The Eighth Tribe, 1978 (5. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1978-07-01 / 7. szám

Fage 6

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

July, 1978

writers wlio took part in the Hungarian War of Independence Frederick Kerényi landed in America and died somewhere in Texas.

Among the many rootless Hungarians in America there was one who actually made a career for himself, Ágoston Haraszty. He arrived in America in 1840 with his family and a cousin named Charles Halász. Together with an English friend he founded a city in Wisconsin, now known as Sauk City. In the 50’s Haraszty lived in California where he laid the foundations of vine culture. According to our knowledge he was the only Hungarian who served as a delegate at the time of the founding of California.

The Civil War began with the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. According to Béla Estvan’s book, “War Pictures from the South"’, which appeared in 1863, while serving as a cavalry Colonel with the Confederate army he planned the seige of Sumter. If this can he believed this doubtful honor belongs to the Hungarians. Hungarian sympathy was naturally with Lincoln and as we know largely upon the basis of Edmund Vasvárv’s research, some 800 of the 4,000 Hungarians in America took part in the five year long war. There were only about a dozen on the Confederate side. Since the great majority of Hungarians who emigrated after 1848 were drawn from the intelligencia, it is not surprising to find that more than a hundred served as officers, ten as generals. One, Julius Szamvald Stahel received the highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Many of the officers were colonels. The first successful Northern battle was won by Charles Zagonyi, who had been a cavalry officer in 1848. Thus far we know that nine of the Hungarians died on the field of battle.

Upon the completion of the Civil War the reconstruction of the United States and its industrial expansion began. The mines and mills cried for men; the Canadian, American and Argentine wheat production crushed the price of wheat in Europe; African and American mines made it economically unfeasible for Hungarian mines to produce; the uncounted sheep of Australia depressed wool prices everywhere in Europe. The result was increased pressure for emigration from Hungary, now because of economic and not political reasons. It is worthy of note that this new emigration began in the counties of Abauj and Moson. This was due to the influence of the Germans. Through them the Hungarians gained encouragement to emigrate. The first notable settlements, aside from New York where Hungarian Jews moved in large numbers, were in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. In 1880 the Hungarians of Hazelton

had their first sick benefit society, the ancestor of the later Verhovay Association. With the development of the steel industry the bituminous fields boomed. Thus, in the middle of the 1880’s, Hungarians moved to the minefields of western Pennsylvania.

Hungarian immigration continued unabated from 1880 to 1914, and at least half a million whose mother tongue was Hungarian came to America. Their place of settlement could be described as a triangle, whose three points were Buffalo, Chicago and Pocahantas, Virginia. Settlements were begun along the many Eastern rivers, the Hudson, Delaware, Lehigh, Mahoning, Allegheny and Ohio. Many others settled on the banks of the Great Lakes.

LTilike the English, Germans and Irish, the Hungarians looked upon their stay in America as temporary in nature. Their one goal was to save enough money to pay off their debts in the homeland and perhaps buy some land there. Until the 1920’s a constant stream of immigrants went back and forth between the two nations. There were many who made the trip a dozen times. Once they tried American life it was extremely difficult to reenter the life of the European village community. Thus, in spite of the great love of their ancestral land, the great majority of Hungarians remained here in America.

The mass immigration which was completely without direction from a religious point of view, forced the growing Hungarian population to organize. The first such acts took place in the realm of social aid. Neither the employers nor the government were concerned with the fate of workers or their families in the event of illness, accident or death. Since fatal accidents were common in the mines, it was natural that miners felt the greatest need for help. The first continuous and national Hungarian insurance organization wras the Verhovay, which was founded by miners in Hazelton in 1886. This was followed by the Rákóczi Association of Bridgeport in 1888. These two national organizations united to form the William Penn Fraternal Association.

The most active religious group among the immigrant Hungarians was the Reformed element. It had attempted to form a congregation in New York City in 1851. In 1879 a united effort was begun with Slovak Reformed folk in Mt. Carmel, Pa. Another attempt was made in New York City in 1884, but it also failed. The earliest congregation which is still in existence was organized in Pittsburgh in 1890. Another was formed in Cleveland in 1891, and since then 120 congregations have been established.

Fraternal organization among the Reformed people began in 1896 when the present Hungarian Re