HERNCALL, W. K.

by Regina L Brewer

Entry F190 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

W.K. Herncall Family, about 1986. Back Row - L.R. Victor, Mary, Joseph.
2nd Row - Wencil, Louis, M. Barbara, Emil, Lydia.

Vaclav Wencil Konrad Hrncall was the
youngest of six children born to Mr. & Mrs.
Joseph Hrncall. He was born in Czechoslova-
kia in 1854 and came to America with his
parents about 1864. They first settled in
Boone County, moving to Sioux Co. in 1889.
Here they established the Canton P. Office
by daily riding to Hemingford for the mail.
They then moved to Box Butte County in
1891. Here my grandfather legally changed
his name to Herncall when he received his
naturalization papers. He operated a grocery
& general merchandise store in Hemingford,
Nebraska.

W.K. married Mary Barbara Hlas Bame,
(also born in Czechoslovakia in 1860) at Belle
Plaine or Chelsea, Iowa about 1879. Children
born to this union were Joseph, Mary Anna,
Victor, Emil, Louis & Lydia. The three
younger children completed their formal
education at Hecla.

W.K. filed on a homestead about 2 miles
west of Hecla, north of the Burlington R.R.
Joe also filed on a homestead about 10 years
later, 1913, 2 miles N.W. of his father. Louis
also filed when he became 21, about 2 miles
west. Grandfather traded his homestead for
an implement business & a home in Ulysses,
Ne. in 1920. He lived there until 1925 when
he retired & moved to Casper, Wyo. They had
been in an auto accident & Grandma was
permanently injured. Their son, Emil, had
become a Chiropractor & he thought he could
help her.

Uncle Emil married Bessie Taylor, daugh-
ter of Jay Taylor of the Whitman, Ne. area.
Bessie died in childbirth & Emil later
married Evah Houser, who later also became
a chiropractor. Joe sold his homestead &
moved to Mullen, Ne., where he operated a
Butcher Shop for several years. He built the
big white house just west of the Cedarview
Cemetery, later owned by Stella Eckels. Joe
moved to Litchfield where he again operated
a Butcher Shop for several years, later
moving to Minatare, Ne. on a farm where he
lived until death.

After Grandma died about 1927, Grand-
father moved to Mullen, where he built a one
room addition onto his daughter Mary's
home & did light housekeeping & as his
health failed he was cared for by my mother.
Grandfather was a very gentle soul, & an
immaculate housekeeper. He was very musi-
cally talented & played for years in the
Hemingford Band. He played violin, accor-
dion, trumpet & other instruments.

Among his neighbors when he home-
steaded at Hecla were, The Steve Ham
Family, Maude, Veda, Lillie & Perry; Clar-
ence & Bertha Revere; the Charlie, Mark, Jim
& Bill Brennan families; also Gotleibs &
Frazer. Jennie Catron & family were also
good friends.

Many good times were held in the Hecla
school with Literary meetings, programs,
spelldowns, box socials & many others. I,
Regina Neal Brewer, taught the last year of
school in Hecla, I believe, just thirty years
after my Mother had taught there.

The only surviving member of Grandfather
Herncall's ommediate family is Lydia Humis-
ton, Torrington, Wyo. She & Don had a
family of 6 children, the eldest Victoria died
in infancy and is buried in Mullen Cemetery.
Other children are Catherine, Medard, Fred-
erick, Genevieve, and Donna. Emil & Evah
had no children, Evah is in the Care Home
in Torrington also; Louis and Lila had 2
children, Alice & Buddy of Appomattox, Va;
Victor & Pauline (Polly) had Ralph, Mari-
anne & Patricia; Joe & Lillie had three, Julian
(who died as a teenager), Anna and Agnes.
Mary & Louie Neal had 9 children, Alicia &
Peter died in infancy, Joseph L., Francis,
Alois, Regina, Anna, James & Mary Dorothy.

W.K. Herncall and his wife Barbara are
buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Heming-
ford, Nebr.

Submitted by Regina L. Brewer, grand-
daughter, as truthfully as I could tell it.