Pre-Grand Crossing U. S. Origins of the Chicago Grand Crossing Czech Community

Chicago's Praha Czech Community

Most of the Bohemian families that settled in Grand Crossing had earlier settled in the heavily-Czech Chicago neighborhood nicknamed Praha, after the Czech capital. This is the same area made famous in the 1895 Hull House Maps. However, by 1895 the Grand Crossing families had long since moved from Praha to Grand Crossing. So the Hull House maps do NOT show the Grand Crossing Czechs. Thus an important aspect of this web page is to show the same area as the Hull House maps but 10 to 20 years earlier, although this page will only show the families that became Grand Crossing Czech families.

Here are the locations of the families in Chicago before they moved to Grand Crossing.

• HAHN - Matthew Hahn was the saloon keeper at 101 West 18th Street as late as 1887. By 1892, he was the saloon keeper at 7754 Jackson Street in Grand Crossing.

Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Elsewhere

A preliminary look at the birthplaces on the censuses shows that a few of the families had tried out other parts of the United states before settling in Grand Crossing. More research is needed on these families.

Right Off the Boat

At some point, word apparently went back to Bohemia about Grand Crossing. New immigrants apparently headed directly for Grand Crossing.

• DVORAK - Josef Dvorak and family arrived 1893 and appear in the 1900 census of Grand Crossing.