M is for Miertschin: Texas Hill Country was a magnet for European ethnic groups fleeing the tumult of Europe in the mid-1800s. Among them were the Sorbs, or Wends. Their settlement of Sorbin (place of the Sorbs, or Serbs) became the mother colony of Sorbian culture in America, and St. Paul's Lutheran Church became the mother church. Even as they took on American ways, their unique culture and family names gave them an identity to which they continue to cling tenaciously. The Miertschin family was in the first (actually, only!) wave of Wendish settlers to the Texas frontier. St. Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery. [2009]
No comments:
Post a Comment