Joseph Zitka Biography

	This biography appears on pages 1143-1144 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOSEPH ZITKA, cashier of the Security Bank at Tyndall, is a native of 
Bohemia, where he was born on the 21st of March, 1850, being a son of 
Joseph and Anna (Riha) Zitka, of whose three children he is the elder of 
the two surviving, the other being Frances, who is the wife of Charles 
Vaulk, of Bon Homme county, this state. The father of the subject was a 
farmer in his native land, where he continued to reside until 1867, when 
he immigrated with his family to the United States, locating in Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa, where he remained about three years, after which he came 
as a pioneer to South Dakota, which was then still a portion of the 
great undivided territory of Dakota. He located in Bon Homme county, 
where he took up a homestead claim and again turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits. He was a man of energy and excellent business 
judgment, and through his well-directed efforts he attained a definite 
success in connection with his industrial enterprise as a pioneer of 
this state, while he so lived as to command the respect of all who knew 
him. At the time of his death, which occurred in September, rgo2, he was 
a resident of Bon Homme county, South Dakota, and his political faith 
was that of the Democratic party. 

	The subject of this sketch received his early educational 
discipline in his native land, being accorded the advantages of the 
excellent schools in the vicinity of his home, and being about seventeen 
years of age at the time of the family's emigration to the United 
States. After locating in South Dakota he continued to be associated 
with his father in his farming enterprises until 1883, a partnership 
relation having been maintained. He early became interested in matters 
of public concern and eventually became a prominent factor in the local 
councils of the Democratic party, of whose principles and policies he 
has ever been a stalwart advocate. In 1872 he was elected a member of 
the board of county commissioners of Bon Homme county and in the ensuing 
year he was still further honored by being chosen to represent his 
district in the legislature of the territory, while in 1876 he was again 
elected a member of the board of county commissioners. In 1883 Mr. Zitka 
was elected register of deeds of Bon Homme county, having become a 
resident of this county in 1870, and this office he held for three 
consecutive terms of two years each. In 1889 he was a member of the 
constitutional convention, at Sioux Falls, which formulated the present 
admirable constitution of the state. In 1898 he was elected treasurer of 
Bon Homme county, and thereupon became a resident of Tyndall, the county 
seat having been removed to this place from Bon Homme in 1885. 

	In 1889 was effected the organization of the Security Bank in 
Tyndall and Mr. Zitka was chosen cashier of the new institution, a 
position of which he has ever since remained incumbent, while his 
discriminating management of its affairs has shown him to be an able 
executive and through his efforts the institution has become one of the 
popular and solid ones of the state. He is the owner of about fifteen 
hundred acres of valuable farming land in Bon Homme county. He and his 
wife are communicants of the Catholic church and fraternally he is a 
member of Bon Homme Lodge, No. 101, Free and Accepted Masons. 

	On the 8th of June, 1877, Mr. Zitka was united in marriage to Miss 
Mary Bohac, of Crete, Nebraska, and of this union have been born eight 
children, concerning whom we enter the following brief record: Hattie is 
the wife of Frank Chladek, of Hawarden, Iowa; Rose is the wife of John 
Herman, of Tabor, South Dakota; and Mary, Charles, Anna, Agnes, Frances 
and George still remain at the parental home, which is a center of 
refined hospitality.