The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/The Čechs in America

by Thomas Čapek

The Čechs in America

By THOMAS ČAPEK.

Under this title Mr. Čapek, president of the Bank of Europe of New York, has written a book which is now in print. It is a study of national, cultural, political, social, economic and religious life of Čechs in America. Mr. Čapek has kindly consented that the Czechoslovak Review print in advance of the publication of his book a few excerpts from it.

From the Introductory:

The subject of Germanic immigration has been treated in all its aspects, in German and in English alike. Literature relating to the settling of the Scandinavians, notably Swedes, is considerable. The achievements of the Irish, the English and the Dutch have been recorded in detail by numerous writers. That the story of Spanish colonization is adequately described goes without saying, for the Spaniards like the Dutch, the English and in a lesser degree the French, were history makers on a large scale. The large influx of Jews to the United States within the last three decades has stimulated scholars of the Hebrew race to study more intensively than ever before their past here.

What has been written on the theme of Čech immigration? In English very little. Emily Greene Balch’s volume, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens discusses not Čechs alone but all the Slavs; besides, Miss Balch devotes the greater portion of her book to the consideration of her favorite subject, economy. My volume aims to throw light not only on the economic condition of the Čech immigrant, but on his national, historic, religious, cultural and social state as well.

Considerable has of course been written, here and abroad, on the various phases of what the Čechs loosely call their “national life” in America, although a full, connected story of the transatlantic branch of the race is still unwritten even in Bohemian.

I do not describe Čech America as a tourist who passes hurriedly through a foreign country and records the impressions of the moment; I write as a close relative, a member of the family, who, for thirty-nine years has lived uninterruptedly in Čech America or very close to its border. I know it in its holiday attire and in its working clothes. I know its faults which are many and its virtues which, I like to think, outweigh them. A residence of seven years in Omaha, spent partly in a newspaper office, partly in law office, gave me a rare opportunity to observe at close range the evolution of the hardy setller of the Middlewest, while life in large cities (in New York since 1894.) has brought me in direct and daily contact with the men and women who live in those queer but cozy corners of America called somewhat patronizingly “foreign” quarters”. ***

From the chapter, All born in America belong to America.

The process of Americanization of children begins in the primary grades of the public schools and is made complete in practical life. Often one hears foreign born parents complaining of the rapid denationalization of their offspring. It is by no means uncommon for foreign born parents, in order to give children a working foundation in their vernacular, to make it a practice to converse with them at home in that tongue, to the exclusion of English. School teachers are often incredulous that this or that child has been born in America, so elementary is the knowledge of English it brings to the schoolroom. The author has in mind the case of a boy, who, though born in New York, knew but a few words of English, and those he pronounced like a foreigner. At home, for his sake, English conversation vas eschewed. Having been taken on a visit to his grandparents in San Jose, California, where there were no Čechs, the boy one day came running in to tell his grandfather how stupid his play mates were: they could not speak Čech! Yet all these expedients and precautions avail nothing. The moment the child crosses the threshold of the schoolhouse, the question of his future fealty is settled. With his grandmother, or other members of the family he will talk Čech, because he has found out that grandmother knows no other language. Let the child, however, sense a speaking knowledge of English in anyone, relative or neighbor, that person will ever afterward be addressed by him in English only. The oddity has been noticed among the children of foreign born parents, that while the first born speaks the mother tongue of the parents passably well, the youngest offspring speaks it poorly or not at all. The explanation is simple enough. When the first child came, the parents in all probability were still monolingual, knowing no other except their own tongue. Meantime, as the other children began arriving, the parents already had acquired a speaking knowledge of English, that is to say, they had become bilingual. In consequence, the later born children, no longer needing the “other language” in their intercourse with parents or older kin, never learned it. ***

From the chapter, Nineteenth Century Immigration and after.

Until 1884 the Austrian authorities kept a record of emigration in the Emigration Tabellen. These tables registered annually persons who left the empire and “emigrated to foreign lands with the intention of not returning”. They noted the age, sex and property interests of the emigrant. After 1867 the authorities began to lose control of the movement and in 1884 the central bureau of statistics in Vienna abandoned this tabulation as unsatisfactory. Instead it commenced to publish in the Statistische Monatschrift data bearing on the transoceanic emigration only, based on figures collected by Austrian consuls at the principal seaports of the world.

In the sixties of the last century the Frenchman Alfred Legoyt could say truthfully that the people of Austria did not show any proneness to emigrate. With apparent satisfaction he noted that there were several factors which mitigated against emigration on a larger scale. Among other considerations there were the great distances to seaports, strict, almost prohibitive regulations by the state, prosperity among the small farmers, large areas of undeveloped land awaiting skilled cultivators and so forth. Yet, before long economists were amazed to witness an almost revolutionary change in this respect.

From Bohemia we recognize two distinct kinds of emigration; the political one which had its origin in the revolutionary disturbances of 1848 ,and the other emigration, due to economic causes.

The wonderful stories of the discovery of gold in California excited the Čechs no less than they agitated other Europeans. Newspapers wrote about the rich California gold fields in highly colored articles, while emigration agents, plying their trade surreptitiously, magnified what was already exaggerated by the press. Warning by the authorities against emigration had litle or no effect; in a like manner admonitions by the church proved futile. It is probably true that the gold craze affected Bohemia more generally than it agitated other Austrian states. In 1853, 1,311 people emigrated from Plzeň district, 1,009 from Budějovice district. The year following witnessed the departure from the first-named district of 1,946, from the second 1,386 and from Pardubice district 1,068. In 1855 Tábor district lost by emigration 649, Chrudim 499, Eger (Cheb) and Plzeň 426 each. A falling off occurred in 1859, when no more than 812 left Bohemia. Non-official statisticians estimate, however, that the figures here given are by far too low and that we should strike the mark by doubling them. All told, the number of emigrants from the empire to America during the California gold fever amounted to about 25,000.

From the outset Bohemia and Moravia send out an almost even ratio of males and females. Tabulated according to age, a majority of the emigrants are found to be between 17 and 40, which years, experience has demostrated, represent a period of the highest physical productivity; in the adult male wage earner it is a time when ambition impels one to most intensive ef fort and action.

The total number of emigrants from Austria between 1850-68 was 57,726; of this no less than 43,645 is Bohemia’s share. The backward districts of the southern part of the country furnished by far the heaviest quota.

Emigration to Russia from Bohemia begins to assume at this time marked proportions. Thousands are lured thither by the prospect of high wages—high, compared to wages paid in Austria. Also, by land grants offered to settlers by the Russian Government. After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the flow of surplus population toward America is again on the increase; in fact, the Austro-Prussian War, synchronous as it is with the end of the Civil War, marks an epoch in emigration which from that year on mounts steadily and rapidly.

After 1880 the character of emigration is seen to change noticeably. The Čechs and Germans who had been supplying the bulk of the arrivals from Austria, gradually begin to give room to a new ethnic element, the Hungarians.

Later the Jugo-Slavs follow the Hungarians and in the overshadowing figures that result, the Čech proportion becomes, by comparison, negligible.

Notwithstanding strict police regulations, advertisements, though veiled, appear here and there telling of the great opportunities in America, giving instructions how to travel and other advice. Die Constitutionelle Allgemeine Zeitunq von Boehmen (Sept. 22 , 1848) contains the advertisement of the firm of Knorr & Janssen, of Hamburg. The representative of the firm in Bohemia is Ed. Zenk of Liebenau, near Reichenberg (Liberec).

Another advertisement is that of Postschiff Verbindung London—New York. Passagiere und Auswanderer aus oest. State. The agent is G. H. Paulsen.

The same newspaper recommends to readers in its issue of Apr. 15, 1849, to purchase a book on America, bearing the title, Auf, nach America, by Fr. Jaeger.

Another announcement, printed May 31, 1849, assures the public that despite the Danish War, emigration to America via Bremen proceeds uninterruptedly.

The Pražský Večerní List lends space (in 1849) to the following advertisements:

May 22. Travelers to America are conveyed by vessels on the 15th of every month by. S. H. P. Schroeder in Bremen. Agent, C. Poppe, Prague, Koňský Trh, No. 833.

June 30. Announcement to Travelers to America. The firm of Luedering & Co., in Bremen, ships emigrants on the 1st and 15th of every month by fast going vessels. Agent. F. A. Dattelzweig, Klatovy (Klattau).

The Pražské Noviny of Sept. 16th, 1847, edited by Karel Havlíček, admonishes the readers not to emigrate. The article is obviously a reprint from the German. If the Čechs, the article argues, who contemplate going to America, work as hard at home as Americans are known to toil, they will be surprised to find America at the threshold of their door. The Politické wesnické nowiny z Čech of Sept. 11, 1849, pleads with the readers that love of the fatherland, if nothing else, should deter Čechs from emigrating. Who but adventurers dare the trip to America, anyway? Yet it is futile to try to divert the thoughts of the poor and the resolute from America.

“Reports continue to arrive from California concerning the large quantities of gold unearthed there,” write the Noviny Lípy Slovanské of Feb. 14th, 1849. “Nuggets of gold weighing as much as a pound, in some cases two, had been found. There are instances on record of immigrants making in gold digging and in trading with the Indians as much as $30,000. The average earnings of a person per day amount to $100. Fever is prevalent among the inhabitants, but it is not fatal. Clothing, food and domestic labor are very high; shirts sell at $10 a piece, beef from $1 to $2 a pound ,laundering a dozen shirts costs $6. A merchant’s clerk commands $3,000 a year”.

Writing from New York to the Prague Národni Noviny, April 3, 1849, J. Č. harps on the same favorite theme, California and its fabulous riches.

Immigrants traveled to the United States by the four ports of Hamburg, Havre, Antwerp and Bremen. So late as 1849 not a mile of railroad existed in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee or Texas.^[1] Up to 1850–55 but a small percentage of emigrants went west by railroad. They chose their homes in lake or river cities which had been benefited by canal and railroad construction. Buffalo, on Lake Erie, was of small importance until 1825, when by the opening of the Erie Canal, it became the gateway from the great valley to the Atlantic States. Cleveland in the same way benefited by the opening of the Erie Canal, as did Detroit, the oldest of the western cities. Steamboats plied regularly between Milwaukee and Buffalo in the season of lake navigation. As a general rule the French and English clung to the seacost, while the German, Scandinavian and Cech pushed into agricultural states. Before an all-rail connection had been established between New York and Chicago, Buffalo was a kind of Mecca, where immigrants, journeying westward assembled. The city presented a sight one could not have seen elsewhere on this continent. Endless caravans of coaches, of lumbering moving vans, of country wagons, the latter loaded with household furniture, agricultural implements, boxes, trunks, moved through the principal thoroughfares. Immigrants with packs and baskets strapped to their backs, lounged on the sidewalks or crowded in front of lodging houses. In 1845, sys a chronicler, 96,000 Europeans passed through the city. Boats which maintained communication with points west of Buffalo—by way of the canal, river or lake—seemed to do no other business, save the transport of immigrants and their luggage. The decks of these boats were provided with stalls for domestic animals; in appearance, these boats reminded one of nothing so much as of Noah’s Ark: their expansive decks were loaded with passengers, horses, horned cattle, vehicles and household belongings. Ordinarily, travelers journeyed from New York to Albany by water, from Albany to Buffalo by rail, from Buffalo to Detroit by a lake boat. From the latter named city to Chicago again by boat the journey lasted from five to six days. The Missouri Republican of July 20, 1849, advertises the trip from St. Louis to LaSalle, a distance of 281 miles, for $5. From LaSalle to Chicago, 100 miles, $4. From Chicago to Buffalo via Buffalo and Detroit from $5 to $8. From Buffalo to Albany by rail $9.45. From Albany to New York by boat 50 cents. Owing to the popular clamor that transportation companies overcharged immigrants, a committee was appointed in New York to investigate the alleged charges of extortion. It was claimed that immigrants were treated brutally by agents and runners, particularly those of them who were unable to speak English. Buffalo, which is the home town of one of the largest Polish settlements in America, somehow or other never appealed to Čechs. Borecký mentions by name about ten families who lived there in the mid-fifties. Even these few moved to other parts, eventually, save the Myškas or Mischkas as the name came to be spelled later.

In the following seacoast, river and lake cities the nuclei of settlements began forming in or after the fifties: New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Buffalo, St. Louis, Dubuque, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Racine, Manitowoc and Kewaunee. Always small, the settlements in New Orleans, Buffalo, and Dubuque soon disappeared, owing partly to removal, partly to assimilation.

The first farming communities sprang up in Wisconsin. This state possessed advantages over others which strongly appealed to the Central Eulropean.The climate though severe and the winters long, was salubrious and singularly free from those frequent and unhealthy changes which prevailed further south. The soil was adaptable for the raising of maize, rye, wheat, oats, vegetables, all products with which the Čech husbandman was familiar. Moreover, there was no fear of humilating competition with negro labor. Wisconsin’s attractions were widely advertised in German and Austrian newspapers. In the aggregate, it had the largest proportion of foreign citizens. Out of a population of 305,391 in 1850, there were 106,691, or more than one out of three, born abroad. Of that number nearly 40,000 were Germans. “The state (Wisconsin) commended itself to settlers in other ways. Taxes were low; one could become a citizen within one year. Good land could be bought at $1.25 an acre and the ground of poorer quality for less price than that. The state maintained in New York City a salaried official, so called Immigration Commissioner, whose duty it was to seek to divert the flow of newcomers thither. This commissioner advertised extensively in the foreign language press, mainly German, sending besides, generous quantities of printed matter to points in Germany, Austria, Switzerland”. One of the pamphlets read: “Come! In Wisconsin all men are free and equal before the law . . Religious freedom is absolute and there is not the slightest connection between church and state. . . In Wisconsin no religious qualification is necessary for office or to constitute voter; all that is required is for the man to be 21 years old and to have lived in the state one year”.

Wisconsin, for a long time, stood at the front of Čech effort in the United States. The weekly Slavie made familiar in every household the names of Milwaukee, Racine, Caledonia, Manitowoc and Kewaunee. The Germans called Milwaukee the German Athens, the Čechs baptised Racine, where stood the cradle of the Slowan Amerikanský and later Slavie, the Čech Bethlehem.

At one time or another, Wisconsin was the home of Vojta Náprstek, John Heřman, John Koříček, J. B. Letovský, Václav Šimonek, Vojta Mašek, Charles Jonáš, Ladimir Klácel, Franta Mráček, John Borecký, John Karel. Here were projected and came into existence, at the promptings of the Slavie, the first Čech language schools; here, too, were organized the Slovanská Lípa chain of societies. When the newer states, Nebraska and Kansas, had been thrown open to settlers, the hardy Wisconsin pioneer was ready to advise his less experienced countrymen in those states.

---

1. McMaster’s History of the United States, v. VIII., p. 88.