It's been called the "Bohemian Exodus" - at least locally.

ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, located on the east
side of Bohemian Road south of M-22, is denoted
as an historic site, as is St. Wenceslaus Church
and cemetery in Leelanau Township.

It took place in the middle of the 19th century, and the area pioneers from central Europe have left a strong legacy in Leelanau County and neighboring Traverse City.

Political and social turmoil culminated in the “Revolution of 1848,” which shook a number of countries and old empires to their core and spurred emigration. Those who left “the old country” weren’t necessarily seeking to escape poverty, as was commonly the case with immigrants years later.

In Leelanau, the most familiar family name is Greilick. In Traverse City, it’s Wilhelm.

“Godfrey Greilick was the patriarch of the pioneer family that contributed so much to the development of the local area,” Robert Wilson wrote in Grand Traverse Legends. “The little town of Norrisville was renamed Greilickville in honor of Godrey Greilick. Each of the six Greilick children made significant contributions to the community helping to establish a legacy for the Greilick name.”

Godfrey, according to Wilson, was “a well known architect and building contractor in Kratzau, Bohemia.” Godfrey, who was “born in about 1810,” and his wife Theresa, left Europe with the family in 1847, arriving in New York on the Fourth of July. Unfortunately, a son, Ferdinand, died during the voyage and was buried at sea.

The family resided in New York for six years before moving west to Chicago, where they met other Bohemians who had an interest in northern Michigan, which was only beginning to be developed.

Godrey Greilick died in 1863 in a pile driving accident on the West Bay shoreline.

But his name lives on and on.

Other settlers traveling north with Greilick included Francis Kratochvil and Joseph Shalda. The Shalda name is a familiar one in north-central Leelanau County, while most of the Kratochvil descendants ended up south of Traverse City. There was, however, a Kratochvil brewery, later known as the Palm Garden, and operated by Frank Kratochvil, Jr., in Greilickville. Brewery Creek remains to this day in Elmwood Township, although the brewery itself is long gone.

Decades after a settlement at North Unity, on Good Harbor Bay, was established before the Civil War by a group of Bohemians and Germans, an account of the early pioneer and later days appeared (about 1910) in a Chicago Czech language newspaper. Molly Kropp, who did her best to collect local history, lent a translated version of the account to Edmund Littell, who printed it in 100 Years in Leelanau.

The account, attributed to a Joseph Krubner, who was born in 1846 in Pelkrimov, concluded with the following sentences:
“In our Bohemian settlement are 32 families, we have four schools and a Catholic Church. Most of our people are subscribers to both English and Bohemian (Czech) newspapers. During the summer we have lots of visitors, as our country is really beautiful. Even our postmaster is a Czech, his name is Joseph Chalda (Shalda). He is the owner of the general merch store where for our use is even the telephone.”

Bohemian Road, in Cleveland Township, runs from Lake Michigan due south until it meets the Burdickville Road west of Maple City. On the east side of the road, south of M-22, one finds St. Joseph’s church, virtually unchanged since it was built. A marker denotes the historic building.

An historic marker is also to be found at St. Wenceslaus Church, in Leelanau Township. It points out that settlers from Bohemia came to the area and worked at the Leland Lake Superior Iron Foundry, as well as nearby Gill’s sawmill.

Ornate metal grave markers reflect the Bohemian heritage, as do the names Bourda, Houdek, Hula, Jelinek, Kalchick, Kirt, Kolarik, Korson, Kovarik, Maresh, Novotny, Reicha and Sedlacek, which all appear in the cemetery. Author Wilson identifies John Wilhelm, Sr., as the leader of the “Bohemian Exodus.”

Born in Sasova, Bohemia on March 23, 1815, he became a “successful tailor” but he nevertheless traveled to America, which he heard was “the land of opportunity,” with his family in 1853.

“On March 2, 1857, John Wilhelm bought two lots in Leelanau,” Wilson wrote. “At that time his address was given as Chicago.”

But John, two brothers and subsequent Wilhelms, are most closely associated with Traverse City. The City Opera House, constructed in 1891, was built by “three Bohemian brothers-in-law,” Charles Wilhelm, Anton Bartak, and Frank Votruba.

The Wilhelm store in Old Town, last operated by Tony Wilhelm, was in operation for about a century. The large brick building still stands on Union Street at Eighth, and today houses a cellular telephone office.

Nearby is a state historic marker, similar to the one at St. Wenceslaus. It marks the site of Novotny’s Saloon and credits Antoine Novotny as being “one of the Bohemian founders of this community.”

Other families, whose names may be traced back to Bohemia, are linked to neighboring Elmwood Township. The names include Stanek, Kroupa, Rokos and Fisher (Fischer).

And finally, there were the Kuceras, to name one more Bohemian family. Karen Frook, an Elmwood Township resident, relates her grandfather, John Kucera, operated a tavern in Maple City. His father, Anton Kucera, was one of the group who came from North Unity from Chicago in 1855.

Frook’s father, Frank Kucera, lived in Traverse City and established a tavern on Front Street that became something of a local landmark. For years, the tavern was known simply as Lil Bo’s. It was a shortened version of its original full name – Little Bohemia.

The Bohemian imprint on the area has indeed been an enduring one.