Joseph T. Chadima, a self-made man who owes his present prosperity to his own efforts, is a member of the firm of Chadima Brothers, conducting an extensive and successful business as ice dealers of Cedar Rapids. His birth occurred in this city on the 18th of January, 1870, his parents being Thomas and Anna Chadima, both of whom were natives of Bohemia, in which country they were reared and married. A couple of years after they had been joined in wedlock they crossed the Atlantic to the United States, locating in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and remaining residents of Linn county until called to their final rest.

Joseph T. Chadima spent his youthful days under the parental roof and attended the common schools in pursuit of an education but his opportunities in this direction were limited. When he was a lad of nine years the family traded their town property for an eighty-acre farm and thus he gained thorough familiarity with the work of the fields, hiring out as a farm hand when but fourteen years of age. He was thus busily engaged for a period of about seven years and when he had attained his majority came to Cedar Rapids, here securing a position in the lumber yards of Fay Brothers. At the end of three years he was made yard foreman for the firm, acting in that capacity for five years. In 1900 he embarked in business on his own account as a dealer in ice and a year later was joined by his brother Thomas, the enterprise having since been conducted under the firm style of Chadima Brothers. Under their capable management the business has steadily grown to extensive proportions and this year they have put up about fifteen thousand tons of ice. The prosperity which they now enjoy is all the more creditable by reason of the fact that it is due entirely to their own industry and enterprise, for their father was but a common laboring man when he located in Cedar Rapids and the boys were largely thrown upon their own resources.

On the 7th of October, 1896, Mr. Chadima was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Horak, a native of College township and a daughter of Joseph and Anna Horak, who came to this city from Bohemia in an early day. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Chadima have been born four children, namely: Harry, Lester, Willard and Georgia.

Mr. Chadima is a member of the Sokol Bohemian Athletic Society and the Zapadmi Cesko Bratrska Jednota, a Bohemian society, and also belongs to lodge No. 149 of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. His life has ever been upright and honorable and his record may well serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others, for by unfaltering industry and untiring perseverance he has worked his way steadily upward to a position of prominence in the business circles of his native city. Both he and his wife are held in high regard throughout the county in which they have spent their entire lives and the circle of their friends is almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintances.