The published church
history of Trinity German Evangelical
Lutheran Church indicates that in 1900 three
families from “Western Hungary” had become
members of the parish. The heads of
households that were listed in the
publication included: Georg Frey, Johann
Schultheiss and Tobias Bitz. The three
families came from Swabian Turkey which is a
region that covers the Counties of Tolna,
Somogy and Baranya in Hungary. In the
annual report in 1910 the pastor indicates
that sixty-seven families from Western
Hungary were now part of the parish and in
fact had become the majority leading to the
exodus of some of “the more German
families.” In addition to these families
from Hungary there were also several
families from Semlak and Liebling in the
Banat with whom they shared common origins.
Congregational life and
church activities became the focal point of
the social life of this portion of the
Danube Swabian population in addition to the
Bitz grocery store operated by Henry Bitz
the son of Tobias who had been a youngster
when the family arrived in Steelton from
Döröschke in the hill country of Somogy
County in Hungary. The store was located on
Mohn Street named after a German family who
had lived there in the past and where many
of the Danube Swabian families resided. His
store and butcher shop became a meeting
place where the language was familiar, the
products were designed to meet their needs,
where news from “home” was shared and
marriages were often hatched and the
sausages he made were reputed to be just
like back home.
These original Lutheran
families came from the following villages
located in Baranya County: Csikostöttös,
Bikal, Mekenyes and Nagy Hajmas. From
Tolna County there were families from:
Varsád, Udvári, Gyönk, Szárázd and Izmény.
The following villages were represented
among the numerous families from Somogy
County: Miklosi, Szil, Hacs, Szabadi,
Döröschke, Bonnya and Ecsény. In addition
there were families from the colonies
established in Slavonia by families from
Swabian Turkey: Hrastovac, Klein Bastei,
Pasjan, Antunovac, Sartovac and
Kaptanovpolje.
The major social problem
in Steelton was drunkenness and the
immigrant population bore the brunt of the
blame and in many instances were guilty as
charged. With such a large number of
“unattached” men in the community the
saloons and houses run by bootleggers became
the venue for social intercourse and its
consequences. The local newspapers
constantly inveighed against the immigrant’s
propensity to fall victim to the wiles of
alcohol and its attendant results. One
incident in particular sheds some light on
the issue. Two men, one named John
Gittinger and the other John Fisher were
arrested for assaulting a woman in a saloon
and were identified as ‘drunk German
immigrants’ in the newspaper headline. The
name of John Fisher has obviously been
Anglicized from the correct spelling:
Fischer. The next week the same newspaper
reported that Trinity German Evangelical
Lutheran Church had held a special meeting
with regard to the incident and issued a
protest to the newspaper to the effect that
the two individuals were not Germans at all
but Hungarians! Even then the Danube Swains
were prone to vacillate about their identity
or perhaps the more German element in
the congregation needed to have their say to
protect their reputation.
