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The Czechs in America

by George Kovtun
Czech Area Specialist

Chronology

1633

Augustine Herrman (Augustin Herman), the first known immigrant from Bohemia, came to New Amsterdam in the employment of the West India Company. He became a surveyor and one of the founders of the Virginia tobacco trade. Bohemia is part of the present-day Czech Republic, but it is not clear whether Herman's mother tongue was Czech or German.

1647

Frederick Philips (Bedrich Filip), a Protestant exile from Bohemia, arrived in New Amsterdam. Chroniclers refer to him as a 'Bohemian merchant prince'. He was one of the wealthiest men of his time in the American colonies.

1660

Augustine Herrman moved from New York to Maryland. He obtained a 20,000 acre land grant in Cecil and Newcastle counties and built Bohemia Manor.

1670


Herrman drew the first map of Virginia and Maryland "As it is Planted and Inhabited this Present Year 1670 Surveyed and Exactly Drawne by the Only Labour and Endeavour of Augustin Herrman, Bohemiensis."


Portrait of Augustin Herrman
Portrait of Augustin Herrman,
printed on his map of Virginia and Maryland.
Herrman's map of Virginia and Maryland
Herrman's map of Virginia and Maryland



1735

First group of Moravian Brethren sailed to America. These descendants of the followers of Jan Hus were exiled after the defeat of the Protestants in 1620 and settled in Saxony. Although the Brethren became overwhelmingly German, they kept the memory of their origin by retaining the name Moravian Brethren.

1736-41

The first Moravian Brethren appeared in New York. In Pennsylvania the Brethren founded Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz.

1748

The first Moravian church was built in New York.

1776

More than 2,000 Moravian Brethren lived in the colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence.

William Paca, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence for Maryland, was probably of Czech extraction.

1791

John Wilkes Kittera, thought to be a descendant of Moravian Brethren, was elected as a Federalist to the Second Congress; he was then elected to four succeeding Congresses.

1801

John Wilkes Kittera was appointed by President Jefferson as United States attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

1832

Anthony (Antonin) Dignowity from Kutna Hora, linguist, inventor, and physician, arrived in New York. He practiced medicine in San Antonio until his death in 1875. He was an abolitionist and a friend of Sam Houston.

1836

Francis W. Lassak (Frantisek Vlasak), a successful merchant, settled in New York. He started as a furrier, probably in cooperation with John Jacob Astor, acquired considerable wealth, and became one of the few Czech millionaires in America.

Jan Nepomuk Neumann, born 1811, arrived in New York from the southern Bohemian town of Prachatice. He was ordained a Catholic priest in old St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1852 he became the fourth bishop of Philadelphia. He was beatified in 1963 and canonized in 1977.

1840

A Czech Jew, Simon Polak from Domazlice, a doctor of medicine, came to St. Louis where he founded an eye and ear clinic and an institution for the blind, which was one of the best in the state of Missouri.

1847

Czech immigrants established their first settlement in Texas at Catspring, in Austin County. The names of 14 of the early settlers have been preserved.

Cenek Paclt, an adventurer and globe-trotter, is the only soldier of Czech nationality serving in the Mexican War of whom we have any record. He claimed to have taken part in several of the battles that ended in the seizure of Mexico City.

1848

The first important Czech settlements in the United States were founded in Wisconsin. A. Kroupa, a political refugee, was the first Czech to reach Racine. The city of Racine soon became the first American city with a considerable number of Czech settlers. Caledonia, near Racine, was the first Czech agricultural settlement.

The political refugee Gustav Adam, a Czech patriot who had participated in the insurrection against Austria, was the first Czech to reach Cleveland. He was a good musician and became an orchestra leader in Cleveland's theater, the Athenaeum.

1848-57

Vojtech Naprstek, considered to be the spiritual father of Czech journalism in America, lived for about a decade in the United States. He published the freethinking Milwaukee Flug-Blatter , the first periodical publication of a Czech in America; although a German-language paper, the Flug-Blatter was read largely by Czechs. Naprstek encouraged Czech-Americans to organize and publish their own Czech newspaper. After his return to Bohemia he familiarized his country with American ideas, institutions, and methods. His efforts, experiences, and collections became the basis of the present Naprstek Museum of Asian, African, and American cultures in Prague.

1849

Francis Adolph Valenta, a Moravian doctor of medicine, left for America. He was probably the first Czech immigrant to settle in Chicago, where he practiced medicine and owned a pharmacy.

1852

One of the early Czech settlers in Chicago, John Slavik from Brno, opened the first Czech restaurant and saloon on Clark Street.

1855

The Czech Catholic priest, Henry Lipovsky, founded the first Czech parish in St. Louis and built the first Czech church in the United States, dedicated to St. John Nepomuk.

1856

The first school teaching the Czech language and history was opened in New York.

1857

A Czech cultural organization called Slovanska lipa (Slavic linden) was founded in Detroit. It was modelled on a patriotic association of the same name that had been established in Prague in the revolutionary year 1848. Cleveland was followed by other cities. Soon every larger Czech settlement had its own Slovanska lipa, a cultural center which also performed important social functions.

The first Czech Catholic priest to Cleveland was Father Antonin Krasny. He was one of the Czech patriots sentenced to prison by the Austrian authorities after the unsuccessful revolt of 1848. He was given amnesty and left for America. On his initiative a Czech Catholic church was built in Cleveland in 1867.

1859

Anthony Dignowity published Bohemia under Austrian Despotism , the first English-language work about the situation of the Czechs in Austria, written and published in America.

1860

The first Czech newspaper in America, Slowan Amerikansky , published by Frantisek Korizek, appeared in Racine, Wisconsin. It was a semi-monthly, then a weekly, with 450 subscribers. In the same year another Czech weekly, Narodni noviny , was launched by Czech immigrants in St. Louis. 



Early Czech newspapers

Early Czech newspapers in the United States.




The composer Jan Balatka, a Czech by birth, became the conductor of the Philharmonic Society of Chicago.

1861

The first two Czech newspapers published in America merged under the name Slavie. Racine became the home office of the new weekly. Published until 1946, Slavie had a number of distinguished editors, such as Frantisek Mracek, Vojtech Masek, and Charles Jonas (Karel Jonas), the future Democratic lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin.

1862

The Czechs of Chicago established their first Czech school; they also had the first Czech lawyer, K. Kolacnik.

1863

Charles Jonas was a 23-year-old political emigre when he arrived in Racine to take over the editorship of Slavie. He began publishing dictionaries, handbooks, and guides for Czech immigrants. During the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71, he was an American war correspondent in Germany and France. In 1885 he was appointed the U.S. consul in Prague. In 1890 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin. He became the U.S. consul in St. Petersburg and in Crefeld, Germany, in 1894. For his important role in the Czech community and in American public life he was sometimes referred to as 'the first Czech in America'.

1864

Frederick George Novy (1864-1957), one of America's pioneers in bacteriology, was born in Chicago the year his parents arrived from Bohemia. Acclaimed for his original research in microbiology and for his important work in laboratory techniques, he was a model for the character of Max Gottlieb in Sinclair Lewis' Arrowsmith . He was known for his strong commitment to truth and to meticulous scientific work. In 1901 Novy was appointed a member of the United States commission to investigate the bubonic plague in the Orient. He was associated with the University of Michigan, where he was named chairman of the new Department of Bacteriology in 1902 and later served as dean of the medical school.

1865

The first Czech book on record in America was published in Racine: Pravda cili volne posouzeni udalosti a pokroku XIX. stoleti (The truth, or an open discussion of events and progress in the nineteenth century), written by Karel Prochazka.

1866

The first Czech workmen's club was founded in Chicago. Similar clubs followed in Cleveland (1869) and New York (1870).

1868

Czech women in Chicago founded the first organization of their own, called Libuse.

1879

Tomas Capek, an 18-year old immigrant from Strakonice in southern Bohemia, arrived in the United States. He graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School and became a legislator in Nebraska, and later a successful lawyer and banker. As a writer he recorded the history, culture, and social life of Czech immigrants in a number of significant works. His The Cechs (Bohemians) in America, published in 1920 and reprinted in 1969, is a basic work on Czech-American history.

1881

Adolph Sabath, born in southern Bohemia in 1866, immigrated to the United States. He served for 44 years as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Illinois, holding the record for consecutive terms in office. He introduced the first workmen's compensation bill and the first old-age pension plan, and was identified with the fight for social security legislation, the liberalization of immigration policy, and civil rights. During World War I, he was an active supporter of the Czechoslovak independence movement.

1882

Ales Hrdlicka arrived in the United States. The renowned scientist was born in Humpolec in Bohemia in 1869. In 1905 he set up the division of physical anthropology in the Smithsonian Institution and became division curator in 1910. He founded the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1918 and was its first editor. In 1929 he founded the American Association of Physical Anthropology and served as its first president. He was the foremost specialist in anthropometry and American Indian anthropology.

1885

Oberlin College organized a Theological Seminary for the Protestant Czechs, in connection with its Slavic Department.

1887

Czech Benedictines, who had come to the United States to take care of the spiritual needs of Catholic immigrants, established the only Czech institution of higher education in America, the College of St. Procopius in Chicago. It moved to Lisle, Illinois, in 1901.

1892-95

Antonin Dvorak, the best known of the Czech composers in America, was director of the National Music Conservatory in New York. He was deeply interested in the American folk idiom, especially in the melodies of black Americans and in American Indian rhythms, and advised his students to use them in creating an American music. Between January and May 1893 he wrote his famous New World Symphony .

1894

Rudolf Ruzicka, born in Kourim in Bohemia, arrived in the United States as the 11-year old son of Czech immigrants. He became a noted graphic artist, recognized especially for his wood engravings. He devoted an interesting part of his work to New York and Newark. Sent to Italy by Scribner's, he made a series of beautiful engravings for the book Fountains of Papal Rome , published in 1915.




Fountain of the Sea-Horses in Rome

The Fountain of the Sea-Horses in Rome, an engraving by the Czech-American artist Rudolf Ruzicka.

Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome

The Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome, by Rudolf Ruzicka.

Figure of Neptune in the Trevi Fountain in Rome

Figure of Neptune in the Trevi Fountain in Rome, by Rudolf Ruzicka.

Scene from Rudolf Ruzicka's book of engravings

A scene from Rudolf Ruzicka's book of engravings, Newark , published in 1917.






1904

Alphonse Mucha, one of the world's greatest decorative artists, arrived in the United States. He spent much of the next 17 years in this country, designing, painting, and teaching at academies in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Supported by the philantropist Charles R. Crane, he created a cycle of 20 large paintings, the Slavic Epic, in the early 1920s.

1910

The Czech artist Vojtech Preissig arrived in New York and for the next 20 years worked and taught in the United States, where he introduced many new printing techniques. During World War I, while he served as director of graphic arts at the Wentworth Institute in Boston, he designed a set of now famous posters for Czechoslovak volunteer forces and for the U.S. war effort.




Czechoslovak First World War poster

A Czechoslovak poster from World War I, designed by Vojtech Preissig.




1915

The leaders of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League signed the Cleveland Agreement, in which they pledged to cooperate for the common goal of independent statehood for the Czechs and Slovaks.




Portrait of Thomas G. Masaryk

Portrait of Thomas G. Masaryk, published in the Christian Science Monitor on December 1, 1915.




1918

Czech and Slovak organizations in America formed a joint association that declared itself to be the American branch of Masaryk's Czechoslovak National Council.




Historical flags and coats of arms

Historical flags and coats of arms, published by the Czechoslovak National Council in New York in September 1918.




1923

Karel Capek's 'fantastic melodrama' R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) was translated into English and produced in New York. In subsequent years many of Capek's novels and stories ( War with the Newts , The Absolute at Large , Tales from Two Pockets , The Makropoulus Secret , and others) were translated and published in America.

1931

Anton Joseph Cermak, born a coalminer's son in Kladno, near Prague, was elected mayor of Chicago. Cermak was Chicago's first foreign-born mayor. In 1933 Cermak was killed in Miami by the assassin's bullet intended for President Roosevelt. Before dying he said to Roosevelt: "I am glad it was me instead of you."

1938

In the period of tension between Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany, culminating in the Munich Agreement, the Czech National Alliance was reactivated and a Slovak National Alliance was established in the United States. In two years the Czech National Alliance had 213 chapters, with more than 30,000 members.

1939

The University of Chicago invited the exiled Czechoslovak president, Edvard Benes, to deliver a series of lectures.

1940

As in World War I, the representatives of the Czech National Alliance, the Czech Catholics, and the Slovak National Alliance formed the Czechoslovak National Council, which coordinated their activities in support of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, headed by Edvard Benes.

1941

Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, born in 1890 and often called the leading Czech composer of his time, immigrated to the United States, where he composed  Memorial to Lidice for orchestra, and a number of symphonies, concertos, and chamber works. In the 1950s he returned to Europe and died in Switzerland in 1959.

1942

A township near Joliet, Illinois, was renamed Lidice, in commemoration of the village in central Bohemia destroyed by Nazi occupiers. In the Czech village of Lidice all the men were shot to death, the women were transported to concentration camps, and the small children were sent to Germany for adoption.

1948

In a coup, the Communist Party took over the government in Prague. As a response to the suppression of democracy, former members of the Czechoslovak parliament who were refugees in the United States established the Council of Free Czechoslovakia in Washington, D.C.

Francis Dvornik settled in the United States. Born in Moravia in 1893, Father Dvornik was a Byzantine scholar of world repute. In America he was associated with the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Harvard University, until his death in 1975. He is also known for his studies on early Slavic history.

1958

Two hundred intellectuals of Czech and Slovak origin founded the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. The noted mathematician Vaclav Hlavaty, of Indiana University, was its first president.

1960

On March 7, the 110th anniversary of the birth of the first president of Czechoslovakia, the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp honoring Thomas G. Masaryk.

1961

The Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews was established in New York.

1969

Czech film director Milos Forman, born in Caslav in Bohemia in 1932, began a remarkable American career. His best-known Czech films were the prizewinning  Loves of a Blond and  The Fireman's Ball . His American films include  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (winning Academy Awards for directing, best film of the year, best actor, best actress, and best screenplay in 1975),  Hair Ragtime , and  Amadeus , which was awarded eight Oscars in 1986.

1970

Arnost Lustig, Czech writer and Holocaust survivor, came to the United States. He became Professor of Literature and Film at the American University in Washington. His works published in America include Darkness Casts No Shadow , Diamonds of the Night , A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova , and The Unloved .

1972

Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, landed on the moon. Cernan was born in Chicago in 1934 to a Czech mother and a Slovak father. After the end of the manned lunar missions, he acted as senior U.S. negotiator in direct discussions with the Soviet Union on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

1976

Writers Josef and Zdena Skvorecky established Sixty-Eight Publishers in Toronto. Their publishing house developed into the main supplier of Czech literature for the Czech-reading public in the United States. During the period of Communist repression in Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion in 1968, Sixty-Eight Publishers became an important focus of free Czech publishing activity. Most of Josef Skvorecky's novels (such as The Cowards , The Engineer of Human Souls , The Miracle Game , and Dvorak in Love ) were published in English translation in the United States.

1997

In January Madeleine Albright was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State and became the highest ranking female official in U.S. history. She was born in Prague in 1937 as the daughter of a Czech diplomat, came to the United States at the age of 11 years, graduated from Wellesley College, and earned a PhD at Columbia before entering politics. During 1993-97 she served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. 

Selected Bibliography

Bicha, Karel D. The Czechs in Oklahoma . Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c1980.

Capek, Thomas. The Cechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their, National, Cultural, Political, Social, Economic, and Religious Life . Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.

------ ------ New York: AMS Press, 1969.

------ ------ New York: Arno Press, 1969.

Chada, Joseph. The Czechs in the United States . [Washington] SVU Press, c1981.

Chrislock, Carl Winston. Charles Jonas (1840-1896): Czech National Liberal, Wisconsin Bourbon Democrat . Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press; London; Cranbury, N.J. Associated University Presses, c1993.

Dvornik, Francis. Czech Contributions to the Growth of the United States . Chicago: Benedictine Abbey Press, 1962.

Garver, Bruce M. "Americans of Czech and Slovak Ancestry in the History of Czechoslovakia." Czechoslovak and Central European Journal 11, no. 2 (Winter 1993): 1-14.

Gottfried, Alex. Boss Cermak of Chicago: A Study of Political Leadership . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962.

Habenicht, Jan. History of Czechs in America . With a foreword to the English edition by Paul M. Makousky. Translated by Miroslav Koudelka. St. Paul, MN: Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, c1996. Translation of Dejiny Cechuv americkych , published in 1904.

Hribal, C. J., ed. The Boundaries of Twilight: Czecho-Slovak Writing from the New World . Minneapolis, MN: New Rivers Press; New York: Distributed by Talman Co.; St. Paul, MN: Distributed by Bookslinger, 1991.

Hudson, Estelle, and Henry R. Maresh. Czech Pioneers of the Southwest . Dallas, Tex.: Southwest Press [c1934].

Jahelka, Joseph. "The Role of Chicago Czechs in the Struggle for Czechoslovak Independence." Journal of Illinois State Historical Society 31, no. 4 (December 1938): 381-410.

Jerabek, Esther. Czechs and Slovaks in North America: A Bibliography . New York: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, 1976.

Kisch, Guido. In Search of Freedom: A History of American Jews from Czechoslovakia . Foreword by Jan Masaryk. London: E. Goldston, 1949.

Laska, Vera, comp. and ed. The Czechs in America, 1633- 1977: A Chronology and Fact Book . Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, 1978.

Machann, Clinton, and James W. Mendl, Jr., eds and trs. Czech Voices: Stories from Texas in the Amerikan Narodni Kalendar . College Station: Texas A&M University Press, c1991.

Miller, Olga K. Genealogical Research for Czech and Slovak Americans . Detroit: Gale Research, c1978.

Miller, Wayne C. "Czech Americans: A Guide to the Czech-American Experience." In his A Comprehensive Bibliography for the Study of American Minorities , vol. 1, 637-43. New York: New York University Press, 1976.

Odlozilik, Otakar. "The Czechs." In The Immigrants' Influence on Wilson's Peace Policies , edited by Joseph P. O'Grady, 204-23. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967.

Panorama: A Historical Review of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States of America . Cicero, Ill.: Czechoslovak National Council of America, 1970. [Compiled by Vlasta Vraz.]

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., comp: Educators with Czechoslovak Roots: A U.S. and Canadian Faculty Roster . Washington: SVU Press, 1980.

------: U.S. Legislators with Czechoslovak Roots: From Colonial Times to Present with Genealogical Lineages . Washington: SVU Press, 1987.

Reichman, John J. Czechoslovaks of Chicago . Chicago: Czechoslovak Historical Society of Illinois, 1937.

Rosicky, Rose. A History of Czechs (Bohemians) in Nebraska . Omaha: Czech Historical Society of Nebraska, 1929.

Solle, Zdenek. "Vojtech Naprstek and His Era: Bohemia, the United States, and the Transmission of Cultures." East Central Europe 17, no. 1 (Spring 1990):1-30.

Solle, Zdenek. "Czech Political Refugees in the United States during the Nineteenth Century." Nebraska History 74, no. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1993): 142-49.

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