Ed is also an adjunct instructor at Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar. His other interests include coaching extra curricular speech and debate. Currently Ed is Mayor of Spillville. Ed and Linda own and operate The Old World Inn, bed and breakfast restaurant with the help of their sons in Spillville.

Ed and Linda have 3 sons: Lew Reed; Simon Edward; and Harley Stuart.

Klimesh, John and Anna (Mikota)

(Cyril Klimesh)

John Klimesh

John Klimesh was born 14 Apr 1829 in Zverkovice, Bohemia, House #21. He was baptized iryST~dqcob’s Church in Tyn. His godparents were John Mappl, a'soap maker, and Josephine Stanek. From the viewpoint of a small boy. John’s home could not have had a rmetl more desirable location in the village: the community carp pond was directly behind the house, so close that on a rainy day it would have been possible to fish without getting wet simply by holding the pole through a window. Almost every Czech village had such a pond, which served a double purpose: as a food source (the Czechs consider the carp a gastronomic delight) and as a ready source of water for fighting fires. John's father was a stonemason, and as a youth, John also learned that trade. Serfdom was abolished in 1848. Though the peasants could now own land, their lot improved very slowly. For most, land ownership was an impossible dream. John saw no future for himself in Bohemia and in the fall of 1854, in company with others, he left for America.

On 18 Nov 1854, with possessions on his back, John boarded a coastal trading vessel in Hamburg, Germany for the second leg of his journey to America. His traveling companions included Frank and Mary Soukup, neighbors from Zverkovice, and the family of Frank and Mary Mikota from Purkarec, a larger village located about ten miles south. It was bitterly cold. Just three days earlier, the thermometer had registered seven degrees below zero. The Elbe River was so choked with drift ice that vessels could not move without assistance from steam tugs. The vessel was the City Hamburg, a 153 foot long Scottish-built paddle wheeler which plied the English Channel between British and mainland ports.

John was on board most of a week. On 23 Nov, the London Times reported that on the previous day the ship had been sighted off Gravesend, the pilot station for the port of London. Nothing is known of the balance of their journey. We can only guess at the route they followed. The group may have transferred to another ship at London, or traveled by rail or ship to Liverpool, there to board the vessel which ultimately brought them to America.

Family tradition says that they disembarked at Baltimore. This has not been verified - the passenger lists of ships arriving at the port of Baltimore during that period are missing. From the port they probably traveled by train to the end of the line at Galena. IL, then from there by wagon or stage coach to their destination in northeastern Iowa, where a Czech colony had been formed during the previous summer. Whatever the route and whatever the mode of transportation they utilized, it was a relatively fast journey. Less than eleven weeks passed between their departure from Hamburg and land ownership in the new country. On the last day of January 1855, John Klimesh became the owner of an 80 acre parcel of virgin prairie in Sumner Twp, Winneshiek Co, IA. The land John acquired was “school land." This referred to the 16th section of every township, and certain others, which by act of Congress had been granted to the state when Iowa was admitted to the Union. Proceeds from the sale or rent of this land, which was handled at county level, went into the state’s general school fund. The land was priced at $1.25 an acre and sold for 25% down. The balance was covered by a ten year promissory note at an annual interest of ten percent. It is not known where John lived that first winter. Conjecture is that, as had many others, he moved into one of the many log cabins at Ft. Atkinson which had been vacated when the Winnebago Indians and the Army moved out in 1848. Fortunately, 1854-55 was a mild winter. It is believed that before he built his own dwelling, he helped the Frank Mikota family build their cabin, the 1856 census shows him living with them. When John Klimesh came to Winneshiek Co. about two dozen Czech families were already there. These families settled in Calmar and Sumner Twps because that was where the land was being sold at that time. The Czechs who came later were drawn by the number of their countrymen already there and by reports that the land resembled the rolling terrain of southern Bohemia. In January 1856, John purchased 120 more acres. This gave him a total of 200 A which was much more than he could have ever dreamed of owning in Bohemia, even if he had been an eldest son with a potential for inheriting the family homestead. In Bohemia a farmer with 75 acres was considered extremely well-to-do. John paid off the note on one of the parcels within a year, but the others he paid the interest until maturity. On 26 Aug 1856, John married