Benedek Gyula - Kürti László: Bene, Lajos és Mizse oklevelei, történeti dokumentumai 1385-1877 - Cumania könyvek 2. (Kecskemét, 2004)

for we gain indepth knowledge not only about household economies but also about the population statistics and movements that occured at that time. By the end of the sixteenth century all three villages ceased to exist; most of the denizens migrating to the safer nearby towns of Nagykőrös and Kecskemét, while a few managed to find new homes in Szabadszállás.

What followed was a long period struggle over the deserted land - the pusztas as these empty prairies were called. First three cities utilised them: Szeged, Kecskemét, and Nagykőrös. They could do that simply by paying taxes to both the Ottoman occupiers as well as to the Habsburg court. Only one document speaks about the wishes of some citizens to return to their native villages, an unsuccessful resettlement attempt (No. 26). After the victorious battle at Buda, the Ottoman hegemony disappeared forever from Hungary and the Habsburg monarchy managed to gain the upper hand. The court sold the pusztas in order to pay for the loans incurred during the war. This is the period when the historical Cumanians, together with the smaller Jayzgians, reappear with a new collective identity. The early eighteenth century saw their vehement efforts to regain their „ancestral” land. In fact, the pusztas were successfully bought back by these population opening a completely new chapter in their history. This time the three pusztas were claimed by two wealthy towns in the districts of the Jazygians: Jászberény and Jászladány.

Lajos and Mizse were colonised by the denizens of Jászberény, who used the pas- tureland for animal husbandry. Jászladány did the same with Bene. The two towns set up roadside inns and small cabins for the traders, travellers and herders of animals. With large scale animal husbandry outlaws began to appear as well. The pusztas gave rise to the romanticism in arts and literature of the lonely cowboys and the determined but just outlaws of the Robin Hood type. Soon, however, pastureland became obsolete and more and more people took up extensive agriculture. The pusztas were plowed and tilled and citizens of Jászberény and Jászladány were moving in greater number to tend their fields.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century written documents are available from citizens requesting permission to live outside the cities by moving to the pusztas to live permanently (Nos. 81, 82). In a few decades the landless and the needy moved in increasing numbers to occupy their hard earned properties. In fact, in 1851 already more than 609 family names are recorded in Lajosmizse. Jászberény, however, was not ready to give up its wealth by allowing a new community to split off. Indeed, this is what happened in two decades when Lajosmizse finally maanged to gain independence and became incorporated as a fully autonomous settlement in 1877 (Nos. 97-99). For Bene, this was a longer process: it was only incorporated as an independent community in 1908. The unfolding of these events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, must belong to another historical collection.

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