Day 3

We woke up early in the morning for our most eventful day of the trip. After breakfast in the hotel, we made the 85-mile drive from Grand Forks to Pisek, ND. Fortunately, traffic in the remote northern part of the state is almost nonexistent, except for the occasional tractor. We were now 696 miles away from the beginning of the Rumreich Trail in Milwaukee, WI. Upon arrival in Pisek, we were greeted with a lonely schoolhouse and dusty roads. 

 My dad had Nathan read aloud the beginning of the letter A.A. Rumreich wrote about his family’s arrival in North Dakota. Albert A. mentioned that his father, Frank Paul Rumreich, stood from the top of a nearby hill and spoke the auspicious words, “Here I’ll stay.”

We drove the car along what the townspeople call Main Street, but what is really Lovcik Ave. On one end was the old bank, which closed during the stock market crash during the Great Depression and never reopened. To the West of the bank there was a small clearing in the trees. My dad told us that the most beautiful house in the town had been in that spot. We later found out that the three-story mansion had been moved to another plot of land nearby. Next to the mansion had been the town lumber mill. This had also been gone for many years.

To the East of the Bank, next door, there was a general store called the J-Mart. This had passed hands and changed names a number of times since Frank P. Rumreich and the other founders of Pisek came to town in 1882. At the end of the block, next to the J-Mart, used to stand the furniture store owned by Frank W. Rumreich. 

On the other side of the street, across from the bank, was the Sandbar Restaurant and Bar. This was the only place to eat in town, other than the J-Mart, and opened at four for dinner. Next to the Sandbar were the VFW Post and the Post Office. East of the Post Office stood the volunteer fire department building, which used to be the hardware store owned by A.A. Rumreich. This store was across from the Rumreich furniture store. Across the street stood a faded blue house with paint that reminded me of a birch tree. There were cement blocks leaning against the doors to keep them from blowing open in the wind, and plants had begun to grow up around the edges of the house. A small “For Sale” sign sat in the front yard. Frank P. Rumreich had built that house and made his home there. It was sad to see the house that contained so much family history in such disrepair. We could only imagine the state of the inside because the owner of the house no longer lived in Pisek, and was unwilling to drive seven miles to let us look. At the very end of the dusty street stood the old schoolhouse, boarded up and faded.

Next we walked over to the house of Ruth, a woman my dad had communicated with seventeen years ago before he came to Pisek the first time. When he and my mom came to Pisek, I was just two years old, so she watched me while my parents were exploring the town. I did not remember her, but she sure remembered me! We had a nice talk with her about our plans for the day, and then she was kind enough to open up her house for us to use while she went to a meeting. 

Next we went to St. John’s Church. This church was built when the town was just beginning, and is still the central meeting place in Pisek. The outside of the church was not exceptionally impressive, but the inside was truly beautiful. Fifteen-foot tall stained glass windows portraying saints lined the sides of the church. Pictures and statues of angels, saints, Jesus, and other figures filled the space. The ceiling was golden-bronze and covered in swirling patterns. 

Nestled in between two stained-glass windows was the famous painting by Alphonse Mucha, of the saints Cyril and Methodius. Even though the church was named for Saint John, many of the original settlers in Pisek wanted the church to be named after the favorite saints from their area of the Czech Republic, Cyril and Methodius. Before the church was named, Frank P. Rumreich asked his now-famous artist friend, Mucha, to paint the saints and donate the painting to the town. Mucha obliged, and the restored painting still hangs in the church, even though the church was not named after them. Although Mucha was not at all known for his paintings of religious figures, his talent is apparent. The magnificent painting is six feet wide and ten feet tall, and although it has darkened over the years, the details are meticulously done.

 The church also had upstairs seating and a downstairs meeting area with a kitchenette.

Behind the church was the town graveyard, which had Rumreichs back to Frank P., who had the largest headstone in the graveyard.

 Many of the Rumreichs had writing in Czech on their gravestones. The graveyard also contained metal crosses, which are rarely found. Even though no Rumreichs had one of these unique crosses, it was interesting to see this bit of additional history on our trip.

We left the church around lunch time and decided to look in the J Mart for something to eat. The store owners were very welcoming to us, and were interested to hear that we were Rumreichs, although they pronounced it “Room-rike.” They cooked two frozen pizzas for the boys, my dad, and I to share, and made sandwiches for Aunt Donna and Aunt Mary. Kyle was very excited to find jalapeno-flavored potato chips and everyone else was happy to help eat them.

 A few townspeople came into the J Mart while we were eating and seemed interested, if not amused, that Pisek had so many visitors. Ruth also came into the store, bearing a dozen kolaches; half were filled with poppy seed and half apricot. The kolaches were not exactly what we were accustomed to. They were more like dinner rolls with filling in the center than what we could buy at The Kolache Factory, but they were still good.

 Aunt Mary and I both bought a “University of Pisek” shirt. There is no University of Pisek, ND, though there is one in the Czech Republic, so the shirts were a running joke between the townspeople and themselves. I thought it would be a nice memento of the trip, and it was nice to give our patronage to the Pisek business. Our wallets a little bit emptier but our stomachs and hearts much fuller, we left the J Mart and walked back to the church.

We traveled back to the basement of the church to meet with a few Pisek residents that Ruth thought would have some insight into and interest in our family history.

 They were a middle-aged couple and an older woman with wispy hair and wrinkles etched across her face. We later learned she was 99 years old and had more grandchildren and great-grandchildren than she could count. She had come over from the Czech Republic around 1930, and was still able to speak some Czech. None of us had any idea how well she spoke it, and she was out of practice after so many years, but it was fascinating to hear. Listening to her speak about Pisek throughout her life was one of the most interesting parts of the trip. There were two funny moments during our time in the basement, though. The first came when we were examining how the couple related to us, and we realized that they both had a Rumreich connection. The husband and wife simultaneously froze as their eyes widened, turned to each other, and the wife asked, “Are we related?” They were calmed by the family tree’s assurances that the relation was only by marriage, but the incident will remain as proof in my mind that in small towns, everyone is related.

The second funny moment came a short time later, when one of the “natives” asked Nathan and Kyle if they would like to get something from the table of home-baked treats on the bake sale table upstairs. Their heads snapped towards their mom for permission, and someone brought cinnamon rolls downstairs. When Kyle laid eyes on the bakery, it was love at first sight. The grin on his face could have put a dozen clowns to shame. I was happy to partake in the food, once again. They may have been the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten.

We waved a temporary goodbye with sticky fingers, and we were off to the bake sale in the nearby town, Park River. Aunt Mary happily purchased caramel rolls and rice krisipies, and chatted with all the vendors. We were also able to get in a few rounds of sheepshead before we went back to Pisek for dinner.

We ate at the Sandbar restaurant with Ruth and another woman, who lived on a farm outside of Pisek. Together we ate monster-sized hamburgers and chatted about our day before heading back to Ruth’s house. 

It was getting late and we were all getting tired, but the boys had enough energy to play outside with Ruth’s grandsons. Inside the house, we were able to look through binders of information that Ruth’s friend had on the Rumreichs. Her husband was related to us, and had been interested in the family lineage. He had paid someone to go through the records in the Czech Republic and find out more about our family tree. The information we got actually extended the family tree two generations past what we had previously known! My dad had me photograph some key pages of information he did not have, and I’m sure it will keep him busy with updates on the Rumreich family website for a long time.