Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-02-01 / 2. szám
There is a magnificent, “Gilded Age" mansion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in front of which the American and Hungarian flags are proudly flagpoled side-byside, 24 hours-a-day and brightly spotlighted all night long, and seven days-a-week. It is the only building of its kind in the United States where such a public demonstration of pride in and love for America is shared with pride in and love for our Hungarian heritage. This historic building (Darlington House), once the property of the Catholic Knights of St. George, originally a German Fraternal Society founded in 1881, is now the national headquarters of the 100-year-old, William Penn Association. The William Penn Association was founded on February 21, 1886, in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, by thirteen Hungarian coal miners. It was chartered by the state of Pennsylvania in December of that year under the name “Verhovay Aid Association." The goal of the founders was to extend a helping hand to each other and to the many Hungarian immigrants who worked and suffered in the mines and industrial centers of America at a period in its history when insurance of any sort was still in the faraway future. With no sick benefits, no unemployment compensation, and no death benefits for their families, and with the immigrants being =4äungarian-clkmertcana= WHAT SO PROUDLY WE HAIL maimed and killed by the thousands in the ever-recurring industrial accidents, they had no other recourse but to turn to each other for help. This is how fraternalism was born in America, and these were the same conditions that prompted the thirteen founders to establish the Verhovay Association. After nearly four decades of growth, and with well over threehundred chapters throughout the northeastern states, in 1926 the Home Office was moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By this time the Verhovay had grown into the largest, wealthiest and most successful of all the Hungarian-American fraternal organizations. This growth was also speeded up by mergers with a number of other smaller fraternal societies. The most significant of these mergers included the Workingmen's Sick Benefit Federation (Munkás Betegsegelyzo Egyesület) of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Hungarian Baptist Society (Magyar Baptista Egylet) of Cleveland, Ohio; and the Rákóczi Aid Association (Rákóczi Segelyzo Egyesület) of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The merger with the Rákóczi Aid Association in 1955 was most significant, for here two of the largest fraternals came together to form the William Penn Fraternal Association to preserve and to perpetuate Hungarian culture in America. In 1972 the name of the joint organization was changed to “William Penn Association," which is regarded to be identical with the original Verhovay Aid Association, but also a direct descendent of the Rákóczi Aid Association founded in 1888. Although by now the dominant and unrivaled Hungarian- American fraternal society, during the past decade it continued to grow by additional mergers. These included the merger with the American Life Insurance Association (Bridgeporti Szövetség) in 1979; the merger with the American Hungarian Catholic Society of Cleveland, Ohio in 1980; the merger with the Catholic Knights of St. George of Pittsburgh in 1983. The last of these mergers was again very significant because it brought a major local fraternal society, founded nearly a hundred years earlier in 1881, into the fold of the William Penn Association. Today the William Penn Association stands as the unrivaled major Hungarian fraternal society in America. Its goals are to provide benefits to its members and their beneficiaries; to provide housing for its elderly and disabled members; to render other fraternal services to these members and their families (including scholarships for their children); and to aid in the preservation of Hungarian culture and Hungarian ideals in this great land of America, and to do so in accordance with the goals of the Founding Fathers of both the Association and of the United States. FEBRUARY 1987 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 13 !
