Nemecka Poruba - Nemet Poruba - Nemet Vagas - Poruba pod Vihorlatom

A New Baby and a Dear Sister

2009-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Life was not often pleasant for the miners and their families. The work was back-breaking, dirty and depressing for the men; women’s lives were endless cycles of washing and mending miners’ clothing. Grandpap came home filthy from each shift--even his face was as black as the coal he dug. Electricity was not yet supplied in the company houses so Baba heated hot water on the stove to fill a large tub on the kitchen floor.* Grandpap leaned over the tub to wash off as much of the black as he could. Then the water was changed so he could wash a second time to feel clean. Every few days Grandpap wore a hole in the knee of his pants while kneeling to chip out coal with his pick. Those pants were patched and repatched repeatedly.

On June 21, 1913, one month short of their first anniversary, Baba gave birth to their daughter, Mary in a house near Crescent Mine #2 in Snowden. The baby was not moving, a ‘blue-baby’, and as Baba describes it, “She was all black-like.” When it had appeared doubtful the baby could survive the difficult birth, Michael Maczko had gone to Clairton to bring back the priest to baptize the newborn at the house. In the meantime a neighbor woman came in and proceeded to wrap Mary up in layers of blankets which Baba was afraid would smother the baby, but instead warmed and brought life to her. After the baptism she was all right except for being very colicky for many months after. Baba moved the baby’s cradle around the house as she did her daily chores and cooking, trying to keep it rocking to soothe the baby. Less than three years later, on March 27, 1916, son John was born in a company house in Snowden.

There was little to look forward to in a mining community except dancing and drinking after hours and during religious festivals when immigrants with a common cultural background could occasionally forget the daily drudgery and have some fun. One joy in Baba's life was that when Mary was an infant Baba’s sister, Anna Kovacs, brought her little family to live in the Bubnash's company house in Snowden until they found their own dwelling nearby. Daily life seemed a little less bleak for both women as they were able to share in caring for each other's children and cook and clean together. Both of their husbands worked 6 days a week in the Crescent coal mines near Snowden and later back at the steel mill in Clairton. Job security was non-existent as the mining companies laid off workers without warning the instant a mine became unprofitable or from the steel mill if there were mechanical problems or a shortage of raw materials. A laborer and his family moved often to be close to wherever his current job was located as they usually had no transportation to work besides walking. The Bubnash and Kovac families did their share of moving in the mid 19-teens, sometimes moving only a mile away which was then one mile less the men had to walk to work.

*Many collieries were equipped with a bath house for the coal miners; Crescent Mine may not have been set up this way.

An Arranged Marriage

2009-12-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

One of the five boarders living with Baba's brother was a man named John Bubnash, who would become my Grandpap. He was born on September 11, 1891 in the Carpatho-Rusyn village of Valaskovce on the north slope of Vihorlat, the highest peak in the Carpathian Mountains of the old Hungarian Empire in what is now Slovakia. His people were shepherds and his father Paul died before his son's birth. Grandpap's mother, Mary Szorokacs, then moved her young family six miles south to Poruba, a larger village at the foot of the Carpathians. Thus my Grandparents both grew up in Poruba but because they were 5 years apart in age, were not particular friends.

At some point Grandpap quit school and returned to his home village of Valaskovce to work for his Uncle George and other farmers. The only future for himself in the old country was working for landowners as a low-paid farm laborer. Thousands of Zemplen County natives, the majority being younger single men, were heading for new opportunity in the United States, so Grandpap immigrated to America on the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, passing through Ellis Island on October 29, 1910. Though most of Grandpap's Bubnash relatives eventually settled in Stockett, Montana, Grandpap headed for Snowden, perhaps because some Poruba aquaintances lived in the area.

Michael Maczko was not pleased to have continued responsibility for his youngest sister Suzanna. He was already supporting his wife, Mary Gnorik and three young daughters, Anna, Mary and Veronica. So when John Bubnash expressed an interest in Baba, Michael not only encouraged him, but eventually arranged that she marry him despite her objections, namely her youth and the fact that they were not well acquainted. In Poruba marriages were commonly arranged by the family of the bride and groom and though it was natural to continue to exercise the custom upon immigration to America, even in the old country brides were usually around 18 at the time of marriage and the grooms around 21. At their marriage Baba was a month past 16; Grandpap was 20.

On July 20, 1912, at Ascension Byzantine Catholic Church in Clairton, Suzanna Maczko was married to John Bubnash. The ceremony was conducted by Father Irenaeus Matyaczko and witnessed by George Gibka and George Molcsan. She wore a trainless white dress and homemade veil, while John wore an ordinary Sunday suit. The couple traveled to the church in a horse-drawn buggy. There was no money for a wedding photograph, but there was a celebration after the ceremony that included plenty of dancing and drinking. About $50 cash was donated as wedding gifts and that is all this couple had to begin their new life in Clairton. With the money they purchased a few essentials such as a stove, bed, table, chairs and dishes. For a short period of time they lived in Clairton while Grandpap worked in the steel mill. Their first home was on the hill near where the Jewish couple lived (Baba’s previous employer), but the house was full of rats and roaches so they soon found better living quarters. However, their time in Clairton was short-lived as Grandpap discovered mine work was more palatable. He almost enjoyed loading coal into carts where he could work without anyone telling him what to do whereas in the mill, the boss was always too close behind him. So they moved back to Snowden.

As mentioned, they did not have a wedding photograph taken. Below is a wedding-day photo of Grandpap's cousin, Mary Ella Szorokacs and her husband Michael Zetts. They married in 1920 in Bradford, Pennsylvania and their ages at marriage were the same as my Grandparents. I think my Grandparents looked about like this on their wedding day.

photo courtesy of Judy Whisler Zetts

A Bleak Existence

2009-12-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

Accommodations were bleak in Snowden and hundreds of other hamlets in the hilly coal mining country of western Pennsylvania. The mining companies such as H.C. Frick, Jamison Coal and Coke and others built company houses by the scores in each settlement, called a patch. Most of the houses were duplexes, each side with its own front door and each side meant to house one family, although often several families crowded into one side of the house. In each half of the house there was usually a living room in front, a kitchen in back, and then on the second floor, one or two bedrooms plus an extra sleeping area at the back of the bedroom which we might call a loft.

A company patch at Library, Pennsylvania, near Snowden

Those who boarded unattached men could earn more money by renting the same bed to two men. If two men worked opposite shifts in the mine, one could be sleeping in the bed while the other was away, then they would trade. A little more money for the housefrau to help make ends meet!

Amenities were few. Coal stoves provided heat for warmth and cooking, and light came from kerosene lamps in the early days. Electric light bulbs in the ceiling came later. There was no indoor plumbing and men called honey-dippers regularly emptied the outhouses. Roads were paved with red dog which is slate that comes out of the mine with the coal and is burned in the slate dump until it is semi-pulverized. Landscaping was non-existent, leaving surrounding yards dirt mixed with cinders. When the wind blew the cinders stung and got caught in the eye. There was no attempt by the coal companies to create a comfortable homey atmosphere in their company houses since any extra expenditure on their part cut into profits.

Employee's families were "encouraged" to shop at the company store; prices were high there compared to retail prices in town, but with careful record-keeping the company tracked who shopped there and who did not. Those who did not patronize the company store found themselves without a job in a time when there was no unemployment benefit or welfare to fill in the gap between jobs. Rent for a company house was deducted from his paycheck before a miner ever saw it.

After three weeks in the country, Baba was able to find a job housekeeping for a Jewish storekeeper/butcher in Clairton who lived on the hill above the Monongahela River. She could reach Clairton by walking the most direct route --along the railroad tracks (3 miles), but most of the time she boarded with them, earning $8 per month in addition to room and board. This family treated her kindly and she remained friendly with them for many years after quitting this position. Baba now went by the surname Maczko. Her brother informed her that Csernej was only the family nickname in the old country. Maczko was her true surname.

Coming Home

2009-12-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

I have a copy of Baba's passenger immigration record, found at http://www.ellisisland.org/. Searching there for names of Eastern European immigrants is not easy for two reasons: first, those vowel-deficient names could be spelled umpteen different ways and second, because the handwriting is difficult to read, the indexing is not perfect (I know this first-hand as I worked as an indexer). If Baba had not told me that she entered the US as Suzanna Csarney, I might not have found her on the list, but would have searched for her under every spelling of Maczko and variations of Csornej. Either click on the following link or copy and paste it to see the passenger immigration record (line 20) showing Baba. The second page of her record can be found by clicking "previous." Use the magnifer. Her traveling companions are on lines 19 and 21. http://ellisisland.org/search/shipManifest.asp?MID=14886986720065027456&LNM=CSARNEY&PLNM=CSARNEY&first_kind=1&last_kind=0&RF=2&pID=101246020013&lookup=101246020013&show=%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5Cimages%5CT715%2D1785%5CT715%2D17850987%2ETIF&origFN=%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5CIMAGES%5CT715%2D1785%5CT715%2D17850986%2ETIF

You will see that both Baba and her sister-in-law, Mary Szemjan, were heading for Mary's brother Mike's house in Pittsburgh; Baba told me he lived over in the Oakland section of the city as per the Ellis Island record (but another time said he lived south of Pittsburgh). They were not met by him at the train station. The two women had little money and spoke no English. They eventually found a Slovak-speaking man with a wagon who was willing, for a $5 charge, to transport them and their luggage to where Mike boarded.

The girls knew the address of the house but when the driver knocked on the door the man who answered claimed never to have heard the name Szemjan. The driver went all over that part of town looking for the right house, not finding it until asking a schoolboy heading home for the day, who then directed them back to the first house they had approached. There was no language barrier on this street as nearly every resident was an immigrant from Eastern Europe come to work the coal mines. The man who without explanation led them astray in the first place was a Szemjan, a cousin of Mike Szemjan!

The immigrant girls had brought little luggage with them so Mike gave Baba $15 for clothing which her brother repaid when he arrived three days later to take her home. Home for Michael Csornej-Maczko and now Baba was a tiny coal hamlet called Snowden, located in the hills west of the great steel city of Clairton. He worked in the mines while his wife, Mary Gnorik, did what many women did: she ran a boarding house for miners who were either single, or in America without their families. The extra income was essential to the poor immigrants who lived on the edge, subject to mine closures, evictions, and the heavy-handed management of the mine owners.

Boarding house work was as tough as mine work in some ways. Women were up at 4 a.m. to begin food preparation--breakfast and lunch pails for all the men; then they did loads of laundry for the group and also her own family, plus daily patching of miner's work clothes, then cleaning, which in a filthy mining settlement never ended. Shopping for food, preparing dinner, cleaning up, then doing other odd tasks might take until late into evening. Even children chipped in to lighten the load where they could, if they were not already working as slate pickers in the coal breakers.

Ellis Island

2009-12-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

After three weeks at sea Baba was still seasick in steerage and did not know that her ship glided quietly past New York harbor's Statue of Liberty. It seems a sort of hopeful, welcome tribute, that Lazurus's words inscribed on the tablet set at the base of the monument--tired, poor, huddled masses--exactly described Baba and her two traveling companions:

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Landing at Ellis Island, courtesy of Norway-Heritage

http://www.norwayheritage.com/gallery/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=11&text=&imageid=1625&box=&shownew=

Thousands of European immigrants were processed through 27-acre Ellis Island so officials efficiently limited the time that each spent there. Sanitary facilities and food were stretched thin. In 1911 an average of 5000 immigrants per day passed through. Each immigrant was tagged before leaving the ship with a card that stated their name, origin and destination. Baba presented her documents to the immigration officials and although only 15 years of age, she claimed to be 17 years old for fear a child of 15 traveling without an adult would be sent back to Europe.

Dining Hall at Ellis Island, courtesy of Norway-Heritage

http://www.norwayheritage.com/gallery/gallery.asp?action=browse&categoryid=11&whichpage=3

A brief medical exam was administered. The main concern of immigration officials was that no immigrant have serious contagious diseases, especially trachoma (an eye disease), or any other physical condition which might interfere with the ability to be self-supporting. Other than that, if a newcomer appeared in good health, he or she was allowed to stay in the US. Baba described her fear at this part of the immigrations process. The worst thing that could happen would be to be sent back home. The eye exam, though quick, was particularly objectionable because a buttonhook-like tool was inserted under the eyelid so it could be inspected for disease.

Once officials determined everything was in order, Baba and Mary Szemjan boarded the train for Pittsburgh which departed from Ellis Island very late that night, December 14, 1911. Mary Szorokacs took a separate train, her destination being to relatives in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Immigrants Waiting to Depart Ellis Island, courtesy of Norway-Heritage

http://www.norwayheritage.com/gallery/gallery.asp?action=browse&categoryid=11&whichpage=4

Leaving Home

2009-12-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

SS President Lincoln, courtesy of Norway Heritage

http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=preli

Emigration became a definite possibility for Baba when part of her parents' farm was sold, and according to a provision in their will, she received nearly $300 as her share of the inheritance.* Agents from American coal and industrial companies visited European villages encouraging people to emigrate and fill the jobs available in America. An emigrant could purchase a ticket in his home village from one of these agents which would take him the entire route to his destination. Baba spent about $260* for one of these tickets. It provided for train passage to Hamburg, steerage passage across the Atlantic to New York’s Ellis Island, and train passage from New York to Pittsburgh.

She left her home village in November of 1911 in a wagon bound for the nearest train station, likely located in Michalovce, the largest city in the far eastern end of Slovakia. Baba knew this was probably the last view she would ever have of her homeland. The railroad route took Baba and her companions (her sister-in-law Mary Szemjan and Grandpap's cousin Mary Szorokacs) north through the Carpathian Mountains to Krakow (then a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), then northwest through Prussia, to the port of Hamburg, Germany. They arrived there on November 16, 1911. They waited five days until their ship, the SS President Lincoln, left Hamburg for America on November 22.

Even though laws had been passed in many countries in the 19th century to improve steerage conditions aboard ships carrying immigrants, the quarters were far from being pleasant or comfortable, and food was always scarce. Seasickness struck, and was worse for those in steerage who were forced to spend most of their time below deck in their berths breathing foul air and being tossed about with every lunge of the ship. Some steerage passengers had apparently not brought enough of their own food supply to supplement the meager servings provided by the ship's cooks, so there was frequent stealing of food from the kitchen during the night. When prepared food was brought to those below there were sometimes fights over the portions, as naturally each desperate passenger was looking out for himself.

Between Decks Feeding Time courtesy of Norway Heritage

http://www.norwayheritage.com/gallery/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=16&text=&imageid=1191&box=&shownew=

This voyage of the President Lincoln was far longer than the usual 7-10 day trip common in 1911. It took 22 days at sea, and though Baba mentioned the length she never said why. It's possible that ice-pack delayed the ship. It was only 4 months later that an iceberg sunk the Titanic. The SS President Lincoln's arrival in New York on December 14, 1911 hardly came soon enough for its passengers.

*NOTE: These dollar amounts are what Baba gave me, but I am now convinced that she was converting the amounts into 1980 dollars. I cannot say what the cost of land would have been then, but every bit of information I've uncovered in regards to the cost of immigration in 1911 names amounts less than 10% of this number.

For a description of the President Lincoln and details from one of its dramatic harrowing voyages, see
http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=preli

Independence

2009-12-04T11:01:00.000-08:00

At age 11 Baba had completed fifth grade and decided to quit school to help full time on the farms for the next several years. She had obtained a good foundation in reading and writing but has always struggled in math. At age 13 she went out on her own by becoming a full-time housekeeper and boarder in the village cantor's home, for which she was paid $1 per week, or $50 per year, plus room and board. A cantor is the leader of congregational singing in a Byzantine Catholic church who doubled as the school master in Carpatho-Rusyn villages, and this cantor happened to be a native of Michalovce. She felt more wanted and needed here as she took care of the house and became close friends with the cantor's wife, who became like a mother to Baba. When the family went away, she was trusted enough to remain behind to milk the cow and feed the animals.

By age 15 Baba was concerned about her future, particularly her ability to eventually independently support herself. Villagers, usually men, occasionally returned to Poruba after earning enough cash in America to buy land in their native village. They encouraged immigration by telling tales about the easier living and good money to be made there. The idea of immigration was attractive to young, unattached men and women who had nothing to lose by making a new life in America. The story-tellers left out the parts about the extreme prejudice Eastern Europeans faced in American cities. They were called names such as “greenhorn” or were victims of stone-throwing and even pummeling fists. Naturally, the most menial jobs were offered to these newcomers: coal mining, steel mill work, and slaughter-house work for men, and housekeeping for women.

Baba had an obvious destination in America. Her brother Michael had lived most of his adult life in America, and in 1911 resided in Snowden, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Mary Gnorik. He had originally immigrated to America around 1893 at age 18. He returned to Poruba in 1902 to marry. He remained briefly, then leaving his wife in Poruba, went back to America to work. In 1906 Michael again returned to Poruba to bring his wife and three-year-old daughter, Anna, who had been born in his absence, to live in Snowden.

Tragedy for the Maczkos

2009-12-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

In addition to being a hard-working farmer, Baba's father, Michael, was also the magistrate of Poruba for twelve years. In Hungarian this position is called "biros" (pronounced ‘beer-ose’). This must have lent status to the family, but whether it was an appointed position or an inherited position, and what his duties were is not known. In the fall of 1904 Michael Csornej-Maczko came down with pneumonia and was taken in a wagon or cart to a doctor in Sobrance. Nothing could be done for him and he died on October 7.

Her father's death created hardship on the family which became more difficult when less than four years later, on February 16, 1908, Baba's mother died suddenly of what Baba thinks was most likely a heart attack, since she was found dead in her bed. According to their parents' will, Baba was to live with her oldest sister Mary, and Anna with sister Helen until each married. Unfortunately, Mary felt burdened by the added responsibility since she had a family of her own to care for. So Baba spent summers with her sister Helen and the remainder of the year with Mary, going to school and trying to help out and earn her board at both homes. Helen’s husband, Nicholas Czuprik, had a tendency to be gruff and yell often so Baba was afraid of him. She spent the long summer days tending oxen in the mountains which provided a service for Mr. Czuprik and kept her out of his way.

Baba felt like a lost sheep. Without a stable home and loving parents it seemed she did not have a place in her village any longer.

Click on this link for a view of the extinct volcano, Vihorlat, as viewed from Poruba looking north.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1107699

The Jews of Poruba

2009-12-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Baba mentioned the large number of Jews she remembered living in her village circa 1910. She thought as much as 1/3 of the village was Jewish, and they were prominment in running the various businesses in the town.

The following paragraphs are courtesy of Marshall Katz and The Jewish Genealogical Society; view the website below for more information and photogaphs:
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Poruba_pod_Vihorlatom/default.htm

The first Jews probably settled in Poruba pod Vihorlátom early in the 19th century. In 1877, the population of Poruba pod Vihorlátom was 411, made up of Slavs, Hungarians, Rusyns, Germans, Gypsies and Jews and comprised the following religions: Roman Catholic (19), Greek Catholic (217), Reformed (48) and Jewish (127). At this time, the Jews of Poruba pod Vihorlátom attended the Szobráncz synagogue.

In 1940, Poruba pod Vihorlátom was still a small village of only a couple streets, 131 homes, a population of 634 and approximately 91 Jews.¹ This was a vibrant village with farmers, craftsmen, timberman, miners and businessmen. By this time, the village was home mainly to Hungarians, some Czech, Gypsies, a few Germans (Schwabs) and Jewish families. There was a synagogue in the village and a Jewish cemetery. Religion played an important part in the day-to-day lives of the Jews that lived there.

Charcol was sold to Jewish merchants in Michalovce who then exported the charcoal by train to Switzerland. There was a flour mill in Poruba where farmers took their grain for grinding. Jews were involved in many of the commercial enterprises in the village, for example, operating a tavern, a shoemaker, a joinery (carpenter) and operating general stores.

In 1942, tragically, 128 Jews were deported. However, this did not constitute the entire Jewish community in the village. Several Jews managed to escape into the woods and then hid among the gentile population, while others joined up with partisan groups. A few Jewish families were helped to cross over the border into Hungary and a few others were concealed in the village in potato storage cellars.

At this time, the first of partisan groups came into existence in Eastern Slovakia nearby Poruba pod Vihorlátom, in the forests between and surounding Michalovce, Humenné and centered in Vinné.²

In August of 1944, the German army occupied Poruba pod Vihorlátom. A short time later, two groups of partisans attacked the occupying Germans and in retaliation, on 3 November 1944, the village was burned to the ground, including the synagogue. The only building sparred was the [Greek Catholic] church, built c. 1837, which still stands today. Full reconstruction of the village did not begin until 1947-48.

Courtship & Marriage

2007-04-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Young men found interesting ways to pay special attention to young women in whom they were interested. On the night before May Day they decorated small trees with colored ribbons and placed them on the peak of the girl's thatched roof. In the morning the girls came out to see whether there was a tree atop their house. If a boy was no longer friendly with a certain girl, he could express his feelings by putting an old broom on the roof.

Family-made matches were common in Eastern Slovakia but children did not always abide by their parent's choices. When a proposal was to be made, a representative of the young man's family brought the boy's silken handkerchief to the young woman's home and left it on the family's table. If the girl wanted to accept the proposal, she kept the handkerchief; if not, she sent it back to the boy. Wedding clothes were handmade by the family or by the tailor in Poruba. The clothing was made of white fabric, probably linen, decorated with embroidery patterns peculiar to the village.

A three-day celebration was typical of village weddings. There was music, dancing, and food, most of it for the bridal attendants and guests rather than for the bride and groom. On their wedding day the couple traveled to the church in a horse-drawn wagon even though the church was within walking distance. Relatives from far and near came to join with the family for a wedding feast. These occasions were often the only time family living further than adjacent villages were able to be with their loved ones. Travel was difficult on the primitive roads of rural Slovakia with walking being the main mode of transportation. Horses were beasts of burden needed for farming and not meant for the convenience of the traveler, unless occasionally hitched to a cart to haul a group to their destination. Baba recalls that when her sister Anna married Alex Kovac from Helen’s house, on July 18, 1909, her father's brother George Maczko, a large, heavy man, came to the celebration from a larger village called Topolany. This was one of only three or four times in her life she remembers seeing her uncle, and Topolany was not far away by our standards--approximately thirteen miles southwest of Poruba.

Remarriage of widowed men and women was extremely widespread in the villages of this part of Slovakia. The life span was much shorter than what we are accustomed to. Recurrent epidemics of cholera, smallpox, scarlet fever and influenza ravaged the residents. The difficulties of childbirth took their toll on the lives of women. Thus there was an abundance of widows and widowers available for marriage to each other when their first or second spouse died. Yes, third and occasionally even fourth marriages occurred which meant that village children often had several families of step-siblings. A widow required a provider for herself and her family, while it was essential for a widower to have someone care for his children while he provided a living for them; re-marriage was therefore a necessity. It was uncommon for a couple who married for the first time around age twenty to grow to old age together.

About six months after her arrival in the US, Baba's brother, Michael Csornej-Maczko, arranged a marriage for her to John Bubnash of Snowden, Pennsylvania. John had also grown up in Poruba, had been in the country about a year-and-a-half, worked at the Crescent Mines in Snowden, and boarded with Baba's brother. He expressed interest in a marriage with her, and Baba protested to her brother that she was too young to be married--she turned sixteen on June 11, 1912. Michael prevailed and on July 20, 1912, Baba married John Bubnash in Clairton, Pennsylvania, at Ascension Byzantine Catholic Church. Ironically, if she had stayed in the Old Country, Baba wouldn't have been married for several more years. Poruba young women commonly married at age eighteen or nineteen, and men at age twenty-one or twenty-two.

There was dancing and some food and drink at the celebration, and I believe men paid for the privilege of dancing with the bride, because Baba said that about $50 was collected that day to give them a start in life. Unfortunately, Baba and Grandpap have no wedding photograph. They were both orphans and had so little money between them.

A Pastoral Existence

2007-04-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

landscape looking east towards Poruba November 1997

19th century hay storage now displayed at Humenne skansen (open-air museum)

19th century sheepfold (skansen)

Up until about 1848 this area of Eastern Europe was still organized in the pattern of the manorial system, that is, it was covered by great estates owned by the aristocracy, but worked by the common people who were called serfs. When the estates were dissolved, the serfs became free to purchase some land if they could. By the dawn of the twentieth century, most village families owned and cultivated their own piece of land. In the parish records a landowner is noted in Hungarian as 'gazda' and someone who worked the land of another was a 'zseller' [the same as 'cottager' in some countries]. The number of men designated as gazda increased as the years passed.

The village farmers worked in cooperation with one another to raise their crops and tend their animals. Each farmer’s acreage extended out from the village in parallel contiguous strips. Each one grew the same crop in the same year, rotating to a different crop the next year. The village women worked in the fields as well as tending to their household duties.

Though individually owned, the animals were herded together. By five o’clock each morning the cows, sheep and goats were turned into their yards. Men assigned to care for them herded the animals into the woods to graze and returned them home in the evening. Baba thinks this job was done by younger sons who had no land to farm and who were paid either in cash or in bushels of grain or other crops.

In the summertime school children, including Baba, had the job of pasturing the animals each day. It was hard work to move the animals up into the woodsy foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, but once there the children had a little time for relaxing and playing games while keeping one eye on the animals. They brought lunch with them, usually a few raw potatoes which they roasted over a fire they built. After dark the young people told stories around the fire and were sometimes frightened by ghosts which spooked their animals and seemed to inhabit the mountains after sunset. The ghosts made such an impression on the children that in later years they were a favorite topic when relating experiences about the old country. One of the few things I know about the childhood of my grandfather, John Bubnash, is that he truly believed in ghosts, for he had experienced them while herding sheep in the Carpathian Mountains.

This agrarian life was not without its hazards. When Baba was six or seven years old she went near the barn where the threshing machine was running and foolishly began to play around the machine. The belt caught her left index finger, nearly ripping it off. Somehow she managed to get her hand out without sustaining a more serious injury. The finger was so skillfully bandaged that it healed quite well. Since that incident the finger has been crooked but fully usable.

Religion in Poruba

2007-04-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Poruba's Greek Catholic Church, built ca. 1837 (photo 1997)

Eastern Slovakia was steeped in Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovakian religious tradition, with both the Greek Catholic and the Roman Catholic churches being strong. Slovaks were ordinarily Roman Catholic and Carpatho-Rusyns usually Greek Catholic, now called Catholics of the Byzantine Rite. Byzantine Catholicism came about as follows: Portions of Central and Eastern Europe had been of the Eastern Orthodox religion since the schism between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople in 1054 AD. Those of the Eastern Orthodox faith living in areas dominated by Roman Catholics, namely Carpatho-Rusyn people, were made to feel like second-class citizens. Their Eastern Orthodox clergy decided in 1646 at the Union of Uzhhorod, to once again recognize the Pope in Rome as head of the church, without the requirement of giving up their liturgical language and Byzantine religious customs. The result was the Uniate Church, most commonly referred to as Byzantine Catholicism.

There are several ways in which the Byzantine Rite differs from the Latin Rite, or Roman Catholicism. Children are confirmed during infant baptism rather than in young adulthood. Communion is taken in the form of bread and wine. Celibacy among priests was not required until about 1930. The Liturgy is celebrated in Old Church Slavonic, a Slavic Liturgical language used as was Latin in the Roman Catholic Church (English is now used in the US). The symbol is the three-barred Eastern cross. Churches are often built and decorated in the Old World style with gilded onion domes outside, and exquisite, intricate mosaic work inside. Christmas is celebrated on January 7 and there are other unique religious holidays. Worshippers in a Byzantine Catholic church are accustomed to the sweet aroma of incense which permeates the building because the priest burns it during each Liturgy.

Baba recalled many old traditions associated with Easter time. During the week leading up to Easter women prepared special meats, breads and pastries for the Easter meal. These items were packed into roomy baskets and taken to church on Easter Sunday to be blessed by the priest. Pysanky (also called Rusyn or Ukrainian Easter eggs) were decorated with wax and natural dyes to create stunning flowered and geometrical designs of every color. These were given as symbolic gifts at Easter time. On Easter Monday young men called at the home of a favorite young woman hoping she would be the person to answer the door, and regardless of which female did answer, she was doused with a bucket of water. Girls too young to be seriously interested in boys avoided the front door on this day. The custom was reversed on Easter Tuesday when the young women did the same to the young men.

Nemecka Poruba in 1900

2007-01-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

The following description of Poruba is based on information given to me by Baba, who described it as it was when she left there in 1911.

NOTE: 2 photographs above were taken at Humenne skansen, an open-air museum that features Rusyn living quarters as they commonly appeared pre-WW 2.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Poruba contained just over 100 houses. Its population was composed mainly of Carpatho-Rusyn and Slovak, but also had a number of Jews who ran many of the commercial enterprises in the area--beer gardens, shops, etc. There were Hungarians, Gypsies, and a few Germans as well.

Nearly every family was engaged in pastoral pursuits. The cultivated area surrounding the village was sectioned off into long strips of land, and most families owned one or more pieces. Wheat, potatoes, oats, and rye were grown. Cattle were raised. Wood was cut, stockpiled, and sold on the plains far from the mountains in order to raise cash for items not easily manufactured at home. Woodpiles awaiting sale covered many acres around the village. Charcoal was made in the woods and sold in the surrounding cities. There was a flour mill in Poruba where farmers took their grain for grinding. Shoemakers produced boots for village residents.

Houses were all one story made of brick, or less often of logs, but always with a thatch roof. These dwellings commonly held multi-generation families. There was no electricity and roads were rarely anything but dirt. For products not made at home or not available in one of Poruba's three drygoods stores, villagers traveled six miles southeast to Sobrance to shop. The larger city of Michalovce, eleven miles to the southwest, was also occasionally visited as it was the location of the farmer's market.

Slovak was the predominant language in the village but many also spoke Rusyn or Ukranian, and Hungarian. School was taught in Hungarian as the area was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Greek Catholicism was the principal religion in Poruba, and there was a church in the village [built circa 1837] as well as one in Jovsa, which was also the name of the parish. There was no Roman Catholic church nearby so the few Roman Catholics in Poruba attended the Greek Catholic church.

Nemecka Poruba had been known by several names over the years. Nemecka is Slovak for German, thus German Poruba. Nemetvagas was the Hungarian name. Vagas means cutting, thus German Cutting. Currently it is called Poruba pod Vihorlatom, which means Poruba under Vihorlat, but it is usually shortened to simply, Poruba. Commanding the northern skyline above the village, Vihorlat is the highest peak in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Slovakia, rising to 3530 feet above the Hungarian Plain.

Nemet Poruba coat of arms courtesy of http://www.fotw.net/flags/sk-mi-pv.html

My Nemecka Poruba Roots

2006-12-28T23:37:00.000-08:00

My Baba, Suzanna Csornej-Maczko, was born in Nemecka Poruba in 1896. Poruba sits in the northeast part of the Hungarian Plain, just south of the Vihorlat Peak in the Carpathian Range. The village was located in the old Hungarian county called Ung, and belonged to the Greek Catholic Parish of Jovsa--Jovsa was one mile west of Poruba, but Poruba had its own church.

Baba's father, Michael Csornej-Maczko was, like everyone else, a farmer, but he was also a village biros, Hungarian for magistrate. He died in 1904, probably of pneumonia, when Baba was only 8 years old. Her mother, Anna Ihnat-Mikula, is thought to have died of a heart attack, as she was discovered dead in her bed one morning, only three years after Michael died.

By the time she was 15 (1911), Baba knew her future would be severely limited if she stayed in Poruba, so she took what little money she had saved, along with what money was received from the sale of her father's land, and left for America. Six months after arriving at her brother Michael's house in Snowden, Pennsylvania, she was married to John Bubnash, a Valaskovce native who had lived in Poruba previous to immigrating to America.

Future posts will give details about Nemecka Poruba, and I welcome information, insight, and comments from others with Poruba roots.