The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-11-01 / 11. szám
The Mining Town Boarding House: A Surrogate Family For the Immigrant Excerpts from an essay by Heidi Weber from Pennsylvania Ethnic Studies Newsletter In the late 1800’s, the Southern and Eastern European migration to America had begun. Before coming to America, life in those regions of Europe was hard. Most Europeans were tenant farmers. Life mas a struggle through the 1800’s as the population increases caused more competition for the land. By the turn of the century, many Eastern and Southern European men left their families to seek work in America. The immigrants usually came in groups from their home villiages and often settled in towns where people from their same region were living. Many immigrants found jobs in the small, booming mining towns of Western Pennsylvania. The men would get jobs working in the mines and then live with families who took in boarders. Then they were ready to start their seemingly unending days or nights in the mines. Sometimes the men were recruited by a mining company or steel mill and had jobs when they arrived in the town or mining “patch”. The Founding of Vintondale One of these new, booming soft coal mining towns was Vintondale, located in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. This town will serve as the focus for my study of boarding house life. Vintondale was founded in 1894 by the Blacklick Land and Improvement Company. The chief investor was Warren Delano, an uncle of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Vinton Colliery Company opened its #1 mine in 1894 with a newly planned company town. Only about thirty of the lots were sold to private owners. The company built houses on the rest of the lots and rented them to the miners. The company houses, including the boarding houses, were rented at ten dollars per month; water was an extra dollar and often was low in the summertime due to the heavy use at the coke ovens. Electricity made by the company and sold as direct current was an extra dollar each month. In addition, another dollar was always deducted from each miner’s pay once a month for the company doctor. Eventually the Vinton Colliery opened six mines but by 1914 only *1 and #6 were operating. At its peak in 1906, Vintondale’s population reached 3,000 because of the construction of the *6 mine, its coke ovens, and the numerous sawmills operating nearby. Along Plank Road and Main Street, there were over thirty businesses, which included four hotels, a feed mill and the large company store. Later a bank was added because of the large amount of money invested in postal savings stamps by Vintondale residents. Vintondale’s population included immigrants from at least ten different countries in addition to the native-born Americans. Each group of people had a particular street or streets on which they lived. The Italians mainly lived on Goat- Hill. The Germans, Scots and English along with the native-born lived on Second, Third and Fourth Streets. The majority of the Hungarians lived on lower Main Street, Chickaree Hill and Maple Street. As soon as the Hungarians were HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY LIFE IN REVIEW The purpose of the Institute will be to support scholarly investigations on issues of importance to Canadian-Hungarians. These issues include historical, cultural, political, economic and social studies of the Hungarian nation and of Hungarian communities outside the present borders of Hungary. Through the funds raised by the Széchényi Society and the Rákóczi Foundation, the Institute will finance scholarly research and publications, conferences, colloquia and public lectures, visits of international scholars and graduate fellowships. (Vj Ido-Cleveland) Hungarian Studies. This is the title of a recently established journal of studies, with articles written in English, French and German. It is published by the Academic Press in Budapest, Hungary and edited jointly by scholars in America, Hungary and Europe. Chairman of the Editorial Committee is Professor Denis Sinor, of Indiana University. The main purpose of the journal is to publish scholarly studies relating to the literature, ethnography, music, history and culture of Hungary by scholars both in Hungary and abroad. (Vj Ido-Cleveland) Hungarian Club of Danbury, Connecticut Remembers Hungarian Poet. At its June 1985 meeting, the Hungarian Club of Danbury commemorated the centenary of the birth of Dezső Kosztolányi, famed twentieth century poet. The Club voted to donate $1,000 to the poet’s heir, Rozsa Szalai, Mrs. Odon Mostbacher, and $500 to András Ősze, sculptor, toward the erection of a worthy memorial in 1986, the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Osze is a Hungarian sculptor residing in Florida, who prepared a design for the memorial and will direct its construction. He is also the designer of a memorial for Arpad Toth, another Hungarian poet. Donations may be sent to András Osze, 855 Dahlia Lane, Apt 7, Vero Beach, Fla. 32963. (Vj Ido-Cleveland) Hungarian Review of Hungarian Authors and Literature, Published in Western Countries. In the June 1985 issue of the Hungarian journal, Alföld, the well known Hungarian literary scholar and historian, Bela Pomograts, published an interesting review of Hungarian literature being published in Western countries. The article attempts to convey to the Hungarian reader a sympathetic portrayal of the difficulties and sacrifices faced by the Hungarian writer in a foreign land. The author also evaluates the literary activity produced by these writers in the past thirty years. He seeks to relate individual writers to influences in the countries of their residence and finds that their contributions are to be found in presenting individual conflicts, self-analysis and autobiographical expressions, influenced by the literary traditions of Europe, North and Latin America. COMING EVENTS On Sunday, December 8, 1985 Duquesne University will present Lajos Judit, pianist, of Budapest, Hungary in an Ernst von Dohnanyi 25th Anniversary Memorial Concert. The concert will take place in the Recital Hall, School of Music, Duquesne University at 3:00 p.m. The internationally known pianist will present works by Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Ernst von Dohnanyi. Page 1 0 Eignth Hungarian Tribe
