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George Dusanek
Born November, 1859 |
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| Without any education, save that obtained through the hard lessons of experience, and knowing in his youth the privations of a life in which the bare necessities were not always easy of obtainment, George Dusanek has surmounted all the obstacles that lay in his path and has risen to a position of prosperity that might almost be envied were it not so evidently due to his own exertions alone. The agricultural instincts of his Bohemian race have found play on his farm in Madison township, and he is one of the well known farmers and stockmen of Jones county.
He was born in Bohemia, in November, 1859, and two years later his parents came to the United States to give their children the advantage of the better conditions of life here, but the father was not permitted to see the realization of his hopes for he died two years after his arrival in this land, leaving his wife to rear their family of seven children. Not having a father's protecting care and training, George Dusanek early was thrown upon his own resources and at the age of eight came to Wyoming township, Jones county, to make his home with a brother-in-law. For about ten years he lived with him and his family, though he worked as a farm hand during a portion of that time. At the age of seventeen he went to Canton, Iowa, where for three years he was employed in gristmills, and then returned to farm life, working for a man who paid him no wages. Upon the death of his employer, however, he was able to buy the farm on which he had been working. It was only sixty acres, but it was the beginning on which Mr. Dusanek has built the substantial fabric of his later success, and to which he has added from time to time until he has tripled its area. On this he has engaged largely in the raising and feeding of cattle, shipping one or two carloads of stock each year to the large markets, and has found that the land has richly repaid his toil.
In 1881 Mr. Dusanek was united in marriage to Miss Mary Kroulik, also a native of Bohemia, who was then living in Oxford. To the couple have been born nine children, eight of whom survive. They are Joseph, Frank, Rudolph, George, Edward, Mary, Frances and Rosa. Joseph and George are farmers in Madison township. In the democratic platform Mr. Dusanek has found expression of his own ideas as to the governing of a large and prosperous nation. He has not, however, given public and political matters much time, for his own concerns have imperatively demanded all his attention, if he were to achieve that position he was ambitious to attain. Faithful in his performance of tasks in his early years and unremitting in his labor since he has become a landholder, Mr. Dusanek has every reason to believe that America is the land of opportunity. He regretted his lack of education, but by determination he has overcome this handicap, his position in the township indicates with what result.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 449. |
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© Copyright 1997-2013, The Art Department, © Copyright 2014-2020, Richard Harrison.
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