Patrimony

Great Grandpa Joe and Paw-Paw Joe

The family story hasn’t been well documented, and anyone who might know more of the truth is already gone, so I went to Prague to see if the city had anything to tell me.

The lore is that my great, great grandfather was accidentally run over and killed by a horse-drawn wagon on the Charles Bridge sometime in the early years of the last century. He was a Protestant, which in the back-and-forth of Czech history, was not in favor at the time. People were forced to adopt the religious denomination of their landlord, and had to switch if the ownership of their building happened to change hands.

My great grandfather was a teenager when his father died and he apparently had had enough of the Catholics, so he left for the United States with a suitcase and what little money he was able to scrape together. He promised his mother that he would send for her.

We don’t know exactly how he made the journey. One story has it that he had to escape over the mountains just like the von Trapps at the end of The Sound of Music. I’m not sure why that would have been the case, but then I have never had to flee religious persecution.

It turns out that my great grandfather’s name, Josef Benes, is the Czech equivalent of John Smith. There are many records of men with his name coming into the US. We do know that he entered at Baltimore and that his first stop was Chicago, where there was a large population of Czech expats. He spent a few years there working, saving, marrying, and building a family before responding to advertisements for cheap land for sale in Texas.

And that is how my family wound up with the dairy in Pearland and why my great, great grandmother is buried in the old settler’s cemetery behind what was once the K-Mart.

Walking in Prague, I can’t imagine how she felt about her new home. The city is undeniably gorgeous and old, having been spared bombing during WWII. Walking the narrow streets of the old city I feel a connection to my patrimony. Crossing the Charles Bridge sends a shiver up my spine. Even though it is solely for pedestrian use these days, I can’t help but keep looking over my shoulder for a team of out-of-control horses barreling down on me.

Paw-Paw at work

Great Grandpa Joe with me, Deena and Bobby(?)