The Bohemian Colony Lands, a vision of Sanley L. Kostoryz, changed the landscape of the Coastal Bend and drew Czech immigrants from central Texas and Nebraska to south Texas. Stanislav l. Kostohryz was born in 1866 in Jemnice, Strakonice district, Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1886, he immigrated through New York. Kostoryz lived in Chicago and then moved to Nebraska where he earned his teaching degree at Western Normal College. In 1896, he married Alice Ruzicka. In addition to his teaching abilities, Kostoryz was also a journalist, publisher and land developer. In 1902, he traveled to south Texas looking for land investments and established the Bohemian Colony Lands two miles southwest of Corpus Christi. Over the next two years, Kostoryz purchased over 7,783 acres that he subdivided into 80-acre farm tracts for purchase. Utilizing his journalistic prowess, he placed advertisements for the Bohemian Colony Lands in Czech language newspapers throughout Texas and the Midwest. In 1906, Kostoryz moved his family to Nueces County and continued to sell acreage to Czech pioneers. In 1907, the Kostoryz Common School District No. 26 was established, and in 1909, a one-room schoolhouse was erected. He departed the U.S. in 1921 for Czechoslovakia to pursue a new business interest, and although he renewed his U.S. passport with plans to return, those plans never materialized. Kostoryz died in 1942 and is buried in Pisek (modern Czech Republic). By the time he left Nueces County, the Bohemian Colony Lands community boasted a school, church and several mutual aid societies. His vision and determination turned approximately 10,000 acres of brush into a productive Czech agricultural community. (2013, 2022)