Remember to Tell the Children
A Trilogy Book One: The Pioneers
by
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After the next set, Valentine needed to catch his breath and get some air and excused himself from his partner after accompanying her back to her gratefulFraache who smiled graciously and wondered how far things had gone with him and the Heinrich girl and if there was still a chance for her grand-daughter after all. The girl felt very much the same.
Stepping outside he accepted some wine and noticed that there were already several men who had imbibed beyond their capacity, but that was always a risk among the Hessians, especially on occasions like this. It was another transplanted tradition that would be detrimental to both the men and their families. He knew it was one of the issues that concerned his father.
But there were other men more interested in talking and discussing than dancing at the moment. One in particular seemed to hold the floor. Valentine joined the group as unobtrusively as possible and listened. It was only later that he discovered he was one of the younger sons of their host. Sebastian Stark had come home to join in the Kirweih celebration with the rest of his family.
“Well with things going the way they were around here my father suggested that I consider moving on elsewhere, like he had from Kalaznó over in Tolna County before he came up here when we were just kids,” Sebastian commented in answer to a question that Valentine had not heard.
“What year was that?” Someone in the group asked.
“Back in 1736,” he replied to the question.
“How did you hear about there being land down there? Asked another.
“My father got wind of it!” He answered simply. That was hardly surprising to anyone who knew how well informed and involved Johann Konrad Stark was in matters like that throughout the County.
“This János Hunjady from Upper Hungary bought up the whole area back in ’33 and began trying to recruit settlers over in Tolna County but not with much luck. Some Magyars and Slovaks came but not enough to make much of a difference. He had two prospective villages surveyed and tried to get some settlers by offering more than most of the other nobles…”
“Like what?” An interested listener asked.
“No taxes or robot the first three years, a session of land including a vineyard for a small price or if you signed a loan, a house lot and garden and some pasturage. He offered us free wood for cooking and heating, material and timber to build. It sounded better than what I could ever find here. My older brother will get the mill and the land and I would have to work for him with not much of a future. So some of us decided to go and see Hunjady over in Szil where he has built his manor house. He made us an even better offer and we signed an agreement with him and came back for our families and settled in what we call Dörnberg because we couldn’t pronounce the Hungarian name that sounds something like Döröschke.”
All of the men laughed because most of them had great difficulty with the language themselves.
“Who went with you?”
“Let’ see. There was our Johannes Ferber and I in the first group, his younger brothers Peter and Paul came later,” he paused a moment thinking about it and then said, “and yes, there was Johannes Knoch, some Wiandts and Johannes and Michael Kurz and their families. But there have been others since then. And then some Hungarians came along and now lots of people are coming from TolnaCounty and not just our Hessians but some Schwove too.”
“What’s it like living there?” Someone wanted to know changing the direction of the conversation.
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About the Book
The Children of the Danube were on the move again. They were the descendants of the settlers who had joined the trek down the Danube River in the Great Swabian Migration from Germany to the Kingdom of Hungary in the early 18thcentury. Perhaps like their forebears, adventure may have been the driving force for some of them, while desperation drove others as they sought to make a life for themselves and their families. They were faced with limited options if they remained in their original settlements: where land was running out, restrictions against the Lutherans and Reformed were becoming more intolerable and the increasing and often unjust demands of the nobles made it more and more difficult to provide for their families. The Pioneers tells this story through the lives and loves of three generations of the Tefner family in the unfolding story of Dörnberg where their lives intersected with the families who would eventually become part of the author’s extended family and which they shared with all the others who were part of their life together.
They found themselves isolated, confronted by a wilderness and created an economic miracle. Destructive fires and raging floods, famine and drought, bandit raids and epidemics tested them but did not overcome their indomitable will, which was sustained by their faith. A faith that was outlawed but continued underground unabated until the Edict of Toleration granted them freedom of conscience. Nor would they simply cower before the injustices inflicted upon them by the nobles and authorities without protest. Their lives were lived within the broader scope of the history of their times that played a vital role in their development, destiny and character. Emperor Joseph II, the Bishop of Veszprém, Martin Biró von Padány, Anton von Kaunitz, Count Styrum Limberg, the Empress Maria Theresia, the three Counts von Mercy and countless other notable personages all make their appearance and leave their mark on The Pioneers.
About the Author
Henry Fischer was born in
He resides in