Bednar Family Homestead

The plaque credits the Bednars with helping build Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and that parish's home is Latium in Washington County. Latium began as one of five Latin colonies founded by German political refugees after 1848. Czechs arrived in 1868, and Josef Chromcik began a mission there in 1873, holding worship in settlers' homes such as Martin Supak's. The present church went up in 1918 on land bought from George and Anna Baron, built by Linnus Pivonka for $1,700 with help from the Catholic Extension Society of Chicago. The homestead itself is private farmland.

What the plaque says

Bednar Family Homestead Czech immigrants Joseph and Anna Bednar and their six children (Vincenc, Anna, Frantiska, Peter, Cyril and Alzbeta) traveled to Texas in 1876. After Joseph died in 1876, Anna and her children worked as tenant farmers until becoming landowners in 1883 when Anna purchased 195 acres of the Henry Cheves league from Leopold Supak. Much of the land has since remained in the Bednar family with continuous agricultural farming. Over the years, the Bednars have been instrumental in creating and sustaining a thriving Czech community that established Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Sacred Heart Cemetery, County Line School, and a network of roads and mail delivery for the area. (2019)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Round Top and Festival Hill — 8.3 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 18 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 22 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 22 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.

More markers nearby

• McGregor Cemetery (Scottish Presbyterian Cemetery) — 1.2 mi
• Town of Shelby — 3.3 mi
• Site of Wesley School — 3.4 mi
• Hackfield Farm — 3.7 mi