Kaján Imre (szerk.): Zalai Múzeum 20. (Zalaegerszeg, 2012)

Tanulmányok Asbóth Sándorról - Várdy Béla: Asbóth Sándor az amerikai emigrációban a magyar szabadságharc és az amerikai polgárháború között

64

Várdy Béla

későbbi katonai érdemeit is aláástam volna. Ez azonban teljesen illogikus, mivel Asbóth katonai érdemeinek épp úgy nincs köze korábbi esetleges nagyotmondásához, mint akármelyik más jeles katonai vagy egyéb történelmi személy esetében.

Lásd GEREBEN István: Asbóth Sándor, nagyotmondó

hős. Kapu 1995. október-november, 10-11. sz. 83-84.; valamint VÁRDY Béla: Észrevételek Gereben Istvánnak Asbóth Sándorral kapcsolatos írásom kritikájára. Kapu 1995. október-november, 10-11. sz. 85-86.

50 Edmund VASVÁRY 47., 125.

Alexander [Sándor] Asbóth in Emigration Between the Hungarian Revolution and the American Civil War

Alexander Asbóth (1810-1868), a Lieutenant Colonel in the Hungarian Revolutionary Army, and a Major General in the American Civil War, was undoubtedly one of the worthiest, honest, and most liked members of the post-revolutionary Hungarian emigration. Yet, between 1851 and 1861 even his career is checkered with claims and assertions that cannot be substantiated via reliable historical sources. The most significant of these unsubstantiated claims is the assertion that he had planned and built the Central Park in New York City.

Being a dedicated supporter of Louis Kossuth (1802- 1894), the ex-governor of revolutionary Hungary, like most immigrants, Asbóth too was waiting and hoping for the resumption of that revolution against the Habsburgs. This was to be achieved with American help.For this reason Asbóth accepted Kossuth’s directive to collect and buy armaments for the upcoming struggle. The hope of American support, however, collapsed upon Kossuth’s inability to secure the support of the American government. Thus, all Hungarian immigrants, including Asbóth, were obliged to find some employment to support themselves. Being an engineer, Asbóth had no problems in finding suitable jobs. During the decade before 1861, he worked as a draftsman, a mining engineer in the Rocky Mountains, as well as a construction engineer on the Erie Canal. Allegedly he also experimented with steel making and with the use of asphalt for covering city streets and highways.

Most of the above activities are credible, but the claim that Asbóth was also responsible for planning and building the Central Park is untrue. All one has to do is to open up any major encyclopedia. Thus, the Encyclopedia Britannica has this to say: “A plan was devised by the architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux... [it] was chosen from thirty-three submitted in the competition for a $2.000 prize.” The_Encyclopedia Americana repeats this description almost exactly: ”In a nationwide competition in 1858, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted won first prize of $2,000 for a plan for the park. ’’This is seconded by the Academic American Encyclopedia, which states: “New York City’s Central Park, occupying 340 hectares (840 acres) in the center of Manhattan Island... was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux to include walks, lakes, and open fields.” Thus, in contrast to the belief current in Hungary, the primary planner and builder of Central Park was not Alexander Asbóth, but rather Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), the most noted American landscape architect. Starting with 1857, when he was appointed Director of New York Parks, he ultimately built thirty-one university campuses (among them those of

Berkeley, Cornell, Chicago, and Stanford), forty-five city parks, and several cemeteries and mausoleums.

Olmsted’s personal papers were published in six volumes (The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted), of which vol. 3 is entitledjCreating Central Park (1882). In this thick volume there is only one mention of Asbóth, in a letter that Olmsted wrote to his father in 1860: ’’Vaux and I have [been] engaged to furnish a preliminary plan... for laying out the upper part of Manhattan Island.... We have six months to do it in, two competent military engineers, Col. Asbóth and Mr. Rosa, to assist us.... Asbóth and Rosa are to be paid $1,500 a year.” Here we have to add that the above mentioned work had nothing to do with Central Park Rather, it was Washington Heights, much to the north of of Central Park. And even here Asbóth was only a subcontractor, hired by Olmsted for this specific work.

In light of the above, it should be clear that Alexander Asbóth did not have a mentionable role in the building Central Park, even though among Hungarians this is a widespread belief. This belief best described by János Vadona in his travelogue entitled Az öt világrészből. Százezer mérföld vízen és szárazon [On Five Continents: Hundred-thousand Miles on Land and Sea] (Budapest 1893), who was overwhelmed by the beauty and magnificence of the park: “My second excursion led me to Central Park. This magnificent public park was planned by a Hungarian at the time when the city did not even dream about it. The City accepted the plans of one of the most noted refugees of our defeated War of Liberation in 1848-1849, General Asbóth [actually a Lieutenant Colonel].... He visited the various sections and regions of the City, while formulating his plans that gushed forth from his brilliant mind.” This belief still held itself firmly a century later, as demonstrated by an exhibit entitled "Hungarians in the New World” at the Museum of Modem History in Budapest (in 1992-1993). At this exhibit about the history of Hungarian emigration Alexander Asbóth was featured and feted as the man who had planned and built New York Central Park.

Given the above, it is evident that - in contrast with the general belief in Hungary - Alexander Asbóth had next to nothing to do with the construction of New York’s Central Park. How this story was bom no one knows, although it may have come from sources other than Asbóth himself. Whatever the source, this belief should not detract from Alexander Asbóth’s achievements as an able and well-respected general in the US Northern Army, nor from his role as a US diplomat following the Civil War.