Toward the end of this same year of 1874, brother Vaclav sold his
settlement in Wisconsin and moved closer to us. He purchased a farm
close to our oldest brother near Lyle, Minnesota, which was about 20
miles from us, as we still lived near Plymouth in Worth County, Iowa.
Brother John became ill in 1879, and after about an entire year of cruel
sickness died on October 12, 1880, and was also laid to rest to the
sorrow of the entire community, along side of our parents. He was sur-
vived by his widow and six small children.
The rest of us all own farms and are occupied in agriculture.
Farming is not however doing well because everything a farmer has for
sale is cheap compared to the years before the war. The only thing is,
we do not have to transport it so far to sell, as we now have three rail-
roads within five miles. There are now also a marked number of Czechs
who reside near Plymouth and Manley Junction. However, they have no
societies, nor gather together for any kind of meetings, and each one
lives exclusively only for himself.