i6o ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



The next one was "Amerikai Nemzetor" (American Guards- 

 man) in 1884, which has long since ceased to exist. The "Sza- 

 badsag" (Liberty) w^as founded in 1891 in Cleveland, Ohio, by 

 Tilmer Kohanyi, and is a flourishing daily pubHshed there and 

 in New York. Catholic Hungarian journalism in America pre- 

 sents but a meagre history. Soon after the arrival of Father 

 Bohm he started a religious weekly at Cleveland called "Magya- 

 rorszagi Szent Erzsebet Hirnoke" (St. EHzabeth's Hungarian 

 Herald). Two years later this weekly developed into a full- 

 fledged newspaper of eight pages, called "Magyarok Vasar- 

 napja" (Hungarian Sunday News), and became quite popular. 

 In the beginning of 1907 the Hungarian Catholic clergy, hop- 

 ing to put Catholic journaHsm on a stronger foundation, held 

 an enthusiastic meeting at Cleveland and took the "Magyarok 

 Vasarnapja" under their joint control and selected as its editor 

 Rev. Stephen F. Chernitzky, from whom in great part the facts 

 for this article have been obtained. But notwithstanding his 

 hard work in Catholic journalism the panic of 1907 deprived it 

 of financial backing and it lost much of its patronage. At 

 Cleveland there is also a Catholic weekly "Haladas" (Progress), 

 started in 1909. Rev. Geza Messerschmiedt, of Passaic. New 

 Jersey, is conducting a monthly Catholic paper, "Hajnal" 

 (Dawn), and there is also another Catholic Hungarian 

 monthly, "Magyar Zaszlo" (Hungarian Standard), pubUshed 

 at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, by Rev. Colman Kovacs. Other 

 clergymen like Rev. Alexander Varlaky, of Bethlehem, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Rev. Louis Kovacs, of New York City, have 

 undertaken the task of keeping alive small Catholic weekly 

 papers for the benefit of their countrymen. 



A great many of the Hungarians in America are indiflfer- 

 entists and free-thinkers and from them the Liberals and So- 

 cialists are recruited. But a large number are Protestants of 

 a Calvinistic type, somewhat similar to the various Presby- 

 terian denominations in this country. Although actually less 

 numerous than the Catholic Hungarians, they have more 

 churches here. There are forty in all, consisting of thirty- 

 nine Reformed churches and one Hungarian Lutheran congre- 

 gation. One division of the Reformed Church is aided by the 

 Reformed Board of Missions in Hungary, having under its 

 control 19 churches and 20 ministers, while 8 churches of the 

 other division are controlled and supported by the Board of 



