The Vokouns of Chicagoland

"A lull in the struggle, A truce in the fight, The whirr of machines And the dearly bought right, Just to labor for bread, Just to work and be fed." -Mary O’Reilly, “After the Strike,” from Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago Garment Industry Sweatshop 1905 I found an article from the Chicago Tribune in 1889 describing the explosive growth of garment making in Chicago and nationwide as well as the process of actually making a piece of clothing in the day. At the turn of the century, New York's garment dominated in women's clothing so Chicago's industry focused on men's clothing. At it's peak, Chicago reportedly manufactured 15% of men's garments in America.  1897 Sears Catalog The garment industry was dominated by immigrants, including Bohemians and the Vokoun family. The article makes for interesting reading but it's behind a paywall so I just copied it and posted it.  Here is another article from the Encyclopedia of Chicago on clothing manufac

Every girl crazy for... No I'm not going to link the video. I like ZZ Top and I liked the song when first released but it now falls into my personal list of songs that I would give a year of my life to never hear again. I'm sure it is playing in your head already. It does seem like a good theme song for our family of tailors. This is about the oldest. Frantisek Vokoun was born in 1858  in Královice house #15 and was actually the second child for Jan Vokoun and Anna Bechyne. The first, Vaclav, died as an infant. The next record for him after his birth record is the 1880 census when he was 22 years old. His immigration year is unclear. Most of the family arrived in 1875 or 1876 based on the birth locations of one child who died born in 1874 in Bohemia and, subsequently, the youngest, Joseph Edward, born in 1876 in Chicago. But Frantisek might be the exception. Some census records and voter registration records suggest he might have arrived as early as 1871 at the age of 13 or 14.

Erin go bragh! Celtic Cross in Brittany, France I don't anything about history, at least in Central Europe. I can sum up my knowledge by saying that people lived in Central Europe and somehow, poof, I appeared here. This does not help one knows roots. Hence, I needed to fix that! I started my search at modernity's answer to the Great Library of Alexandria, repository of all human knowledge of the age - namely Wikipedia. To my shock and dismay, there wasn't as much there as I wanted but with persistance, toil, and Google, I was able to fill in the gaps. Bohemia's name come from a Celtic tribe known as the Boii. Celts probably arrived in modern day Czech Republic in the 5th or 6th century BC. In the third and fourth century BC, Rome clashed repeatedly with Celtic tribes in Central Europe in what was known as Gaul. Gaul encompassed present day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank