Seeking Freedom and a Fresh Start, European Immigrants Found a Home and Brought the Old Ways to the New Land of Central Texas
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Seeking freedom and a fresh start, European immigrants found a home and brought the old ways to the new land of Central Texas By Ricardo Gándara ometimes, geography and opportunity converge to S create a colorful history. The rich farmland of Central Texas is close enough to Galveston that it became the new homeland for European immigrants coming to America by ship in the 1800s to escape hardship and religious persecution. The first came as scouts and sent word back home: Texas was gold. Land was fertile and affordable, and there was plenty of it. People were free to worship in church. Opportunity was up for grabs. And so they came. Czechs, Wends, Poles and Germans established small settlements like Hranice, Courtesy Texas Wendish Heritage Museum Serbin, Chappell Hill and Maxwell. Bigger Unlike today’s elaborate white wedding dresses, Wendish brides, like Anna towns such as Brenham and Giddings Pietsch, were draped in black, a symbol of the grief and hardship they believed thrived, too. Hispanics and African- marriage would bring. Anna married Wilhelm Lehmann in 1905 at Holy Cross Americans also played significant roles in Lutheran Church in Warda. shaping Texas. The settlers brought cultural practices and beliefs so strong and enduring they celebrate their German heritage with a Antonio. Immigrants continue adding survive today. Across the region served by meal including sauerkraut, sauerbraten to the quilt of diversity in Texas, with Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, you can or sausage. a Hispanic majority on the horizon. still find Czech polka bands luring dancers The European settlers “brought a But it’s evolving, Andera said. New with the squeezing of accordions. Stores sell flavor, a culture and a language that immigrants are from places like noodles like those made by the Wends and makes Texas what it is today,” said Jo Afghanistan and Indonesia. “And farmers eat Polish dumplings stuffed with Ann Andera, who has organized the there’s been a cross of cultures due to potato and cheese. Friends and neighbors Texas Folklife Festival since 1981 for marriages. It’s what makes Texas a gather in a community clubhouse to the Institute of Texan Cultures in San blend of cultures,” she said. 20 Texas Co-op Power BLUEBONNET ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE April 2015 bluebonnet.coop MAXWELL AT THE INTERSECTION of Main and Third streets, Ronnie Duesterheft’s memory drifts back to the 1950s, when he was a boy and it was Maxwell’s heyday. “W.T. Best, the postmaster, lived there,” he points out while driving through the neighborhood. He remembers busy times at Germer’s Grocery — one of 14 beer joints that Maxwell boasted back then (nearby towns did not sell alcohol). Three cotton gins operated overtime. Maxwell, 10 miles west of Lockhart, drew Germans to its cotton fields in the late 1880s. They established Lutheran and Methodist churches and a school. Mexican immigrants played an important role in the cotton fields, too. “We’ve only been here more than 100 years,” said Duesterheft, 72, born and raised in Maxwell. He is one of the founders of the Maxwell Volunteer Fire Department and a former Caldwell County commissioner. His family ties to this town are deep. His grandfather, William Schulle, owned two car dealerships here in the 1920s. Maxwell once thrived. The railroad knifed through the heart of downtown in 1887, Inside fueling more than a dozen businesses. In the 1960s, the FEATURES Nagle Manufacturing and Supply Co. gained renown for making WASHINGTON, D.C., BOUND a good portion of the world’s Youth tour winners announced 25 wooden coat hangers. Hollywood arrived to make the 1981 film GO PAPERLESS “Raggedy Man,” starring Texas Save time. Save money. Win a tree! 26 native and Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek. COMMUNITY GRANTS In 2010, the town had 500 Aiding two area nonprofits 27 residents, according to the Texas Almanac, but people have been MONTHLY MEETING leaving. The registry at Ebenezer Bluebonnet’s Board of Directors will meet at 9 a.m. Lutheran Church is dominated April 21, at Bluebonnet’s Headquarters, 155 Electric by family names like Schneider Ave., (formerly 650 Texas Hwy. 21 East), Bastrop. and Schulle. Today, a drive Find the agenda and last-minute updates April 17 at around the area shows a Hispanic bluebonnet.coop. Hover your cursor over ‘next board influence with many relatives meeting’ on our home page. of the well-known Yanez and Continued on next page HOW TO REPORT OUTAGES Call 800-949-4414 if you have a power outage. Keep up with outages 24/7 at bluebonnet.coop. Hover your cursor over ‘outage report’ on our home page. You can also send us a text message: to get started, text BBOUTAGE to 85700 and follow the prompts. Save that number in your contacts, perhaps as “Bluebonnet Outages.” If your Ronnie Duesterheft, whose power goes out, text OUT to that number. If you have our German ancestors settled in free mobile app for Android or iPhone, you can report an Maxwell in the late 1800s, sits in outage on your smartphone. front of a stained glass window in Ebenezer Lutheran Church, near his home. The historic CONTACT US church was dedicated in 1924. Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative produced the blue- bordered pages 20-27 in this issue of the magazine with content that is of specific interest or relevance Go to bluebonnet.coop/roots to see more photographs to Bluebonnet members. The rest of the magazine’s with this story. content is distributed statewide to any member of an electric cooperative in Texas. For information about the magazine, contact Janet Wilson at 512-750-5483 or email Jay Godwin photo [email protected]. bluebonnet.coop April 2015 BLUEBONNET ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE Texas Co-op Power 21 DIME BOX JEAN BLAHA DAVIS, 80, Jean Blaha Davis, a founder is always on the lookout for a of the Dime Box Heritage funeral. She is not maudlin; she’s a Society Museum, is proud of historian. the metal mailbox that was “I approach people at funerals sent to President Franklin and ask, ‘Can I be there when you Delano Roosevelt filled with go through your parents’ house?’ local contributions to the March of Dimes campaign. It You can’t believe what I find. I was returned to Dime Box and have to keep this going,” she said. is displayed at the museum She’s keeping Czech culture along with an 1880s-era Czech alive in the Lee County town of First Communion prayer book, Dime Box, which in 2010 had a shown at left below. population of 381, according to the Texas Almanac. As a founder of the Dime Box Heritage Society Slavnost May Fest and Museum, she collected many Czech Tribute to the Immigrants is May 17 at 250 Fairgrounds items on display: a photo of teacher Road, La Grange; get Alice Etzel’s 1925 class at Hranice information at czechtexas.org School, a 1927 property tax bill for or 888-785-4500. $11.38 and an unarmed 100-pound bomb from World War II. Blaha Davis’ grandparents, Jan Sundays because it was the and Marie Hejtmancik, settled in Czech thing to do. The men sat this area after emigrating from on the right and the women on Moravia, now part of the Czech the left.” Republic. In the late 1880s, the Before Czechoslovakia was flourishing Czech settlement of established in 1918, these Slavic Hranice overlooked Yegua Creek people from Bohemia, Moravia here. Now, all that’s left is the old and Silesia came to Texas in school’s well pump a few yards 1850, according to John L. from St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery. Davis’ book “Texans One and But Blaha Davis’ childhood All.” The Czechs focused on memories from the 1940s are fresh. establishing self-sufficient farms. “A few families grew maize, sugar The cornerstone of Czech cane and cotton. We grew food to communities was the Slovanska feed the animals that fed us,” she Podporujici Jednota Statu Texas said. (SPJST), a fraternal benefit A sensible co-op called The Beef society created in 1897 in La Club – a group of 25 families that Grange to ensure the financial took turns butchering a calf or hog security of members through life – fed the community. “The family insurance. But SPJST Lodges that butchered shared the meat,” she served as community centers for said. “The next day, it was another dances, community projects and family’s turn. One day you’d have summer camps. Today, there are steaks and the next soup bones.” almost 100 chapters in Texas still A specialty of the community was promoting Czech heritage. always kolaches, hefty fruit-filled Blaha Davis finds comfort in pastries. “We grew up appreciating history and her heritage. During everything we had because others a recent visit to St. Joseph had less,” she said. “We were cemetery where Hranice once taught to be kind and not to bicker. stood, her thoughts went to her When adults talked, we listened. ancestors. “I’ll be right there “We never missed church on Jay Godwin photos next to my parents,” she said. Continued from previous page Scheele, who was superintendent of schools. link to the past. Members meet monthly to Scheele also noted events of the day: “It socialize. Potluck meals sometimes feature Gutierrez families living in the community. seems that church, school and community German favorites, including sauerkraut and Changing names is nothing new in Maxwell. picnics were enjoyed by all. Many dances sauerbraten. The town was known as New Martindale until were held in homes. The places were Koerbel Duesterheft follows his ancestors’ ways. His 1845, when Thomas Maxwell received a large and Schawe pastures.” German-style sausage is made of venison and tract of land from the Republic of Texas’ last Today, the active Maxwell Social Club, pork.