Vsetin Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Vsetin Cemetery has to say, and friend, this one starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with people a long way from home, putting down roots in ground that didn't even carry their name yet. About 1865, a group of newly arrived Czechoslovakian immigrants settled in this corner of Lavaca County. The place had already been named Sublime, by earlier Irish immigrants who'd come through before them.

But the Czech settlers, they had a different name in mind. They started calling the community Vsetin, in remembrance of the area in Austria from which they came. Carry a place inside you long enough, and sooner or later you're going to plant it somewhere.

Now these weren't people handed a soft landing. They worked as sharecroppers for several years, and most of them, through that work, earned enough money to purchase their own farms. Once they had land under their feet, things started to take shape.

They established a Czech Moravian Brethren Church congregation. They constructed a school. A community was building itself up from the soil, slow and steady.

And word got back. The favorable reports the settlers sent back to Austria inspired a group of their relatives to immigrate in 1880. That second wave came, carrying familiar names and fresh ambitions into land their people had already broken in.

Ten years after that second migration, the Vsetin Cemetery was founded. It originated as a private cemetery for the Mikush family, who had arrived with that second group. And the first burial, well, it's the kind of detail that stops you cold.

The first person laid to rest there was Valentine, the infant son of Martin and Veronica Stasny Mikush. Six weeks old. The year was 1890, and that property at the time was part of a farm owned by Martin and Katerina Sralla.

From that quiet, heartbreaking beginning, the graveyard evolved into something larger. It became a community burial ground, a shared place of memory for everyone Vsetin had gathered to itself. And in 1927, the Vsetin Cemetery Association was established to maintain it.

That cemetery is still there today. A tangible reminder, the marker says, of the area's early permanent settlers. People who came from Austria, worked somebody else's land, built a church and a school, named a piece of Texas after a place they'd never stopped loving, and in 1890 buried a six-week-old boy in a patch of ground that would hold their whole community for generations to come.

Some roots go down quiet. But they go down deep.

What the marker says

About 1865, newly arrived Czechoslovakian immigrants settled in this vicinity, named Sublime by earlier Irish immigrants. The Czech settlers began calling the community "Vsetin" in remembrance of the area in Austria from which they came. After working as sharecroppers for several years, most earned enough money to purchase their own farms. The settlers soon established a Czech Moravian Bretheren Church congregation and constructed a school here. The favorable reports the settlers sent back to Austria inspired a group of their relatives to immigrate in 1880. The Vsetin Cemetery was founded ten years later. It originated as a private cemetery for the Mikush family, who had arrived with the second migration. The first burial, that of six-week-old Valentine, the infant son of Martin and Veronica (Stasny) Mikush, took place in 1890 when this property was part of a farm owned by Martin and Katerina Sralla. The graveyard later evolved into a community burial ground, and in 1927 the Vsetin Cemetery Association was established to maintain it. The Vsetin Cemetery continues to serve as a tangible reminder of the area's early permanent settlers.