Anton & Marie (Chyba) Toman

Anton Toman was born in Moravia, Austria, which is now, the Czech Republic, on Nov.5, 1859. When he reached near his adulthood at the age of seventeen he decided to seek a home to which so many of his friends and associates of his native land had moved. So he boarded the Steamer "Suevia" and on 25 May 1876 came to the United States. According to my records, he first moved to South Dakota where he spent a few months then finally settled in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Those days in Plattsmouth, the Irish settled to the North, the Germans to the South and the Bohemians all settled in the West of Plattsmouth which was called "Bohemian Town". Bohemian Town had its own school house which still stands today, two stores, Kvapil's and Svoboda's and later, its own Catholic parish, with their own Czech priest and in their own language.
Anton's Father and Mother, John and Antonia Toman with their children Emma, Josepha, Josef, Frantisek, and Edward followed him to Plattsmouth on 3 July 1877. They left Bremen, Germany on board the Steamer, "Pommerania".
He entered the services of Burlington Railroad and for many years was a faithful and diligent employee working as a Blacksmith.
Anton was married at St John's Church in Plattsmouth on August 29th 1884 to Miss Marie Chyba who's family later changed the name to "Hiber".
Anton naturalized Sep. 30, 1892.
As mentioned above, Bohemian Town was fairly self sustaining but lacked a Catholic Church that was in their own Czech language. So some of the men formed a committee to build a church. It was headed up by Cyrill Janda who served as President, Anton Toman was the Vice-President, Joseph Kalasek as Secretary, and Thomas Janda, an older brother to Cyrill, as Treasurer. They purchased three lots from John Svoboda in the Dukes Addition for $300 and started construction of the new "Holy Rosary Church" The total costs were about $2400. It was completed in 1890. Many of the parishioners donated the furnishings. Anton and Marie Toman donated a statue of an Angel holding a candelabra. Though the church still stands today, at 1610 First Avenue, it had been left derelict, until 2002, when another denomination bought it and restored it back to being a church again.  One nice thing remains, the original stained glass windows, each one with a member of the committees name on it. The church had its last Catholic mass on 6 September 1973. The closing was the results of lack of priests in the Lincoln diocese.
Anton health was failing in his last years in life and quietly spent his declining years with his family at home. On Friday, February 20, 1942 at 3:00 in the families home, Anton passed away leaving his wife and children. He was 82 years old.

Joe Kenny

References came from Joe Kenny's research using ship records, newspapers, obituaries and from Joe Kvapil, a Bohemian Town expert.