The story of what became a beloved Kansas business icon began long ago and overseas, when Antonin Brant was born in 1857 in Pectin, Czechoslovakia. There he met and married Katerina Selaceh, who was born 1856 in Nedanice, Czechoslovakia. Ultimately unhappy with the Czech government, Antonin and Katerina boarded the freighter Kolen and sailed for America, arriving in Houston, Texas on March 17, 1907.
They then bought a farm near Wilson, Kansas and settled down to life in a new country. In 1917 the Brants moved to a farm north of Lucas, Kansas. After their retirement son Edmund took over the farm.
Another son, James, had learned the butcher’s trade in Bohemia and for a time operated a meat market in Wilson. On April 17, 1922, he and his wife Mary bought a meat market in nearby Lucas from R. M. Skaggs. Skaggs himself had purchased the market just a month earlier from Harris & Sons, who originally opened the market in 1912. James renamed the Lucas store Brant’s Meat Market, using recipes brought over from the old country for homemade Czech ring bologna and smoked link sausages.
James and Marie Brant had two sons born in the United States, Frank and George. When Frank and George were about to complete high school, James gave his sons a choice: he would sell Brant's Meat Market and the two boys could go to college, OR they could take over Brant's Meat Market. The boys chose to keep Brant's Meat Market. James retired on on June 1, 1935, and Frank with his wife Velma, and George and his wife, Vera Mae, stepped in to operate Brant's Meat Market. Frank passed away on June 11, 1971 and George and Vera Mae ran the market afterwards on their own.
George and Vera Mae had one son, Douglas. Doug graduated from Kansas State University and enlisted in the Army. Doug and his wife Linda returned to Lucas in 1978 to work with his father George at Brant's Meat Market. George retired on July 1, 1985, and son and daughter-in-law Doug & Linda Brant became the third generation family proprietors.
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Doug and Linda had two children, Stephanie and Barry. Stephanie and Barry both graduated from Kansas State University with Master Degrees. Stephanie returned to Lucas in 2015 to help her father, Doug at Brant's Meat Market and soon became the family's fourth generation owner of the market.
The products that Brant's Meat Market is known for – truly wondrous homemade bologna and sausage – earned the business a statewide and even national following. The old recipes, which originated with James, have never been written down. Like the business, they were passed from generation to generation.
That wide reputation for a fantastic product coupled with an environment largely unchanged by the passage of time was why Brant’s Meat Market was named one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce in 2008. It celebrated its 95th year in business in April 2017.
In June 2018 the market passed out of the Brant family as new owners Adam & Ashley Comreau took over the business. Now called Brant’s Market, they look to the future of this small town business with the continued tradition of dependable quality for nearly a century of customer service.
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SOURCES:
Doug and Stephanie Brant, Lucas, Kansas.
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Lucas Independent, May 22, 1922.
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Salina Journal, November 23, 1970; July 23, 1972; March 4, 1979; January 24, 1988.
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Salina Evening Journal, April 22, 1922.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2aoAAYZMCg. "Lucas Kansas' Brant's Meat Market."
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Earl Silo tells about a stop that he made at Brant's Meat Market located in Lucas, Kansas, a great community in Russell County. The video can be found on YouTube and first appeared on September 11, 2017. It features a number of photographs from the Market's history.
An advertisement for James Brant's new business in Lucas appeared in the Lucas Independent of May 22, 1922.
Photograph taken on July 21, 2011, of local Lucas businessman Doug Hickman standing under a mural located on the south wall of Brant's Market. It depicts the Brant family's home village of Roudnice, Podlusky, Czechoslovakia. Photo courtesy of Von Rothenberger.
Doug Brant readies an order for hungry visitors in Brant's Meat Market on September 28, 2013. Photo courtesy of Von Rothenberger.