The marking of a grave

If a grave can be lonely, Mathias Picha’s final resting place fit the bill.
The Montgomery farmer died in 1896, and while his grave is surrounded by markers, including his wife Katerina’s, his was only covered by green grass for 124 years.
Last week, Mathias’s grave in St. John Catholic Cemetery received a headstone.
The flat memorial, which matches Katerina’s from 1904, was purchased by Mathias’s great-great-grandson’s family whose recently discovered their ties to Montgomery.
The discovery was made a few years ago when Liz Krocak’s sister, Ruth, and her husband, Jay Picha of Tennessee, visited the family farm. Liz commented on the large number of Pichas in the area.
“It was Jay’s first trip to Minnesota and I told him, ‘Picha? You’re Czech and you’re from here.’ He said, ‘I’ve never been to Minnesota. My family’s from Chicago, and dad says we’re Croatian.’ I told him, ‘I don’t think so,’” Liz said. “I think you’re Czech, and you’re from here.”
The family learned Mathias and Katerina’s firstborn, John, left Montgomery for Chicago to pursue a career in music.
Ruth added, “It turns out they came from the Czech Republic directly to Montgomery. So Mathias is my husband’s great-great-grandfather.”
At his grandmother’s funeral years ago in Chicago, Jay was talking with his aunts about their family’s ancestors. They told him the family is from a small town in southern Minnesota called Montgomery, and his great-great-grandparents are buried there, but one didn’t have a headstone.
The Picha relatives met at the cemetery last year and decided to purchase a permanent headstone for Mathias, one that matched Katerina’s.
Mathias and Katerina’s graves are located directly north of the church. Finding them was easy, Liz said because she used the book “Montgomery: From the Big Woods To the Kolacky Capital.”
She also discovered they are located in the middle of her husband, Bob’s, relatives.
“We (Liz and her siblings) didn’t grow up here. We grew up in northeast Minneapolis. Had I not married Bob and moved to Montgomery, Ruth wouldn’t have brought Jay to visit me in Montgomery, and we would have never known that Jay’s family is buried here in the middle of the family plot,” Liz said. “I told Bob, ‘If this doesn’t make you cousins, I don’t know what does.’ ”
On Friday, Liz, her family, Ruth, and Ruth’s daughter, Rachel viewed the newly-placed headstone. They adorned both with fresh flower bouquets and talked about the Picha and Krocak families.
When the permanent stone was installed the day before by McGraw Monument Works LLC, a little rock was discovered at the head of Mathias’s grave.
The rock, Liz said, would have been placed on an unmarked grave. It was given to Mathias’s great-grandson, Bill, Jay’s father.
“There is so much serendipity here - so many angels looking down on us to make this happen,” Liz said.