A Wendish Wedding Blessing of 1866 from Serbin, Texas

The following article was written by Trudla Malinkowa for an issue of the Sorbian cultural magazine Rozhlad. Her original article was written in Wendish; however, she graciously translated the original to German, and David Goeke translated the German to English. We express our sincere gratitude to Trudla for sharing her knowledge with us and for allowing us to reprint her article, and to David Goeke for providing the English translation.

The Wendish Wedding Blessing of 1866 from Serbin

Recently, a yellowed sheet of paper with a short Wendish text, was discovered in the archives of the Serbin museum by Jan Slack, the president of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society. The characters (font) on the 8 x 10 inch sheet are detailed in uppercase letters and are colored line by line in red, blue, green or yellow colors. The text is framed by two green vines which are adorned with small flowers and soar from two brown clay vases. More blue and white flowers in the vases, in addition to two red roses over the text, give a festive character to the work. The German translation of the text is as follows:

Ja, Amen! Jesus, der treue Zeuge,
wer durstig ist, der treulich nimmt
wer nimmt, der hat Freude,
die Lampe leuchtet nun heller.
So geht ihr zwei nun geradewegs zur Hochzeit,
die Liebe führe euch dort hinaus und hinein.
1866.

The English translation is as follows:

Yes, Amen! Jesus, the true witness
whoever is thirsty, truly receives
whoever receives has joy,
the lamp now shines brighter.
So the two of you now go straight to the wedding
May love lead you in and out.
1866.

The text is written in the Lutheran variation of the Upper Wendish language. This is not surprising, as the residents of the Wendish colony in Texas at that time were made up completely of Evangelical Lutheran Wends from Upper Lusatia. The male writer (or the female writer respectively) of the text had orally mastered the language, however, not so much the written language. This can be concluded from the numerous divergences of the orthography at that time. Presumably, the writer was a more simple Evangelical Lutheran Wend.

The text is composed of two parts. In the first part there are different Biblical pictures and themes set in relationship to each other. Jesus was identified as “the true witness” (Revelation 1:5), who makes the promise: “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment”. (Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17). That is the basis for “my joy is now complete” (John 3:29) and for the lamps, which in the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins are filled with oil and shine bright when the Lord comes and the eternal wedding in heaven begins (Matthew 25:1-13). The content of the Biblical references are affirmed at the beginning with a definitive “Yes, Amen!” – Yes, so it is [so it will be]. The placement of this statement is unusual because the Hebrew “Amen” is usually at the end of the prayer or the request of a human, whereas “Amen” at the beginning of a text is attributed only to Jesus and on one occasion by the Apostle John, author of the book of Revelation (Revelation 22:20). From the last part of the document it is to be learned that this inscription was dedicated to a wedding in the year 1866. The bride and groom are addressed directly: “So you two go straight to the wedding”. The introductory reference to a heavenly wedding is therefore intended for an earthly wedding as well.

It is not apparent from the document for whom it was made. Based on information from Jan Slack, the document lay folded in a voluminous Wendish religious book. The book is the second edition of Martin Luther’s “Hauspostille” in Wendish, which Pastor Jan Kilian of Kotitz had published at the bookstore of F. A. Reichel in Bautzen in 1844. On the front inside page of the book there is a handwritten dedication in the German language, “Ein Geschenk fürs Leben am Tage der Hochzeit. Serbin, den 12^ten August 1866 Michael Kurjo” (A gift for life on the day of the wedding, Serbin, the 12^th August, 1866, Michael Kurjo).

Handwritten inscription of the father of the bride, Michael Kurjo

The Wendish edition of Luther’s “Hauspostille” from the year 1844, in which the Wedding Blessing had been placed

The date and the name on the inscription in the book allow us to unequivocally connect the book and the wedding for which the blessing sheet was made. From the church records of the St. Paul congregation in Serbin, it has been determined that on Sunday, August 12, 1866, Johann Teinert and Hanna Kurjo, both children of farmers in Serbin, were married.¹ Pastor Jan Kilian officiated over the wedding in the Serbin church, most likely in the Wendish language, because both the bride and groom were Wends. Michael Kurjo, who gave the wedding pair the book, was the father of the bride. Let’s take a look at the two families from which the bride and bridegroom came.

Regarding the Kurjo family, it is known that they made their home in the Saxon Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Gröditz and that they immigrated to Texas in 1854 together with Pastor Kilian and hundreds of other Wends on the Ben Nevis. The then 34 year-old Michael Kurjo originated from Wurschen. His wife had been born as Magdalena Rudel from Rackel.²   During the cholera epidemic which broke out among the immigrants in England, Kurjo’s wife became ill, as well as their small son, Andreas. Both died in October 1854, in Queenstown, Ireland. The widower settled as a farmer in Serbin and married again.³  The “Hauspostille”, the wedding gift from 1866, had originally belonged to Kurjo’s deceased wife who died in Queenstown. This book had belonged to her already prior to her wedding as can be seen from the handwritten inscription “Magdalena Rudel aus Worschen” on the front inside page. Furthermore, the “Hauspostille”, had first been purchased by her father, because “Johann Rudel from Rackel” ⁴ was one of the pre-orderers of that book in 1841/42. From this we may conclude that Magdalena had grown up in a pious family. The book, which she brought into her marriage with Michael Kurjo and took with her to Texas, was a valuable possession. It was ultimately given by Michael Kurjo to his daughter, Hanna, for her wedding in 1866 and certainly also as a permanent remembrance of her deceased mother.

The groom, Johann Teinert, also came to Texas on the Ben Nevis in 1854 with his family. His father, Carl Teinert, was well known in the history of the Wendish immigration. Born in 1816 in Weigersdorf, he lived as a “Nahrungbesitzer” (small farmer) in Dauban, where he joined the “Old Lutheran” movement. In 1848, when Jan Kilian moved from Saxon Kotitz to Prussian Dauban to become the pastor of the Old Lutherans, Carl Teinert became his coachman and cantor. Every third month, they traveled together in areas around Muskau, Spremberg, Cottbus and Lübbenau to the small Old Lutheran congregations. In 1848, Carl Teinert took over the chairmanship of the newly organized Wendish Farmers Society in Weigersdorf. In 1854, he, together with his family, belonged to the company of immigrants on the Ben Nevis. As with Michael Kurjo’s wife, so also Carl Teinert’s wife died from cholera on the voyage on the Ben Nevis. At the end of November 1854, they buried her, at the age of 38, in the waves of the Atlantic. This event was documented in a moving way by their son Johann in his memoirs which were published in 1929 under the title, “Ein Brief Vater John Teinerts über die Auswanderung der Wendenkolonie nach Amerika”. Carl Teinert married again and lived as a farmer in Serbin. In addition, he oversaw the office of cantor in the church until Kilian’s son Gerhard took over this position in 1872. Then, in 1873, Teinert left the St. Paul Serbin congregation together with several other families and founded a new congregation in nearby Warda.⁵

It remains unknown who created the “blessing sheet”. Because it is certain that the Carl Teinert family was included at the wedding, it is not out of the question that the wording of the text could have been designed by Carl Teinert, father of the bridegroom. He, as a devout Wend and long-time cantor of Pastor Kilian, was sufficiently religiously informed and literate to produce the content of the text. However, the font of the text, which is in calligraphy and is decorated, certainly was done by a younger and likely female hand.

A Wood Type font: Alphawood Venitian Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/10083561615/

The font of the wedding blessing deserves special attention. It is a font that was widespread since about 1830 in America under the term “Wood Type” and was widely used in saloons and shops as well as on posters and other publications. The name is derived from the fact that the individual letters were cut out of wood. “Wood Type” font was only used in uppercase letters and resemble a classic antique style with characteristic ornaments in the middle and at the ends of the letters.⁶ The use of that particular period style of American style of font on the wedding blessing confirms the thesis that it was made by a young person, who was open to the modern influences of their new home. In a creative way, she gave the traditional content of the old, the modern face of her new home.

On this wedding day of the year 1866, the blessing sheet probably had a specific function. This can be concluded from the wedding customs, which were maintained in the first decades in the Texas Wendish colony. As they were practiced in Lusatia, so also in Texas, weddings were celebrated with a “Braška” (Braschka, Hochzeitsbitter), “Słónkas” (Swunkas, bride guardians), maids of honor, bridesmaids and a three-day festival in the house of the bride’s parents.⁷ In addition, much emphasis was put on festive decorations. In the house in which the wedding celebration took place “the ceilings and walls [were decorated] with paper flowers and streamers of all colors”. Also, the carriages and wagon, which transported the bridal couple and the guests  to the church after the closing blessing of the Braschka “were highly decorated with cedar and all kinds of ribbon streamers and paper flowers”. During the wedding meal, the newlyweds sat “behind the main table and in front of the decorations that were prepared for them”.⁸ It can be assumed that the festively decorated paper with the wedding blessing was part of the decorations of the wedding house. As to the location of where the wedding blessing was placed, the text of the blessing gives us a concrete hint: “may love” lead the wedded couple “in and out”. From this it can be concluded that this wedding blessing was probably hung either over the entrance of the wedding house or of the room in which the celebration took place. It is possible, too, that a green wreath was placed in such a way as to encircle the blessing. At least the two painted-on green vines with their rounded shape are reminiscent of a wreath, as was common in wedding garlands in Lusatia.

After the wedding, this blessing was placed in the Postille book as a valuable remembrance of this special occasion and was kept by the Teinert family, even though no one understood the old language anymore. In 1984, Reinhold Teinert of Austin, a grandson of the bridal pair of 1866, donated the book in which the blessing had been placed, to the Serbin museum. Since then, the book (accession number 1984.019.03) and the blessing sheet (accession number 1984.213.01) have been kept safe in the museum’s archive.⁹

The wedding blessing of 1866 from Serbin is a unique testimony to the festival culture of the early years of the Wendish colony in Texas. It proves that the Wendish emigrants continued to cultivate the customs and traditions of Lusatia in America. The content of the text corresponds to the religious beliefs of the Old Lutheran Wends. The “Wood Type” font in which it is executed, testifies to the rapid reception of fashionable influences under the Wendish youth in Texas. With its synthesis of Wendish language, Lutheran piety, and American culture, the wedding blessing from 1866 is an historically significant document of Wendish immigration history.

1. Marriage records of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin, translated by Joseph Wilson, unreleased manuscript. For this information and the transmission of the source, I thank Weldon Mersiovsky.
2. Magdalena Rudel was born on April 30, 1819, as the sixth child of small farmer, Johann Rudel in Rackel, and was baptized in the church at Gröditz on May 2. See the baptismal registry of the Gröditz congregation, No 30/1819.
3. Regarding the Kurjo family, see Trudla Malinkowa: “Ufer der Hoffnung”, Bautzen, 2017, pp. 135, 280.
4. Domjaca postila, druhl wudawk (Hauspostille, second edition), Bautzen [1844}, page XVII.
5. Regarding the Teinert family see Malinkowa (as with footnote 3), pp. 114, 116, 130-131, 180-182, 290.
6. For the evaluation of the font I thank Isa Brützke.
7. See Anne Blasig: The Wends of Texas, San Antonio 1954, pp. 54-56, Lillie Moerbe Caldwell: Texas Wends, Their First Half Century, Salado, Texas 1961 pp. 226-239, George R. Nielsen: In Search of a Home, Texas A&M University Press 1989, pp. 120-121; Malinkowa (as in footnote 3) pp. 201-202.
8. Moerbe Caldwell (as with footnote 7), pp. 232, 234, 237.
9. For the information and research on this accession of the Texas Wendish Heritage Museum, I thank Jan Slack.