Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2001-09-01 / 1. szám
Hungarian Heritage Day 2001 honorees at Arpádhon-Hungarian Settlement : ÁRPÁDHON-HUNGARIAN SETTLEMENT "The Árpádhon Hungarian Settlement Cultural Association welcomes you to the Thirteenth Annual Heritage Day celebration. We are proud to honor our Senior Hungarians, ages seventy-five and older. They have given us the leadership and guidance we have needed through the years to help preserve our Hungarian culture." -This was the beginning of the invitation to the Heritage Day festivities on Sunday, June 10, 2001 in LOUISIANA. The roots of Hungarian Settlement go back over a centi !fY. It was organized m 1896, and to honor the Hungarian Millennium the community was then called Arpádhon. The founding fathers worked in the Brackenridge Lumber Mill and bought cut-over timberland to farm and raise strawberries. " 500 taller in a year from one acre strawberry patch on the lar&est Hungarian farm community in the Umted States" this is how the advertisement in .the Clevela.nd paper tried to entice Runga.nans workmg m the northern American factories and mines to come south. By 1908 foundation was laid for the Reformed church, followed by the Catholics in 1910. The services were held in Hungarian for more then fifty years. The first newspaper "Amerikai Magyar Kertészlap" appeared in 1912. By the 1930s, the population of the Magyar community had grown to about two-hundred families and became known as "Hungarian Settlement." Alex Bartus, "the strawberry preacher" was the sole ofthe community for over 46 years. Coming from the small Borsod County town of Tisz~dob at a young age, he was sent by the Arpádhon community to the Bloomfield College and Seminary in New Jersey and became the preacher, school teacher, agricultural adviser, environmental advocate, in a word the strong leader of its people. The Hungarian American Foundation recognized his memory with a posthumous award. The colony went into decline when the new railroad bypassed the town and the nearby cjty of AJbany built a I~rge cQmmercial hub. Still the Hungarian heritage was kept alive among the descendants of the settlers. The Kropog family is typical of those. Three of the current generation is still around. With difficulty they still speak the mother tongue. The parents talked Hungarian among themselves, the children learned to read and write from the Hungarian newspaper Szabadság and the yearly Calendars. Sándor Kropog organized a Hungarian school in the seventies with teachers sent by the Hungarian Government. Ambrus Galántai the current consul in Los Angeles was one of these teachers. The Arpádhon Hungarian Settlement Left: Early settlers. Right from top: Sign for the town. The founders. Louis Bartus in the center. László Papp with Julianna Bika and Dr. István Gergátz.
