Stirpes, Volume 31, Number 3, September 1991 Page: 113
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SeptemberI1991 113
describing the conditions in Texas. The letter was passed from
friend to friend and the following year it was published in the
Moravian newspaper, Moravske noviny. Bergmann's letter was the
catalyst that set in motion Czech emigration to Texas.1I
At the end of 1851 the first group of emigrants from the Czech
Crown Lands to Texas left their homes, arriving in Texas early in
1852. These settlers came from villages around the town of Lanskroun
in northeastern Bohemia. They were not the first Czechs to settle in
Texas (scattered individuals had come earlier), but the 1852 immigrants
opened the door for the flood that was to follow. In 1853 a number of
their friends and relatives joined them. These earliest Czechs
settled in Austin County in the Cat Spring, Industry and New Ulm area.
In 1855 another group of Czechs arrived in Texas, this time coming
from eastern Moravia, from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
Some of these immigrants followed the earlier families to Austin
County. Others settled in the Fayetteville area of Fayette County.
Most of the immigrants of these three early groups were members of
the Moravian Brethren Church. They came from villages where their
faith had been preserved in spite of Hapsburg suppression. The next
important group migration was Roman Catholic. In 1856 a number of
Czech families from the Frenstat area of northeastern Moravia settled
in Fayette County. Whereas the earlier Czech families had settled
primarily in older German communities, the 1856 immigrants established
settlements of their own -- Hostyn and Dubina.13
It was no accident that the earliest Czech immigrants settled in
Austin and Fayette counties. These were areas that had already been
settled by German immigrants. For centuries Czechs and Germans had
lived side by side in the Czech Crown Lands (often in peace and
harmony). One might say that the earlier German settlement prepared
the way for Czech immigration to Texas. American customs and the
English language were quite strange to the Czechs, but established
German settlements offered them an environment to which they were
more or less accustomed. Consequently, Texas was not a totally alien
land for the Czech immigrants.
WHAT WAS THE GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF THE TEXAS CZECH COMMUNITY?
In 1985 this author completed a study of the geographic origin of
the Texas Czech community.qi The study was based on some 845 instances
in which villages of birth were found recorded on tombstones in
various Texas Czech cemeteries. Of these 845 immigrants from the
Czech Crown Lands, 83.3% were born in Moravia, 13.4% were born in
Bohemia and 3.3% were born in Silesia. This supports the widely
held belief in Texas that our Czech community is largely Moravian
in origin.
More specifically, some 40.8% of the immigrants whose birthplaces
were identified in this study came from the Moravian (and adjoining
Silesian) region of Lassko. Lassko straddles Moravia and Silesia,
lying in the gateway between Moravia and Poland. It is largely
Roman Catholic. Another 40.2% came from the neighboring MoravianSeptember 1991
113
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Texas State Genealogical Society. Stirpes, Volume 31, Number 3, September 1991, periodical, September 1991; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39878/m1/14/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Genealogical Society.