The Eighth Tribe, 1979 (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1979-04-01 / 4. szám
Page 2 THE EIGHTH TRIBE April, 1979 This issue of the Eighth Tribe is dedicated to Col. Commandant Michael Kováts de Fabricy, first commandant and founder of the United States Army Cavalry, and all those of Hungarian ancestry who gave their lives for the United States. • * • The Eighth Tribe and Bethlen Press proudly takes part in this celebration of our distinguished ancestor's two hundredth year anniversary. * # * Because this issue is read by many for the first time, and the name of this magazine “The Eighth Tribe” seems a little strange, we would like to give the meaning and explain how the name “Eighth Tribe” came into existence. The Magyar (Hungarian) Nation consisted of seven tribes who wandered throughout southeast Asia and the southern part of the Ukraine, where they founded the city of Kiev. In the ninth century, they finally arrived at the Carpathian Mountains. Entering through the Verecke Pass they took possession of the Duna-Tisza basin, where they found some of their related tribes, who had come before them and settled down on this fertile land. The seven chieftains under the leadership of Álmos formed a single nation, electing Árpád, son of Álmos as supreme chief of all Magyars. Under Árpád’s great-great-grandson, Vajk, the nation embraced Christianity. Vajk became the first Christian King of the Magyar Nation, and took the name of Stephen. Later on he was bestowed with Sainthood. • • • With the discovery of the American Continent some Hungarian adventurers and professional soldiers came to the new land. The first Hungarian to set foot on the soil of the New World was Stephaneus Parmenius Budaeus. He accompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland in 1583. Parmenius was born in Buda, capital of Hungary. He lost his life in this new land. We see a contingent of Hungarian soldiers in the U.S. Continental Army. The most famous of these was Col. Michael Kováts, who distinguished himself, serving Maria Theresa, Queen of Austria-Hungary and Emperor Frederick of Germany. Through Benjamin Franklin, who was Washington’s ambassador to France, Kováts came to the U.S. and offered his services to George Washington. He was appointed to serve under the Polish general Pulaski, and later was elevated to Colonel and given the task of forming the first U.S. Cavalry, fashioning it after its European counterpart, the Huszár regiments. History tells us that he, too, lost his life serving his adopted country. After the unsuccessful Hungarian Independence War of 1848-49, a large number of Hungarians came to the U.S. with Louis Kossuth. These soldiers later on offered their services and served in the United States Army during the Civil War. Many of them reached high ranks, and one of them, Major General Stahel-Szamvald was given the highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. In the latter part of the eighteen hundreds, we see a number of Hungarian Catholic and Protestant churches being built throughout the U.S. Many fraternal and social societies had also been established. The American-Hungarians were called “The Eighth Tribe” for the first time by Bishop Dezső Baltazár of Debrecen, then the presiding bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Hungary, on his visit to the U.S. After that, many Hungarian leaders, both religious and political, applied this name to the Hungarians living in the U.S. They noted many times that some day this segment of Hungarians, (their sons and daughters) will be the voice of the Magyar people. The idea of creating a magazine like the “Eighth Tribe” was in the works for many years. Finally in April, 1974 the first issue was published. Now in its sixth year of publication, it is printed in two languages, 75% in English and 25% in Hungarian, so it can serve the old and the young. There are close to two million Hungarians, or those of Hungarian ancestry in the U.S. and the aim of this magazine is to reach at least one percent of it, and through them, the remainder. Popularity of this magazine is gaining amongst the second, third and fourth generations who are trying to recapture knowledge of their ancestral heritage. The teaching of this was completely forgotten for the last quarter of a century. In August, 1978, the Eighth Tribe Foundation was born for one purpose: to secure funds through donation to purchase the former Bethlen Home Orphanage complex in Ligonier, Pa., and transform it into a Hungarian Cultural Institute for the preservation of our Hungarian Heritage. A donation of $20.00 was suggested by the first donor who asked 25.000 other American-Hungarians to join him, to achieve a goal of $500,000. He noted, that if these 25.000 persons also subscribed to the Eighth Tribe and kept up their subscription, the future of both the Institute and the magazine would be secure. Presently we are far, far away from this goal. Neither the Institute nor the magazine has received any official recognition from the churches or from the fraternal societies. The support we have received to date has come from individuals, some belonging to the American-Hungarian churches and societies. A number of subscribers and donors have come from that segment of American-Hungarians who do not belong to organized groups. They are the ones who were born here, and those Hungarians who married into different nationalities. THE EIGHTH TRIBE Editor ......................................................... Sándor E. Chomos Contributing Editors: .......... Albert Wass, Joseph Széplaki, István S. Tuba, Elizabeth Tuba, Steven B. Várdy, M. Takács Barboe, Endre Nánay, László Könnyű. Molile E. Webster, Kálmán Bognár Published and printed monthly by the Bethlen Press, Inc. P. O. Box 637, Ligonier, Pa. 15658, UB.A. Second Class Postage paid at Ligonier, Pi. 15658, U.SJt. Subscription: $8.00 yearly.
