Laura Valenta

Anton and Mary Freytag belonged to a much larger migration. The Handbook counts about 700 Czechs in Texas by the Civil War, 9,204 foreign-born Czechs in 1900 and 15,074 in 1910, a number that fell afterward. Fayette County became the center of Czech population in the state. Galveston became the preferred port of entry, and cheap farmland drew many. The plaque says Bohemian; Czech is the term in use now. It does not say when her parents came, or which Texas town received them first.

What the plaque says

Laura Valenta Born in 1883 to Bohemian immigrants Anton and Mary Freytag, Laura Freytag married Wenzel Valenta in 1898. Wenzel died in 1907, leaving Laura a young widow with four children. She ran a boarding house to support her family. In 1920, the 54-room travelers hotel opened in De Leon, and by 1926, Laura was dining room supervisor. In 1929, she bought the business. Under Laura's supervision, the hotel became well-known for its excellent service. Civic minded, Laura hosted fundraisers at the Travelers and opened rooms to people in need of lodging or food. A couple of her children assisted her with hotel operations. When Laura's health began to fail, the hotel was sold for housing. Laura died in 1971 and is buried in San Antonio. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 12 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 26 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 32 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.

More markers nearby

• De Leon Peanut Company — steps away
• Texas Central Railroad — steps away
• Cyrus Campbell — 0.4 mi
• Community of Comyn-Theney — 4.5 mi