Extract all information: The following is a biographical sketch of Thomas Kraitchar from 1893. Thomas Kraitchar, senior member of the well-known mercantile firm of Thomas Kraitchar & Son, of Caldwell, Burleson county, is a native of Austria, Bohemia, where he was born April 8, 1848. His parents were Thomas and Anna Kraitchar, natives also of Bohemia, the father born in 1799 and the mother in 1809. The parents, with their three small children, two daughters and one. son, emigrated to the United States in 1855 and settled at Houston, this State. There the mother died in 1866, and the father a year later. Both were thrifty, industrious, law-abiding and home-loving people, members for many years of the Lutheran Church, and faithful in the discharge of their domestic and religious duties. The daughters married in this State, the elder, Teresa, marrying Joseph Hajek and residing now in Houston, and the younger marrying first Paul Wickophen, and after his death, Joseph Augusta, with whom she now resides on a farm in Burleson county. Thomas Kraitchar, the subject of this notice, was the youngest of the above family. He was reared mainly in Houston, in the schools of which city he received a common English education. December 17, 1867, he married Anna Mikeska, of Houston, and for the next three or four years continued his residence in that place, being variously engaged. In 1869 he moved to Washington county, where he settled on a farm and followed farming pursuits for the next year. He then moved to Burleson county, where he engaged in farming for seven or eight years, after which he embarked in the mercantile business at Caldwell, and has followed the same ever since. Mr. Kraitchar was one of the first settlers of Bohemian birth in Burleson county. The first five families that settled in this county came in the following order: Thomas Kraitchar, Frank Mikeska, Thomas Elshik, John Gavenda and Joseph Obadal, but two of whom now remain in the county, these being Mr. Kraitchar and Mr. Gavenda. The colony, however, has been greatly augmented by other arrivals. In 1870 there were five Bohemian votes in Burleson county; there are now about 550. Mr. Kraitchar has always been a leader among his people, having won their confidence and respect by his business sagacity, his honesty and uprightness, and his uniform kindness and indulgence to them. He has also taken standing among the best citizens of the community where he resides, regardless of nationality, being a progressive, enterprising and public-spirited man. He has served as Alderman of the town of Caldwell for two years, and is now a member of the board, being on his second term. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1877, and has held a number of positions in the order. He belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Honor and to the Bohemian Benevolent Association, of which last order he is now State Collector. While on the farm Mr. Kraitchar was identified with the best interests of the farming community, being a member of the State Alliance, of which he was Vice-President. Mr. Kraitchar has had two children, Mary and Thomas, the latter being now the junior member of the firm of Kraitchar & Son. Thomas Kraitchar, Jr., married Mary Kocourek, a daughter of Joseph Kocourek, of Burleson county, in 1890, and has one child.