George Anton Shonka (1874-1965), my daughters maternal great-great grandfather, was the son of Matej and Mary (Hajny) Shonka (Sonka). Matej (aka “Mathias”) and Mary immigrated to the United States in 1869 from Bechyně, Tabor, Bohemia, a region now part of the Czech Republic. After a brief stay in Iowa, the Shonka’s established deep roots in Nebraska.
George and Stazie
George married Anastasia ‘Stazie’ Prokes on June 26, 1901 and they resided for a number of years in the village of Richland, Nebraska and raised four children. George worked at the Richland State Bank, eventually serving as bank manager. During his years of service to the bank, George encountered “yeggs” on at least one occasion. I wondered the very same thing you are probably asking, what are yeggs?
n. “thief, burglar,” especially “safecracker.”
The news account on the right was published in the Omaha Bee and a later, more detailed story (below) on the same event .
Saturday, April 18, 1896 – Enterprise – Special Dispatch to the World Herald
Revelers Scare Yeggs Away From Bank Safe Robbers Get Contents of the Safety Boxes, but Leave $3,000 at Richland Blow Door of Vault
Richland, Nebraska, December 8. —Young people returning from a dance shortly after midnight his morning are believed to have frightened three robbers in the act of rifling the vault of the Richland State Bank here. Several private deposit boxes and valuable contents of all the others were carried away, but the yeggs failed in their attempt to blow open the money safe, containing about $3,000, before they became unease and fled.
George Shonka, managing cashier, discovered the robbery this morning, and said no figures on the loss had yet been compiled, as the bank officers did not know what the private boxes contained. The loss may be heavy, as the community consists of well to do farmers.
The yeggs forced the front door and blow off the vault door. Schuyler police saw a high powered closed car speed east through that town, eight miles east of here, about 2 a. m., and now believe it contained the robbers, escaping toward Omaha, where police were notified. Some wires out of Richland were cut, supposedly by the robbers. State law enforcement officials at Lincoln were notified by Sheriff Harennet of Colfax County.
George Anton Shonka
“A bank was organized in 1906, with George Shonka, president. It was robbed in the early 1920s, and closed in the 1930s, but all depositors were paid 100 percent of their holdings.” Source: Virtual Nebraska, University of Nebraska – Lincoln/ Richland, Cascade County.
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