MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Czech immigration to Final Thesis

Brno 2020

Supervisor: Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A.,Ph.D. Author: Mgr. Magda Jurčíková

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Prohlášení „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ Citonice Juni 30th 2020 Mgr. Magda Jurčíková

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Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. for his valuable advice, tolerant approach, kindness, patience and constructive feedback during my work.

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Abstract The subject of this final thesis is the history of Czech immigration to Texas. It deals primarily with development from the 1850s to the late 1920s when the large-scale migration ended. In part, this study discusses social, economic and geographic factors that affected immigration. Introductory chapters map the main reasons for Czech emigration and they outline founding the first Czech settlements in Texas. Next chapters describe the life of the Czech pioneers in Texas and deal with the interesting topics such as farming, education, journalism, language, literature. The thesis provides general overview of the various social and religious organizations, clubs and societies. Further there is highlighted the importance of Czech immigrants in the progress and development of Texas. The study attempts to outline the gradual assimilation of among and at the same time it emphasizes the preservation of Czech heritage and culture in Texas. This final thesis also focuses on the development of Texas Czech society and it examines the ways in which the Czechs maintained their identity and how they were influenced by the American society.

Keywords immigration, emigration, immigrants, , identity, culture, settlement, Americanization, assimilation, Texas Czechs,

Anotace Předmětem závěrečné práce je historie české imigrace do Texasu. Zabývá především vývojem od 50. let 19. století do konce 20. let 20. století, kdy masová migrace Čechů do Texasu končí. Pozornost je částečně věnována sociálním, ekonomickým a geografickým faktorům, které ovlivnily imigraci. Úvodní kapitoly mapují hlavní důvody vystěhovalectví Čechů a nastiňují zakládání prvních českých osad na území Texasu. Následující kapitoly popisují život českých pionýrů v Texasu a zabývají se zajímavými tématy jako například farmaření, vzdělání, tisk, jazyk nebo literatura. Práce rovněž podává základní přehled různých náboženských a sociálních organizací a klubů. Dále je zde zvýrazněna důležitost českých imigrantů pro rozvoj Texasu. Studie se pokouší objasnit postupnou asimilaci Čechů mezi Američany a zároveň klade důraz na uchovávání českých tradic a kultury v Texasu. Tato závěrečná práce se tedy zaměřuje na vývoj Texaských Čechů a zkoumá způsoby, jak si Češi udrželi svoji identitu a do jaké míry byli ovlivněni novým prostředím.

Klíčová slova imigrace, vystěhovalectví, emigrace, imigranti, Čechoameričané, identita, kultura, osídlení, amerikanizace, asimilace, Texaští Češi

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CONTENT INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7 1. EUROPEAN BACKGROUND AND REASONS FOR EMMIGRATION …………………………. 9 1.1 Number of immigrants to the USA …………………………………………………………………… 9 1.2 Economic situation ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 1.2.1 Robota …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10 1.2.2 Land …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 1.2.3 Industrialization, weawing …………………………………………………………………… 11 1.3 Political freedom …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 1.4 Military service ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 1.5 Religion freedom ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 13 1.6 Press and letters …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13 1.7 Advertising of America ……………………………………………………………………………………. 14 2. CZECH PIONEERS IN TEXAS …………………………………………………………………………………. 15 2.1 Early individual immigration ……………………………………………………………………………. 15 2.2 Early group immigration ………………………………………………………………………………….. 15 2.3 Journey ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17 2.4 Settling Texas ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 2.5 Pattern of settlement………………………………………………………………………………………. 19 3. THE CZECHS IN TEXAS ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 21 3.1 Farming, social structure …………………………………………………………………………………. 21 3.2 Expansion of settlement ………………………………………………………………………………….. 22 3.3 Religion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23 3.4 Community ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25 3.5 Education ………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 26 3.6 Clubs and organizations …………………………………………………………………………………… 27 4. JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, LANGUAGE ……………………………………………………………… 30 4.1 Development of Czech journalism ………………………………………………………………….. 30 4.1.1 Svoboda and Augustin Haidušek …………………………………………………………. 31 4.1.2 Decline of Czech press in America ………………………………………………………. 32 4.2 Language as a measure of acculturation …………………………………………………………. 34 4.2.1 The interwar years ………………………………………………………………………………. 35 4.2.2 Dual identity ………………………………………………………………………………………... 35 4.3 Literature review …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 36 5. DEVELOPMENT AFTER WORLD WAR II ………………………………………………………………. 39 5.1 Migration after World War II ………………………………………………………………………….. 39 5.2 Language ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 40 5.3 Survival …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 41 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 45 Printed sources ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 45

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Electronic sources ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 47 APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 48

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INTRODUCTION

The subject of this final thesis is Czech immigration to Texas and the history of the Czech ethnic community from 1850 to present. This study is primarily concerned with historical development from the 1850s to the late 1920s when the large scale migration ended. In part, this study is based on an analysis of the social, economic, and geographic origins of the immigration and the settlements patterns of Czech Texans. These factors shaped the structure and development of Czech ethnicity in Texas. Thousands of Texas Czechs were tied together by a common language and culture, religious fraternal loyalties and kinship ties. The history of the Texas Czechs, the development of their tightly knit society, and the ways in which they both retained their Czech identity and were influenced by the American society in which they flourished are the subjects of this thesis. In this thesis I intended to provide the general historical survey of the Texas Czechs population, their development and general survey of its culture. I mentioned the ways how the Czechs maintained Czech identity and how they were influenced by the American society. The aim of this thesis is to show, that the Czech have been playing a big role in . Their influence have been great. There are a number of questions that I try to examine in this thesis: Why did the Czechs settle in Texas? What were their reasons for leaving homeland? What kind of people were they, their economic and social status? From what parts of Austria-Hungary did they emigrate? How did the immigration process work? What were the routes and ways by which these people travelled to Texas? Where did they settle when they arrived and why? What kinds of homes did they build what were their occupations? What institutions did they develop to aid them in the difficult assimilation process? What was Czech ethnicity? The contrast between the geography and history of the and Texas seemed incompatible. Some of these questions I managed to answer by using printed and electronic sources but there are a lot of topics regarding Texas Czechs that are here unexplained. It is impossible in this thesis cover everything and the evolving of Texas Czech history could be became the subject of the next study or research. The final thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter provides a historical survey which describes social and economic conditions in the Czech lands in the nineteenth-century. This chapter outlines factors that affected settlement patterns and maps briefly numbers of Czech immigrants to America. It focuses on the main reasons for Czech emigration. The essential motivating factors for Czech immigration are discussed in the separate subchapters. The next chapter deals with the early immigrants and the conditions which confronted them upon arrival. There are described some difficulties such as journey, shipboard conditions and others, which the pioneers had to face. It examines the immigration of the Czechs to Texas, and outlines the development of the Czech ethnic community of Texas during the first years. This part outlines founding the first Czech settlements in Texas and establishing of pattern of

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immigration. The immigration of the 1850s can be labelled as the movement of family units that tended to travel in groups. I this regard there are mentioned some of community leaders. A big attention is paid to Reverend Ernst Berman who is perceived as the father of Czech immigration into Texas. Because faming was the characteristic way of life for overwhelming majority of Czech, the third chapter is devoted farming and social structure of Czechs immigrants. It deals with the development of the Czech ethnic community of Texas during the first years. This part outlines many obstacles that the first immigrants had to overcome in process of adaptation to the American culture as well. One subchapter maps the expansion of settlement in result of search for more fertile and cheaper land. This part deals last but not least with education. The Czechs in Texas placed a high value on education. The third chapter examines various social and religious institutions. The target of Czech clubs and organizations was to fill social needs as well as to preserve the and culture and some of this clubs and organizations are here briefly listed. The chapter four focuses on development of Czech journalism in Texas. Noticed are efforts of the Czech language press and there are listed the most important and influential newspapers and magazines published in Texas. A big attention is paid to personality of Augustin Haidušek, who became an authentic voice of the Texas Czechs and a powerful community leader. In connection with editor A. Haidušek a big part of this chapter is devoted to the newspaper called Svoboda. The Svoboda weekly, whose editor was Haidušek, was the most influential Czech newspaper ever published in Texas. How the title of this chapter suggests, one subchapter deals with language. Language is labelled as a measure of acculturation and there are explained some influences on the Czech spoken in Texas. How the immigrants of the second and third generations changed Czech and eventually moved away from it and shifted to English is a next subject of this chapter. In the following subchapter there is given a literature review. It concentrates on the most important sources for Texas Czech history. Popular were autobiographies, biographies, travel literature, memoirs in which Czech settlers described their experiences in a new homeland. This chapter briefly notices some talented poets among Texas Czechs. The last chapter of this theses deals with the Czech settlement after World War II. It outlines development of farming, press, schools and others in this period. One subchapter explains declining of Czech language. In this part there are noticed the major traditional Czech festivals, that are held annually in Texas. This chapter proved that Texas Czech culture can be seen as very much alive even today and it emphasis the strong sense of Czech identity that survives among descendants and it is propagated through church, press, festivals, music, food, family gatherings and others.

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1. EUROPEAN BACKGROUND AND REASONS FOR EMMIGRATION A study of Czech immigration to Texas and the development of Czech ethnicity begins with an examination of the social, geographic, and economic origins of the immigration. The specific origins of the immigration and the characteristics of the movement are important because the social patterns of the settlements vary according to how the immigrants leave their homelands and arrive at their destinations. Since the immigrants brought their culture with them, these factors directly affected settlement patterns and indirectly determined the form and function of ethnic life. (Lee 1966, p. 47-57) There are four factors that must be included in a study of the immigration movement: (1) those factors related to geographic origin; (2) those factors associated with geographic destination; (3) various intervening obstacles; and (4) entirely personal factors. (Lee 1966, p. 50). In less abstract terms the discussion should include an examination of the reasons people chose to leave, why they chose to emigrate to one place instead of another, how they immigrated – the routes and ways they used, and personal reason for leaving one place and going to another. The phenomenon of emigration/immigration may be seen as the result of a set of circumstances affecting great masses of people or of one dominant circumstance in the life of a particular individual. Various contributing causes can be usually found in the home country as well as in the welcoming foreign one. The Czech emigration to Texas is no exception: conditions in the nineteenth-century Austrian Empire stimulated many Czechs to leave their native land, and the reports they received concerning condition in America encouraged them to settle there. Although each individual’s reason for emigration was probably a variable combination of many reasons, several factors were dominant. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 9)

1.1 Number of immigrants to the USA Before considering the reasons for Czech emigration, however, it is important to outline not only the Czech but all Austrian emigration to the United States during the period 1850-1914. Over 100,000 Czechs had come to the United States by the early date of 1880, and the stream of emigrants continued right up to the eve of World War I. In the decade 1901 – 1910 alone, the United States received almost 95,000 Czechs. The Czechs began to emigrate in large numbers relatively early, and their emigration levels were relatively consistent throughout the period. Until the 1880s, however, they accounted for well over half of the Austrian total, but at the highwater mark of their emigration, in the years 1901-1910, they accounted for only 4,3% of the Austrian total. (ibid) The Czech emigration was only part of an enormous exodus from the Austrian Empire. Total Austrian emigration from 1850 to 1914 was well over 3.5 million. From 1821 to 1890, emigration from Austria accounted for only 2,9% of all U.S. immigration, but from 1891 to

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1900, it made up 15,5%, and it continued to grow until the war. Over one million Austrian immigrants came during the short period 1909 – 1913. (Machann and Mendl, p. 11) According to Chmelar between 1820 and 1910 almost 4000 000 subjects of Austria-Hungary immigrated to the United States. About 250 000 were from and . (Chmelar, p. 278) Before 1850 Texas Czechs were a few. By 1860 there were only about 700, almost all living in two counties, Fayette and Austin. By 1870 the Czech population of Texas stood at about 1.700. A decade later persons giving their birthplace as Bohemia numbered 2669. (Hewitt, p. 3). By 1890 there were 3209 foreign-born Czechs living in Texas. The nineties were a period of rapid emigration from southeastern Europe, Czech Texan numbered almost 9000 in 1900. (ibid). In 1920 the U.S. Census population statistics for Texas reported 360 000 persons who were listed as “foreign-born white.” A quarter million of these were born in Mexico. The second largest group were born in Germany, some 31 000 of them. The census listed 13 000 persons born in newly-independent Czechoslovakia. (ibid, p. 4)

1.2 Economic situation in the Czech lands The remarkable size of the Austrian emigration is a measure of the widespread dissatisfaction within the Austrian Empire. This discontent caused probably a complex of political, economic and social problems but in this thesis is described the general situation in the Czech land of Bohemia and Moravia. Before the revolutionary year of 1848, Austria was in some ways a century behind Western Europe in political development. (Efmertová 1998, p. 17) In an age when democratic ideas were influencing the development of societies in Western Europe, Czech peasants were still performing feudal obligations and paying manorial dues to the nobility, the state, and the church. These dues and obligations, which had evolved through ten centuries, kept the peasant in almost total economic bondage. By the eighteenth century the church, the state, and the nobility taxed away about 70% of all the peasant earned, raised or grew. (Efmertová, p. 37-39) 1.2.1 Robota The hated obligation the peasant owed the lord was robota. This bound the peasant to work free for the lord a specified number of days a year. Of course, these days were taken during the most important periods of the year – during planting and harvesting. After revolution 1848 serfdom was abolished. The peasant was legally freed from control by the lord. Robota, the most despised obligation of all, was cancelled. The state, instead of the lord, took over control of the judicial system and both lord and peasant were bound by the laws decreed by the state. However, some of the peasants did not gain as much from these reforms as others. (ibid) When peasants were finally released from forced labor, they found themselves empty-handed and incapacitated to move on. In addition to paying taxes and contributing over ten percent of their income to the church, they were required to make annual payments compensating

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former masters for the loss of their labour. The payments brought many to debt and emigration became a necessity. The term “peasantry” can refer to most rural inhabitants of Austria at this time. The Czech peasantry was divided into three subclasses – farmers (sedláci), cottagers (chalupníci) and day labourers (nádeníci). The farmers were well-off farmers who owned substantial amounts of land, they were the most prosperous. The cottagers owned a house and, sometimes, small fields. The day labourers were landless laborers who were employed seasonally in factories or on the estates of other farmers and represented the poorest class. These two sub-classes were now better off in the sense that they were emancipated bud felt cheated by the reforms because they did not have the economic means to improve their standards of living. (ibid) The cottagers coud sell their homes, land, and whatever meagre possessions they had for enough money to pay for a passage to America, with, in some case, a sum left over to buy land in the new country. In fact, cottager made up the majority of the Czech immigrants in Texas. The economic and political background of these people helps to explain distinctive features of the society which they developed in Texas. 1.2.2 Land The greatest number of Czechs coming to America came from the agrarian regions of Austria- Hungary. (Chmelar, p. 340) The areas from which the largest immigration came were characterized by a broad distribution of land holding. Most of the holding were not only small, they were scattered. A peasant’s holding might be located various distances and directions from the village. Agricultural tools were primitive. (ibid) The holders of small plots of land saw their economic situation grow progressively worse. The larger land owners, most of them nobles, could afford to apply the latest scientific agricultural methods. The small land holders found it more and more difficult to compete in agricultural markets. By 1900, less than one tenth of one percent of the population of Bohemia owned the land. (Chmelar, 342-343). This situation created a problem for the sons of small and middle- sized land holders. How could the father divide his small holdings among his inheritors? It was traditional for the father to provide a farms for each of his sons as he reached the age of twenty. When the land was divided, each strip was partitioned lengthwise, resulting in a series of ever-narrower, long strips. (ibid) The agricultural laborers were at the bottom of the socio-economic scale. All, regardless of status, had hopes of betterment – if not for themselves, then certainly for their children. The geographic areas characterized by broad distribution of property, mixed agricultural system, and subtle gradations in economic and social status, produced the heaviest emigration. (ibid) 1.2.3 Industrialization, weaving The majority of these owners of small plots had traditionally engaged in home manufacturing. This work supplemented their income. The rapid development of Austro-Hungarian industrialization disadvantaged this home manufacturing. The situation was even worse for day labourers, who found it difficult or impossible to raise sufficient funds to pay for their passage to America. These laborers often resided year round in the farmer’s own home. In planting and harvest seasons they meant the difference between a good crop and a poor one.

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In winter the laborers worked in home manufacturing and helped the host family in weaving cloth - the principal cottage industry of Bohemia and Moravia. In the 1850s however, the further industrialization of Bohemia was driving many home weavers out of business. They could not successfully compete with mechanized production. Mechanized production of linen and wool forced also domestic wavers into unfair competition with cheaper and better factory-produced fabrics. The labourer desired to farm his own land, the owner of the small farm desired to increase his acreage. Mass emigration began when the farmer and laborers could no longer realize these traditional goals within the rural society. (Polišenský 1970, p. 55 – 95) Along with economic difficulties came increasingly overcrowded living conditions. As example can be taken a description for Čermná in Bohemia in 1850: Cottages were very small, sometimes consisting of only one room; the average number of people per house was ten. (Polišenský, p. 60) From this area emigrated the major group of Czechs to Texas – it will be discussed in the next chapter. There is little doubt that the experience of economic hardship- and the hope of an improved standard of living – were the chief motivation factors for the emigration of Bohemians and . Other factors, such as Czech nationalism, compulsory military service, and religious persecution were also no less important.

1.3 Political freedom The Germanisation was so significant in the period stretching from the early seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century that the Czech language had almost become extinct, at least in the towns and cities. At one point it was spoken only by the peasants in the countryside, and even this Czech was influenced by German. However, in the early 1800s, a renascence of Czech nationalism brought a renewal of the people’s language and culture. Czech language and culture began to revive. The ruling class felt resistance to rebirth of nationalism. The Hapsburgs elite saw it as destructive for the Empire. As many of the reformers such as Palacký were forced into exile after 1848, many other Czechs and Moravians decided to emigrate for political reasons. Freedom was as much a part of the attraction to Texas as land and material satisfaction. It could mean a powerful pull to Texas. (Polišenský, p. 65)

1.4 Military service Another Austrian policy which influenced immigration was a three-year compulsory military service for males. Military service was compulsory for all Austro-Hungarian males between the ages of nineteen and forty-two. Everyone, with only rare exceptions, served three years active duty. This was followed by seven years in the reserves. Some Czechs emigrated secretly to avoid serving in the Austrian army. Some Czech families came to America so their sons would not have to fight. Some young men came individually, before draft age, and others deserted the army in order to emigrate. (Laska 1978, p. 8)

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1.5 Religion freedom Religion was a significant factor in the early emigration of Czech Protestants. Many Czech Protestants, as well as anti-clerical “freethinkers,” closely associated Habsburg oppression with the state-supported Catholic Church. The search for religious freedom in America, then, was a prime motivating factor for this group. Rev. Josef Arnošt Bergman, was partially motivated to emigrate by a dream of building a religious community modelled after that of the old Czech Unity of the Brethren. Although his personal dream was not realized, many Czech Protestants followed him, and eventually, a distinctively Czech Protestant denomination evolved in Texas. (Machann and Mendl, p. 16 -17)

1.6 Press and letters In the late 1940s, America and Texas broke into the Czech press, especially due to Karel Havlíček Borovský. In his newspapers, he emphasized the ideals of American independence, freedom of the press, democratic traditions and freedom of citizens in contrast to police guidance, censorship, and oppression in Austria-Hungary. (Polišenský 1996, p.19-25) How did the European peasant find out about Texas? There were several ways, but probably the most common was letters sent by friends and relatives. These letters from America reached not only the relatives and friends of those in America, but whole villages and regions. Also newspapers such as the Moravské noviny (The Moravian News) printed these letters, informing large areas of Bohemia and Moravia about the emigrants experiences. Ignát Herrmann paraphrased the available information about America in his book Blednoucí obrázky: „Přijďte jen a zaberete tu prérie, kolik se vám zlíbí, kolik jen obsáhnete. Porubáte les, vystavíte si dům, zbytek vypálíte a získáte nejlepší orné půdy na velké hospodářství, na pole i zahradu, na tabákové i bavlníkové plantáže …“ (Herrmann 1929, s.73) The Czechs found Anglo-Texas fascinating. A myth about fearless, rough and free Texan was further combined with the vision of extensive and cheap land (Machan a Mendl 1983, p. 216). Texas represented the idea of a romantic and free country, in which the weather is always warm, the Sun is shining, prices are reasonable, and living there is just nice and simple. One of the pathfinders, who blindly admired Texas, was a writer and traveler Karl Anton Postl (1793 - 1864), also known as Charles Sealsfield. (Polišenský 1996, p. 26) Stories of the first pioneers indicate that they followed personal ideals formed by reading novels about America and the independence of the Texas Republic. They all wrote home how warm and pleasant was the Texas climate, how abundant the land in game and fertile fields were. The news spread among peasants, laborers and weavers who followed the leaders in the 1850s and after the Civil War from Moravia, where economic prospects for the poor were hopeless. They desired to escape debts, job loss and starvation.

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America letters often were passed from hand to hand among emigrant’s friends and relatives. The type of immigration that developed though this correspondence is important because it directly affected the later development of ethnic institutions. (Lee, p. 47-57) The idea that they could own hundreds of acres must have sounded like utopia to peasants. They were attracted by letters sent by those who went ahead, whose stories of success convinced them that the dream of America could come true. Unemployment, hunger and fear of the future inspired the masses to seek solution outside their homeland. The immigrants arrived at a time when Texas sought to attract immigrants who would colonize the unbroken prairies and take over abandoned plantations, luring them with promises of abundant land and prosperity. They came at the moment when defeat in the Civil War and the abolition of slavery had devastated the Texas plantation economy. Texas needed cheap labor and sought it assertively at a time when Bohemia and Moravia were suffering the consequences of the decline of weaving industry. The immigrants replaced black slaves on land bought from plantation owners and thus resulted in three decades of economic growth.

1.7 Advertising of America

Not only American relatives and friends urged Czechs to come to America by their letters; they also financially supported such emigration. There were numerous cases of Czech-Americans prepaying for the passage of friends and relatives still in Europe. (Hewitt, p. 23) As Texas was populated by more and more European immigrants, the steamship and railroad companies foresaw an increasing lucrative trade. Texas Czech newspapers carried advertisements to prepay passage for anyone in Europe to come to Texas. It was very simple: one only had to send the passage money to the company and it, in turn, would send the ticket to the company’s office nearest the home of the relative or friend. (Hewitt, p. 32) Steamship companies, immigration companies, railroads, real estate speculators exaggerated reports of mild climate, fertile soil and rich mineral deposits. They advertised Texas to Europeans. Of course not all the companies were especially truthful in their advertising.

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2. CZECH PIONEERS IN TEXAS

2.1 Early individual immigration Individual Czechs arrived in Texas as early as 1845. They had no influence on the development of Czech immigration to Texas. In the early 1850’s groups of Czehs began settling in the state. These pioneers established a pattern of immigration and settlement that continued throughout the period 1850 – 1920. Isolated in their almost self-contained communities, they endured the loneliness and hardship of founding the first Czech colonies, and confronted the problems of assimilation and ethnicity (Lee 1966, p. 47-51) Czech immigration into Texas begins with individuals rather than with groups. First was the wandering writer Karl Anton Postl, known under the pseudonymum Charles Sealsfield. Postl wrote stories and novels about the Wild West’s early history with great admiration (as mentioned in Chapter 2). His articles and stories about the area attracted many Europeans to Texas and helped to create a myth of American West in Europe. His most influential book in this regard was “Das Kajutenbuch” (The cabin Book), which idealized Texas. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 22) Another early Czech wanderer and adventurer in Texas was Dr. Anthony M. Dignowity. He settled in San Antonio in 1847, and thus became the second known Czech to settle in Texas. Dignowity came to Texas to fight with Arkansas volunteer troops in the Mexican War but in the end he decided to set up a medical practice there. (Hudson and Maresh 1934, p. 43-57) Frederick Lemský came to Texas in 1836. He took part in the , playing the fife in the Texan band at the Battle of San Jacinto. (Machan and Mendl, p. 24) Probably the first Czech Catholic priest in Texas was Bohumir Menzl. He arrived along with a group of German settlers which included a few Czech families. He went first to New Braunfels, arriving there in 1846, and celebrated the first mass in the settlement shortly after his arrival. Thereafter he divided his time between New Braunfels and the other large German settlement at Fredericksburg. Later Menzl returned to his hometown Frýdlant in Bohemia where he lived until his death. (Machan and Mendl, p. 26)

2. 2 Early group immigration The Czech settlement in Texas really began in 1850, when Reverend Ernst Bergmann and his family arrived in Galveston. He can be described as the father of Czech immigration into Texas. Bergman was born in Zápudov, Bohemia in 1797. From 1830 to 1849 he served a Czech evangelical congregation at Stroužný in Silesia. (Hudson and Maresh 1934, p. 29- 33)

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In December 1849 Bergmann boarded a ship at Hamburg to sail for Galveston, following his dream of establishing a free community that would live in compliance with the moral ideals of its evangelical faith. He landed with a large group of German and Czech families in Galveston a few months later and moved to the German settlement of Cat Spring in Austin County. Bergmann became there the pastor of an independent evangelical church, teacher and he farmed to supplement his income. (ibid) Soon after his arrival, Bergmann began to write letters to friends in Moravia, praising the climate, the soil, and the possibilities and encouraging them to come to Texas. It is likely that, as a Protestant minister, he also affected the emigration of German and Czech Protestants from the Lanškroun area and he is often mentioned as a catalyst of the Texas Czech emigration. (ibid) The year 1851 was a poor one for agriculture in the area around Nepomuky and Čermná in northeastern Bohemia. The area was hit by bad harvests and crop failure. There was a real threat of famine. At this time emigration to America was becomig a popular topic among inhabitants of Lanškroun district. One of Bergmanns letters fell into the hands of Josef L. Lešikar of Nepomuk. He sent the letter to the Moravské noviny (Moravian News). This letter became the inspiration for the beginning of mass Czech and Moravian immigration to Texas. (Hudson and Maresh, p. 31) This first group of Czech immigrants left their homes on November 7, 1851. They had harvested the crops and sold farms, livestock and household items for passage money.The exodus organized Josef L. Lešikar. Seventy-four people in sixteen families boarded the train at Ústí nad Orlicí for the trip to Hamburg. At the last moment Lešikar’s wife decided not to leave the homeland, and the group left without the Lešikar’s. The survivors of the first group reached their new homes in Austin County in January 1852. (ibid) Although only seventeen families left Nepomuky and Čermna in the first group, larger numbers of persons followed them in the coming years. Many hungry peasants read Bergman’s letters in their newspapers and then began to receive letters from relatives who had arrived in Texas, increasing numbers of them decided to leave. (Polišenský 1970, p. 228) Typical of the letters is a very early one written by Kateřina Herrmann. The Herrmanns were a merchant family with literary contacts in Prague and Hradec Králové. Her father had known Bergman in the old country and his letters had convinced Kateřina and her husband, along with their children, to come to Texas. The letter is dated from July 10, 1851. Kateřina in the cited letter (appendix 1) praised the new beautiful land (Cat Spring), she believed in the better future and and she does not regret the moving to Texas. Texas must have seemed like a dream for immigrants. In writing home, Bergmann emphasized that land in Texas was cheap, fertile, mostIy uncultivated, and open for settlement. Americans and sold their farms inexpensively, one could also rent land at first and retain half of its crops, and then buy land and equipment with the money from the excess crop sold. Bergmann emphasized in his letters that even if one comes to Texas with no money , he becomes rich in a few years. Kateřina further commented that the land seems to be very fertile a cheap, so that one can find a good and independent living. (Appendix 2)

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The Herrmanns began later to see the contrasts between the prairie atnd their hometown. Despite the fact that the area of central Texas where Czechs eventually established their settlements was already occupied by Anglos, Germans and other Europeans, it was still a prairie sparsely dotted with farms. (Hewitt, p. 47). The Herrmanns regreted the absence of social life, taverns for company and friends for support. Soon they learned about the disadvantages of the local climate and the local disease, ague or yellow fever. Kateřina was slowly losing her optimism. The Herrmanns, and others as well, felt misled by Pastor Bergmann. In the end the Herrmanns decided to return. After searching for more suitable living conditions, Frank Herrmann angrily concluded, that living in Texas is no more possible. He was outraged and warned all who might be tempted to Texas (Appendix 3)

2.3 Journey Galveston was the port of entry for most Czech immigrants. The early groups usually travelled to Cat Spring before dispersing into neighbouring areas. The first group of emigrants consisted of poor Czech peasants and they came from several villages around Nepomuky and Čermna. Like most emigrants, these surely had mixed emotions concerning the future. Their past was not easy, living on very small farm, barely making enough to survive. At this time the potatoes were rotting in the ground, and the friends and relatives who remained behind faced possible starvation. On the other hand, the future, though full of promise, seemed vague and uncertain, and the emigrants were leaving everything they had ever known. Most of them did never again see the hometowns, friends, and relatives left behind. (Machan and Mendl, p. 30) The story of this first group is full of misery, misfortune and tragedy. The Šilars and other from Nepomuky and Čermná travelled by train to Hamburg, and sailed from there to Liverpool, where they transferred to the sailing ship Maria, bound for New Orleans, then to another bound for Galveston, and finally to . Like countless other emigrants, they were cheated by immigration agents who, exploiting their inexperience, took their money and gave them in exchange poor advice about travel. (Kutnar 1964, p. 40-48) Their expedition ended tragically. Only 38 of the original 74 people survived the ten-week voyage, most died at sea or during the early weeks in emigration from exhaustion, lack of food and water, and typhoid. (Habenicht 1910, p. 79) Future immigrants learnt from the experience of this first group. By the middle 1850s, Czechs from northern and eastern Moravia and eastern and southern Bohemia were coming in small numbers, usually in groups of several families. As William P. Hewitt notes the journey of each group was different, but at the same time they had a remarkable similarity. After harvesting their crops, the immigrants sold their farm and their excess personal property and then bought their rail tickets. Almost all went directly by rail to either Hamburg or Bremen. At these ports the immigrants boarded sailing ships bound for Texas, usually with a stopover in England and perhaps New Orleans. Some vessels sailed directly from northern Europe to the port of Galveston. (Hewitt, p. 49)

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The shipboard conditions for the first group were very hard. Most of the ships which brought the Czech immigrants to Texas in the early years were not comfortable either safe. Of course, the more people the ship took, the higher was profit for agents. Many became ill and many died. Violent and frequent North Atlantic storms only made worse the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. After the Civil War, conditions on ships began to improve considerably. With more immigrants traveling by steamer, the mortality rate dropped markedly. (Hewitt, p. 30) The Czechs journeyed overland by ox cart or ox-drawn wagons. After a long and difficult sea voyage the Czechs were confronted with a view of seemingly endless stretch of yellow grass.

2.4 Settling Texas The earliest groups of immigrants did not found true Czech settlements. Instead, they dispersed among the German settlers around Cat Spring and nearby New Bremen, New Ulm, and other small Austin County settlements. Their first priority was to build primitive huts or cabins for shelters; their second was to buy or rent available land in order to prepare for planting. (Machann and Mendl, p. 34) The Cat Spring settlement, destination of most the early Czech, was not really a town. A collection of a few buildings, it included a store, a post office, a church, and a few homes. Although western Austin County was the original focus of settlement, many of the early Czechs began settling north and west of the Cat Spring area in Washington and Fayette counties. By the end of the 1850’s Czechs were scattered throughout western Austin County; small group settled at Veselý (Wesley) in southern Washington County; and in Fayette County, Czechs lived in the towns of Fayetteville, La Grange, and in the communities of Dubina, Hostyn, and Praha and other locations. A few Czechs moved into Lavaca County and founded the Czech community of Novohrad. (Habenicht, p. 102) Entire peasant families continued pouring into Texas from Nepomuky, Vsetín, Zádveřice, Hostýn, Trojanovice, Frenštát and many other towns in eastern Bohemia and northeastern Moravia, following the first settlers, family members, village relatives and friends whom they loved and trusted and pastors often accompanied them. (Kutnar, p. 52) The twelve-year-old Augustin Haidušek, a future voice of the Czech community, arrived with his parents and other villagers from Tichá near Frenštát in 1856 and settled in the place that was later named Dubina. By 1877, six hundred Czech families lived in Dubina, which had its church and a parochial school as well as a public school. (Maresh and Hudson 1934, p. 83-89) Published reports by Bergmann and Lešikar articles about America and advertising pamphlets, along with private letters sent by emigrants to friends and relatives back home, gradually saturated even the most remote and backward regions, where they caused a desire to try luck in America. Lonely immigrants begged their parents and relatives to join them in Texas and wrote about their new home in glowing terms, reassuring themselves and their families that the decision to leave was correct. They exaggerated America’s riches, as did immigrant hadbooks, land agents, agent of Eruropean shipping companies

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and others (as mentioned in Chapter 1) The unpatiently expected letters were read to congregation as well as peasant gathering in taverns and circulated around the village. (Kutnar, p. 26) The letters described fulfilled promises, provided specific advice on what to carry into emigration an how to prepare for the boat journey, and included prices of land and cattle. (Kutnar, p. 26). As the years went by, emigrants were better prepared and informed about conditions ahead. In Galveton or Houston the immigrants were collected and transported inland, where relatives provided them with temporary housing and had already planted fields for them.

2.5 Pattern of settlement Czech immigrants and their descendants settled Texas in well-defined pattern. Solitary individuals, often single men, led the way. These first immigrants came for their own private reasons and contributed little to the further Czech settlement of the state. (Lee 1966, p. 47-51) The second stage was one of small group immigration from specific locales in Europe. This stage began in 1850 when Reverend Bergmann began writing his letters back to Europe. The letters found their way to community leaders in Bohemia and Moravia. This type of leadership represented Reverend Bergmann, Lešikar, Šilar, Haidušek and others. (as said above) The immigration of the 1850s can be characterized as the movement of family units that tended to travel in groups. The pioneers emigrating from areas of Bohemia and Moravia were primarily small landholders, agricultural workers, and day laborers. Although the numbers of immigrants were small during this first decade of settlement, the pre-Civil War pioneers established patterns of immigration and settlement that were maintained throughout the entire period 1850-1920. (Lee, p. 52) The earliest newcomers settled near already established German settlements. This trend of settling continued throughout the nineteenth century. Reverend Bergmann lived in a German community and had urged the first group to settle in Cat Spring. There are at least two explanations for the continuation of this particular pattern of settlement. First, both Germans and Czech were farmer groups and would therefore tend to settle in similar areas of the state. In addition, the Germans were certainly more similar to Czechs than the Anglo Americans. Their cultures and their economic and social origins were similar. (Hewitt, p. 68) The location of the pre-Civil War settlements directly influenced the development of Czech Texan ethnicity. Settled on isolated farms, linked to each other and to the larger Anglo American community only by primitive roads, the Czech Texans of the 1850s had few contacts with the outside world. This would tend to retard the assimilation process, and delay the organization of protective societies and a social structure that reflected their new environment and condition. (Hewitt,p. 69) The pattern for the spread of Czech settlement was also formed during the years preceding the Civil War beginning with an initial settlement in central Austin County. Austin County

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was the first place of settlement of large numbers of Bohemian and Moravian immigrants. After the Šilar group came, the Lešikar group and other followed. (Habenicht, p. 77) But soon, large numbers of Czechs families were moving west and south, particularly into Fayette, Lavaca, and Washington counties. Several Lavaca County towns have Czech names: Moravia, Novohrad, Komenský, Bílá Hora, Vsetín. Both Bílá Hora and Vsetín were founded by Czech Protestants in about 1876. (Habenicht, p. 105) Washington County has a special significance for Czech Protestants, who began moving to the area around Wesley about 1860. Rev. Josef Opočenský founded an independent Brethren church there. (Habenicht, p. 111) The newly-arrived immigrants before and shortly after the Civil War invariably came to one of these four counties. They found sympathy and support in the new world. Later they either bought land nearby or moved on, usually northeast into Central Texas, establishing either new Czech communities or enclaves of Czechs in and around previously established towns. The first sub-colonies established in the 1850s were composed of extended families, friends from Europe, and religionists – either Roman Catholics or Moravia Brethren. The first Czech Catholic priest Rev. Josef Chromčík to serve primarily Czech in Texas came to Fayetteville in 1872. (Machann and Mendl, p. 42) The pattern of Czech settlements after the Civil War can be related to the search for good, new farmland at a reasonable price. In the years following the Civil War was the initial movement of Czech settlement undoubtedly north from the Big Four Czech Counties of Austin, Washington, Fayette, and Lavaca. In process of looking for new, fertile land played a big role the constantly increasing price of land in Central Texas (due to the increasing population). While some looked north and west to the new areas, others turned south and east. (Machann and Mendl, p. 52) Czech settlers in Texas remained relatively isolated up until the time of the Civil War. The total Czech population in Texas was under 1.000 until the 1870s, and individual families tended to be scattered. Neither Czech Protestants not Catholics had organized stable congregations by the time of the war, and Czech-American schools were only beginning to be organized. No formal Czech ethnic organization existed. There was no organized Czech ethnic life. On the other hand, the Czechs maintained their European culture and were acculturated into the majority society only in economic terms: almost invariably they sought to accumulate capital and buy farmland. (Hewitt, p. 70) The larger and older German community in Austin and Fayette counties by contrast was highly organized by 1860. With only a few exceptions, Czech immigrants to Texas were farmers. They settled in farming communities in Austin and Fayette counties. In 1860 many of these early arrivals accumulated capital and purchased land. Others found jobs as farm laborers until such time as they too could acquire their own land. (Lee, p. 54) By 1860 Czechs made substantial economic gains. As a group they were becoming rapidly acculturated in economic area, but they remained strangers in the land. (Hewitt, p. 71)

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3. THE CZECHS IN TEXAS

3.1 Farming, social structure In the few years that the Czechs had been in Texas they managed to integrate themselves into the rural economy of the state. If they were unable to buy land immediately after their arrival, they worked as laborers or tenant farmers until they accumulated sufficient capital, then they bought a farm. Economically there was little difference between the Czechs and their Anglo American or German neighbours. (Skrabanek 1950, p. 221-231) The typical Czech farm family is defined as a self-contained economic and social unit whose main purpose was to cultivate the land. The great majority of the immigrants thought of themselves as farmers, and they were moving to a vast rural land where they expected to remain farmers. Farming was the characteristic way of life for overwhelming majority of Czechs in Texas. (ibid) The ownership and maintenance of the farmland were the criteria of success for the majority of the Czech immigrants. Most of these families were poor, and many of them had actually gone into debt in order to pay for their passage to America. It was not easy to buy land, though it was relatively plentiful and inexpensive, it was common for first-generation renters to work ten or twelve years before buying their own land. Some of the immigrants were, of course, able to purchase tracts of land soon after their arrival in Texas. (Hewitt, p. 115-116) Land ownership was the common goal, and most of the tenant farmers rented land from relatives, land which they often expected to inherit. With very few exceptions, first and second- generation Texas Czechs who became school teachers, preachers, doctor and lawyer, not only owned farm land, but worked as farm labor for a significant part of their lives. (Skrabanek, p. 221-231) The success of the farm and of the family depended on the cooperation of all family members. The father was recognized as the head of the family. There was, of course, a division between male and female roles in terms of the farm-work. From the age of about ten, every able-bodied child was expected to contribute to the family welfare by working in the fields. (Hudson and Maresh 1934, p. 84) The typical Czech farmer of the turn-of-the century, despite his deprived background, was considerably more successful than his Anglo neighbours holding similar acreages. In a time when the typical farm consisted of about 100 acres and the only nonhuman source of energy in farmwork was provided by work animals, the typical Czech family with its love of the land, its ambition and willingness to work hard and cooperate was well equipped to succeed. Knowledge gained and passed dawn from generations of farming small plots led to very satisfactory results. After the first Czech settlements were established, new immigrants could learn from the experienced Texas Czech farmers and avoid making the mistakes. Soil, climatic and economic conditions in Texas were different from those in their native land. Overall, the Czechs adapted quickly to a land that was as generally hotter and drier than their homeland. (Hudson and Maresh, p. 85)

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There was evolution in the typical Czech farmer’s way of life. The most important factor of change, however, was the farmer’s increasing prosperity. In general, the Czech immigrants were willing to undergo tremendous physical and psychic strains because there was a very strong feeling of continuity between generations. Most had expended their time and energy working toward their goal of economic assimilation. Although many began their lives in Texas as tenant farmers, by 1860 a large number owned their own land. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 80) Although a handful of Czechs in Austin County owned 500 acres or more, the average size farm was about 100 acres. Every family owned at least two horses. Practically every family owned several milk cows. Every farm possessed a pair of oxen. These animals did the heavy work on the farm, they were indispensable. Like most other Texans the Czechs usually kept a few beef cattle. The primary crops were corn and cotton. A few Czech farmers raised small amounts of tobacco, wheat and rye. Most of the corn was probably for family consumption. (Machann and Mendl, p. 81)

3.2 Expansion of settlement In the eighteen years that followed the renewing of immigration in 1866 the area of Czech settlement expanded north and northwest to include a number of central Texas counties. The veterans of the 1850s and recently arrived immigrants joined together to establish the basic religious institution – the local parish or church. New group of leaders, men who were successful in American terms, led the first efforts to organize Czech social and benevolent clubs and educational institutions. (Hewitt, p. 104) The American Civil War ended in April 1865. No Czechs or other foreigners had immigrated to Texas for more than four years. The post-war pattern of immigration to Texas followed that established in the 1850s – north from Austria-Hungary to Bremen or Hamburg, and from there directly to Galveston. The first sizable group of post-war Czech immigrants arrived in Galveston in November and December 1866. Without exception the vessels bringing Czechs to Texas between 1866 and 1870 were sail-powered. With the exception of the one group of skilled workers, virtually all men were laborers or farmers. (ibid) The post-war immigrants possessed a common social, economic and geographic origin. Most were farmers or farm laborers. The farmers saw little hope of increasing the size of their holdings. In fact the trend was toward increasing fragmentation of peasant holdings. The Czech farmers faced declining opportunities of supplementing their income, and left to escape these threat. The farm laborers saw little hope of owning their own land. (Chmelar 1974, p. 342-343) Most of the immigrants came from a small area in northeastern Moravia and eastern Bohemia. Many had friends and relatives already living in Texas and were coming to join them. Some chose to remain in the area of earliest Czech settlement. Others joined friends and relatives and moved north and west to areas of central Texas just beginning to open up to farmers.

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They formed the nuclei of new Czech settlements, continuing the pattern of expansion began in 1850s. (ibid) By the end of the Civil War the counties of original Czech settlement were beginning to experience the results of increased population growth. Between 1859 and 1866 the price of land in Austin County more than doubled in price. By 1866 there was little good farmland in Austin for sale at bargain prices. The increased cost of land in the county of initial settlement forced those who came after 1866 to look elsewhere. Others, seasoned settlers, sold their holdings in Austin and Fayette counties and moved further north and west where prices were lower. (Hewitt, p. 115) In 1870 the largest Czech communities were located in Austin and Fayette counties. Smaller numbers of Czechs resided in the neighbouring counties of Lavaca, Washington and Colorado. Ten years later both the number of Czechs and their area of settlement increased dramatically. The direction of the expansion was primarily north and west from the first settled counties. (Hewitt, p. 119) When the Czechs began migrating to new, less settled lands they became part of a distinctively American movement – the search for better and cheaper land. Seasoned immigrants led the way. Often a group of neighbours moved together. Most of the seekers sold their land to recently arrived immigrants who preferred the safe havens of established communities, churches, and schools. The seasoned immigrants then used the proceeds of the land sales to purchase larger grounds in the more sparsely populated counties. Seasoned immigrants were replaced by new immigrants and the older settlements were continually renewed. (Hewitt, p. 120)

3.3 Religion Rev. Josef Bergman, the Czech pioneer who encouraged many of the early immigrants to come to Texas, was a Protestant minister, and the earliest family groups, such as the Šilars and Lešikars from eastern Bohemia, also described themselves as Protestants. Bergman, a former Catholic seminarian, had been the pastor of a Czech Protestant community in Stroužný, Prussian Silesia. In Texas he preached primarily to Swiss and German Evangelical Reformed Protestants, and felt a personal allegiance to the old Unity of the Brethren. Czech Protestants therefore figure early in the development of the Czech community in Texas, although they were soon in a minority as Catholic groups began to immigrate. (Smith 1978, p. 1169-1174) In 1855 at Fayettewille, Rev. Josef Zvolanek held the first Czech-language Protestant services in America. He did not, however, organize any church units. (Habenicht, p. 78). That task was left to Rev. Josef Opočenský in Wesley, in 1864, and after the end of the Civil War, in 1866, a church was built. Traditionally, one of the ways in which people defined their identity was by their religious affiliation. This tradition was quite strong among the Czech Protestants. In 1858 the Reverend Josef Opočenský arrived in Cat Spring to preach to the German and Czech Protestants in the

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area. In 1864 he settled in Wesley and organized here the first Brethren church in Texas. (Habenicht 1910, p. 106 -107) The Brethren became the source of Czech culture, Czech language, and Czech resistance to foreign domination. It symbolized the Czech struggle for national identity and cultural survival. With the establishment of the Wesley Brethren Church, the Czechs defined their identity – their ethnicity. (Habenicht, p. 107-108) At Wesley, services were held in members homes until the congregation built Rev. Opočenský a church. Soon the membership had grown to sixty- one families. Reverend Opočenský after the Civil War began preaching regularly at Fayetteville, splitting his duties between there and Wesley. In 1870, he organized the Fayetteville Brethren Church. In 1875, with a membership of twenty-seven families, the congregation built its first church building. The Czech protestants organized a Brethren congregation in Industry. The Rev. J. L. Chlumsky organized the Industry Brethren Church in 1875. (Habenicht, p. 112-113) From the 1860s on, the majority of the Czech settlers identified themselves as Roman Catholics. The early Catholic settlers faced a critical problem – the absence of Czech-speaking priests. They were mainly served by German and Polish priests. (Hudson and Maresh, 203- 206) Until 1872 Czech Catholics had no parish priests of their own nationality. Most settlers either journeyed to the nearest Roman Catholic church or received mass from circuit-riding Polish or German priests from the nearby parishes. However, two Czech communities, Praha and Hostýn, had church buildings before the arrival of the first Czech priest. The settlers at Praha built their first church in 1866, the settlers in Hostýn completed theirs in 1869 (Houšť, p. 416, Smith, p. 1169-74 ) In 1870 twenty families left Frenštát for Texas. They told their young priest, Father Josef Chromčík, that they would write him concerning conditions in Texas. Less than two years later Chromčík was called to Texas. (Habenicht, p. 86) Father Chromčík journeyed to Fayetteville to organize St. John’s parish. He became the first Czech priest to serve a Texas Czech Catholic parish. Using Fayetteville as his home base, Chromčík rode a circuit of ten other communities in Austin and Fayette counties.(Houšť, p. 420) Chromčík had remarkable energy and dedication, he carried on his missionary work among the Texas Czechs for thirty-seven years and brought religion to the Czech Catholics of the area. (Habenicht, p. 86-88). He was the most important pioneer Czech priest in Texas. (Hudson and Maresh, p. 203-206). His influence on the growth of the Texas Czech Catholic community was enormous. The Czech Catholic population of Texas and its institutions steadily grew in size. Tomáš Čapek reports that in 1917, there were 68 Czech Catholic centers (churches, missions, or stations) in Texas. (Čapek 1920, p. 247) Czech Catholic elementary schools prospered in Texas. (Habenicht, p. 86 – 125) In most cases was the Czech language used for classroom instruction. With the founding of the Catholic Nový domov in Hallettsville in 1914, the Czechs Catholics in Texas obtained their own press, and this newspaper was joined by the Granger Našinec in 1914. Both The Catholic and Protestant churches emphasized the obligation to propagate the language through teaching and service, and maintained Czech as the language of worship. (Hannan 1996, p. 18)

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Czech Catholics were involved in Czech cultural development in the state in other ways. Many of the reading libraries, as well as choral and dramatic groups, were founded and supported by Czech priests. The Czech Catholics, no less than Protestants preserved the Czech cultural heritage in Texas. An important factor was the Anglo-Protestant majority culture in Texas; pressure to assimilate and americanize meant pressure to conform to a Protestant ethic. Texas Catholics also tended to be non-English speaking and foreign to the Anglo culture. Czech Protestants had one fewer barrier to cross on the road to assimilation. (Houšť, p. 421) The founding of a new parish or the dedication of a new Protestant church was far more than a simple religious event. It was a social and cultural event of considerable magnitude. Both Catholics and Protestants maintained a strong ethnic identity within their churches. In many cases, both Czech Catholic and Czech Protestat churches stood in the same community. (Hannan 1996, p. 18) Any church function was a time to renew contacts, to catch up on the news, and to escape the loneliness and isolation of rural life. (Houšť, p. 420) The church provided a sense of security, of continuity between European agrarian society and Texas rural life. The church, for both Protestant and Catholic, was a major cultural bond. (Smith, p. 1169- 1174)

3.4 The community The typical Czech farming community can be seen as a network of extended families, characterized by a common way of life, a common ethnic identity, in many cases a common church, as well as various kinship ties. Common was visiting between families. Picnics, barbecues, and dances were popular from beginning. Almost any social activity included some form of musical entertainment. (Skrabanek 1951, p. 258-266) Whether it was established in a comparatively isolated area or one already settled by Anglo- Americans or members of other ethnic groups, the Czech community in Texas, like the individual family unit, was in many ways self-sufficient. Social activity revolving around a community center, often a church, helped to maintain a strong sense of community cohesiveness. (ibid) Immigrants and Anglo-Americans were separated by language and cultural barriers. Their relations were based on stereotypes and misunderstandings. The Anglos felt antagonized by the Czechs’ close-knit community networks, religious devotion, and group mentality. The immigrants were able to work extremely hard and gained a reputation based on their productivity and thrift, but were also, for the same reasons ridiculed and misunderstood. They were self-sufficient, producing all they needed for daily life on the farm, and believed that they could remain detached from the American world. Their access to American privilege was limited; they knew little English, were perceived as second-class citizens, and assumed the lowest social ranks in Texas, next to Indians and African- Americans. (Polišenský 1992, p. 12) Czechs quickly became attached to the land they acquired in Texas, they valued every acre of land and worked to make it fertile with the help of their children. The Americans did not understand the Czech’s relationship to the land to which they themselves felt little

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attachment. Their life philosophy was hunting and cattle breeding rather than “doing crops.” They took advantage of the abundant and cheap land and moved from place to place; it offered them a comfortable living at a minimum of expense and labor. They ridiculed the immigrants who did not recognize the obvious advantages of mobility. (ibid) The boundaries of inhabited Texas kept expanding, but the majority of Czechs lived in small settlements in contiguous counties in central Texas and spread into the neighbouring counties of Washington and Colorado. (Machann and Mendl 1991, p. 71). The first settlements that the immigrants established were spread out on a prairie with a few roads and railroads in between. Many settlements originated when the railroad was extended into a new area. (Polišenský, p. 34) The fact that for Czech immigrants the top priority was living among their own is the key to understanding ethnic maintenance among Czechs in Texas. But the movement of the Czech population was motivated by ethnic cohesion; Czech resisted moving into unsettled territories lacking churches or communal organizations. The Czechs were united as a community through their mostly peasant origin, farming, religious faith, and mutual aid organizations, as well as shared ideals. Their community was strengthened by the overseas journey, which broke down inequalities of social or economic status and provided bonds of a shared experience. (Skrabanek, p. 258-266) Although the Czechs were traditional as religious peasants, they were progressive in the sense that they were literate and aware of their ethnic identity. Their conservative attachment to land and tradition, on the one hand, and a modern sensitivity to language, on the other, developed essential characteristics of Czechs in Texas. Some leaders tried to advance Czech cultural life. They also attempted to lead the community in the future and called upon its members to participate not only in the Czech but also American public life. These exceptional individuals served as a bridge between the two worlds and were respected, but no necessarily followed. The majority lacked any interest in participating in life outside the community, which contributed to long-term community maintenance as well. (ibid, Hannan, p. 20)

3.5 Education In the years after the Civil War Czech communities organized numerous schools, both public and parochial, for the education of their children. The first parochial schools were at Hostyn and Praha in 1866. Schools were almost immediately established after the parish was organized – first in the older settlements of Dubina, Ammansville, Industry and Fayetteville, and later in newer communities like West, and Corn Hill. (Habenicht, p. 90, 101 -102) The Czechs in Texas placed a high value on education, which accelerated the process of assimilation. The illiterate rate among the Czech immigrants was extremely low, partly due to compulsory education in their homeland. The Czechs saw education as a stepping stone to social and economic success. (Čapek 1920, p. 86) Organized education in the Czech language began early in Texas. For example Josef Bergmann was conducting lesson in both Czech and German in his home and in the church building at

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Cat Spring as early as 1855. Josef Mašík became the first formal Czech teacher in the United States when he opened his school at Wesley. (ibid) Although the first Czech school was located in Washington County, Fayette County, with a very large Czech population, took the lead. Usually all grades (five or six) were housed in a small building, perhaps in one large room of a church or private home until local residents could afford to build a separate structure. Conditions in the early schools were primitive. In some cases, no Czech-language textbooks were available (Hudson and Maresh 1934, p. 176) Occasionally, books were ordered from Europe at great expense. (ibid) Although school attendance was limited due to farm work, sending children to school was a priority for Czechs. The Texas public school system as a whole received very little financial support and was poorly organized until the 1870’s. As conditions gradually improved, the Czech community schools were incorporated into the public school system and new public schools were established in Czech settlements. Several Czech Catholic parochial elementary schools were organized in the years following the Civil War. It was common to establish a school soon after each new parish was organized. (ibid) In 1871, the Texas legislature issued a law that English is the primary language of instruction in all public schools. In the Czech community this law was ignored. When the Czech-American County Judge Augustin Haidušek became in 1883 school superintendent of Fayette County, he enforced the law. English became the primary, although not the only, language of instruction in all county schools. Haidušek was at that time the most prominent Czech ethnic leader in Texas and most Czechs agreed with his philosophy: Czech youths would have to learn English well before they could become successful and effective American citizens. Haidušek emphasized that poor knowledge of English explained why Czechs were cheated in dealings with Americans and restricted in their rights. Czech was maintained at some schools as a subject throughout the active life of the Czech community and teachers were in demand. (Houšť, p. 223) In the classroom and the schoolyard, many Czech children learned English for the first time, and the public school was surely the most powerful institution which promoted assimilation. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 89) Even though many of the old Czech schoolteachers had been disqualified by the state language requirements, the Czech continued to take an active interest in public schools. In the 1890s, teachers of Czech origin in Fayette County organize the Komenský Society, with the aim of improving public education among the Czechs. (Skrabanek 1950, p. 221-231) The target of Czech clubs was to fill social needs as well as to preserve the Czech language and culture. The Czech clubs began to appear at Texas high schools in areas heavily populated by Czechs, such as West, East Bernard, and Wallis. Their members agitated for the inclusion of the Czech language in the curriculum. Such clubs appeared later at The University of Texas. (ibid)

3.6 Clubs and organizations

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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were established many organizations with a cultural or educational purpose. Very popular were the musical organizations – bands, choral and dance societies and the amateur theatrical organizations. Early in the twentieth century theatrical societies could be found in almost every large Czech community in Texas. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 91) In 1869 the Czechs at Wesley organized the Československý čtenářský spolek (the Czechoslovak Reading club.) The impetus to the organization provided the Wesley Brethren church. The society flourished until 1883; membership decreased, and its activities ended. (Maresh, p. 179) In 1871 a second reading club was formed at Ross Prairie. It was called Osvěta (Enlightenment) and lasted only five years. (Maresh, p. 180) An important national Czech society which had some influence in the state was the Sokol. The Sokol was founded in Prague in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was known for his gymnastic program and the slet. The American branch of the Sokol, Národní jednota sokolská, was one of the most popular Czech organizations in America. Almost all members were Texas Czechs, and the Sokols helped strengthen a sense of ethnic solidarity. (Machann and Mendl, p. 91) In 1877 Marie and Anton Kulhanek, former actors in Europe, organized a theatrical organization in Praha. They named it Kajetan Tyl, in honor of the author of the Czechoslovak anthem, “Kde domov můj.” All profits went to a local school. (Habenicht, p. 94) The most popular and influential among the Texas Czechs were the fraternal organizations. They were organized as centers for important social activities: meetings, dances, picnics, and various ethnically-related festivals. Strictly speaking, a fraternal organization is mutual aid society which offers life insurance protection for its members, who are connected with a particular ethnic group, religion, or occupation. The Česko-slovanský podporující spolek, usually abbreviated Č.S.P.S. (Czecho-Slovak benevolent society) was one of the earliest fraternal orders in the United States. (Machann and Mendl 1983, p. 95) The authors in their study pointed out to another fraternal organization, the Slovanská podporující jednota státu Texas (SPJST), known in English as the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas. (ibid) SPJST separated from ČSPS and grew into the most powerful and influential Texas fraternal and probably the most important organization in the history of the Czechs in Texas. (Hannan 1996, p. 23) The Západní česká bratrská jednota (ZČBJ), known as the Western Fraternal life association (WFLA), was another splinter group which broke off from the ČSPS and subsequently became very successful. (ibid) In 1879, a group of Czech settlers formed the Prní texaský česko-moravský podporující spolek (the First Texas Czech-Moravian Benevolent Society). Later this society became a local unit of the national Druhá římská katolická ústřední jednota (The Second Roman catholic central society). During the same years, another national Czech catholic Society, První římská katolická ustřední jednota (The First Roman catholic central society) became active in Texas. (Machann and Mendl, p. 99)

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In 1889 was established in Bluff the Katolická jednota texaská (KJT), the Czech Catholic Union of Texas. In 1897 was formed Česko-řimská katolická podporující jednota žen texaských (KJZT), the Czech- Roman catholic aid union of women in Texas. The KJZT was associated with the KJT and both grew rapidly. (Machann and Mendl, p. 101) Another Czech catholic men’s fraternal organization Státní rada katolického dělníka v Texasu (KD), known in English as the State council of the catholic Workers (CW) in Texas in 1897 (ibid) Eventually the SPJST and the K.J.T. became the dominant Czech social-fraternal organizations in the state. But there were other organizations, smaller and sometimes more specialized in intent than either of the two largest ones. The Rolnická podporující jednota Sv. Isidora (Agricultural Benevolent Society of St. Isidor) was organized by a group of Lavaca County farmers in 1901. They set two goals. First, to encourage the improvement of agriculture and horticulture through fairs and livestock exhibitions. Second, the society would provide low cost life insurance. (Machann and Mendl, p. 102) In Texas, just as at home, having fun was unthinkable without good music and beer. Notices of balls, dances and weddings, club meetings, plays and music band performances, typically organized by the parish, school, or benevolent society, were announced in Svoboda (explained in chapter Journalism). They were held in private homes and later in halls that became as prominent in the community as churches and schools. (Hannan, p. 19) Musical bands were indispensable for the village folk culture. Bača’s family band became famous for its performances at religious service, funerals, weddings, concerts, and competitions. Czech orchestra lasted for generations and their performances entered into immigrants memoirs. The Texas Czech community created its own social networks. Czech public, religious and cultural institutions as well as insurance companies began to be founded first as local benevolent fraternal organizations and mutual aid societies in the 1870s, and eventually united into state institutions. At that time, the first newspapers were launched as well. Most of the organizations were established between the 1880s and the 1930s, and ethno-linguistic and religious affiliation determined their membership. (Houšť, p. 253) The Czechs established organizations that permitted and encouraged everyone to remain within the group. They desired to recreate a society in which they could communicate in the familiar tongue, and maintain familiar institutions, and, finally to band together for mutual aid and mutual protection. (Gordon, p. 133-134)

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4. JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, LANGUAGE 4.1 The development of Czech journalism Czech language journalism was central to Czech culture in Texas. In a broad sense, the Czech- language press helped maintain ethnic culture and a communal spirit. The success of Czech- language newspapers served as a measure of the health of the Czech language and thus, indirectly, of the Czech-American community itself. On the other hand, it helped to intermediate between the Czech and American cultures and gradually lead to assimilation and the establishment of a distinctive Czech-Texan culture. In a narrower sense, various religious, political, and fraternal groups within the Czech community sought their own voices through journalism as the Czech population, and thus a Czech-reading audience, continued to grow in Texas. (Čapek 1920, p. 171) Czech language journalism, along with the fraternal society and the ethnic church, was vital to the development of Czech Texas ethnic life. The ethnic press performed dual functions. First, it interpreted American culture to the immigrants and shaped the immigrant’s relationship to that culture. Second, the press encouraged the development of Czech Texas ethnicity. Between 1879 and 1920 more than a dozen Czech language newspapers, magazines, and journals started in Texas. Some lasted a few issues, others a year or two, then disappeared. (Čapek, p. 173-174) Independent newspapers associated with no particular organization or group published news and announcements of general interest. Fraternal and religious journals promoted and published the activities of the particular benevolent society or religious organization. The Czech language press reflected the social and economic life of the immigrant community. The newspapers carried steamship advertising. Land agents advertised farms or land for sale. There were announced weddings. Merchants offering clothing. Czech doctors, layers, and druggists offered their services. The immigrant organizations placed notices of meetings, festivals, and celebrations. (ibid) The earliest Czech language newspapers originated in these more populous centers of Czech settlement. In 1860 the Slovan Amerikanský (American Slav) began publication in St. Lois; it was the first Czech language paper published in the United States. In 1860 too the Národní noviny began publication in St. Louis. Later the two combined to form Slavie. (Čapek, p. 171) The high literacy rate of the immigrants implied support of publications printed in their native tongue. The calendar Amerikán Národní kalendář, published from 1878 in Chicago with the goal of connecting Czech settlemets in the U.S., informed readers about new Czech schools, churches, organizations in various states, and about the progress of the Czech ethnic group in America. Amerikán published historical accounts of individual settlements, pioneer memoirs, poetry of the National Revival period, folk songs, stories about pioneer life in America, accounts of the American Civil War (original and translated), advertisements, practical household tips, cartoons, and Czech humor. As many as thirty Czech-language newspapers, journals, and newspaper supplements were published in Texas into the pre-World War II years. (Machann and Mendl, p. 178-85)

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F. J. Glueckman began in 1879 publishing his weekly Texan at La Grange; Frank Lidiak bought in 1880 Texan’s press and type, and renamed it Slovan (Slav). Slovan was just the beginning of Lidiak’s long newspaper career. In 1885 he helped Augustin Haidušek establish Svoboda; five years later he and other Fayette countians organized an English language newspaper, the Fayette County Democrat. In 1892, Lidiak bought a German language paper, Deutshe Zeitung, published in La Grange. Finally, in 1897, Lidiak published the SPJST’s first house organ, Slovanská jednota. (Maresh, p. 152). Lidiak published Slovan until 1885 when he sold it out to Josef Čada. Slovan ceased publication in December 1889. (Habenicht, p. 99-100; Maresh, p. 152) 4.1.1 Svoboda and Augustin Haidušek Augustin Haidušek, who emigrated with his family to Texas at the age of eleven, became an authentic voice of the Texas Czechs and a powerful and influential community leader. He achieved success in Texas local and state politics. He was the acknowledged spokesman for the Czech immigrant community. Haidušek and a group of Fayette County Czechs, including Slovan’s former owner and editor Frank Lidiak, Frank Fabian organized a joint stock company to publish their own newspaper. They named it Svoboda “Liberty.” (Habenicht, p. 99-100) The first issue of Svoboda appeared in 1885. Augustin Haidušek served as editor until 1927. His newspaper was the largest and most influential Czech language paper in the state. Haidušek achieved success serving as County Judge. Education was particularly important to him. Haidušek was convinced that a good education was useful to everyone - businessman, professional, and even farmers. He encouraged the Czechs to send their children to English language schools, and enforced the state law that required the public schools to use English as the language of instruction. Haidušek never stopped working to persuade Czechs to learn Englisch and become active in local politics. He emphasized that Czechs needed their own people in official institutions. Haidušek called upon his readers to follow American laws and customs, to participate in democratic institutions, and to be aware of the significance of democratic elections and American citizenship. For all long as Haidušek was the editor of Svoboda, he persuaded the young generation of Czechs to study and follow the American laws if they sought to defend Czech interests in America. As editor and publisher of the largest Czech language newspaper in the state, he gained considerable influence. (Hudson and Maresh, p. 79) The Svoboda weekly was the most influential Czech newspaper ever published in Texas and its publisher Haidušek was undoubtedly a leader of the community. In 1884 he became Fayette County judge, serving then as an ex officio superintendent of public schools. In 1896 he became the president of La Grange Bank. (Handbook of Texas online). Throughout his life, Haidušek was an enthusiastic member of the Democratic Party. Svoboda and Haidušek were necessary to the development of the Czech ethnic community. The newspaper he published supported the development of the Czech Texan ethnicity. In Svoboda Czechs could read about the latest births, deaths, and weddings in the community, as well as opportunities for purchasing cheap farmland in neighbouring counties. Through Svoboda farmers were informed about weather, crops, and cotton picking in their counties,

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as well as political developments in Texas and at home. Svoboda published editorials, articles, and novels as well as letters from homeland readers. It included notices of dances and musical performances, and paid attention to the Czech’s relocation and establishment of new settlements. (Eckert, p. 185) When the immigrant press was launched in the 1880s, homeland relatives were in contact with those in Texas through Svoboda and other immigrant periodicals. The community was informed about what was happening at home not only by the constantly arriving immigrants but also its press. Svoboda even facilitated the immigration of relatives, for instance by including immigration agent’s advertisements. Once the immigrants arrived to Texas, Svoboda announced the arrivals, described the immigrants background in detail, and drew attention to the expansion of Czech settlements. Svoboda publicized the success of individual immigrants in order to strengthen the community’s sense of achievement and spread message of prosperity. Letters by homeland had both an informative and emotional impact on the immigrants. (Eckert, p. 192) Svoboda undoubtedly supported the community as an ethnic unit and followed a policy of mutual support within the community. Svoboda thus contributed not only to the community perception of vitality and self-sufficiency but ironically also to its isolation. Svoboda advertised Czech service, stores and products, and the practices of Czech doctors and lawyers, illustrating the preference for Czech customers and neighbours. Svoboda also advertised farms for sale and trips to distant Texas territories intended for settlement. Once a new settlement was located, Svoboda published readers’ letters inviting other Czechs to settle there. Almost every settlement had its reporter who documented settlement growth in terms of new churches and schools. Finally, Svoboda represented the official culture of the community and became an important means for writing in the formal literary language. (Eckert, p. 198) 4.1.2 Declining of Czech press in America After Slovan’s and Svoboda’s initial success, other Czechs initiated publishing ventures. Between 1891 and 1914 Czech language newspapers grew up. Some were short-lived, publishing only a few issues. Others flourished a few years then declined. A few prospered and survived to the present day. (Čapek, p. 26) In 1891 Frank Fabian, who was one of the founders of Svoboda, published the first issue of Obzor (Horizont) in Hallettsville. It remained the official paper of the SPJST until 1912 when the SPJST founded its own publication, Věstník. Obzor ceased publication in 1914. Věstník (Herald) was published in Fayetteville until 1933. (Habenicht, p. 103) Nový Domov (New Home) was the sixth Czech language newspaper to be published in the state. (Habenicht, p. 103) This officially recognized Catholic newspaper from Hallettsville survived until the 1970. This newspaper was joined by the Catholic weekly Našinec (Fellow countryman) of Granger in 1914. Našinec, supported by the Czech Catholic fraternal organization KJT, became the official organ of the statewide Czech Catholic men’s organization. It is still publishing today. (Štráfeldová, Radio Praha) Yet another Czech language paper began publication in 1897. Frank Lidiak printed the first issue of Slovanská jednota

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(Slavic unity) on September 1. He published the paper monthly for twenty issues before giving it up as an unprofitable project. (Čapek, p. 162) The Reverend Adolph Chlumský, a Brethren minister in Wahington County, saw the need for a Czech language publication for Czech Protestants. He began publishing the monthly Bratrské listy (Brethren Journal) in Brenham in 1902. Bratrské listy became the official organ of the Evangelical Unity of the Brethren in North America. Texan began publication in 1908 in Galveston. Its first editor was Frank Vencl. Later the paper moved to Houston where it was published until 1919. (Čapek, p. 165) In addition to these major Czech newspapers and magazines there were a number of small, shorter-lived publications. In 1911 Pozor (Attention) began publication in Hallettsville. From time to time, English-language newspapers which served areas heavily populated by Czechs offered Czech-language sections. During the period 1906-1909 the Taylor Journal in Williamson County published a section in Czech. The West News contained a supplement entitled Westské noviny from 1908 to 1920. Later editor J. Morris changed the name of Westké noviny to Čechoslovák. In 1961 Čechoslovák joined with Hospodář wich has been publishing today. (Vaculík, krajane.net) In Williamson County the Rev. V. Cejinar published the Buditel evangelický metodistický (Evangelical Methodist Revival) for Czech readers. But this paper too was short-lived. In 1918, the Sealské noviny (Sealy news), published in Sealy, managed to publish at least forty-one issues of its volume one. Volná myšlenka (Free Thought,) a monthly, had published six numbers of volume by 1919. (Čapek, p. 175) Slovan, Svoboda, Obzor, Nový domov, Věstník, Bratrské listy, Našinec, and the others helped support and were in turn supported by Czech Texan ethnic life. The Czech social, religious, and fraternal organizations became a part of immigrants live. Within them the immigrants could worship, celebrate, and play among their own kind. They could be among people who accepted them totally, who spoke the mother tongue, who were dealing with problems similar to theirs. The Czech religious and fraternal papers were a vital part of this world. (ibid) The Czech language press in Texas, like the social and fraternal organizations, religious bodies, end educational institutions, was part and parcel of the immigrant assimilation process and development of Czech ethnicity. Each fulfilled a necessary function. The Czech press preserved the language, communicated the news, and transmitted American ways and ideals to the immigrant. It flourished as long as these needs existed and as long as the press met them. When the need no longer existed or when the immigrant developed different, sometimes more sophisticated desires, the foreign language press faltered, declined, and eventually disappeared. (Hudson and Maresh, p. 238) To fulfil any of these functions required a market which meant people. In this case it required a Czech reading and speaking population large enough to support Czech language newspapers and magazines. The high point of Czech journalism in Texas came between 1895 and 1914. During those years more than a dozen Czech language newspapers and magazines were founded. It is no coincidence that these were the years when Czech immigration to Texas was the greatest.

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Subscription rates suggests that Texas Czech depended primarily on their own press for news prior to World War I. Even in the 1920s and 1930s, large numbers of mostly first-generation Czech Texans still could not comfortably read in English. And even for those who could read English, the Czech periodicals contained news about Czech organizations and news from the relatively isolated Czech rural settlements that would not be available in the English –language press in any event. (Machann and Mendl, p. 185) In the 1960s most Czech periodicals went out of print, due to lack of readership. After World War II Czech speakers relied on the Czech press in order to keep their Czech language skills alive and maintain their ties to the declining Czech-speaking community.

4.2 Language as a measure of acculturation Perhaps the most important piece of cultural baggage which every Czech immigrant brought with him was his language. At least four distinguishing characteristics of the language spoken by him and his descendants led to linguistic diversity among Czech speakers in Texas. Most basic was the native dialect of the immigrant, and the influence of literary Czech was second in importance. Other important influences were those of German and English. (Machann and Mendl, p. 167) Czechs came to Texas speaking the various dialects of Bohemia and Moravia. Český dialect is spoken in Bohemia, here it is called Czech. Hanacký is spoken in southern Moravia and is called Hanak dialect. Lašský is spoken in an area called Lašsko and is called Lašsko dialect. Moravskoslovenský dialect is spoken in an area named Moravian-Slovakia and is so called. Literary Czech the standard dialect used in most published books and in journalism, is similar to Czech dialect. Speakers of each of these dialects moved to Texas and, therefore, all of them were heard in many Texas Czech communities. However, in Texas, alone among the United States, the Moravian dialects predominated in the spoken language. (Machann and Mendl, p. 167- 168) The second influence on the Czech spoken in Texas was modern literary Czech. Of course, Czech was the medium of instruction in most of the early schools and was taught along with English after 1853. Many of the teachers, especially before 1900, came directly from Europe and were educated in the latest Czech grammars. Later, an increasing number of Czech teachers were native to Texas, but the language they all taught was literary Czech. As a result, many Texas Czech school children learned it in school, and later used it in their careers. Newspaper editors like Augustin Haidušek published newspapers in literary Czech. Many religious leaders, priests and ministers were taught literary Czech and used religious literature which came from Europe or from Czech printing presses in the northern states printed in literary Czech. This is not to say, however, that the Czech in Texas periodicals was pure literary Czech. It showed the influence of the Moravian dialects and the new linguistic environment. (ibid, p. 170) The German language also influenced Texas Czech. As mentioned earlier, the Czech peasant during the 17th and 18th centuries was the protector of the Czech language. Many German words, however, creeped into the language he used and become an integral part of the

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language. In addition, this tendency was strengthened by contact with the Germans in Texas. The influence of English on Texas Czech was, of course, great. The richness of the Czech language in Texas was remarkable. The number of Czech-language newspapers produced by the Texas Czech press through the years indicates the high rate of fluency among the people. About 84% of the individuals included in the 1940 figure lived in rural areas. The concentration of Czech speakers in relatively isolated, rural communities had a major impact on the longevity of the Czech language in Texas. Both Czech Protestants and Catholics emphasized the preservation of the language, as noted in Chapter 4. It was necessary for a Czech priest, just as for a Brethren pastor or Sunday school teacher, to perform his religious services in Czech. (ibid, p. 175) 4.2.1 The interwar years Language provides a measure of the continuity of a community. Tombstones and the press show how the immigrants of the second and third generations changed their identity in the way they used language - how they changed Czech and eventually moved away from it and shifted to English. Tombstone inscriptions, the minutes of KJT meetings, readers, letters to the press, and personal notes show an awareness of both worlds. They include gestures of accepting the American world in borrowing English words and grammar patterns, code switching between Czech and English dates and epitaphs in the stone, and stories and advertisements in the press. This fact also indicates that in the interwar period Czechs were still far from exchanging their culture for the American one. (Eckert, p. 219) In interwar period Czech was used on the farm, in the press, family, and social life, where immigrants cooperated and interacted almost exclusively with other immigrants from the same home country. Czech remained the primary language of the immigrant community. Although local children were sent to schools where English was the language of instruction as early as the 1880s, all family life happened in Czech, supported within strong community ties that effectively limited contacts with the outside world and guaranteed the self-sufficiency of the community. (Eckert, p. 230) In the interwar years, Czech children went to a public or parochial school in their settlement and continued on to a high school in town. Although some high school graduates sought jobs in Houston or other cities, most returned to their parents’ farms after the ninth grade or after they graduated. Czech ties prevailed among adolescents even in high schools where they were directly exposed to the Anglo-American culture. (Skrabanek 1988, chapter 5 and 8) 4.2.2 Dual identity Since its beginning in 1885, Svoboda propagated the dual identity of immigrants, i.e., pride in one’s language and history, acceptance of the American ideals of freedom and right of access to both the Czechs and American worlds. As some community members found English useful in business, they carried English terms into everyday conversations within the community and identified with the American reality. Svoboda, too, began to incorporate the American world more vehemently. Advertisements became a permanent feature of journal, often inserted in English. The Svoboda of the interwar years displayed language change. By the 1940s Svoboda

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looked like a mosaic with language mixing and switching between Czech and English. Front page headlines and numerous Czech terms and phrases were often given in Czech but translated into English (in brackets). The intensified cultural contact found its way into cemeteries, and switches between Czech and English into tombstone inscriptions. (Eckert, p. 233) Although the homeland of Texas Czechs is America, their roots are Czech and their children should be proud of their Czech ancestors and beautiful land so that they could become good Americans as well as good Czechs. But by now, most of the children and adolescents were more drawn to radio programs and the American Westerns shown at local cinemas than to Czech classes. (Skrabanek, 81-82) The community continued to promote the achievements of its graduates from local parochial high schools, teach Czech in high schools, organize Czech women in discussion clubs, sing in Czech at meeting of insurance and mutual aid societies, and celebrate family get-togethers with Czech music bands and community anniversaries with masses in Czech. Czech preaching was relatively common. (Eckert, p. 242) Most Czechs stayed on their farms until World War II, danced and sang with other Czech, and moved within Czech settlements. Although their exodus began during World War I, in 1940 eighty-four percent of Texas Czechs continued to live in rural areas. This fact indicates that the Texas Czech community outlasted all other Czech communities in the U.S., but in the end all of them merged with the American majority. (Machann and Mendl, p. 173-174)

4.3 Literature review Related to Czech-American literature it must be taken into account the close relationship between journalism and literature. It was principally through periodicals that Czech- Americans maintained contact with Czech-language literature of all types. In addition to containing of poetry and novels, virtually all Czech-language periodicals included the kind of nonfiction which was overwhelmingly favoured by its readers: autobiography, biography, and travel literature. Popular were memoirs and autobiographies in which Czech settlers described their experiences in a new homeland. Often these accounts appeared in a letter-format to an editor. Sometimes journalists interviewed individuals and wrote short biographies. (Machann and Mendl, p. 186) The highpoint of Czech ethnic publishing in Texas came with two important books in the 1930s: Czech Pioneers of the Southwest (1934), by Estelle Hudson and Henry R. Maresh, and Naše dějiny (Our History, 1939), compiled by the National Union of Czech Catholics in Texas (Národní svaz českých katolíků v Texasu). Czech Pioneers is the most important English-language source for Texas Czech history. It is, however, a valuable document, particularly because it records many accounts of the early life of Texas Czechs, and it deals with all religious, fraternal, and other factions among the Czechs. Thomas Čapek included information about Texas in his Czech-American studies. His significant

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work is called The Čechs (1920). Important is the chapter on Texas in Jan Habenicht’s Czech- language Dějiny Čechů amerických (1910). Naše dějiny is the most valuable source book for Czech Catholics in Texas. Naše dějiny contains biographical sketches of noteworthy Czech Catholic pioneer priests, short histories of many Catholic centers in Texas, and reports on the Czech Catholic fraternal orders, among other information. The significant and plentiful examples of literary expression among the Czechs are the short biographies which appeared in periodicals and were incorporated into works like Czech Pioneers. (Machann and Mendl, p. 190) In a dissertation entitled The Czech in Texas: A Study of the Immigration and the Development of Czech Ethnicity, 1850-1920 (1978) William Phillip Hewitt examines immigration of Czechs to America. He traces their history, and reasons for migration, from their homeland to Texas throughout the nineteenth century until the 1920, when the large-scale immigration ended. Krásná Amerika: A Study of the Texas Czechs, 1851- 1939 by Clinton J. Machann and James W. Mendl (1983) examines Czech migration into Texas from the initial settlement to the beginning of World War II. Like in the Hewitt study, there are various aspects of Czech Texan culture including religion, folk culture, education language, journalism and others. We’re Czechs by Robert L. Skrabanek is and autobiographical account of growing up in the Czech community of Snook, Texas. (1988). He describes for example social life and farming of the Czechs and examines Czech ethnicity. It is worth mentioning authors like M. Emma Stasney and her work The Czechs in Texas (1938) and Eva Eckert and her study Stones on the prairie (2007) Important are the autobiographical writings of Anthony M. Dignowity. Bohemia under Austrian despotism (1859) is his best-known work. Dignowity was the first Czech-born writer who published in America, but he wrote in English. Although he travelled through and lived briefly in more than twenty states, he settled down in San Antonio, Texas. He was highly visible in public affairs there and he owned mines and real estate in addition to practicing medicine. (ibid, p. 192-193) A few other volume of biography and autobiography exist, most of them privately printed, but much more significant is the material printed in the Czech periodicals in Texas and in the important series of autobiographies and biographies printed in the Amerikán národní kalendář from 1874 on. Short accounts from Texas personalities tell us a great deal about the Texas Czechs. (ibid, p. 194) By far the most talented poet among the Texas Czechs was Marie Nováková. Born in the village of Havřice, near Uherský Brod, Moravia, in 1892, she came with her family to Texas in 1911. She published poems in the Texas Czech Catholic newspapers Nový domov and Našinec and the national (St. Louis) Czech Catholic newspapers Hlas (Voice) and České ženy (Czech Women). Most importantly, her collected works were published in 1934 under the title Pod texaským nebem (Under the Texas sky). (ibid) One of the great Czech poets, Josef Václav Sládek (1845-1912), spent the years 1868-70, travelling in America, and Texas was one of the states he visited. One of the interesting figures

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in American literature was the Moravian Karel Postl. Of the several tales set in Texas, perhaps the most interesting is “On fields unshorn” which freely adapts several incidents from the Texas War of independence from Mexico. (ibid, p. 196-197) More significant for this study, however are the Czech-Americans who wrote about Texas in Czech for a Czech-American audience. Like Sládek and Postl, other Czechs in America were fascinated by the frontier, cowboy, and “Wild West” images of Texas, just as English-speaking Americans were. The fact that Texas had been an important area of Czech settlement since the 1850’s was an additional factor. Short stories concerning the adventures of Czech settlers in this ‘wild land’ were common in some big-city periodicals, in particular Chicago’s Amerikan národní kalendář. Among the authors who set their stories in Texas were Václav Petrželka, O. B. Pokorný, J. B. Zahradecký and Hugo Chotek. Hugo Chotek published biographical and travel stories for several Czech-American journals. Some of his pieces appeared in the Amerikán národní kalendář. In some of his best stories, he deals with life among the Moravian immigrants of Texas, where he had lived for some years and edited the newspaper Slovan. (ibid, p. 198)

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5. DEVELOPMENT AFTER WORLD WAR II 5.1 Migration after World War II Texas Czech farming lost its significance. A few Texas Czechs stayed on their farms after the war and adjusted their lives somewhat; remaining self-sufficient was harder than ever. Most Texas Czechs decided to leave the farm and turned American. The massive and rapid introduction of agricultural machinery meant a collapse for many small farms that could not afford the machinery, bud could not survive without it. (Skrabanek 1995, chap. 10). The pressure to change farming methods and consequently the whole way of life led to the decline of the family farm and immigrant community. The mechanization of agriculture led to the displacement of farmers. World War II caused enormous social mobility. The young followed the roads established from the countryside to the city, and married persons outside of their communities and ethnic group. The community continued to survive as a social unit and enabled Texas Czechs to come together for religious or ethnic holidays. (ibid) Local schools began closing. There was insufficient number of children due to the fact that the young generation moved to more fertile land and to cities. Czech was typically no longer a subject of instruction in the consolidated school districts. The last parochial Czech community school in Praha closed down in 1972. English-speaking pastors assumed the posts of the retiring Czech priests. Businesses in the rural settlements of Praha, Dubina, High Hill, Ammansville, Hostýn and others closed down as well or moved into the nearby towns that had their own school districts, were located near the highway, or offered jobs outside agriculture, in breweries, factories, or a college. (Skrabanek 1995, p. 225-228) Travel to town became easy as the Texas countryside was modernized and new roads connecting settlements were built. One of the settlements abandoned after World War II was Ammansville, once a thriving Czech- German settlement with a church, two schools, a courthouse, several businesses, and a dance hall. Today most of this exists only in the memories of a few of Ammansville’s older citizens. A similar fate had other settlements as Wesley, Ocker, Ellinger, Industry and others. (Eckert, p. 253) Hannan (1996) gives an example of what happened in one of the Czech settlements:

In Granger, Williamson County … most of the population today is of Moravian descent. A century ago the railway lines which bisect the town separated the Anglo-Americans from the Moravians; the latter lived on the west side of the tracks and the former on the east. Most of the Anglo-American families moved elsewhere, but the Moravians, who had acquired the fertile blackland outside of town, settled down for good. After the Second World War this trend was reversed, as many young people left Granger, West, and other rural communities in search of employment in towns and cities. Family farms could not support all the adult offspring and with the traditional respect shown literacy and learning, an increasing number of young people sought work in urban centers and pursued professional careers. The tradition of upward mobility established by the early immigrants has continued to the previous generation. Czechs and Moravians in the cities introduced some of their institutions from the rural settlements, most notably fraternal and religious societies. While the cohesion of the community could not be preserved intact in the cities, even for many of the city-dwellers social contacts were restricted to their own ethnic community… (p. 25-26)

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Svoboda was out of step with the times and stagnated along with its community. It went out of print in 1966. At the time when the community of Svoboda readers was attracted to Texas towns and separated from the farmland, Czech radio programs became very popular. The programs and the ethnic press enabled the maintenance of group links as the community underwent the process of decline. Hannan (2005) notes that sometimes on weekends, there were life broadcasts from special events, such as parish festivals in the Frydek settlement. (p. 31-50)

5.2 Language In the 1960s newspaper editors responded to declining readership and reduced drastically the number of Czech newspapers. Nový domov, the officially recognized Catholic newspaper from Hallettsville ceased publication in 1970. Obzor, the official organ of SPJST since 1897, was succeeded in 1912 by the bi-monthly fraternal newspaper Věstník that ceased publication as well. (Machann and Mendl, p. 184-185). Eventually, Czech moved into the domestic domain under the influence of English mass media penetrating into homes. English pushed Czech to the periphery, where it was considered as the language of the old country. With English instruction in schools and the spreading possession of televisions, the Czech language lost its dominance in Texas. (Oommen, S: Texas Czechs – Vítáme Vás na Texas.) Hannan (1996) confirms that: full-scale assimilation began only after the Second World War…. So long as Czech, in the press, in the churches, on radio broadcasts, and in amateur plays, could efficiently compete with English, this language was spoken at home and was passed on to succeeding generations. The increasing influence of the schools and the decline in Czech language instruction worked towards the loss of literary Czech and the spoken Moravian. By the time most families owned a television, Czech could no longer compete on an equal footing (p. 26) English steadily gained more ground and greater prestige. Writing produced after World War II (i.e., tombstones, personal letters, notes, and minutes of organization meetings) shows little awareness of any Czech standard in orthography and grammar. It became a hybrid marked by English borrowings and grammatical patterns. Its outside source dried up; no new immigrants were arriving who would refresh its vocabulary and remind users of the homeland sound. Voices of priests, teachers and press editors were losing the power. Czech lived through self- perpetuating rituals of song, phrases, prayer, and the cemetery phraseology of those who once spoke Czech daily in the community. While language has been dying with its speakers, ethnicity remained for decades. (Hannan 2005, p. 31-50) Common was anglicizing Czech names. Anglicized spelling spread beyond personal names into general usage in words. Czech placenames were misspelled. The strong presence of Czech on gravestones corresponds to the years when their ethnic community was strong and productive. Due to the effects of World War II, the modernization of the countryside, and the infiltration of households by English-language media, the community collapsed, and Czech disappeared from gravestones as well. (Eckert 2007, p. 270)

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5.3 Survival (of Texas Czechs) Churches and cemeteries were the first visual elements defining Czech settlements in Texas; today, they are their remains. Nearly 100 settlements in Texas had Czech names, and about half of them still exist. Some of these settlements are especially important because of the early establishment or because they were the site of an historic church, school, lodge hall, printing press, or other building or institution. Some settlements remain on the map and in people’s hearts. (Guide to the Czech Communities in Texas) Today, the original Czech settlements can be tracked down through names on mailboxes, cemeteries, churches, and fraternal organizations. Some old farms still stand. A few Texas towns have survived as ethnically Czech, German, or mixed settlements, such as Columbus, Shulenburg, Freyburg, La Grange, or Whiner, and attract tourists with their Czech regional history, European accents, and peaceful country surroundings. (Eckert, p. 271-272) Fayetteville remained a trade center thanks to its accessibility by major roads and maintenance of an independent school district. Old Czech churches in Wesley, Praha, Ammansville, Freyburg, St. John’s, and Dubina are tourist attractions. (Eckert, p. 273) Although Texas Czechs live dispersed throughout Texas today and most have jobs in big cities where they might use bits of Texas Czech with neighbours, some return to the Czech counties once they retire. They reconstruct the hundred-year-old wooden houses, re-establish local school, and open art galleries, as in Fayetteville, Dubina, Industry, or Rožnov. Working couples commute to the original farming settlements from Houston and Austin to enjoy the rural way of life. But today, they do not buy land to farm but rather to build a residential house, attracted by quick access to a highway or a hill view rather than by fertile blackland as the first settlers. (ibid, p. 273-274) Texas Czechs gather for traditional Czech celebrations and festivities (masses, festivals, baking, folk costume dances, etc.), linked by mutual cultural and organizational ties. Hannan (2005) observes that ethnic festivals as well as efforts at language revival had little positive impact on community recovery:

They popularized ethnic consciousness among Texas Czechs in the 1980s, through the emphasis was on beer, sausage, and music rather than on authentic culture from the homeland. This movement could neither reverse nor brake the natural processes of assimilation that characterize any ethnic community that has drifted so far in time and space from its origins. (p. 31-60) In 1982, a new English-language journal promised to be of special interest to Texas Czechs. Published in Hallettsville, it is entitled Naše Dějiny: The Magazine of Czech Genealogy. (Machann and Mendl, p. 236) Today elderly Texas Czechs subscribe to the Czech periodicals Hospodář and Našinec, maintain membership in KJT, and engage in genealogical pursuits. In recent decades, an interest in genealogical research improved the preservation of the Czech community memory. Many Texas Czech clans had their genealogies documented by homeland archival research and stories that survived in Texas Czech folklore, privately published and shared among Texas Czechs as well as homeland family descendants. (Gallup 1999, p. 87-109)

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Czech Texans keep in contact through the Czech Heritage Society of Texas, at insurance company meeting, and at church services. The Czech Herigage society of Texas was founded 1982 in Taylor. The mission of this organization is to preserve and promote genealogy, herigage, history, music, customs, food, costume, culture and language of the Czechs and Moravians of Texas. Their members help people by locating their Czech ancestors and documenting their family histories. The Czech Heritage Society publishes Český Hlas (Czech Voices), a newsletter printed three times a year. Czech Voices informs members about the state society and county chapter activities and includes articles of cultural, historical and genealogical interest. (The Czech Herigage Society of Texas.) Today some forth-generation immigrant descendants still speak Texas Czech. It is even possible to hear forms of archaic Moravian dialect from individuals who grew up speaking this language at home. As Hannan comments “Some individuals are remarkably fluent speakers, while others have only a passive knowledge” (p. 15) A number of Czech festivals are held in the state annually, including Czech Fest in Rosenburg, Czhilispiel in Flatonia, Westfet in West, and the National Polka Festival in Ennis. Several radio stations in Texas regularly play Czech music. (Handbook of Texas online) Two Texas towns associated until today primarily with Czech heritage are West and Granger. Each maintains publication of a Czech journal. Only West has taken a more commercialized route, thus making the town visible on the map as the “Czech Point of Central Texas.” West hosts Westfest every Labor Day, which includes a Koláče baking contest and a Taroky tournament. In La Grande was opened in 2004 the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center. (Czech Texans. Culture.) Today, Texas cities have dedicated museums to honor the Czech culture. Known are Czech Heritage museum in Temple, Burleson County Czech Heritage Museum in Caldwell and the Fayetteville museum. All of them celebrate Texas Czech settlement and contain many items of Czech history and culture. Research of Czech history promotes Houston’s Czech Cultural Center. Praha hosts the Praha Homecoming, also known as the Pražská pouť, which is celebrated with catholic mass, food singing and dancing. Crosby hosts a Czech fest and a koláče bake. (Oomen: Texas Czechs – Vítáme Vás na Texas, Houston institute for culture). The National Polka Festival in Ennis is held annually on Memorial Day weekend, here is offered Czech foods such as klobása (sausage), sauerkraut, koláče and others as well as live entertainment with traditional polka music and dancing. (The national Polka Festival Ennis, Texas) In the 1980s a Czech society, Texana Českého původu (Texans of Czech ancestry), was formed to organize a celebration of the role of Czechs in Texas history. Related projects included compiling community histories, pioneer registries, family histories, and information on Czech cemeteries, schools, and churches. (Hadbook of Texas online) Music continues to bring Texas Czechs together, and many descendants remained Czech through their attachment to music. Czech singing groups drawing Czechs from several neighbouring counties for practices are still common. Traditionally favoured bands are Patek’s and Baca’s, successful are other family bands too. Kovanda’s Czech Band was organized as a brass band by a Czech musician in 1984 and performs nowadays at annual festivals and feast days (poutě) celebrated at Dubina, Ellinger, Praha, Caldwell (the Kolache Festival) and the Rosenburg Czech Festival. (Kovandas Czech Band) For instance, the Assumption of Virgin Mary

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holiday draws thousand to the mass and picnic at Praha every year on August 15. In Fayetteville and other “Czech” towns, polka bands keep playing old favorities. Czech songs live on in his sung in Czech with a Texas accent. (Eckert, p. 276) Some factors such as dress, food, dances, and music continue to account for the feeling of “Czechness” among fourth-generation Texas Czech descendants who are imperfect or non- functional Czech speakers. They advertise positive attitudes to the past, the pride of being Texas Moravian and belonging to a reputable community through a few surviving Czech phrases and greetings. They claim their determination not to be forgotten as Czechs or Moravians. Some Texas Czechs still speak Czech and express their identity in logos on buttons and shirts, and in arguments about the need to maintain the heritage. According to these criteria, Texas Czech culture can be seen as very much alive even today. Gallup emphasizes the strong sense of Czech identity that survives among descendants and continues to be propagated through church, press, festivals, food, family gatherings, and insurance societies. (p. 87-109)

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CONCLUSION In conclusion, the Texas Czechs have been playing an important part in the progress and development of the state. The Czechs came to Texas in search of a new life, they dreamed of better future. The immigrants faced many obstacles which they had to overcome such as the crossing or different climate condition in America. The pioneers who came here were not only confronted by long weeks of risky sailing, but also by a strange land and people whose language they did not understand. The thing the pioneers missed most in Texas was the social life. In the old country most of them lived in villages, here they lived on scattered farms where music, entertainment, schools, and churches were not rooted. After arrival the Czechs had to build their own houses, schools, churches and make their own roads. The pioneers were confronted with lack of equipment, food, shelter and others factors. They had to survive the hardships of the colonization of Texas. Another factor with the Czechs were confronted was the vast regions of forests, prairies and unbroken land. In this regard, the Czechs made their most valuable contributions, providing skills and manual labor in building up Texas. The Czech farmers gave Texas their great agricultural industries and contributed to the rapid development of the state. Despite the fact that Texas Czech are slowly Americanized, they are proud of their origin and their heritage by holding some Czech cultural festivals, ethnic celebrations and other events in Texas. (as mentioned in the previous chapter) There are several existing newspapers and the Czech-American press is still available on the Internet. For Texas Czechs is important the preservation of Czech traditions, history, music, customs, food and language. Some organization, clubs or societies offer the opportunity to learn Czech at some Czech language courses. (Re:Views: Czech-Moravian Heritage in Texas) Czech is taught at some American universities. Noticeable is The University of Texas at Austin. The Texas Czechs shown a remarkable cohesiveness as an ethnic group up to the present day. Perhaps their most obvious characteristic in this regard is an attachment to the Czech language and heritage. To sum up, contribution of the Czechs to social, religious and cultural aspects of Texas had a great importance and the culture of the Texas Czech is still far from dead.

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REFERENCES Printed sources

Conzen, K. N. (1991). Mainstreams and side channels: The localization of immigrant cultures. Journal of American Ethnic History, 5-20. Conzen, K. N., Gerber, D. A., Morawska, E., Pozzetta, G. E., & Vecoli, R. J. (1992). The invention of ethnicity: A perspective from the USA. Journal of American ethnic history, 12(1), 3-41. Čapek, T. (1920). The Čechs (Bohemians) in America: Study of Their National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic and Religious Life. Houghton Mifflin. Dubovický, I. (2003). Češi v Americe: Czechs in America. Eckert, E. (2007). Stones on the Prairie: Acculturation in Texas. Slavica Publishers. Eckertová, E. (2003). Kameny na prérii: čeští vystěhovalci v Texasu (Vol. 23). Nakl. Lidové noviny. Efmertová, M. C. (1998). Češké země v letech 1848-1918 (Vol. 1). Nakl. Libri. Gallup, S. N. (1998). Journeys into Czech-Moravian Texas (Vol. 6). TAMU Press. Habenicht, J. (1910). Dejiny Cechuv Americkych. St. Louis. Habenicht, J. (1996). History of Czechs in America. Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International. Hamilton, J. T. (1900). A History of the Church Known as the Moravian Church, or the Unitas Fratrum, or the Unity of the Brethren. During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Hannan, K. (1996). Ethnic identity among the Czechs and Moravians of Texas. Journal of American ethnic history, 15(4), 3-31. Hannan, K. (2005). Refashioning Ethnicity in Czech-Moravian Texas. Journal of American Ethnic History, 25(1), 31-60. Hewitt, W. P. (1979). THE CZECHS IN TEXAS: A STUDY OF THE IMMIGRATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CZECH ETHNICITY, 1850-1920. Herrmann, I. (1922). Blednoucí obrázky: vzpomínky nejstarší a drobné episody z maloměstské kroniky. F. Topič. Houšť, P. A. (1890). Krátké dějiny a seznam česko-katolických osad ve Spojených. státech Amerických. St. Louis. Hudson, E., & Maresh, H. R. (1934). Czech Pioneers of the Southwest. Dallas, Texas: Southwest Press, Hýsek, M. (1934). Ignát Herrmann. F. Topič.

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Chmelar, H. (1974). The Austrian Emigration 1900-1914. President and Fellows of Harvard College. Kašpar, O. (1986). Tam za mořem je Amerika: dopisy a vzpomínky českých vystěhovalcu̇ do Ameriky v 19. století. Československý spisovatel. Kloss, H. (1998). The American Bilingual Tradition. Language in Education: Theory and Practice No. 88. Delta Systems Co., Inc., 1400 Miller Parkway, McHenry, IL 60050. Kutnar, F. (1970). Dopisy českých vystěhovalců z padesátých let 19. století ze zámoří do vlasti. Začiatky českej a slovenskej emigrácie. Bratislava: Slovenská académia vied, 211-306. Kutnar, F. (1964). Počátky hromadného vystěhovalectví z Čech v období Bachova absolutismu. Rozpravy CSAV, roc, 74. Laska, V. (1978). The Czechs in America, 1633-1977: a chronology & fact book (No. 28). Oceana Pubns. Machann, C., & Mendl, J. W. (1983). Krásná Amerika: a study of the Texas Czechs, 1851-1939. Austin, Texas: Eakin Press. Machann, C., & Mendl Jr, J. W. (Eds.). (1998). Czech voices: stories from Texas in the Amerikán Národní Kalendář (Vol. 39). Texas A&M University Press. Murphy, D., & Dubovický, I. (1998). Podstatné rysy českoamerické krajiny. Český lid, 34-47. Polišenský, J. (1970). Začiatky českej a slovenskej emigrácie. SA V, Bratislava. Polišenský, J. V. (1992). Úvod do studia dějin vystěhovalectví do Ameriky: Obecné problémy dějin českého vystěhovalectví do Ameriky, 1848-1914. Univerzita Karlova. Polišenský, J. V. (1996). Úvod do studia dějin vystěhovalectví do Ameriky: Češi a Amerika (Vol. 2). Univerzita Karlova. Skrabanek, R. L. (1989). We're Czechs (Vol. 25). Texas A&M University Press. Skrabanek, R. L., & Parenton, V. J. (1950). Social Life in a Czech-American Rural Community. Rural Sociology, 15(3), 221-231. Strnadel, D. (2006). Tam za mořem: vystěhovalectví z Frenštátska do Ameriky ve 2. polovině 19. století. Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost. Strnadel, D. (1988). Dva dopisy z Texasu. Český Lid, 177-179. Smith, T. L. (1978). Religion and ethnicity in America. The American Historical Review, 83(5), 1155-1185. Sollors, W., Handlin, O., Orlov, A., & Thernstrom, S. (1980). Literature and ethnicity. In The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Harvard Unviersity Press.

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Electronic sources

Czech Texans: Culture [online]. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Texans

Friends of old world music: Kovanda's Czech Band [online]. Retrieved from: http://kovandasczechband.org/

Guide to the Czech Communities in Texas [online]. Retrieved from : www.czechheritage.org/communities.html

Machann, C. (2018) Handbook of Texas Online: Czechs [online]. Retrieved from: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/plc02

Machann, C (2018) Re:Views: Czech-Moravian Heritage in Texas [online]. Retrieved from: http://reviewsmagazine.net/czech-moravian-heritage-in-texas/

Millet, J. (2013) From melting pot to salad bowl. Understanding American culture [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.culturalsavvy.com/understanding_american_culture.htm

Oomen, S. Texas Czechs - Vítáme Vás na Texas. Houston institute for culture: Cultural crossroads regional and historical perspectives [online]. Retrieved from: http://houstonculture.org/cr/czechs.html

Pohanka,V. (2011) Čeští krajané v Texasu nezapomínají na své kořeny [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-svet/cesti-krajane-v-texasu-nezapominaji-na- sve-koreny_201105290732_mtaborska

Štráfeldová,M. (2005) České noviny v Texasu vycházejí už přes sto let [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.radio.cz/cz/rubrika/krajane/ceske-noviny-v-texasu-vychazeji-uz- pres-sto-let

The Czech Heritage Society of Texas: Dedicated to the preservation of our Czech herigage [online]. Retrieved from : https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/a4db95d2-be4a-4e9e- a9fc-ec6bd491c054/downloads/1d1jgvahm_917760.pdf?ver=1565146969973

Vaculík.(2010) Americký hospodář vychází už 120 let [online]. Retrieved from: http://krajane.radio.cz/articleDetail.view?id=1835

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Appendix 1: František and Kateřina Herrmann, immigrants from Hradec Králové, write their parents. Letter from July 10, 1851.

… Casprinck (Cat Spring) nedá se přirovnati ani k městu ani k vesnici, jest divoce romantická krajina, skromnatá, návrší střídá se s rozkošným údolím a na vyšších místech uprostřed polí má každý stavení své od stromů zacloněné. Jde tudy silnice a mně by se tu líbilo, ale každý říká, že dále jest lepší půda, ačkoliv zde turecká pšenice všude velmi krásně stojí. Podle všeho mého pozorování se mně zdá, že nás zde utěšená budoucnost očekává; co potřebujeme, to jistě zde najdem, čehos se zde nedostává, toho jsme nikdy nehledali; …. co se v této krásné zemi nacházím, nelitovala jsem vystěhování našeho. (Polišenský 1970, p. 228)

Appendix 2: Letter from August, 1851

… Co se posud mému oku podává a podle zdějšího obyvatelstva souditi se může, jest půda velmi ourodná a laciná, takže si tu člověk za několik set zlatých dobré a neodvislé živobytí založiti může. Lidé jsou zde nanejvýš spokojeni, a nikdo si ani za velikou cenu zpátky do Evropy nežádá … Každý jest tu bez starosti živ, čtyřměsíční práce na poli od ledna až do května zaopatří na celý rok hojnost k živobytí … Farem malých, prostředních I velkých jest za mírnou cenu dosti na prodej. (Polišenský 1970, p. 232)

Appendix 3: Letter from August 15, 1852

… Proč bychom s takovými neznázemi zde zápasiti měli, odloučeni jsouce ode všech přátel a známých? Ovšem nám ten rozum trochu pozdě přichází, ale zato jsme něco viděli, zkusili a Ameriku poznali. Prosím, abyste tam všem Texasu dychtivým řekli, aby svou mysl upokojili a na Texas více nemyslili. Jesto to země jen pro takové, kteří otroky držet a sami v chladu sedět mohou. ... Ne to již není zde k vydržení, to horko je nesnesitelné, my se neustále potíme a tím nám všecka síla uchází .... (Polišenský, p. 237)

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The first building for the Slovanská podporující jenota statu Texas, in Fayetteville (available on the Internet https://austinchronicle.com/music/2012-04-06/one-two-tres- cuatro-waltz-across-texas)

The Chromcik school (available on the Internet https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/plc02)

The front page of Svoboda, a Czech-language newspaper (available on the Internet https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ees16)

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Traditional Czech kolaches (koláče) at the bakery Czech Stop (available on the Internet http://www.tresbohemes.com/2016/06/czech-west-texas/)

The Texas Czech Heritage Center building in La Grange (available on the Internet http://www.czechtexas.org/texas-czech-village)

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Westfest (available on the Internet http://www.tresbohemes.com/2016/06/czech-west-texas/)

Baca Band (available on the Internet http://www.texaspolkamuseum.com/PolkaBands.html)

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