Very Rev. Emmanuel A. Bouska Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1213-1214 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	VERY REV. EMMANUEL A. BOUSKA is pastor of St. Wenceslaus parish at 
Tabor, Bon Homme county, where he has erected the largest church edifice 
of the state and the largest, most commodious and with modern 
improvements equipped school, and has made his parish one of the most 
flourishing and important in the diocese. He was born in Borovany, 
Bohemia, Austria, on the 18th of November, 1864, and is a son of Anthony 
and Barbara (Hruska) Bouska, the former of whom was a native of 
Borovany, while the latter was born in Radetice, Bohemia, the respective 
dates of birth being November 29, 1826, and December 3, 1820. Anthony 
Bouska was a son of Joseph and Anna Bouska, and was the owner of 
valuable real estate in his native land at the time of his death, which 
occurred on the 17th of September, 1886. His wife, a daughter of Francis 
and Mary Hruska, is still living at the old homestead in Bohemia. Our 
subject received his early educational discipline in the excellent 
public schools at Bernardice, Bohemia, and took a classical course at 
Tabor, that kingdom. He afterward enrolled himself in the national army, 
having passed the required examinations, and after one year of service 
was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. After the close of his 
military career Father Bouska entered the University of Vienna, where he 
studied law for one year, after which he was matriculated in the 
University of Graz, Styria, Austria, where he took up his theological 
studies, which he later continued and concluded at Chur, Switzerland, 
where he passed four years, at the expiration of which he was ordained 
to the priesthood by Rt. Rev. John Battaglia, bishop of Chur, on the 
14th of July, 1888. He was thereafter an assistant priest in Europe 
until November, 1889, when he came to America and identified himself 
with the diocese of Nebraska, where he was assigned to a pastoral charge 
at Crete, Saline county, where he erected a church and parish house and 
where he remained until 1892, in which year he came to South Dakota and 
was assigned a parish at Kimball, Brule county. In 1893 he was 
transferred, by the late Bishop Marty, O. S. B., to Tabor, Bon Homme 
county. where he has since labored with splendid success and with 
unqualified devotion. Here he has accomplished a notable work, since, as 
before stated, there has been erected under his regime the largest 
church in the state, the same being forty-six by one hundred and thirty-
two feet in dimensions and constructed of hydraulic pressed brick, at an 
expenditure of twenty-five thousand dollars. Later he built a day and 
boarding parochial school, connected with the academy, of the same 
material, the building being fifty-six by sixty-six feet in lateral 
dimensions and four stories in height. The school at the time of this 
writing is in direct charge of seven Sisters of St. Benedict, from 
Vermillion, South Dakota, who work under the general supervision of 
Father Bouska, while in the school are fifty-two boarders and one 
hundred and six daily students, making a total of one hundred and fifty-
five who ate here receiving instruction. The management of the school, 
connected with the academy, is in the capable hands of Sister M. Clara, 
O. S. B. In 1899, in recognition of his ability and his peculiar 
eligibility for the office, Rt. Rev. Thomas O'Gorman, bishop of the 
diocese of Sioux Falls, appointed Father Bouska diocesan consultor, of 
which position he has since been incumbent. Since coming to the state 
Father Bouska has interested himself personally and prominently in 
political affairs, believing this action to be a duty of citizenship and 
in harmony with the precepts of the church, and he is today one of the 
most influential figures in public affairs in Bon Homme and is well 
known and highly respected by leading citizens throughout the state. At 
Tabor he has not only been an indefatigable worker in his parish, giving 
his time and energies to pastoral duties and also to the erection of 
buildings and the infusing of vigor into all departments of church work, 
but he has also been one of the most loyal citizens of the thriving 
little town, at whose cradle he stood, assisting in the organization of 
the village and having been most influential in its civic and social 
growth and development. He has brought about the organization of several 
benevolent societies for his people and is just at present building for 
them a society hall at an expenditure of three thousand dollars and has 
had at all times the affectionate regard and earnest co-operation of 
those among whom he has so zealously and effectively labored. He is 
known as one of the most able and forceful speakers in his native tongue 
in the northwest, and is a man of versatile talent and high scholarship, 
speaking the Bohemian, English, German, Latin and Polish languages and 
reading with readiness the Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spaniard and 
all Slavonic languages. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Bohemian 
Union, the Catholic Knights. the Catholic Foresters and Catholic 
Workmen.