Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - What Has Been Done for These People and Their Neighbors Now in America? (Symposium) The Rev. Jesse W. Brooks, Ph. D. (presiding) - The Bohemians: Rev. V. Hlavaty - Bohemian Immigration - Bohemian Protestants - Many Protestant Churches
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A Symposium 117
about the same number are Slovaks, so that about one-tenth of the
Czechoslovaks now live in the United States.
Bohemian Protestants
I would like to say something about the history of Bohemian
Protestantism in this country. The first church in the United States
was founded in Texas, in 1855, at Fayetteville. It was a group of
several Bohemian Protestant farmers who gathered around their pas-
tor. Rev. Zvolanek. In Iowa, near one of the smaller towns, in 1860,
a few farmers gathered together under the leadership of Rev. Kun.
In 1864-65 we find a couple of small Bohemian churches organized in
Wisconsin. These and some other beginnings of Protestant life orig-
inated among the Bohemians themselves. The American people did
not take any interest in Bohemian Christians at that period; but the
time came when American Christians began to take interest in the
Bohemian people. In 1875 there lived in New York a Hungarian, Rev.
Alexy, full of missionary spirit and enthusiasm. Before he came to
New York he was a missionary in Spain for about two years. When
he arrived in New York he saw the Bohemians living like sheep with-
out a shepherd, and he said to himself and to other people: "The
whole world is greatly indebted to Bohemia, and to the Bohemians
for their courage in the past, for their sufferings and for their strug-
gles for truth and freedom." This godly man took upon his heart
to help these people. He didn’t know their language and so he spoke
in German and Hungarian. In his first meeting he read the Bo-
hemian decalogue and the Lord’s Prayer and then preached in Ger-
man, but they didn’t understand; so he began to study Bohemian and
some one in the congregation loaned him some printed sermons, which
he read from the pulpit. In the meantime he acquired the language
and became their pastor and so continued until his death in 1880, when
the Rev. V. Pisek succeeded him.
Many Protestant Churches
After the year 1880 the Americans began to be still more interested
in the Bohemian people in this country and many denominations
started misions. For example, the Congregational Churches began in
1883, under the leadership of the late Dr. Henry A. Schauffler in
Cleveland, and then in 1884 under the leadership of Dr. Edwin A.
Adams, in Chicago. The Methodists started work among our people
in 1884, and the Baptists in 1888. The Presbyterian Church began
taking a deeper interest in the Bohemians about 1889, in which year
many churches were started, in the Central States. There are at
present in the United States one hundred fifty Bohemian ministers
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