Member Presentations 2015 - SVU Conference - Charlottesville, VA
“Strong Women” and the Experience of Emigration and Immigration
Lydia Zitová, Bohemian Immigrant Girl
Victor L. Zitta, Mississippi State U, Emeritus Douglas Steele, Celanese Chemical Corp., Ret.
Lydia Zitová of Bohemia was 16 years old when she immigrated to America. Details of Lydia’s journey were “hid” from subsequent generations until letters written by her parents Josef and Růžena Zita were found in Lydia’s achieves after her death. Translations of these letters revealed the contrast of circumstances in Bohemia with opportunities waiting in America, for those willing to leave family and native country to take risks settling in America.
Lydia’s parents were from different sociological backgrounds. Her father Josef was from “peasant stock,” while her mother Růžena was the ambitious daughter of farmer Jan and Františka Hrubý from Rožnov, Bohemia. Josef and Růžena were introduced to evangelic Christianity, met, married and on July 31, 1896 their first child Lydia was born in Rožnov. Before Lydia was a teenager, the family had moved multiple times, until grandfather Jan Zita died and the family moved to the Zita family home at #6 Blatov. By 1913, eight children were in Lydia’s family.
In the spring of 1913 the Zita family received a letter from Lydia’s cousin in America, urging them to send Lydia to America because of the opportunities awaiting her. In May 1913 Lydia departed Blatov bound for Bremen and the steam ship Neckar that would take her to America on June 7. Her companions were František Prachář, a 26 year old married man from the Žižkov district of Prague, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Slavka from Lydia’s village of Blatov. This paper describes Lydia’s journey to Baltimore, her unlikely admittance into the United States, her determination to stay in America and within 11 months of her arrival lure her entire family to America. Although this is Lydia’s personal story, it represents the story of many immigrants who dared to pursue the opportunities before them.
Written In Stone: The Value of Community-Based Cemetery Preservation Amanda Vtipilson U.S. Army Women’s Museum and Prince George County Regional Heritage Center
They say nothing lasts unless it is written in stone, but the rapidly deteriorating markers standing in cemeteries across the United States seem to say differently. Every day letters carved in stone are weathered away, monuments are broken or buried and sometimes entire cemeteries are lost to time. Each letter or stone that is lost is a piece of history that may now be irretrievable. Cemeteries, aside from being solemn places of reflection and remembrance, can be incredible historic resources—documenting birth and death dates, marriages, family relations, cultural trends and more. Their preservation can be paramount in creating a more complete history of a community. Recognizing the importance of these places, in 2011 the Prince George County.
Regional Heritage Center initiated a volunteer-based campaign to document cemeteries large and small across the county. Prince George County is a rural community located some 30 miles south of Virginia’s capital and has been home to many groups of people, including a large influx of Czech and Slovak families around the turn of the 20th century. Since 2008 the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center has served as a cultural and historic hub for the regional community. Its many enthusiastic members were ready to step up when the call for Cemetery Inventory Project volunteers was made. Volunteers braved weather, thorns, overgrown forests and bugs to document 45 cemeteries including 325 internments within them. Not only has their service created a lasting record of these graves, but it has also developed a solid group of cemetery and history preservation advocates. Using the small church and family cemeteries of Czech and Slovak immigrants in Prince George County as case studies (specifically the cemeteries of the First Czechoslovak Presbyterian Church and the Saint Paul Lutheran Church), this presentation will outline the importance of cemetery preservation and the value of calling on the local community to collect this vital information.
How a Small Settlement, New Bohemia (1915) Inspired a Heritage Center
Marie Blaha Pearson and John Moser Virginia Czech and Slovak Heritage Society
In 1916, Raymond G. Carroll, in an article titled New Bohemia, Virginia, a Colony of Alien Farmers Who Have Come to Stay, wrote “no chronicler of a decade hence will write, ‘there was a Bohemian and Slovak settlement down in Virginia,’ because this migration has been properly developed and is there to stay.” Mr. Carroll was right because New Bohemia still exists and a new State Historical Road Marker now stands along the area on Route 460 in Virginia where this historical community remains. Granted in the decades since it has changed and now where a settlement of homes, a school, a hotel, a church and other community buildings once stood the changes, though apparent in character, remain mostly in spirit. Void of most of the homes, schools and other buildings today, if you were to tour the same back country roads through southern Virginia that led you to New Bohemia you will see the same names on the mailboxes as were there in the old days five, going and six, generations later. Through the efforts of the co-founders if the Virginia Czech Slovak Heritage Society, Marie Pearson and Joyce Pritchard, New Bohemia is today a historical site that many honor and respect. Families of the immigrants have banded together to pay tribute to the efforts of these founders by helping to support the creation of a large Czech Slovak Gallery and Resource Center in the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center’s Museum due to open in the fall of 2015. Ms. Pearson will tell the story of New Bohemia, Virginia and John Moser, Creative Designer of Moser Productions, Inc. who is instrumental in planning the exhibits and artifacts at the gallery will present a slide presentation of what the museum can expect as it captures the life and history of the Czechs and Slovaks who immigrated into Virginia following the American Civil War.
“Strong Women” and the Experience of Emigration and Immigration
Lydia Zitová, Bohemian Immigrant Girl
Victor L. Zitta, Mississippi State U, Emeritus Douglas Steele, Celanese Chemical Corp., Ret.
Lydia Zitová of Bohemia was 16 years old when she immigrated to America. Details of Lydia’s journey were “hid” from subsequent generations until letters written by her parents Josef and Růžena Zita were found in Lydia’s achieves after her death. Translations of these letters revealed the contrast of circumstances in Bohemia with opportunities waiting in America, for those willing to leave family and native country to take risks settling in America.
Lydia’s parents were from different sociological backgrounds. Her father Josef was from “peasant stock,” while her mother Růžena was the ambitious daughter of farmer Jan and Františka Hrubý from Rožnov, Bohemia. Josef and Růžena were introduced to evangelic Christianity, met, married and on July 31, 1896 their first child Lydia was born in Rožnov. Before Lydia was a teenager, the family had moved multiple times, until grandfather Jan Zita died and the family moved to the Zita family home at #6 Blatov. By 1913, eight children were in Lydia’s family.
In the spring of 1913 the Zita family received a letter from Lydia’s cousin in America, urging them to send Lydia to America because of the opportunities awaiting her. In May 1913 Lydia departed Blatov bound for Bremen and the steam ship Neckar that would take her to America on June 7. Her companions were František Prachář, a 26 year old married man from the Žižkov district of Prague, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Slavka from Lydia’s village of Blatov. This paper describes Lydia’s journey to Baltimore, her unlikely admittance into the United States, her determination to stay in America and within 11 months of her arrival lure her entire family to America. Although this is Lydia’s personal story, it represents the story of many immigrants who dared to pursue the opportunities before them.
Written In Stone: The Value of Community-Based Cemetery Preservation Amanda Vtipilson U.S. Army Women’s Museum and Prince George County Regional Heritage Center
They say nothing lasts unless it is written in stone, but the rapidly deteriorating markers standing in cemeteries across the United States seem to say differently. Every day letters carved in stone are weathered away, monuments are broken or buried and sometimes entire cemeteries are lost to time. Each letter or stone that is lost is a piece of history that may now be irretrievable. Cemeteries, aside from being solemn places of reflection and remembrance, can be incredible historic resources—documenting birth and death dates, marriages, family relations, cultural trends and more. Their preservation can be paramount in creating a more complete history of a community. Recognizing the importance of these places, in 2011 the Prince George County.
Regional Heritage Center initiated a volunteer-based campaign to document cemeteries large and small across the county. Prince George County is a rural community located some 30 miles south of Virginia’s capital and has been home to many groups of people, including a large influx of Czech and Slovak families around the turn of the 20th century. Since 2008 the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center has served as a cultural and historic hub for the regional community. Its many enthusiastic members were ready to step up when the call for Cemetery Inventory Project volunteers was made. Volunteers braved weather, thorns, overgrown forests and bugs to document 45 cemeteries including 325 internments within them. Not only has their service created a lasting record of these graves, but it has also developed a solid group of cemetery and history preservation advocates. Using the small church and family cemeteries of Czech and Slovak immigrants in Prince George County as case studies (specifically the cemeteries of the First Czechoslovak Presbyterian Church and the Saint Paul Lutheran Church), this presentation will outline the importance of cemetery preservation and the value of calling on the local community to collect this vital information.
How a Small Settlement, New Bohemia (1915) Inspired a Heritage Center
Marie Blaha Pearson and John Moser Virginia Czech and Slovak Heritage Society
In 1916, Raymond G. Carroll, in an article titled New Bohemia, Virginia, a Colony of Alien Farmers Who Have Come to Stay, wrote “no chronicler of a decade hence will write, ‘there was a Bohemian and Slovak settlement down in Virginia,’ because this migration has been properly developed and is there to stay.” Mr. Carroll was right because New Bohemia still exists and a new State Historical Road Marker now stands along the area on Route 460 in Virginia where this historical community remains. Granted in the decades since it has changed and now where a settlement of homes, a school, a hotel, a church and other community buildings once stood the changes, though apparent in character, remain mostly in spirit. Void of most of the homes, schools and other buildings today, if you were to tour the same back country roads through southern Virginia that led you to New Bohemia you will see the same names on the mailboxes as were there in the old days five, going and six, generations later. Through the efforts of the co-founders if the Virginia Czech Slovak Heritage Society, Marie Pearson and Joyce Pritchard, New Bohemia is today a historical site that many honor and respect. Families of the immigrants have banded together to pay tribute to the efforts of these founders by helping to support the creation of a large Czech Slovak Gallery and Resource Center in the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center’s Museum due to open in the fall of 2015. Ms. Pearson will tell the story of New Bohemia, Virginia and John Moser, Creative Designer of Moser Productions, Inc. who is instrumental in planning the exhibits and artifacts at the gallery will present a slide presentation of what the museum can expect as it captures the life and history of the Czechs and Slovaks who immigrated into Virginia following the American Civil War.
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The following papers were presentedd at the 2006 World Congress in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, June 27, 2006:
Symposium Title: Czech Migrations to Romania and Virginia, then Returning Again
Moderator: Dr. Zdenek Uherek, Director, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
1. Daniel Mair, University College London, School of Slavonic and East
European Studies, London, UK “Kde domov mùj? Relations between the
Czech ‘Homeland’ and the Banat Czech Community of Romania with Special Emphasis
on Re-emigration”
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2. Zdenek Uherek, ASCR and Charles University, Prague, CR “Czech Migrations to the Balkans”
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3. Marie Pearson, Southside Virginia Czech/Slovak Heritage Society
Exploring Czech families of immigrants 100 years later: Those who remained in their "Old World" ancestral
villages and those who were raised in the "New World," America.
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4. Joyce Pritchard, Southside Virginia Czech/Slovak Heritage Society,
Richmond, Virginia Czechs in Southside Virginia. An International
Search of the Landscape and the Literature
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5. Mary Vinsh Blazek, Jenny Blaha Jones and Joseph Vinsh, Jr., Sacred Heart Church, New Bohemia, Virginia
Vinsh Family History. A Study in Discovering the Czech Romanian Origins of a Virginia Family
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