Society's Most Discerning Gazette • Purveyor of Truths Both Historic & Thoroughly Beloved

The Keepers of Every Secret This Town Has Ever Kept

On the New Prague Area Historical Society, the Bi-Centennial That Started It All & the Quiet Devotion of a Board That Refuses to Let a Single Memory Slip Away

Dear gentle reader,

Your correspondent must confess something rather humbling this week. For all her watching, all her listening, all her carefully cultivated knowledge of this community's present-day comings and goings — there exists an entire institution devoted to remembering everything that came before her. And she finds, upon closer inspection, that she is rather in awe of it.

The New Prague Area Historical Society exists to collect, preserve, and share the history of this town and the land surrounding it — no small undertaking, dear reader, and one this organization has carried out with a devotion that borders on the theatrical, in the very best sense of the word.

While your correspondent concerns herself with this week's gossip, an entire society has spent decades ensuring that last century's stories are never lost. She finds this considerably more impressive than anything she has ever written.

The origin story, dear reader, is the sort your correspondent lives for. In 1974, a determined group of citizens began preparing for the great Minnesota Bi-Centennial of 1976 — organizing a three-day celebration so successful, so thoroughly convincing, that New Prague was named an official Bi-Centennial City. Having tasted the particular thrill of orchestrating history rather than merely observing it, this same group could not simply disband. In 1981, they formalized their efforts into what is now the New Prague Area Historical Society, founded by Hilda Bruzek, Lucille Nickolay, Dennis Dvorak, Linda Dvorak, Adeline Musil, and Ann Juni — six names your correspondent believes deserve to be spoken with considerably more reverence than they typically receive.

Since that founding, the Society has become woven into the very fabric of this community — hosting a yearly speaker series at Giesenbrau Bier Co., leading tours, mounting special events, and maintaining a collection of photographs and artifacts so extensive that cataloging it is, in itself, a labor of considerable devotion. Their ambition, dear reader, is nothing less than to digitize as much of it as possible for the Virtual Museum, while preserving physical displays at the New Prague Memorial Library for those who prefer their history in the flesh.

Your correspondent must pause here to note a change among the ranks. Mr. Fred Simon has stepped back from his board position, and stepping gracefully into his place is Mrs. Vera Schoenecker — a retired nurse, a mother who raised her two sons right here in town, and a woman who has already begun recording oral histories from community members alongside Becky Wolf. She enjoys reading, history, and time with her grandchildren, which your correspondent considers a rather perfect biography for a keeper of memories.

What drives this remarkable group, they will tell you, is the community itself — its willingness to show up, to share, to linger long after an event has technically ended because the conversations simply refuse to stop. There is, they say, an electricity in the room when strangers discover they share the same memory of the same flour mill, the same church social, the same corner of town that no longer looks quite as it once did. The gratitude expressed afterward — the thank-yous for preserving what might otherwise have vanished entirely — is, by their own account, what confirms they are doing work of genuine consequence.

The energy in the room is electric, they say, when strangers discover they hold the same memory. Your correspondent submits that there is no finer definition of community than that.

The Society is, they wish everyone to know, immensely grateful for the devotion shown by their repeat donors and patrons — the very people who make it possible to keep so many events free and the remainder modestly priced. Those wishing to become yearly patrons, or to support the cause in any fashion, may do so at npareahistory.com/support, and your correspondent encourages you to do precisely that.

Beyond their formal duties, the board members are, by their own cheerful admission, thoroughly ordinary in the loveliest sense — devoted to children and grandchildren, prone to summers at the cabin, some still working, some happily retired, some serving elsewhere in the community entirely. One board member, Bruce, sits on the City Council. Another, Tom, writes books on New Prague history in his own right — a historian moonlighting as an author, or perhaps the reverse. Your correspondent finds this entirely fitting for a board of this particular temperament.

The Society's recent calendar alone reads like the finest sort of variety show: a high tea celebrating the history of New Prague's women's groups, a Garden Tour tracing the town's gardening heritage, a tour of the Historic Flour Mill, Trolley Tours through town, a lecture on medical history, a talk on the history of Chart, and Collection & Connection Open Houses where the archives are opened for public viewing. There have been book talks. There have been displays at the Library featuring artifacts under glass and photographs along the walls, alongside a Reference Section housing oral histories and newspapers — and, through a particularly generous donation, a brand-new microfilm reader now allows visitors to page through the New Prague Times clear back to its earliest issues.

And should you wish to step even further into the past, dear reader, the Centennial Log Cabin and History Shed await in Memorial Park — a chance to stand, quite literally, where the earliest settlers once stood, and to imagine a New Prague built by hand rather than by habit. The Society further shares its findings monthly in a column for the New Prague Neighbors Magazine, ensuring history reaches even those who have not yet wandered into the Library's Reference Section.

Upcoming: a Trolley Tour of New Prague, led by Greg Tikalsky — details await at npareahistory.com. Your correspondent suggests securing your seat before this particular carriage fills entirely.

New Prague, your correspondent submits, is a town blessed with people who remember on its behalf — quietly, tirelessly, and with a devotion that asks for very little in return beyond the continued curiosity of its residents. The New Prague Area Historical Society has been keeping this town's secrets, and its treasures, since long before your correspondent ever picked up her quill. She, for one, intends to keep paying proper attention.

New Prague Area Historical Society — founded 1981, rooted in the Bi-Centennial spirit of 1976.

Speaker series, tours, exhibits, oral histories, and a Virtual Museum at npareahistory.com.

Preserving this town's memory, one generous patron at a time.

Your correspondent remains, as always, watching — and this week, rather humbled by those who remember so much more than she ever could.

— A Lady Who Knows the Value of a Good Archive