Frantisek (Frank) Hrncír was born March 30, 1871 in house #29, Sviadnov, Frýdek-Místek, Moravia. He is one of 9 children born to John Alois Hrncír and Victoria Sedlácková/Sedlácek of Frýdek-Místek. Frantisek’s came to America with his family June 16, 1881 on the Lessing. It was a long and difficult journey, taking 6 weeks tocross the ocean. During the voyage, Frantisek lost his 3 year old sister Anna; because the family were Catholic, they hit her body until arrival as they feared if discovered she would not receive a proper burial. The family landed in New York but their destination was Kansas (as they had family and friends who settled there prior), and so began the second part of their adventure in a new land. When they got to Kansas, the family applied for a homestead and moved on 160 acres near Collyer, in Trego County. By 1886, the teenage Frantisek, his siblings and Father had constructed an 11x14 dugout home, sod table, cellar and well, even though it had been the coldest winter on record. In KS, Frantisek worked for the railroad with his father and they were gone three & six months at a time. The family remained in the dugout and they were sometimes bothered by tramps & Indians. Once one of Frantiseks siblings ran to warn her mother that a tramp was coming, but it turned out to be her father with quite a growth of whiskers.
Abt 1890, Frantisek rented land from neighbors in a Moravian settlement in Roseville Township, and began his own farming operation until he wed Mary Zurich, another Moravian from Frýdek-Místek. Frantisek and his wife packed up and headed to San Francisco California, bringing along Frantisek’s widowed Step Mother Magdalena Chamrad along.
During the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Frantisek, Mary and Magdalena lost all of their possessions, but were not injured. Their Moravian family in Kansas must have been amazed (and frightened) by the thought of the earth’s plates moving and causing distruction; nearly 20 years after the quake Frantisek came to visit family in KS and brought with him some of the dishes he had salvaged from his wrecked home, and which were burned black but had not broken, in the fire which followed the earthquake.
From the time of Frantisek’s arrival in San Francisco until his death, he worked at a smeltering plant. He died in 1923 after a work accident in which he was burned by hot liquid.
Frantisek’s tombstone at Holy Cross Cemetery is a large cross which bares his photo with no name, and is in the style typically seen in Czech and Moravian cemeteries. When I discovered it, I was amazed to find it is beautiful shape. Sadly, I could not find his wife nor step mothers burial anywhere. Holy Names staff were incredibly welcoming and helpful, doing all they could to help locate Magdelana and Mary’s tomb (which family insists are at Holy Names), but we had no luck. I hope someday to solve this mystery. Frantisek and Mary had no children and have no California family other than I.
