Pueblo January 28, 1896

Dear Brother in law,

I received your letter about which you wrote me. I talked with the old man, he says later, about a month. I think you could talk with him. He's going to Chicago Sunday. I think you could be with him. He will be there Tuesday. I think if you would wait for him somewhere by the office that you could be with him.

The family got here alright. I have 25 workers. I will board them from the first of February. The weather is like summer now.

I have a little too much work. This coming month I will be putting on new [unknown word, possibly "track"] about 5.5 miles. I think I will get all those people for boarding about 50 or 60. I think we can get something done. There are only three families here, Slovaks, Moravians. There are large smelters here for ore. Gold are close by.

This is the first of a number of preserved letters that the Filipeks sent to Chicago from Colorado in the late 1890s.

Who wrote them
A number of the letters are unsigned. It is thought that this one was written by James Filipek. It is addressed to his brother-in-law. While there are several choices including, Frank Sokolik, Frank Jana, and Frank Nemec, it is thought that it is Frank Nemec, Katherine's brother. Frank Nemec was in Chicago at the time, the others weren't and the Filipeks had spent many years with him in Chicago in the early 1890s before leaving for Colorado. The only other logical choice is Katherine as an author, but then the brother-in-law would need to be Frank Sokolik or Frank Jana and neither makes sense since Frank Sokolik disappeared and Frank Jana was not in Chicago at that time.

In comparing with other letters, there seems to be some favorite ways James writes things. First his style is more commanding and direct than Katherine's. He also likes the phrase: "Greet all from us", or "Greet our friends". It's almost a command.

Within the text, there are a couple of challenges to James being the author. The first is the reference to "the old man". This could have been Katherine referring to James, but it is now interpreted as James talking to the boss, probably about a job for Frank. The other is the reference to boarding the workers. One could assume that James was the foreman of the work crew and Katherine took care of the boarding and cooking. While this is probably true, it appears that James was writing about boarding workers in the sense that it was his responsibility to the company for their boarding (getting them, negotiating, dealing with issues, managing the cost) and Katherine's role was the managing of the day-to-day boarding. What we remember years later is that Katherine did the boarding since the day-to-day was the most work and work that she did and the kinds of things we think about in boarding.

The Letter
This letter appears to be about three topics:

• James taking up a request to his boss from Frank Nemec, possibly about a job
• The family getting to Pueblo safely
• A description of the work they have to do

Commentary:

• The letter implies the train trip from Pueblo to Chicago took about two days, which sounds about right if you assume 25 m.p.h. and 20 hours a day.
• The Filipeks appear to be in the boarding business. It was known that James was a foreman and Katherine was a cook for the work crew and that they boarded the workers. But what's interesting is that it appears that they had the borders as an account, and they were given so much money per boarder.

• It is unclear what James meant by "3 families here" as opposed to 25 workers, but if they were Moravians and Slovaks, there would be less of a language problem and perhaps the DRGRR plan was to hire James to manage a Czech speaking crew.
• "The family got here alright". It was thought that the Filipeks went to Pueblo in late 1894 or 1895. It is possible this was their first trip, but it's also possible to interpret this as they went home to Chicago over the Christmas holidays and were returning. If it were the first letter, there would seem to be more description of the trip and what it was like there. It appears to be more of an update on the parameters of the job upon their return.

Who kept the Letters
Six of the letters appear to be to John Sokolik and one is to Frank Nemec. One could ask why these letters, perhaps out of many were saved, and why only the ones to Chicago. One would think that if James and Katherine were the collectors, then they would have the ones they received also. We do know though that the letters ended up with John and Rose Filipek.

One might imagine JK Sokolik as a pack rat, who at some point gave all the letters he received back to Katherine who kept them. Terry points out that Katherine was a bit of a pack rat herself and her home in Riverside was filled with stuff when Rose and Grace Filipek went to clean up at the end. We also know JK kept a lot of stuff and that's all with Mary Fritz now. Frank Nemec must have also given his letter to Katherine which begs the question of why Katherine didn't keep their own letters.

These old letters provide so much insight into their personalities and daily interests and concerns and it is so wonderful to be able to read them after all these years. What's also interesting is that the reason there are letters is because the Filipeks left Chicago for a short time and wrote back to John and Frank who stayed. If they hadn't gone, then there would have been letters since they lived so close to each other in Chicago. Which begs the question, wouldn't there also be letters from Kolence or Minnesota and where are all the letters they received. Are they in JK's trunk? Are there more hidden away?

The translation of this letter was done by Cindy Filipek Johnson's mother Janice in January 2001. The original and translated letter are below.

This letter was discovered in March 2000 by Terry Nelson, a gg-granddaughter of Antonin and Katerina Filipek in her grandmother Rose Filipek's home in Florida. If you would like to add information about this picture, please contact Dave Jordan, a gg-grandson of Antonin and Katerina Filipek. The Letter Reference Number is TNN16.