Immigrants

Betty Belanger begins her book, From Dairy Farms to Gravel Mines with a very telling quote.  Elizabeth Ekker Rotz said, “this isn’t America, this is miseryca.”  These six words summarize the challenges, difficulties, and problems faced by immigrants coming to America.  In her study of Hungarians in Sherburne County, Betty highlights the local challenges to immigrants.  Although her work is specific to the Hungarian community, it highlights the prejudices and challenges that every immigrant is forced to face. 

She reported: for a long time dental care was not available to immigrants in Elk River.  The only dentist in town refused to see Hungarian patients.  In addition young Hungarian girls were derisively referred to as “gypsies”.   Betty also reported at volunteer, social events, Hungarian women were often given the dirty and heavy work in the kitchens and on clean-up duty. 

 

The prejudice spilled over to significantly impact entire families in the immigrant communities.  Perhaps one of the most well-known stories of Elk River history recalls the fire at the Bedoch family farm where five children were killed.  Only the father and mother survived. Because of the prejudices of the local legal system, the father of the family (a Hungarian immigrant) was suspected of setting the fire and the murder of his five children.  He was held in the St. Cloud jail for five months while the grand jury investigated and finally exonerated him.   

Immigrant life was never easy.  Reports of events like those revealed by Betty Belanger and by others show the immigrant life is often more difficult than it needs to be.