Fraternity-Testvériség, 1981 (59. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1981-01-01 / 1. szám
ETHEL R. and STEPHEN C. MOLNÁR: GLIMPSES INTO THE PAST Preface Shortly after ihe Convention of 1980 had elected the new officers of the Federation, the president-elect, Reverend Imre G Bertalan was talking to Miss Ethel Molnár, who had been re-elected to the Board of Directors. During the conversation he remarked that it would be good to aquaint the membership with the “great and glorious” history of the early days of the Federation, which, to many of the members, was largely an unknown story. Since, among the living, there was no one who had been among the early workers, what would be more logical than to have the former long-time secretary, Stephen Molniar’s family, those who had literally grown up during those years, attempt to let the membership know of that early work. So, Miss Molnár, who is ss familiar as any person with those early years, readily agreed to undertake the task, adding further that she would obtain the help of her brother Stephen!, In addition to their personal memories of the early 20’a and 30’s of the Federation’s history, they have in their possession much memorabilia, in the form of picture? ol the early Board of Directors, of officers, copies of the official magazines, and, probably most interesting of all, translations (as well as the originals) of many of Mr- Molnar’s talks and speeches made at branch meetings of the Federation and at church jubilees. By putting all these together, they thought that they could present an interesting, accurate account of the early days of the Federation’s history. In the last decades of the Nineteenth Century, there were many Magyar immigrants working in the coal fields of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Poor immigrants to this country, with little knowledge of the language, they were forced by circumstances to toil at whatever work they could find. They did this willingly in order to provide for their families and themselves. The work was hard and dangerous. Many accidents took place. There was no United Mine Workers Union to look after the miners and as a result, whenever one of the men was killed, as was often the case, the family was usually left de8litude, dependent upon the charity of their fel- lowmcn. In Trenton, N- J., on June 4th, 1986, a group of ministers and laymen met to try to alleviate the situation by organizing the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, with the avowed purpose of assisting the widows and orphans of those miners Stephen Molnár who met their death at their work. That was their primary reason and aim In addition, they were determined to gather together all the Magyar peoples for the purpose of self-help and relief of suffering. We honor their memory: Kalassay Sándor, Harsányi Sándor, Dókus Gábor, Ferenczy Ferenc, Demeter Bertalan, Jurányi Gusztáv, ministers; Nyitray Emil, Szabó Pál, Fűzi Pál, Czimbalmos István and Pásztor István, church representatives. There were only twelve at the founding meeting, the same number as the Apostles of Christ Jesus. It seemed an impossible task — a dream — but a goal to be achieved. And the goal was achieved! The Master’s twelve apostles set as their goal the changing of the world. Our twelve fore-runners set as their goal the gathering together of our people. Behind both groups, encouraging their efforts, was the Master. It was through the faith and work of the Apostles that the Christian church today is what it is. It was through the faith and work of our forefathers and their followers that the Federation is what it is today. Our father became a member of the Federation’s Toledo branch in March, 1897, during a drive for membership. He was one of the charter members of the branch. The first of the different branches of the Fedeva- tion,, which were established at about the same time, at the turn of the century, were quite vociferous in their claiming to be the “number one” branch- There was quite a lot of rivalry among the groups becoming quite heated at times. My father solved the delimmé by arbitrarily assigning branch numbers alphabetically, according to the name of the town where they were located. Thus, Bridgeport, Conn, became Branch No. 1, beating out all the other aspirants for the honor, even though Bridgeport was not the first branch to be organized. Toledo, which 5
