A Bohemian Girl in America is a charming memoir written by Emily M. K. Polášek about moving from Bohemia and settling in the United States with her parents and five brothers in 1910, when Emily was thirteen years old. To avoid conscription of their sons, Teresa and Josef Muska left their homeland, comfortable lives, loved ones, and the bakery they owned and ran.
The entire family comes across in the book as extremely likeable, hard-working, friendly, and generous. The descriptions of their escapades in A Bohemian Girl in America made a quick and enjoyable read for me.
They bought 40 acres in Phillips, a lumber town in Wisconsin, and marveled at the deer, rabbits, and partridges. Since the land had no house, they rented adjoining land and a log cabin that came with a barn, chicken coop, and a water well.
The ramshackle rented cabin with no furniture was a big disappointment to Mrs. Muska, but Emily and her younger brothers reacted differently. As Emily wrote, “Rudy, Frank, and I awakened the next morning to the blissful sounds of birds singing and the distant tinkling of cow bells. It was a bright, clear, stunning day and the air was wonderfully fresh. The brilliantly colored leaves were dazzling. We were delighted to be surrounded by so much beauty.”
Polášek writes captivatingly about the family’s adventures, such as three feet of snow falling overnight, celebrating the family’s first American Christmas, maple syruping, building a new house, picking wild berries, making wine, watching beavers build their houses, the chimney burning, and the family making music.
After Mr. Muska died four years later, the family moved to live with the older brother Joe in Saint Paul, where they all had opportunities for education. The boys worked in electrical engineering and lighting, founding the Muska Lighting business. Emily had a long and happy marriage to William Kubat, a dentist she married when she was seventeen. After his death, she married their long-time friend Albin Polášek. Emily Polášek is also the author of Albin Polášek: Man Carving His Own Destiny (1970), which has photographs, descriptions, and accounts of many of his sculptures.
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