An Interview with Shirley Nelson

Interview conducted online

Shirley Nelson now living in New Mexico, recalls the story of her parents coming to the United States from Austria- Hungary and how luck played a part in his father’s immigration.

Interview

This interview was made in collaboration with Department of History in University of Houston and Czech Center Museum Houston. The following text is the response of the online oral history project.

March 26, 2020

UH Interviewer: When did you or your family come to the United States?

Shirley Nelson: My father, John F. Machocky came in 1910.  My mother Theresa Macek and my grandmother Teresie Macek in 1903. Galveston was the port for them. 

UH Interviewer: What was life like back in the old country?

Shirley Nelson: I don't know because my parents did not tell me.  However, I believe my grandparents were peasants. And In 1948, when my parents and I visited Czechoslovakia, I was 11 years old and remembered bare grocery shelves in Brno.

UH Interviewer: Did you face any difficulties?

Shirley Nelson: My mother’s siblings and my maternal grandparents moved around from Texas to Colorado and back to Texas looking for jobs. After I was born, we did not have much money and we traveled trying to have a home.

UH Interviewer: How did the changes impact you and your family's life?

Shirley Nelson: Since my parents had to work, I inherited the desire to work and knew the value of making and saving money. Early on, I wanted to own land and now I own 100 acres in northern New Mexico.

UH Interviewer: What would you like to share with younger generations, looking back on your life and experience?

Shirley Nelson: I would like to share my father's story. It is a personal story of coming to America and how luck played a part.  My father told me the story and after his death, I visited Oslavany and met a person who also knew the story and verified it. My father, John Machocky was born in 1889 in Oslavany in what, at the time was the Hungarian Austrian Empire. In 1910, age 21, not wanting to be drafted into the army and not liking the political situation, he decided to go to America.  Without telling anyone, even his mother, he borrowed, what probably would amount to about $50 from a lender bank in Austria, bought a new suit and a ticket to the United States. After boarding the ship, Hannover, in Bremen on July 25, he was standing on deck when two well-dressed young men approached him. "Are you in a first class cabin?" one asked. "No, I couldn't afford one," my father replied. At that time, there were only two designations on the Hannover: first class cabins and steerage.  "We have a cabin for three people but our friend couldn't make it. Would you like to move in with us?" My father agreed. He told me later that his new suit probably was a factor in the invitation. Luck, again, played a part. Arriving in Galveston on August 19, my father learned that, in order to depart the ship, he had to have $10 to show the officials. He did not have $10! But, putting on that new suit, he decided to take a chance. When he walked up to the official, he was asked what was his room on the ship.  My father told him the cabin number so the official waved him through. My father was a draft dodger. He never repaid the $50 and he did not write to his mother until several years later. He was pleased with his decision to come to America and became a naturalized citizen of the US of A in 1916.

About my grandmother and mother's story.  My grandmother, Terezie Macek, left Rusava, a small village in Czechoslovakia, in 1903 to join her husband, Jan Macek, who had immigrated to the US in 1902 and was in Texas, having disembarked in Galveston. They were peasants and, with no hope of owning land,  they wanted something better in America. My grandmother had three children, ranging in age from an 11 month old son, a 3 year old son, and a 6 year old daughter. The latter would be my mother. After three weeks on the ocean in steerage, they landed in Galveston, just 3 years after the 1900 hurricane. What they must have thought as they saw the reconstruction!!!!  Joining her husband, the family tried to find work and a home, traveling to Colorado where they lived for a while in a sod house. My mother recalled snow coming in through a window. However, they finally settled in Texas where my brothers became successful farmers in Damon. My mother had a son, Frank Dolejska, who, with his friend, Robert Preusser, are now credited as the forerunners of modern/non-objective art in Texas in the 1940s.