Delphos Republican
Delphos, Kansas
November 18, 1927

John Antene was born in the village of Myto, Republic of Bohemia, June 16, 1850, and died at his home near Ada, Kansas, November 10, 1927, aged seventy-seven years, four months, and twenty-five days.

His boyhood and young manhood was spent in the land of his birth. At the age of twenty-four with his father and younger brother, he came to the United States. Their voyage was made in a sailing vessel which was six weeks in making the trip. Two years later his mother and two younger sisters came to America and the family located in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

For a time Mr. Antene lived in New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In 1874 he came to Kansas and homesteaded a farm six miles north of Ada. Excepting for a year spent in Michigan, he lived the rest of his life on the old homestead. His parents came to Kansas a few years later and homesteaded a farm adjoining their son's.

On December 22, 1878, he was united in marriage to Miss Emma Sleder. To this union were born twelve children, two of whom, Rose of Oketo, and Victor H. Antene of Glasco preceded him in death. He is survived by his faithful and loving wife, ten children, Frank C. Antene of Traverse City, Michigan, Mrs. Guy Jones and Mrs. Tom Bradbury of Minneapolis, Kansas, Edward Antene of Delphos and Carl of Ada. Mrs. John Bruce of Lindsay, Mrs. A.F. Svatopolsky of Clay Center and Mrs. Earl Chapman of Glasco, Kansas, Mrs. Frank Yager of Oklahoma City, and Mrs. Earl Major of Tacoma, Washington. He is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Will Coffman of Grand Ridge, Florida, and by fifteen grandchildren.

Mr. Antene was well known by the early residents of Ottawa County. He came to Kansas when this country was almost continuous prairies, when the roads were mere trails, when Minneapolis was a village of a store and a few dwellings, when the overland stage was the means of travel and when ox teams furnished the motive power for turning the soil and for getting one to his distant neighbor. He as well as his father and brother were musicians and helped cheer many a frontier gathering with their music.

For the last fifteen years he has been a patient sufferer and has been confined to his home and to his bed and wheelchair a great deal of the time. When his pain would not permit him to raise his arm to play his violin, he would entertain his callers by playing upon the zither. Through all these years of suffering he never complained but was cheerfully interested in those about him and in the world beyond his door. He was a great reader. Deprived of the privilege of personal intercourse with his fellow men, he read his daily paper and a foreign weekly, keeping abreast of the times and keenly alive to all that took place in this nation and in foreign lands. The week before his death he read with interest a book of the day. While his body suffered, his mind rose above his earthly impediments.

On Saturday of last week, Mr. Antene was taken quite ill but continued to be about in his chair. He suffered much. On Thursday he went to bed as usual, slept awhile, wakened and called to his wife who was watching by his bedside and in a few moments had passed to the great beyond.

As a young man he fought the battles of the prairies, persevered through blizzard and drought, lived a simple and unassuming life and loved truth and fair play. His home was a place where naught but good of friends or neighbor might be said. He looked above the petty trifles of life and lived the Golden Rule. He was devoted to his family, loyal to his neighbors and friends, and true to his trusts.

The funeral service was conducted in the Ada Methodist Church with the Reverend F.G. Smith in charge. Music was furnished by a quartet from the Ada Baptist Church and at the request of Mr. Antene a special violin number was given by Mr. Wilbur White of Oketo, Kansas, his son-in-law and former pupil.