscheck. She was both a formidable, and remarkable woman. Rosalie was the mother of my great grandmother Amelia Duscheck Hovel. Doing genealogical research is a journey of dead ends, and brick walls, through script, language, finding place, and available records. This blog post will not really be about the specific record search for Rosalie, but rather, trying to figure out what type of a person she was. There are a few clues that provide hints as to the type of woman she was, but there will also be some speculation. Rosalie would enter this earth in a peasant cottage in central Europe, perhaps with a small garden; her life would end in the United States, with land holdings she probably never expected to have under her control. My journey in finding out about Rosalie would be nothing compared to the journey she would make.
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| Rosalie's birth/baptismal record, first row on page Source: Zmarsk Archives, Czechia |
Family records seem to indicate that Rosalie had a surname of Belenka, but she was born to Wenzel Pelinka and his wife Theresia, in an area east of Usti nad Orlici, in Horni Houzovec, known by its German name at the time as Hertersford. At the time of her birth Bohemia was part of the Austrian Empire. At her birth, the Austrian Empire was ruled by a descendant of the Hapsburg line, Francis I. Francis I, and other nobility, would have led remarkably different lives from those of the peasants. From her baptismal record located in a downloaded Parish book from the Zmarsk Archives, we get a glimpse of the status of her ancestors. The record is not very long, but it does provide important clues to her socio-economic status. Rosalie was born to Wenzel Pelinka, a cottager, and his wife Theresia daughter of Matheous Skalitzky, who was also a cottager, and his wife. Cottager is not an occupation, but denotes they lived in a small house in a rural like area. A cottager was, generally speaking, a non-land holding peasant.
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| Plat Map Town of Milford, Jefferson County Source: Wisconsin Historical Society Archives |
Knowing that they were cottagers is very important as it shows that they were not just of the peasant class, but that they were near the bottom of the peasant class. Peasant cottagers were the most common group of Bohemians to emigrate to the United States. There exists cottagers and small peasant cottagers, with the distinction being a small peasant cottager held no land. A peasant cottager, unlike a small peasant cottager, may have had an area for a garden. If fortunate they may have had available a hectare or two. Although this is difficult to know, because other times when a cottager has "some land" that is indicated. Since no occupation for her father is identified, at least in that record, I think we can assume that he worked as a farm hand for a sedlak or larger farmer. It is possible, however, that he was involved in a craft--tailor, shoemaker, etc. In this case, since the identified status is as a peasant cottager I think it is safe to say that Wenzel and his father-in-law were farmhands. If they had a garden, that likely would have been predominantly under the care of her mother.
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| 1920 US Census, Rosalie living with son Edward in Sun Prairie, WI Source: Ancestry.com |
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| Rosalie with daughter Anne Lohneis and Anne's daughter Marion Source: Family archives, via Michael J Hovel Perhaps only known photo of her |
Rosalie would become the second wife of Josef Duscheck (born 1808), and they were likely married in 1851, as it appears Rosalie gave birth to her first child in June 1852 in Bohemia, and that child is said to have died in the year of birth. Records of the Duschek family found online indicate that she gave birth to a second child in Bohemia in 1853 (who also is said to have died at a young age), but I have been unable to locate a baptismal/birth record for that child. Death records for that year are not available on line to my knowledge. Rosalie would go on to give birth to seven additional children. Her son, Rudolph, which according to Rosalie's obituary, was born one day before the family arrived at the port of Quebec. In other words, he was born at sea. In this situation we have a very pregnant woman making a nine week ocean voyage--and giving birth just before arriving at port. I am not sure what ship she was on, but immigrant ships were crowded and not very hospitable places. It certainly was no Queen Mary on which her grandchild, my grandpa Rudy, would travel from the US to Europe with his wife Ida in September 1956, 102 years after Rosalie left for the United States. The other four children were born in Wisconsin. Four of Joseph's children with his first wife, Viktoria, would live to emigrate to the United States with the family in 1854. If one looks at varied Duscheck websites you can see that half or more of the 1960's Sun Prairie was in fact related to Josef Duscheck, which is why Rosalie was simply known in Sun Prairie as Grandma Duscheck.
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| Three daughters of Rosalie Amelia (Hovel), Mary (Neis) and Anne (Lohneis) Source: David Dixon |
The family arrived in Quebec and then made their way to Jefferson County, Wisconsin where, according to an 1862 plat map, they farmed 80 acres in the town of Milford, generally southwest of Watertown, on what is, at least today, French Road. At some point, between 1862 and 1870 the family moved to the Town of Bristol just northeast of Sun Prairie, and about a mile east of the north end of Brazee Lake. The property is located at the northwest corner of Twin Lane Rd and Meadow Rd. Josef would pass away in 1877 and is buried at St Joseph's Cemetery in East Bristol, WI. Rosalie, with Josef having passed, was the sole parent for six of the nine children born to her and Josef, and five children of Josef's born to his first wife, Viktoria. Viktoria probably died 1851. Grandma Duscheck, according to her obituary, "showed her courage and business ability in managing the farm and looking after her children, three of whom were very young when their father died." With the help of some of her children she would farm the property after Joseph passed away. Farming was never an easy proposition, but she showed more than courage. She persevered in continuing the family farm. In 1891 she moved to the village to live with her son Edward, and it was in Edward's home that she passed away. In 1920, the village of Sun Prairie had a population of 1,236 persons, and perhaps more cows, horses, and chickens than people. She endured the "privations of a pioneer woman" when woman had more chores to do than one should be able to handle. This was a time when much of their food was home grown, and the livestock slaughtered, eggs harvested, butter churned, and chickens butchered. In other words, she was a Land Girl.
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| 1873 Town of Bristol Plat Map, part of Brazee Lake to left Source: Dane County Plat book |
What stood out to most people who met her was not that she was hard working and was very courageous, those were virtues instilled in her when she was born in to the peasant class in an outpost of the Austrian Empire, rather it was her cheerfulness. Her obituary notes that "She was not only a devoted wife and mother but a true friend, beloved by a great circle of friends." She was a woman from a time now distant, split more by changes in values, virtues, and technology than by the over 100 years since her death. What stands out most about Rosalie, beyond her perseverance, was her piety.
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| Theresa Skalitzky, Baptismal/birth record 18 Oct 1805 Rosalie's mother Source: Zmarsk Archives, Czechia |
As stated in her obituary, she found great pleasure in going to mass, for the last thirty years of life a she "scarcely missed a day." She would walk to mass regardless of the weather conditions. When she reached the age of 90 her health started to fail and she became confined to her home, and a little later to her bed. If she had one regret in her long life, it was her inability to attend daily mass. She had a great desire to see the new Sacred Hearts Church which had recently been completed, so a few months before she passed away her children took her to the church in a wheel chair. It was there "she found great joy praying at the altar." My father, born in 1918, would be one of the thirty-four great grandchildren she left behind. She passed away a few months shy of her 93rd birthday, and at the time was the second oldest person in the village of Sun Prairie.
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| Rosalie's grave marker Sacred Hearts Cemetery, Sun Prairie, WI Source: Author photo |
Rosalie Pelinka (also known as Belenka) Duscheck was a testament to the American dream. She was born near lowest class peasantry in the depths of Central Europe, to being a wife and mother in the Midwestern United States. A world apart in distance and time, but her values and ethics were formed by in the place of her birth. She was a wife and mother who tended and held together farm and family. Her greatest attributes were not, however, that she was a true pioneer woman for those in the Town of Bristol, rather it was the family she raised, and the values she instilled. Those values took hold through her greatest virtue, that of piety. Piety through her strong faith allowed her to have courage and to persevere through the difficult and trying times. To mark her passing on that fall Friday the Sun Prairie church bells tolled. This was the Village's way of remembering not just the town's Grandma Duscheck, but a woman who gave back to the community more than she asked from it. In finding Rosalie, I found more than expected, which is a testament to her capabilities and strength of will.
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