The ancestors of Joseph and Sophie Schwartz were primarily farmers. In the late 1800s, Joseph, 16 years later than Sophie, followed a trail west to new tillable lands. In the first move west they both traveled 6,600 miles–from the valleys in northern Austria, 450 miles by train, through the Port of Bremerhaven, to the shores of Galveston, Texas, and then 120 miles by train to Hallettsville. They went over unpaved Texas roads to the sandy hills and clay bottoms of Moravia, Texas.
It was only 30 years after their arrival that the sons of Joseph and Sophie found Moravia’s small farms (60 to 100 acres) unsuitable for their ambitious purposes. Therefore, several of the second generation of Schwartz families made their second movement west and found new tillable land 300 miles from Moravia in the midst of thousands of acres of ranchland in the Lipan Flats area, southeast of San Angelo.
The early Lipan Flat settlers were not successful in farming, nor did they believe the land suitable for cotton or milo. However, after the Schwartz family began working the land over 50 years ago, these crops became the main sources of income.
In August 1919 Ernest Schwartz, Bob Broz, Anton Till and about 20 other young men from the Moravia, Texas, area came to head maize in Runnels County. On September 14, 1919, Otto Schwartz and Ed Kocich, dressed in their best suits, with suitcases in hand, posed at the Flatonia, Texas, train depot while a friend recorded with a camera their first trip to West Texas. The train left at 11 a.m. and came to Ballinger, Texas, by way of Cameron and Temple, Texas, on September 15, 1919. Otto’s uncle, Anton Loika, met the two of them at the train station in his Model T Ford.
Otto and Ed went to the Bethel Community on Pony Creek, 6 miles south of Ballinger, Texas. They had made the trip to help pick one of the best cotton crops ever made by Anton Loika (about 90 bales) after a three-year drought. The pay for handpicking good cotton was $1.50 for 100 lbs., plus room and board. Five men – Ernest, Otto, Ed, Anton Till and Bob Broz – stayed with Anton Loika and his wife “Tante” Annie Loika. They all slept in one room of the small house. At picking time, the price of cotton went up to 43¢ a pound on the land that had cost $30 an acre. Cotton prices were high because of the big demand for cotton after World War I.
However, by picking time the next year, 1920, cotton slipped down to 28¢ a pound; by December, it was 14¢; by January 1921, it had gone down to 5¢ a pound. At this time, discouraged farmers sent the cotton to Houston and put it into storage. The storage ate up the 5¢ in short time. At this same time, the country was plagued with a flu epidemic. Mary (Loika) Kresta, Anton’s sister, lost her husband in 1919. A son and a daughter both died on the same day with the flu on December 30, 1918. In 1920, Joe and Otto Schwartz came to Bethel to pick cotton for Anton Loika until he became sick. They were at his bedside when he died on October 31, 1920. Anton’s wife, Annie, died in 1923 at a young age. Tragedy had struck the family in several ways.
The early part of 1920, Ernest left Moravia for Bethel where he went to work for his aunt, Mary Kresta, after she had lost her husband the previous year. Ernest farmed 15 acres on his own, harvested the crop for his aunt and then went back to Moravia where he made wedding plans and married Ida Klein on January 17, 1921. Ernest and Ida brought all their possessions to Bethel where they farmed Anton Loika’s place for three years–after Anton’s death in 1920: 1921, 1922 and 1923.
Ernest and Ida lived at Miles, Texas, in 1924 and 1925 until he bought land near Fairview School. Papa Schwartz came to West Texas for a visit and stayed to help Ernest and Ida build their house, which is still in use by the Erwin Schwartz family (Ida’s son). Ida, who never moved in 50 years, lived there. Papa bought 320 acres on the now Schwartz Road.
In February 1925, Otto Schwartz and Joe Berger were hired by W. H. Wilde to build two houses, both west of Fairview School on 350 acres of unbroken land. In March 1925, Mr. Wilde offered to furnish a Fordson tractor with magneto lights and a triple disc plow, fuel and seed if they would break the land and farm it for him on halves. “If you boys want to work, I’ll rent you this land,” he said. The boys worked day and night to break the land. This was to be the first crop to be made in the Fairview Community by any of the brothers. Twenty-five bountiful crops were harvested from the fertile West Texas land near the Fairview community until the drought of the 1950s.
In July, they lost 40 acres of cotton when heavy rains filled the low places of the land they were renting (where David Schwartz now farms). Though the crop was poor, it was the first crop to be harvested in the Fairview area by the Schwartz family. In July 1925, Bill Schwartz came to farm here, too, working with Otto and Joe Berger. He was never to go back to Lavaca County to farm.
In January 1926, Otto married Martha Havel and they lived in one of the Wilde houses (most west of Fairview; barn is still in the field, 2020). Ernest and Ida had just moved in to their new home west of the school in December 1925. Then in November 1927, Ed and Martha Kocich moved to West Texas and settled in the Wilde house where Otto and Martha had been living. Otto moved to Papa Schwartz’s new farm and house on the now Schwartz Road.
Hilda and Bill Mikulik moved here in the fall of 1934, *living in the Dick Loika house for a while, before moving to their present home place. Louise and George Hrncir moved here in October 1935, and stayed with Hilda and Bill until January 1936 when they moved to Otto’s house (later his home-site) which George and Louise rented until 1938. At that time they bought the Williams place, moved on to it and built the home where Louise later lived. Annie and Albert came to West Texas in October 1936, spending two years in Uncle Dick Loika’s house west of Wall, Texas. In 1938, Otto moved to his new farm, and Annie moved to Papa Schwartz’s house which was just 2 miles west from Dick Loika’s house. Later they bought the house and 220 acres from Papa Schwartz and Ernest bought 100 acres of that farm. Willie Mae Schwartz lived with several of her brothers and sisters in the San Angelo area from 1935 until she married Harvey Braden in 1939 and lived near Wall. Albina also lived with her sisters and brothers here, visiting for short periods of time, then returning home to Moravia. In 1952, Albina moved to San Angelo permanently, caring for her father in the house beside her brother Bill’s home.
Each family milked cows, sold cream and butter and made cottage cheese from clabber; any clabber left over went to feed chickens, turkeys and hogs.
Everyone raised many flocks of turkeys each year as they were good “bug catchers.” Often, they were driven up into the field near the house by one of the children and left to feed on insects. Turkeys had a good price, even in the Depression years, and anyone energetic enough to raise and work with them did well for themselves at that time.
Raising cattle for beef was another way of adding to the family income. The cattle grazed a greater part of the year, but in the winter, bundle feed was fed twice a day. A beef club was formed to supply fresh meat every other Saturday, with perhaps as many as 24 members in the club.
1936 Flood
From September 16 to 17, 1936, it rained. In those two days, 23 inches of rain was measured in a 50-gallon oil drum. The North and South Concho rivers overflowed in the center of San Angelo. Those who were in town at the time saw caskets, cattle, feather beds and houses floating down the river. The water was so high that it went up to the second floor of the Naylor Hotel (now the Town House Hotel) and passed over the Lone Wolf Bridge.
The lakes on the Ernest Schwartz and W. H. Wilde farms, west and south of Fairview School were 9 feet deep in the middle. More than 300 sheep were drowned in the Louis Williams lake (now Kenneth Schwartz’s place), and it took 13 months for the water to finally dry up. It covered about 90 acres of land, almost half of the place. It was at this time that Louis Williams decided to sell a risky piece of ground– no takers until Otto Schwartz bought it in 1942.
Drought of the 1950s
Because so many of the descendants of Joseph and Sophie Schwartz are farmers or were raised on the farm, weather is a profound element in our lives. We live with the constant extremes of nature – floods and drought. In the 1940s, we had ample rainfall; in fact, you found yourself sinking 6 inches deep in mud at cow milking and feeding time. Then came the 1950s, and the mud turned to dry dust. In 1956 only 8 inches of rain fell for the entire year. That was the year many of us never gathered a cotton boll or bothered to combine a head of maize. Some people built 8’ x 12’ sleds with a set of 12-inch prongs for two rows of cotton in order to gather the one or two bolls setting on top of each tiny 6-inch stalk.
“It crept out of Mexico, spreading in all directions, a cancerous blight burning a scar upon the land. Just another dry spell, men said at first...Men grumbled, but you learned to live with the dry spells if you stayed in West Texas...'Why worry?' They said. It would rain again this fall. It always had. But it didn’t. And many a boy would become a man before the land was green again.” (Kelton, 1973: vii).
The drought became so severe that the nation recognized the intensity of it, and on January 13, 1957, the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, came to view the situation that existed in most of the southwestern states. On the cold sunny morning of January 14, 1957, the president, with a convoy of five bus loads of newsmen, photographers, agricultural people and Secret Service men, drove into the front yard of Wilbert and Doris Block on the Christoval Highway, south of San Angelo, Texas. President Eisenhower shook hands with the children and then went to the field to see the dry, powdery soil. He then watched the cows eating prickly pear that had been cut from nearby pastures, the stickers singed off with handheld butane burners.
Then on April 22, 1957, clouds loaded with moisture filled the sky. It rained for weeks, a total of 18 inches. Weed seeds that had been dormant for years came to life and before long all the fields became one weedy patch of sunflowers and tumbleweeds. Slowly the rainy years increased. Although there have been some dry spells, it has been 20 years since 1956, the driest of all years. (Written in 1977)
Another Westerly Move
The droughts of the 1950s, with seven years of dust, bad crops and no rain, had another consequence for the Schwartz family. The promise of cheap land and water from wells enticed many to leave San Angelo. They moved to the as-yet-undeveloped St. Lawrence area to the northwest. The potential for this move had been present since Bill Schwartz, Harvey Braden and others had bought land there in the late 1940s. Alfred Schwartz was the first actually to move in the early part of 1957. In turn, he was followed by George Schwartz in 1961, Joe Calvin Schwartz in 1966, Wilbert Braden in 1969, and Jimmy and Carolyn (Schwartz) Strube in 1972.
This move into a new land was not without its tribulations, many of which were reminiscent of earlier moves into new and unbroken land. First, the very land itself had to be cleared. Trees were bulldozed; brush was chained; stumps were picked, and rocks were hauled to make tillable fields. The problem of water also had to be solved, and many wells were drilled. Then followed years of crop experimentation, aimed at discovering the best types of crops for the area. Roads and access to markets were a further problem that had to be overcome. Perhaps one of the problems was the very isolation and loneliness itself, something hard to endure for the gregarious Schwartz family.
But the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Joseph and Sophie have continued the family tradition of hard work in pioneering new areas, and a new and successful community was formed. In St. Lawrence, there is now a church, a new Catechetical Center and a church hall which forms the nucleus of the community. Gins, co-ops and elevators are now available for marketing, and new roads are being built after years of struggle – to provide market access. Programs in 4-H have also been developed for the children. And as a buffer against loneliness and isolation, many new friendships have developed, such as the St. Lawrence Dance Club. Perhaps, the best indicator of the success and solidity of the new community is that we are now beginning to attend many weddings and other family functions in St. Lawrence. Perhaps one day we may even have a family reunion in St. Lawrence, to show the St. Lawrence Schwartz families how proud we are of their efforts and toils in establishing a new community. A bit farther west another community is developing. Midkiff, which is about 15 miles southwest of St. Lawrence, has a church (St. Thomas), a gin, store, and elevator for grain. It has developed into a new farming community.
We have discussed the hard work the third and fourth generations have done in opening up the new areas. But the hard work does not stop with age. For example, in April 1976, Otto and Martha Schwartz made a trip to South Texas visiting brothers and sisters still living in these parts. Ottilie, then at the age of 79, had four quilts going, a garden started, had a freezer filled with food. She made kolaches for her son, Roy, and his restaurant business each week, baked her bread and cookies regularly and peeled almost 300 pounds of pecans in 1975. Joe was Justice of the Peace until the late 1970s. Alfons and Celestie farmed and butchered hogs and cattle for the neighbors. John and Edith had chickens, ducks, and milo and corn. Their garden products were sold to canneries and grocery stores. John and Alfons continued to make homemade molasses each summer for themselves and their friends. Sophie, 83, gardened and loved flowers, and Louis, 81, played the accordion, raised chickens and lived on the same place for more than 50 years.
Those in the San Angelo area – Martha, Hilda, Annie, Louise, Willie Mae, Otto and the families of Ernest and Bill – shared the fruits of their labors with friends and relatives. All were gardeners. Most of them say, “Our hobby is work – so as long as we can – we must!”
Oil-Shale Formation
In 2013, horizontal drilling of the Permian Basin emerged as the newest way to access the vast oil reserve in West Texas. The Permian era formations include at least a dozen productive oil formations which had been drilled with vertical oil wells since the 1950s. The deepest of those formations is named the “Wolfcamp,” which is composed of tight shale rock but is arguably the most oil-rich of the Permian era oil formations. It is said to be located between 9,000-10,000 feet below the surface of the ground and is up to 1,000 feet thick. The formation underlies Glasscock, Reagan, Upton, Midland, Martin and Andrews counties. Horizontal drilling into the formation around St. Lawrence and Midkiff began in 2013 and was common by 2014. Due to the hardness of the shale formation, hydraulic fracturing is still employed. “Fracking” is a well stimulation technique in which water, sand, and thickening agents are injected into a wellbore under high pressure to crack the targeted rock and create permeability within it, while propping the fractures open with sand. After the well is “fracked,” the oil is able to migrate to the wellbore to be pumped to the surface via “pump jacks.”
This oil production has changed the landscape around the area of Garden City in Glasscock County and many of the farms of the Schwartz families. Oil rigs, trucks, roads, pits, water disposals, gas flares and an increase of highway traffic have transformed the quiet of farm life into a bustling environment, sometimes making the area dangerous to navigate.
The blowing winds of West Texas have also made this area a prime location for wind turbines. They dot the landscape with the massive blades, roads and electrical transmission towers. Wind turbines are now a common sight on the open plains of Texas.
Lives have been changed for those who had mineral rights, and farming has been made difficult for those without mineral rights as they maneuver around the rigs, tanks and roads. Many fourth- and fifth-generation family members have migrated to Midland, securing jobs connected to the oil industry.
The Next Migration
In the 1977 book, three migrations were documented. The first migration was from Europe and the Czech Republic to Moravia and Lavaca County, Texas. The second migration was north to Wall and Tom Green County, Texas. And the third migration went still farther northwest to St. Lawrence and Glasscock County, Texas. Now a fourth: the World.
After arriving in the United States, Joseph and Sophie Schwartz settled in Moravia, Texas, where they farmed and raised their 16 children. As adults, some of their children migrated from that homestead in search of more land to farm, to support their growing families. Many of their children did the same.
Farming has become expensive since Joseph and Sophie first moved to Moravia. Horses pulled plows in those early days, but over the last century, farmers in the Schwartz family have seen their farming equipment costs rise from $25 for a tractor to $750,000 for a cotton stripper. The price of land has gone up, from $25 an acre to $3,000 to $4,000 an acre.
Because of new technology and resources, a farm can be operated now with fewer workers, opening the way for some Schwartz descendants to venture into non-agrarian jobs. Today, most of the Schwartz family workforce has left the farm fields (although thankfully, the Schwartz family still passes down farming skills to younger generations).
With each generation, we have developed skills to help us in this ever-changing world. Many of us now take our talents into new livelihoods. (Generation names are based on the year you were born.)
• The Greatest Generation (1900-1924) lived through the Great Depression and fought in World War II. They are humble and frugal and believe in personal responsibility, a strong work ethic and being faithful in commitments.
• The Silent Generation (1925-1945) was raised during a period of war and Depression. They too believe in discipline, thriftiness and upholding values. They have an attitude of gratitude and appreciate simple things in life. They are determined, civic-minded, respectful of authority and loyal to their country.
• Baby boomers (1946-1964) are the result of an increase in birth rate, when Americans enjoyed new-found prosperity after World War II. They are independent, self-reliant, dedicated and goal-oriented.
• Generation X (1965-1976) is the counterculture of a rebellious generation. They are independent, resourceful and self-sufficient. Many are highly skeptical while valuing freedom and responsibility.
• Millennials or Generation Y (1977-1995) are those who became adults around the turn of the 21st century. They came of age when digital technology was increasing and therefore are very sophisticated, technology-wise.
• Generation Z or iGen or Centennials (1996-2020) are growing up in a hyper-connected world. They do not remember a world without smart devices and broadband internet and therefore are more internet savvy than previous generations.
The migration of the Schwartz family continues with these subsequent generations. Instant satellite communications, real-time face-to-face telephone conversations, instant 24-hour world news commentary and ease of travel have expanded our family into the fourth migration – the world.
Now, the seven continents of the world have been seen, touched or lived on by the descendants of Joseph and Sophie Schwartz. We have family units living in 142 cities in 17 states and two foreign countries. Of the 459 addressed family unit descendants, 39 live in states other than Texas. The rest live in Texas, with 142 in the San Angelo area including Wall, 25 in Garden City, 19 in Midland, 18 in Schulenburg, Hallettsville, LaGrange and Moulton, 12 in Lubbock, 11 in Austin, nine in Miles, nine in Sugar Land and six in San Antonio.
The baby boomers are retiring, and the next generations (Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z) have expanded into a variety of fields like industry, business, education, transportation, finance, medicine, maintenance, computers, technology, science, construction, clerical, environmental, energy and fossil fuels.
We have seen advances in technology that are almost beyond the imagination – driverless automobiles, satellite navigation on tractors and cars, and location devices on cell phones (which are more powerful than the first computer on a nuclear submarine). Cameras are almost unnecessary for the ordinary person as we use a 10-megapixel camera on our hand-held phone. We send messages around the world in an instant instead of six weeks (as when a letter would reach Germany from Texas).
While the world is accessible to all of us with the touch of our fingers, our family still touches our hearts. We have the desire to contribute to this expanding world, while we strive to live by the example of Joseph and Sophie. May we pass down through subsequent generations the integrity, strong work ethic – and love – of our Schwartz family.
Celebrations
Whenever there is a holiday, such as 4th of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving – you will find Schwartz family members together celebrating. In earlier times one family would act as host, and others would come and share their food with each other. Usually a portion of beef or a goat was barbecued. Most of the families had built large rock pits for such occasions. (Ernest Schwartz really enjoyed those Sunday afternoon barbecues and the traditions that went along with “doing it the right way.”) While the men cooked the meat on the outdoor pits, the women busied themselves in the kitchen with vegetables, cakes, pies and kolaches. Eventually, however, the family became too large for any one home to handle the crowd. Now, our barbecues are held at a large hall where family members have been instrumental in having large kitchen and barbecue pit facilities installed for the benefit of the entire community.
Our numerous weddings have also changed. Before, after an early Mass at Church, the family and guests would go to the bride’s home, where tables were set up for dinner and supper. Chicken soup was a required course for any wedding dinner (noon). Following the supper (evening meal), a large dance was held, so that weddings were all-day home affairs. Now, with the large numbers of family members, most family weddings are held at church, with the reception, and dinner and the dance following at the church hall. Even if the length of the weddings has shortened from an all-day and all-night affair to usually an afternoon and evening, the family spirit is still very obvious, and everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, attends. No babysitters are necessary, for every older child or adult keeps an eye out for the little ones, no matter whose child it happens to be.
In the earlier days, our music-loving family would hold dances. The musicians played on the porch, while the couples danced inside the largest room of the house. There was not much furniture, but this was removed to make room for the dance. A popular dance at these early house dances was the Broom Dance which involved couples lining the sides of the room with equal numbers of ladies on one side and gents on the other. One extra gent danced with the broom while the music played. At the sound of the whistle (blown by one of the musicians) the gentleman with the broom would drop the handle and grab one of the lady dancers as all were exchanging partners. The fellow without a partner then would dance with the broom until the whistle blew again.
Today, even though the bands have changed from the old style polka or western bands to rock bands, polkas are still played, and young and old alike join in the fun. Polka Clubs are springing up now, with the old dances, such as the Schottische, Herr Schmidt, Paul Jones, Put Your Little Foot, Garden Dance, Snowball, Seven-Step Polka and Grand Marches, continuing to be popular.
In spite of all the changes in place and style, these social occasions exhibit our family’s continuing love and affection for each other.
Through all of these years since Joseph and Sophie Schwartz came to America, we have grown in numbers; we have worked hard and been successful; we have moved and expanded to new areas, but we have not changed the basic traditions that started in 1892 when Joseph and Sophie married. It’s been 85 years, and we have come a long way. Be a Schwartz and be proud. (Written in 1977)
Our Enduring Family Qualities
Throughout all the years of change and migration, several familial characteristics stand out clearly. One is a willingness to work long and hard. Almost a family motto is the saying that “If we rest, we will rust; so if we can, we must.”
Another prevailing Schwartz characteristic is our fondness of family “get-togethers” such as dances, weddings, barbecues and other community occasions. These occasions, which have continued, indicate the true closeness and cooperation of the family, and the joy we share with each other.
JOSEPH RICHARD SCHWARTZ
Arrived in America August 6, 1890
*On August 12, 1835 Johann Schwarz Sr., Joseph’s father, was born in Austria in the village Siegertsau #1, a short distance from the province borders of Austrian Schlesien and Moravia. He later met Aloisia Schmidt, who was born June 13, 1833, in Siegertsau #21. They married in 1861 in #1 and lived near Siegertsau, Schlesien province, northwest of Bodenstadt, Austria.
Their children were: Ernst – June 11,1860; Julie – June 19, 1862; Johann Jr. – April 22, 1865; *Alois – April 8, 1867 – died December 11, 1869; Joseph – **August 7, 1869; Aloisia – May 4, 1871, and Mary – September 29, 1874.
At the age of 42, Johann Schwarz Sr. died in a farm accident. He was injured when he was hauling grain with a young horse. The chain attached to a sled became tangled. As Johann began to untangle it, the horse became scared and started to turn in circles. The chain wrapped around the horse’s legs, causing the horse to fall on Johann. The impact of the fall broke the ribs of Joseph’s father, and the broken ribs punctured Johann’s lungs. Although he lived several months, he never regained his strength. He died December 8, 1877.
Joseph was 8 years old when his father died and had to assume responsibilities even as a young boy. He attended school from the time he was 6 years old, but when he became 14, his two older brothers, Ernst and Johann, married and left home. So Joseph had to quit school to help support his mother and sisters.
The Schwarzes lived in a little hamlet called a “dorf,” which was a small farming community with houses close together. The farms were long and narrow, and the main crops harvested were clover, wheat and oats – all grain feed. In their vegetable gardens, they grew potatoes, cabbage and strawberries (and we assume many others, too). They kept cows for milk, butter and cheese, and pigs for meat. They raised chickens, geese and ducks for food, eggs and feathers. Their house combined living quarters, stalls, barn and storage rooms, all under one roof. The yard and barn were kept clean by sweeping the entire area every day; every straw and twig was picked up.
When Joseph was a young boy, it was his job to herd the geese. One day he became distracted from his job when his interest turned to building a small windmill. He loved to build and tinker with tools. He soon forgot that he was supposed to be looking after his geese that were, by this time, in the neighbor’s field and garden. The farmer, next door, chased the geese home but gave Joseph a good spanking for not being a better “goose watcher.” This was related by Joseph’s sister, Julie.
A long grove of cherry trees grew down their lane, and Joseph often told of getting up early each morning to pick cherries before the carts rolled over them. The cherries were either dried or packed in sugar into a crock and eaten all year. In addition, there were many other fruit trees, particularly pears and apples. The climate was damp, and spring was always beautiful with flowers blooming everywhere.
In 1887, Joseph’s younger sister, Aloisia, became ill with pneumonia. As she neared death, she called for her mother, saying, “Mutter, hold me as the angels are coming to get me.” Her sister, Julie, recalled those agonizing moments as Aloisia died in the arms of her mother at the age of 16. (Note that both the mother and daughter were named Aloisia, which was a common practice at that time.)
The name Schwartz means “Black,” and in Austria the name was spelled “Schwarz.” However, in 1892, when Joseph and Sophie went to get their marriage license, the county clerk suggested that for convenience while living in America, the letter “t” should be added. In Europe, the letter “z” is pronounced “tz.” No official change was made in the spelling; it was just a suggestion by the clerk. Joseph’s mother, Aloisia, continued to carry her name as “Schwarz,” and it is spelled that way on her tombstone in the High Hill Cemetery.
During happier moments, Joseph recalled the annual October feast, called Festung, which lasted for two continuous weeks in the fall of each year. All day and all night they danced, ate and drank beer. They would go home only to do the chores and rest, then they would go back for more festivities.
As a young man, Joseph was very handsome, socially well accepted and an extremely good dancer. He related this tale about his friend, Anton, a lively priest who enjoyed dancing, too. When Anton got to the dance hall, he removed his coat and collar, hung them on the nearest nail and said, “The priest is hanging on the nail; Anton is going to dance.”
Joseph said that from a hilltop in Schmiedsau, Austria, he could see the distant steeple of a church, about 6 miles to the southeast. The church was in the town of Weisskirchen near the dorf where Aloisia (Schmidt or Schmiedt) Loika lived and where Joseph’s future wife, Sophie, was born. The story goes that the two grandmothers, both named Aloisia and having the same last name (Schmidt), were separated by only a few miles but never knew each other until coming to America where they met in Hallettsville, Texas. It was a coincidence that the mother of Joseph and the mother of Sophie (Loika) both had maiden names of Aloisia Schmidt. (See Map 3, p. 22.)
Although life was pleasant enough, the available land was scarce, and times were hard. There was political discontent, and Joseph, who had reached military age, was required to serve a number of years in the military service. Also, about this time, many of the Schwarz’s friends from neighboring communities had gone to America and had written to them describing the opportunities and the acres of available land. Joseph’s brother-in-law, Ferdinand Berger, had gone to America in 1889 to avoid military duty and wrote back to his wife and her family that America was a good place to live. He had rented a farm and was anxious for them to follow.
So on July 10, 1890, or close to that date, Joseph, Aloisia Schwarz (his mother), and Mary Schwarz and Julie (Schwarz) Berger (his two sisters), packed up all their possessions and, after selling their land in Schmiedsau, Austria, to the oldest brother, Ernst, boarded a train for Bremerhaven, Germany. However, Ernst did not want his family to leave and tried to persuade Joseph to stay in Schmiedsau. “Three times he carried Joseph off the train, but Joseph insisted he had to go.” Ernst said, “Brother, I will never see you again in my life, if you leave.” In response, Joseph promised that he would come back to Schmiedsau if Ernst would just let him go see America and make some money. But they were never to see each other again. The two brothers, Ernst and Johann, remained in Austria for 55 years.
A ship was waiting at the port of Bremerhaven to take them overseas. So, they boarded a ship for America, along with other families from their community, including the Onheisers and the Gassmanns. They were to sail on the ship, Ida, but military officers were waiting at the dock and would not allow any young men to leave the country, including Joseph. Because of the military draft rules, no eligible males could leave Europe. The military police locked all these young men in a room to be inducted the next day. While this activity was taking place, the ship, Ida, had sailed without Joseph. Joseph would not learn until much later that his mother and sisters had a safe voyage across the Atlantic and were met at the train station in Schulenburg by Julie’s husband, Ferdinand Berger. Ferdinand Berger had come earlier to set up a home and land. He waited to welcome his wife and in-laws to Texas.
Meanwhile, as fate would have it, a coat hanging on a hook near the locked door of the military jail had jammed in the lock. When darkness fell, all of these men who were being held for military duty escaped. Joseph returned to the dock and told one of the ship officers of his plight. The crew hid him in the hold of the ship, Havel, until it sailed three days later near the date July 20, 1890. Joseph still had his paid ticket for the one-way fare to America, but all his clothes and possessions were on board the Ida, with his family. (Johann, Joseph’s brother once said, “It cost me lots of gulden to get Joseph free.”)
So Joseph sailed to the new world by himself on a strange ship, the Havel, separated from his family. He must have worked on board this ship to get money for food and other essentials. After 20 days on the Atlantic Ocean, he arrived in New York on *August 6, 1890, one day before Joseph turned 21 years old. He sold his only possession, a pocket watch he had brought with him, for $1 so that he would have some money to spend. All immigrants disembarking their ships had to report to the New York State Immigrant Processing Center at Castle Garden – not Ellis Island since it did not open until January 2, 1892. (CastleGarden.org for database on 11 million immigrants 1820-1892)
After being declared an immigrant, Joseph sailed from New York to Galveston on a coastal steamer. Once he landed in Galveston, he took a train to Schulenburg. He asked directions to High Hill and was told he would have to walk there. He began his 4-mile walk north to the home of his sister, Julie, and her husband, Ferdinand Berger, where he would be re-united with his mother and sisters.
On his way, he stopped for a drink from Foster’s Creek. Because he was very hot and tired from walking in Southeast Texas in the August sun, he sat down under a tree to rest. He said to himself, “this is a cool place to rest with such nice soft grass to sit on.” The nice soft grass turned out to be sandburrs.
When he finally did get to Julie’s house, he smelled something good baking as he approached. It smelled like some pastry or cake baking. But when he had supper and bit into the “pastry,” he discovered it was only cornbread (which he had never eaten, and until he died he never really liked cornbread). He was disappointed again by what he had experienced in America. He swore that he did not like America and as soon as he made a little money, he was going back home. But he stayed and prospered.
Joseph soon got a job on a ranch mending fences, grubbing stumps and cutting wood for an English-speaking lawyer. Then he worked for several Czech people and as a result learned to speak Czech very quickly. Within a few years he could read and write German, Czech and English, fluently. He worked in a gin, pressing the cotton by foot and using a wood screw press for the final packing. Horses would turn the screw press. All the cotton was brought to the gin in sacks, standing side by side in a wagon or sled.
With his first paycheck, Joseph bought a horse and saddle for $5 and shortly thereafter began courting Sophie Loika, who lived 3 to 4 miles north of Hallettsville on Anton Stanzel’s place.
The story goes that Mary Schwarz, Joseph’s sister, had met Sophie Loika in Hallettsville one day. They began talking about how close they had lived in the “old country” without meeting. Sophie asked Mary to bring her family over to the Loika home for a visit. So the Schwarzes, Mary, Joseph and mother, Aloisia, left one afternoon for the long walk to the Loika home. Joseph rode his new horse while his mother and sister walked. Perhaps he wanted to impress this young lady, Sophie, who his sister had been talking about. They arrived for supper and, as was the custom, stayed the night and had breakfast the next morning before returning home. Apparently Joseph made an impression on Sophie as they began courting soon thereafter.
As a result of this courtship, a wedding date was set for October 4, 1892. When Joseph went to get the marriage license, the county clerk convinced him to change the spelling of Schwarz to Schwartz, so that people in America would pronounce it correctly. At this same time the county clerk gave Joseph his naturalization papers as well, even though Joseph had not yet been in America the required number of years. When the clerk issued the papers, Joseph said, “You don’t understand; I want to get married!” The clerk, John Buchannan, argued and then suggested that he fill in both forms at the same time. So Joseph became a citizen and a married man at the same time.
Sophie Loika and Joseph Schwartz were married by Father Benes in Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Hallettsville, Texas, on October 4, 1892.
Soon after they married, they borrowed $500 to buy horses and crude implements, in addition to household goods. Their life together began on a farm near Moravia on the Ragsdale place, which August Cernik now owns. Two of their children, Sophie and Charles, were born there. After the harvest in 1894, they moved their family to the Frank Matula place, now owned by the John Hrncir family. On that farm, four of their children were born – Ludmilla, Ernest, Ottilie and Joe – in the rent house which is now used as a barn by the Anton V. Hrncir family.
On May 9, 1899, Joseph and Sophie paid $35 an acre for 161 acres of farmland near Moravia, which they purchased from Nancy Cook and her son, Jim. (Ten of the Schwartz children were born on this place.) Joseph had $500 to put down on the land and borrowed the rest from Frank Neihaus who held the notes at 8% interest, per year. However, he warned Joseph that if the payments were not made on time, he would foreclose on the land. At this same time, Joseph was trading regularly with Mr. R. A. Wolters in Schulenburg. Wolters offered to buy the notes from Neihaus, saying, “Mr. Schwartz, if you trade with me, I’ll buy those notes from Neihaus. I promise not to foreclose on you because I know you will pay me back as soon as you get the money.”
And being a man of his word, Joseph paid off the notes to Wolters in 1911, in spite of low farm prices. For example, cotton was selling for 7 cents per pound; eggs sold for 6 cents per dozen; peanuts were 2 cents per pound; butter was 15 cents per pound, and cattle sold for $7 per head.
During the summer the family made money by cooking molasses for the community at 12 ½ cents (later 25 cents) a gallon, community beef club butchering and selling tobacco. (For details, see p. 93.) Other farms bought were: Wolters, 1913; Cyril (Louis) Vrana, 1915; Ignac Vrana, 1919; Matthew Vyial, 1920; San Angelo, 1925; Havel, 1930s; and Kubicek later, (total eight farms), all with Sophie’s help.
During all this time, Joseph and Sophie were busy raising a family, with 14 healthy children living and working together on their farm. Joseph’s mother, Aloisia, often visited her children, even living with her daughters and son for brief stays. When she visited Joseph and Sophie’s home, she would make the little ones get down on their knees while she taught them to pray in German. If someone did not behave, she would give out a just paddling when it was needed. Then in 1895 she met a widower, Anton Hilscher. They soon married and moved to a house 3 miles north of Hallettsville. Later, they went their separate ways.
On February 20, 1906, she died from pneumonia while helping her daughter, Julie Berger, who was ill and lived in High Hill. Aloisia was buried there.
After his mother’s death, Joseph began to expand his farming interests as more land was needed to feed his growing family. At one point, Joseph owned eight different farms. The first was the homeplace with 161 acres, then later the Louis Vrana farm, the Trlica-Vrana farm and the Janak farm west of Moravia. Later, he bought the E.W. Havel place, the Kubicek place and even ventured later to West Texas where he bought 220 acres where Albert and Annie (Schwartz) Berger lived and 100 acres which Erwin Schwartz still farms.
Besides farming, Joseph took part in community affairs and frequently was called to serve on jury duty. A member of the S.P.J.S.T. Lodge, he served as secretary for several years. He was highly interested in school affairs, was a trustee for about 21 years, served on election boards and was often urged to run for road commissioner which he chose not to do. He owned a large veterinary medicine book and was the Moravia community veterinarian. Often, neighbors used him as their advisor on legal matters.
In 1897, when the Lavaca County Courthouse was being built in Hallettsville, people of the area, including Joseph, were asked to submit a collection of everyday information and objects typical of their daily lives into a time capsule. Joseph’s note, in his own hand, was then sealed into the courthouse cornerstone. To this date the cornerstone remains sealed and the contents of Joseph’s note unknown. Someday, if the courthouse is ever torn down, one of us should inquire as to the information contained on Joseph Schwartz’s note.
