Tagged: Kilian

Update on the Jan Kilian Room Project

We recently posted a letter from Pastor Benjamin Rehr and the congregation at Weigersdorf, Germany describing a project they were undertaking. With help from the congregation at Klitten, a room of the Weigersdorf parsonage was being transformed into the Jan Kilian Room – a climate-controlled space to house...

In and Around the Museum

We continue to be fortunate recipients of donations that enhance our ability to educate and entertain our visitors. R.J. and Ruth Nitsche recently donated a book that might have been part of Pastor Jan Kilian’s library, although the exact provenance has not been determined. The book – printed...

In and Around the Museum

In late July, TWHS was awarded a grant from the Texas Historical Foundation, a 62-year old preservation organization. The grant will provide funds to support the development of a collection of visual media, which will be used in a planned interactive display that will be installed in the...

Jan Kilian, Poet and Rebel

We all know Jan Kilian was the first pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Serbin. But he was much more than the long-time shepherd of the Wendish colony in Texas. Kilian was orphaned at age 10. He used the small farm he inherited to put himself through school....

It Pays to Advertise – and to Read Ads

Robert Wuchatsch, a researcher and writer of Australian Wends, found about a dozen notices placed in the classified section of the 1854 Budissiner Nachrichten several months prior to the departure of the Ben Nevis migrants. These little advertisements show once again that every bit of evidence, no matter...

Now Available: New Research Results

Few people are more strongly associated with the Sorbian emigration movement of the 19th century than Jan Kilian. In 1854 the pastor, born in Doehlen in Upper Lusatia, left his home country for Texas where, along with a large number of fellow Sorb immigrants, he founded the colony...

Death on the Irish Sea

The optimism of the Wends as they left their European homeland for a new home in Texas was soon tempered by the recurrent deaths within their group. The first death took place in Hamburg on September 10 even before they boarded a ship. That death may not have...

The Wends In Germany and In Texas

The Wends or Sorbs of Germany are an originally Slavic group in what is now southern East Germany, in the area called Lusatia (Lausitz), around the cities of Bautzen and Cottbus. They were surrounded and infiltrated by the German expansion to the east in the middle ages, and...

Touring the Wendish Homeland

In the region of Schleife, which consists of the villages of Schleife (Slepo), Rohne (Rowno), Mulkwitz (Mulkecy), Mühlrose (Miloraz), Trebendorf (Trjebin), Halbendorf (Brězowka), and Groß Düben (Dźewin), the Advent season tradition of the gift-giving Christkind (dźěćetko) is kept alive. According to the tradition, a young woman who will...

Johann Kilian’s Call

Following is the text of Rev. Johann Kilian’s Call to serve as pastor for the group of Wends that emigrated on the Ben Nevis in 1854. The original document is located in the archives of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Serbin, Texas and a typed copy is included with...