Frank Vap Jr, 1867-1954
Page last modified 14 years ago
Lineage is Ignac Vap Sr > Frank Vap Sr > Frank Vap Jr
Birth
Frank Vap was born in Dolni Loucky, Moravia in 1867 to Frank Vap Sr and Mary Kadlec.
Marriage - Aloysia Hanzel
Children
| Frank Vap III | 1894-1967 | married Rose Sebor |
| Mary C. Vap | 1897-1970 | married Frank Glaser |
| Christine Marie Vap | 1900-1957 | married Lewis Horinek |
| Helen Blanche Vap | 1903-2007 | married John Gower |
| Raymond James Vap | 1905-1962 | married Elizabeth Horinek |
| Aloysia Vap | 1908-1972 | marred Arthur Phelps |
History Article
from "The Last Run: Kay County, Oklahoma, 1893", pub 1939, page 190
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Vap by Sena Owen
From Moravia, now Czechoslovakia, came Mr. Frank Vap, in 1885; Mrs. Vap came on January 6, 1893. They met in western Kansas where they were married.
But Oklahoma, the land of opportunity, called and these venturesome young people answered. In 1894, with a tiny baby and all their worldly goods in one covered wagon, they started. Mr. Vap's father with six children and a neighbor and his family made up the procession.
They found it very difficult to make this trip due to the lack of highways and the lack of bridges.
Mr. and Mrs. Vap located on the Frank Malon place that first winter; Mr. Malon sharing his sod shanty with them.
The next year Mr. Vap bought a place just west of him from Mr. Hoefer. The neighbor who came with them from Kansas became disheartened and went back home.
Eager to build a sod house on his new place, Mr. Vap set to work with the plow, but the grass there didn't hold the sod and it crumbled. He heard of a build in Cross which could be bought for twenty-five dollars. Mr. Vap borrowed the money and gave his wagon, harness and three horses as security and paid thirty percent interest besides. He paid off this loan in less than a year, grubbing stumps, cutting and hauling wood. For a single load of wood he received only fifty cents. For a double load cut in short lengths and split nicely he sometimes received as much as $1.75. He remembers of trading a load of wood to Wykoff and Hiskett Meat Market at Cross for a five gallon pail on lard.
As all pioneers remember, the first few years in Oklahoma were hard. Mrs. Vap was a help-mate in every sense of the word; she helped by dropping corn as Mr. Vap made the furrows, she made and sold the beautiful hand-work she had learned to make in her native land. Mrs. Vap remembers one winter, with a baby on her lap, she crocheted a bedspread and a set of pillow shams, and sold the winter's work for five dollars.
They lived on their school quarter for twenty years. Those first years were hard, but those two people didn't once give up. What they couldn't afford to buy they did without. Almost every Sunday they drove their team to Ponca City, and attended church. They are devout Catholics and have worshiped for many years in the church on Sixth and Oklahoma.
After their first few years of hardships, they began to reap their reward. They bought more land, owning three farms and their town residence, where they now live.
Obituary
Funeral services for Frank J. Vap, 86, Ponca City, were held at 10 a.m., Monday in St. Mary's Catholic church, Msgr. William H. Reid, officiating. Burial was in the Catholic cemetery, Ponca City.
Vap was born Dec. 22, 1876, in Moravia, Czechslovakia. He emigrated to this country at the age of 18, settling in Atwood, Kan. In 1893 he was married to Aloisia Hanzel, and moved to a farm southeast of Kildare in 1895. He went to Ponca City upon his retirement in 1930.
He is survived by his wife of the home; six children, Frank Jr., north of Ponca City; Mrs. Frank C. Glaser, north of Ponca City; Mrs. L. C. Horinek, Newkirk; Mrs. John Gower, Ponca City; Raymond Vap, Kildare; and Mrs. Arthur Phelps, Ponca City; three brothers, Alois, Ludell, Kans., Enoch, Newkirk; and Joe, Apache; four sisters, Mrs. Mary Cloe, Mrs. Joe Petera and Mrs. Frank Pitner, all of Atwood, and Mrs. Method Kvasnica, Anadarko; 19 grandsons and 10 great-grandchildren.
