Vaclav Klaisner
1872-1952
Our paternal grandfather was Vaclav Klaisner. He was born in the village of Ježovy, Bohemia, about 75 miles southwest of Prague in the modern day Czech Republic, on 20 May 1872, as the 3rd child and 2nd son of Václav Kleisner (the Czech spelling) and Magdalena Koptík. He emigrated to Chicago in 1891 and married Julia Hoffman, also a Bohemian immigrant, on 19 Aug 1896 in Elma, Iowa. They moved west to Billings, Montana, and had five sons and a daughter between 1897 and 1910. The couple divorced in 1911. Vaclav was committed to Stockton State Hospital in the 1920s and spent the rest of his days there until his death on 19 Aug 1952.
Photographs of Vaclav Klaisner
In the Arizona desert in 1923
About 1925 in California
With his daughter Molly
With Molly and his brother Glenn’s wife Ann
Vaclav received 40 acres of land near Billings, Montana from the Bureau of Land Management on October 15, 1919.
The land was located to the northeast of Billings, as seen in the following maps. The darkest orange square in the lower left was Vaclav's property.
"Search Documents by Type: Patents,” database with images, General Land Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov: accessed 11 September 2024), Vaclav Klaisner (Yellowstone County, Montana), Accession no. 712965, 10/15/1919.
1919: Land Patent in Montana
Family copy.
Ancestry.com. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934, 1890-1900 Direkt Band 075 (1 Aug 1891 - 30 Sep 1891), image 99 of 412 : accessed 11 Sep 2024.
Vaclav became a naturalized citizen in 1913, when he was living in Montana. We have the original certificate in the family, and it is pictured below. Note that he changed the spelling of his surname from Kleisner to Klaisner.
1913: Becoming a Naturalized Citizen
Our grandfather came to America on the ship Scandia which sailed from Hamburg, Germany, to Baltimore, Maryland on August 15, 1891. The ship's passenger list below, shows him listed (pointed to by the arrow) as "Vacl" Kleisner, age 19, from Ježov (Ježovy), occupation Maurer (mason).
1891: Emigration to America
Stockton State Hospital
Vaclav was a resident of the Stockton State Hospital in California from 1925 until his death in 1952. My father signed the admitting papers and said it was a very difficult time.
Ancestry.com, 1950 U.S. Federal Census > California > San Joaquin > O’Neal > 39-59,
image 48 of 126 : accessed 3 Apr 2025.
1921: A Close Call
From this newspaper account, we learn that Vaclav was found wandering in an Arizona desert in 1921.
"Former C. R. Man Chased by Coyotes," Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, 29 Apr 1921, p. 15; digital images, NewspaperArchive.com (http://newspaperarchive.com : accessed 13 Dec 2017).
Death in 1952
Gravestone
There is a gravestone for Vaclav in Mountview Cemetery in Billings, Montana, though his remains were buried on the State Hospital grounds in California.
Find-A-Grave, Memorial #125461189 , https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125461189/vaclav-james-klaisner : accessed 10 Dec 2024.
Death Certificate
This is a copy of Václav’s death certificate that our father obtained in 1971.
Family copy