, a Waco Texas Bed and Breakfast, is owned by Mark and Susan Mazanec and their children. Mark and the children represent the fourth and fifth generations of Mazanec's to have been raised on the ranch, which was established in 1913 by Mathias and Agnes Mazanec. This page contains some of the early history of the first Mazanec family to live on the property now known as Rope The Wind Ranch, along with subsequent family-owners of the ranch.
was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1869. He came to Waco around 1887 and started working as a dishwasher at Tivoli Hall, a boarding house and saloon in downtown Waco, around 3rd St. and Franklin Avenue. He later became a cook there and must have lived very frugally, because he saved enough money and purchased the Union Fish Market on the square while he was still employed at the Tivoli.
Mike sold or traded the fish market for the Bismarck Saloon, and he owned it from 1904 to 1906, when during that year he purchased Tivoli Hall, which consisted of a boarding house, short order cafe, saloon and pool hall. Later, Mike sold the boarding house and cafe portion, and he kept the pool hall and saloon portion until 1911, when he sold that as well.
Mike met Agnes Nemecek, who was doing maid work at the Tivoli, and they married in 1893. She had come from Moravia in 1888 at the age of 16 with her mother and younger brother to join the rest of their family who had settled in the town of West, Texas (about 15 miles north of Waco), a small, mostly Czechoslovakian community. After Mathias and Agnes married, they moved into a house on North 5th St. (below) This is where his third son, Edward George Mazanec Sr., was born in 1901, and who later settled on what is now Rope The Wind Ranch.



A decade later, the Mazanec family moved to a farm in nearby Ross, Texas and lived there for a short time before moving back to Waco at a home on North 19th and Lyle Streets. Edward, shown third from left, and his brothers Joseph, John, and Anton enjoyed playing sandlot baseball and boxing!
, Mike Mazanec purchased a house which had been built in 1903 (pictured below) and approx. 868 acres east of Waco and moved there in 1913. Although all of the boys had completed their schooling in Waco, the two youngest were made to attend the nearby Concord School for two more years. Edward Sr. graduated from Tyler Business College in 1922. There was no electricity at this time. The homestead shown is where Mark and Susan Mazanec live today, and the bed and breakfast is next door today (not shown in this picture).
Life on the ranch in the early 1900's. Mike Mazanec, on left, sawing wood using a tractor motor and belt for powering his saw. The old homestead is in the background.

Below is Agnes Mazanec washing clothes the hard way in the back yard. Note the wringer/washer at the far left of the picture.

After Mike and Agnes moved to West in 1931, their son Edward and his wife, also named Agnes (Jezek), bought the ranch and moved into the old homestead. Edward and Agnes Mazanec (now deceased) raised their three children in the homestead, all of whom are still enjoying life and have children and grandchildren of their own.

Mike and Agnes entertained relatives from Missouri and West, TX as well as local friends throughout their years while residing at the homestead. Mike was a charter member of the Sons of Hermann and he helped organize the first Slovanik Benevolent Order of Texas (S.P.J.S.T.) lodge in Waco. He also served as a county commissioner for Precinct 3.