The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1987 (14. évfolyam, 1-8. szám)
1987-03-01 / 3-4. szám
Árpádhon The story of a rural Hungarian community in the United States at the beginning of this century. The late 1870s witnessed the beginning of an exodus of peasants from Hungary to the United States. The emigration wave reached it peak just before the outbreak of World War 1, when U.S. registers recorded over one million Hungarians as opposed to the 1902 figure of half a million. Although the vast majority of immigrants came from poor peasants backgrounds, only about one percent actually worked in agriculture in their new homeland and there emerged only one major Hungarian agricultural community in the United States Arpádhon, in the state of Louisiana. Most Hungarian immigrants did not plan to settle permanently in America, but had come to earn the money that would buy them land back home. To do this as quickly as possible they chose to work in industry, which paid far better than agriculture. Moreoever, by this time free land had run out in the United States and the Hungarians immigrants couod not afford to buy their own. In spite of this there did in fact emerge a few agricultural settlements which comprised immigrants who had joined relatives in the United States' settlements like Buda, Nyitra, Tokaj, and Budapest. However, most of these communities did not last long. In the largest, Buda, in Georgia, there were twenty-three Hungarian families around the mid-1890s most of whom were wine growers. Well before the massive wave of migration at the end of the 19th centruy there had existed agricultural settlements of Hungarians origin and with Hungarian names set up by the refugees of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence. A good example is New Buda, in Iowa, and Kossuth-falva, in Texas, which were short-lived homestead communities established for the most part by army officers and former politicians who had neither the expertise nor the patience to work the land. The settlement of Arpádhon, was established in 1902 in Louisiana, originally French territory. This was unusual in that Hungarian peasant immigrants usually avoided the French-populated areas of the States, primarily because they identified American prosperity, which had attracted them overseas in the first place, with the English language. The Hungarian settlers were attracted to Louisiana by employment opportunities, cheap land and the sub-tropical climate. These belated settlers did not in fact arrive from Hungary but from Canada and the northern regions of the United States. The early Hungarian settlers of the Canadian prairie had suffered so much from the severe winters there that most of them left the area. Some headed for Louisiana, where winters were mild. Here they were joined by others from the mines and factories of industrial areas such as Pittsburgh and Cleveland which also had a cold climate. About an hour's drive north of New Orleans lies the magnificent Lake Pontchartrain (65 km long and 40 km wide). To the west of the lake was the original settlement of Arpádhon. However the present-day traveler would look in vain for this Hungarian name, for today the sign reads Hammond - the name of the town which eventually incorporated the Hungarian community. This part of Louisiana is fertile flat country comprising the southernmost section of the vast prairie that stretches across the whole continent. The earliest European settlers, who came from France, set up vast sugar cane plantations. In the mid-18th century they were followed by French refugees from Canada and negro slaves shipped from Africa. The United States purchased this area in 1803 and Louisiana was admitted as the 18th state in 1812. The temperature in even the coldest winter months is around 10 - 15 'C in this part of Louisiana and annual average rainfall is around 1,400 mm. The fertile soil and mild climate were excellently suited for sugar cane and cotton production. Later on, however, it was discovered that fruit plantations were a far more lucrative enterprise. The mild winters were conducive to fruit growing and winter fruit fetched a good price in the big cities in the country's colder north. It was around this time that Hungarians, who wanted to introduce intensive strawberry growing arrived here. The first Hungarians came through an organized settlement campaign, that was much publicized in Hungarian papers published in big American cities. Furthermore, the Magyar Hírlap (Hungarian News), which was published in Cleveland, played an active role in this as the owner-editor-in-chief Imre Fecso had been one of the most active organizers of the campaign. Those who left the Hungariand settlements in Canada did not want to work in factories or mines or to remain in the cold north; they responded eagerly to the offer of the Louisiana Bureau of Colonizataion and Land Company to go and work as saw-mill workers (for a daily wage of $1.15) and for land (at $10 an acre) to be paid for in installments over a period of five years. Twenty families immediately signed the contracts. They were the first inhabitants and they gave the settlement its name. Two years later, under another settlement campaign, a further sixty families moved here. Many more followed and eventually two hundred families had found a new home in Arpádhon making it an important colony. Its Hungarian inhabitants set up an association for expatriate Hungarians, built churchs for themselves and put out a Hungarian newspaper. The Hungarian settlers' experiment in growing strawberries turned out to be highly successful. This delicious fruit had not been unknown in the United States. It had been very popular with the continent's indigenous population. The first white inhabitants had also eaten strawberries. But as the farms spread the wild strawberry fields were destroyed and ploughed up. Cultivated stawberries were larger and tastier than the wild variety and ensured an excellent income for Hungarian producers. As time went on, however, the income from strawberry growing gradually became insufficent to support the new generations of Hungarians. In addition, from the late-Twenties onwards, Hungarians who had attained a state of prosperity within a relatively short time began to drift away, especially when a sprawling city reached their neighborhood and the price of land started to rise rapidly. Thus, after several decades of prosperous existence, the Hungarian community of Arpádhon began to shrink and eventually ceased independent existence, being incorporated into the city of Hammond. 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