A New Starting Place: Holland, Texas 1912

The trip had been tiring and once again Ján was physically exhausted. His feet were blistered and swollen and the Texas dust had permeated his skin. Arriving in Holland, finally, he was elated for the opportunity to bathe. The first real bath he had taken since leaving home. Whether or not he had reached his destination’s end yet was undetermined. The welcome surprise of pork and sauerkraut served by the women of the Czech Brethren Church, though, was a quite welcome taste of home in America.

Modernity and A Taste of Home

Holland, Texas in 1912 was a surprisingly modern town. Since 1910 it had been fully electrified and there was a public telephone service in many of the town businesses. It was an agriculturally based township, but in 1912, when Ján arrived, the town boasted over 1,000 residents, several churches, two hotels, many schools, two banks and an opera house. In addition there was rich, fertile, blackland soil and four cotton gins, which provided plenty of work for anyone looking.

Ján found Holland to be an extremely inviting town. Not only was there a well established Hussite church there but also the majority of the town’s inhabitants were from the Czech lands, mostly Moravian at that. He had a place to live and several offers of employment. At an initial glance it seemed an ideal place for him to make his new home. Yet for all of its positivity’s, Ján still had reservations about whether this was THE place for him.

What One Needs To Survive in America

Even in the now late fall, Ján found the Texas heat and humidity to be overwhelming. He had never experienced anything like this before. What bothered him more though was that everywhere he went Czech was the predominant language spoken. He knew that he would not be able to rely solely on Czech in America. Getting experience with English was of the utmost importance to him. He knew there was more to America than just Holland. Although it was a wonderful taste of home, Ján felt, must be an anomaly.

As fall transitioned into winter, Ján came to his decision. Although he enjoyed this taste of home he was experiencing in Holland, this was not what he was searching for. He had found work harvesting cotton in the nearby townships but he was not happy. Many of the people he was living amongst were first generation children of Czech immigrants who had come twenty to thirty years prior. They were good people with a strong work ethic but they were not philosophical and intellectual in the same way he was.

Discovering One’s True Self

True, he was a man of the earth also. He too had come of age working the soil and tending animals. Something had changed inside Ján though. When he had gone to University, when he had fled across Europe. He had not travelled all of this way merely for his own plot of land to farm. He had not been evicted from his homeland. No, he had left for philosophical reasons and the good people he was now living with were from different generations, different ideals. Although in some ways they provided him a taste of home, they simply could not understand him on an intellectual level.

As he continued his maturation into adulthood, Ján knew that he was more than just a farmer, he was a thinker and something was stirring deep in his soul. A feeling that he was on an odyssey, a journey to make a difference in the world. A difference in his own life, possibly for his homeland which he loved so dearly.

Time To Move On

Winter began to turn into spring and Ján continued to progress with his English studies. At the same time his linguistical skills continued to serve him well. He was able to easily communicate with the German and Polish immigrants with whom he was in regular contact. Through some of his German contacts he learned that there would soon be a travelling threshing crew assembled. They would start in Texas and follow the winter wheat harvest north, eventually ending up in North Dakota or possibly southern Canada. The only requirement was that you be strong and willing to work hard. Ján saw an opportunity.

The crew would be run by Germans, which Ján had his qualms about, but he felt this would be his great chance to get out of Holland. He saw no permanent future there and was concerned that his existence would quickly succumb to a life of harvesting cotton. No, the climate did not suit him physically and the culture of the town did not satisfy him intellectually. Perhaps he would find his place in America, along with a taste of home, somewhere farther north from Texas.

Ready To Find A New Taste of Home

Ján was glad that he had found his way to Holland, that it had been his first point of destination in the United States. Had he not come here perhaps he would not have had the self realizations about where he was supposed to go, what he was supposed to do. The taste of home that had welcomed him in Holland had been most welcome but it was time for him to move on. Time for him to find himself in this marvelous country, where anything seemed possible.