"History of Decatur County and Its People" Volume I

Prof. J. M. Howell and Heman C. Smith, Supervising Editors

The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago IL, 1915.
 
Chapter V ~ About New Buda and the Hungarians
Pages 47 - 53
By G. P. Arnold
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many ferments of the kind that affected all of Europe at that time. Before this there were ties binding Austria and Hungary into one political family, and the revolution was Hungary's hunger for freedom. The two figures which stand out in the limelight of that time were Louis KOSSUTH, the provisional president of the Hungarian Republic, and Gorgy, the man of genius in the field of war.

KOSSUTH was the orator, in some respects, without rival in all history. In a Turkish prison, with but meager material, he familiarized himself in the use of our English speech, to that extent that he held English and American audiences spellbound. So great a judge — no greater judge then lived — as Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that a part of his Birmingham speech reached the highest rung of oratory. His American tour was an ovation, and, brilliant as it was, failed to satisfy the fiery Magyar; he wanted armed intervention in the affairs of Hungary and felt piqued that there was no prospect of armies forthcoming. He was irreconcilable to the last; found an asylum at Milan and never returned to the home of his youth.

The struggle over, the flight began. England and especially America were the objective points. Turkey was a hospitable station on that underground railway. An American war vessel conveyed KOSSUTH to England. His American tour began with a reception in New York, a journey to Washington where the orator and his suite were entertained, wined and dined at Brown's Hotel at Government expense. He addressed the Congress and was given a reception at which Secretary of State Webster presided. Besides this Congress passed a law allowing each Hungarian to select a quarter section from any unappropriated land anywhere, and the same should be held from sale for ten years without tax or cost.

At the head of the Decatur County colony was UJHAZY, former civil governor of Komorn, a fortified island in the Danube which surrendered to Austria. The governor and party came here about the year 1851, and at that time the Grand River Valley was unsurveyed. The governor gave the name to the township and settlement; was, in fact, the first postmaster in the county, at Nine Eagles, on the farm of Allen SCOTT.

Now SCOTT was of another era, a contemporary of THOMPSON, of Edinburg, and Peter CAIN of Cainesville. It is presumed that the CAIN-SCOTT wave of immigration came from the South, for as late as 1851 and later, the mail accommodations were by way of Princeton, Missouri, and Decatur County had no east lines of communication at that time.

The governor had a house built, a rambling structure, that was the most expensive dwelling of the day. It is related of the governor that he was accustomed to ride over the prairies and select the landmarks, and fix the confines of the Hungarian reservation, claiming a vast tract including the present Davis City and southwest to the present site of the original manorial castle, and saw in his mind's eye a vast colony of his countrymen living in peace under the folds of the stars and stripes. This roseate view of the future must have been shared with Col. George POMUTZ, for later the genial colonel actually promoted a scheme for a greater New Buda, but that is another story and will be deferred for the present. Governor UJHAZY and family and George POMUTZ in the year 1853 moved to San Antonio, Texas, and the governor remained there until his death, at a ripe old age, never returning to his native land.

POMUTZ came back and thereafter was the central figure of New Buda, and in connection with a civil engineer by the name of DRAHOS, put on paper his ideas of a greater New Buda. The fine map showed a city having a University Square, Boehm St. Kossuth Platz, with the accessories of a full fledged city. The colonel sold lots and invited immigration upon the merits of his paper town, and not without success, for a few German families fell in with his offer. The colonel covered St. Louis and Hoboken in his operations, and had he lived in these days would have merited the name of frenzied financier.

Detractors he had, but his presence and speech appealed to the popular taste. The white mare he rode he called Highland Mary. He used the English speech almost as well as KOSSUTH and freely quoted from Byron, the popular poet of the time. His linguistic accomplishments were considerable. He spoke besides Hungarian the language of English, German, French and was familiar with one or two Slavonic tongues. In person he was tall, blonde, with a full beard and mustachios, wavy hair, that suggested a hairdresser when none was at hand, a military bearing and a suave and ingratiating presence. This was the Col. George POMUTZ of the later '50s.

Now comes his Civil war record — and it was a good one. He wrote the history of an army brigade and when the battle ended got the appointment of consul to the Czar's dominion. He became consul- general and died about 1894 at the post of duty in Petrograd. He died in the Greek faith, and according to an American newspaper account, sometimes appeared at court in the full regimentals of an American brigadier-general.

The UJHAZY - POMUTZ dream of a Greater New Buda was not so flimsy and airy as one might think. In other hands and other management a prosperous community might now occupy the colony's choice of a site.

After the colonel's death the consulate made inquiries at Washington as to the deceased consul's relatives, for it was thought that he left an immense estate judging from the highly colored maps of the metropolitan New Buda with accompanying title deeds conveying great values in the nascent city. At this time University Place and Kossuth Pltaz were waving in corn.

One has said that UJHAZY went from Texas to Hungary and collaborated with the great DEAK in the work for Hungary's betterment, a work that is still unfinished, but mightily advanced by DEAK's statesmanship. CAVOUR and DEAK were contemporaries, but CAVOUR'S dream of a united Italy under constitutional rule was realized during his life, while the struggle in Hungary is still on.

DEAK died without his heart's wish.

The usual theory of UJHAZY'S life after leaving New Buda is that in Texas he found a home and died by his own hand at an advanced age. It is very probable that he was in communication with DEAK and the Liberals, but that, like KOSSUTH, never returned to the home of his youth, although all obstacles were removed in 1866.

The New Buda colony is not to be confounded with the Slavonic Hungarians which now flock to our shores to work in the coal and iron industries. The elder colony was composed as a rule of men who were educated in the schools, had held office, military and civic, under the provisional government and now were in a new country and under strange conditions. The colony was a failure, measured by our standards. Thirty or forty, at high water mark, would complete the census at the breaking out of our Civil war; soon thereafter few remained.

Another, Francis VARGA, was long connected with the affairs of the county and is remembered by hundreds of citizens; he was intimately connected with the Kossuth government and after its fall his flight was imperative. Disguise and the greatest secrecy were necessary to elude the minions of Austria; at last the free City of Hamburg was reached and thence to England and America, following the footheels of UJHAZY to Decatur County. Here he lived and died.

The colonists were not empire builders in any sense, few of them ever having had any experience as farmers, and their crude attempt at tilling the soil is well known. The last log of UJHAZY'S manorial castle is gone as certainly as his dream of a prosperous and greater New Buda has vanished into thin air. The founders are dead and all that remains of the unique colony is the name.

THE STORY OF FRANCIS VARGA

     
One of the most prominent of the colony of Hungarians who came to Decatur County in the early days was Francis VARGA, whose death occurred April 5, 1902, at the age of eighty-five years.

Francis VARGA was born at Debreczen, Hungary, on August 8, 1817, where his father acted as professor in the Protestant college. He went to school in his native city and in 1840 was graduated as attorney-at-law. Shortly thereafter he went to Nagy-Becskerek, where he was appointed as attorney for the Kiss family's estates; therefore for Erno Kiss, who was executed October 6, 1849.

In 1840, during the bloody riots of the Serbs and Wallachians, there had been a vigilance committee of five members appointed, of which he was chairman. This committee during six months of its services had convicted twenty-three persons. In 1840, in the month of January, he was elected chairman of the so-called Danger Committee at Szeged, This committee soon finished its work and Francis VARGA was elected vice lord lieutenant and transferred his place of business to Nagy-Becskerek.

When the southern army was conquered, Francis VARGA, with the rest of the Torental officers, crossed the river at Maross, and on the 13th of August arrived at Vilagos, where the Hungarian army surrendered. About two thousand civilians, under Russian escort, were sent toward Kis-Jeno. Among these was Francis VARGA in a vehicle with five of his comrades. Near Gyula the coachman succeeded in getting away with all that were under his charge. VARGA then went to Gvula, where his relative resided. Here, however, he was not in safety, and acting upon his uncle's advice he went to a village; later to his mother, who resided at Hadju Boszormemy, whence he was compelled to flee. After roaming for four months there was nothing left for him to do but to leave the country, more so as he was sought everywhere. Through his cousin he succeeded in obtaining a passport.

With chemicals he erased his name and the description of the person to whom it was issued and substituted it with the name of Frank Wagner and setting forth therein the description of his own person. After a hard struggle he arrived at Krakkaw (Cracow). With the assistance of a worthy Polish physician he succeeded in obtaining a passport, and with that he went to Hamburg, where he met several of his fleeing countrymen.

The officials soon grew tired of the hospitality shown to the patriots, so they went over to Altona (Schleswig-Holstein), where they remained until January 1, 1851. Then, with Ladislaus MADARASZ, Joseph MAJTHENYI and several others, he went to London. The following period is described in the words of Francis VARGA himself:

"Here we spent six months without molestation, free as birds of the universe, longing and waiting that something might happen whereby we might return to the East. We soon realized that there was not a ray of hope, however, and we decided to go to America. MADARASZ and MAJTHENYI spent five months at Ostend. MADARASZ'S son also came there (William), as did Mrs. MAJTHENYI with her only son, Theodore. Before we embarked about forty Hungarians arrived at Southampton from Turkey; they were all Bem's army; they were under the command of Captain Bissinger, whose real name was Erno DRAHOS. He was at one time attorney-at-law in County Torantal and chairman of the vigilance committee at Szeged. The unfortunate fellow did not have money enough to come in, so I took him to my lodging. We spent a few days in London and afterwards we bade farewell to Europe. At Liverpool we embarked on the steamer Manchester, MAJTHENYI and MADARASZ with their sons, also DRAHOS and myself. The captain, an English fellow, I should term a 'stuck-up' fellow, therefore I could not say that our trip was enjoyable. It took us twenty-two days to cross the ocean. During that time we had severe storms. Finally, on the 13th of August, we reached port. While we greeted our new country with hail, with a powerful sigh did we think of the betterment of our own beloved country. We did not fare any better than the average of the immigrants."

For fifty-two years Francis VARGA was away from his fatherland, seeing it only once in that time. He was married in 1858 to Mary SANDERS, of German descent, and to them were born seven children, one son and six daughters. The son, Stephen, is now a prominent business man of Leon, Iowa.
 
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