While the exact time and reason for the exodus of some of the Rouchkas from Plattsmouth, Nebraska is unknown, one potential explanation is that it was due in part to a strike in the Burlington & Missouri Railroad Company shops as part of the great railroad strike in July of 1922. The strike was in response to President Harding's 12 percent wage reduction plan for railroad workers.

Several of Joseph and Mary Rouchka's sons went to work at the Missouri Pacific Railroad shops.