In 1903, Professor Bohumil Simek of the University of Iowa and F. J. Pipal, a student of the University of Nebraska, established at Lincoln the first of the Komensky Educational Clubs. These clubs were intended to unite the Czech-Americans who had some education. The movement, which included plans for building a monument to the Czech educator Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), spread extensively and finally included twenty-nine societies, chiefly in the states of Nebraska and Iowa, although there were some in Texas, Chicago and New York. For a while this loosely knit organization was even able to publish a periodical bulletin.[33] These clubs petitioned at once for the establishment of Czech language courses at the University of Nebraska. Although the request was turned down on the ground that there was a lack of interest in such a project among the Czechs, a new attempt was made during the winter of 1906–07. John Rosicky, an outstanding publisher of Czech newspapers in Nebraska, and Vaclav Bures, both of Omaha, met the Regents of the state university along with Frank Rejcha, a member of the Nebraska legislature. The Chancellor of the university, in refusing the request, proposed a political deal whereby a tax of one mill would be laid on certain railroad properties and earmarked for the university. By clever lobbying, the Czechs secured passage for the bill. Then the Governor of the state cut the grants to the university and the Chancellor again declined to set up a Slavonic department. Later the same summer, however, another request was more successful and courses were started in the fall of 1907. The first instructor was Jeffrey Dolezal Hrbek, a graduate of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and, at the time, a student in the University of Iowa. He was appointed head of the new Department of Slavonic and instructor in the Germanic languages and literatures. Unfortunately Hrbek, a young man of great promise, became ill and died on December 4, 1907. He was succeeded by his sister Sarka B. Hrbkova, who graduated from the University of Iowa in 1909 and received an M.A. from Nebraska in 1914. Under her period of teaching, the department flourished. In 1910 she was named adjunct professor; in 1914, an assistant professor; and in 1918, she became a full professor. She was also very active during the war in various aspects of Czech-American relations.