Ortsippenbuch Sekitsch

by Philipp Hartmann, 1860 

Excerpts: 

A. History of the Village

   Szeghegy (Szikitz) originated in 1786 through the settlement patent, originally consisted of 230 homes which has increased up to 480.  The name of the village may have come from the surrounding mountains or several hills (hegy in Hungarian).  The settlement, which consisted of 1624 souls, took place from different parts of Germany.

B. Position of the Village

   Szeghegy lies starting above Pácser and ends below Sz. Tamas on the Franzen Canal at Thale in the Theiss Komitat district.  The villagers can be found in the vineyards in the morning and towards evening, by the flowing muddy waters of Sz. Tamas towards noon, and on the sidewalks to the village towards midnight.  (*Sz. Tamas = St. Thomas)

   The kk district office and the kk tax office are found in Kula.  The kk district authority, the land registry, and the kk district court are in Zombor, the trade office is in Neusatz, and the closest local police station is in Kis Hegyes.

  Sekitsch is known as Lovcenac today.  It is in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia. It was also known by the names Winkelsberg, Szegegyház, and Sekics.

 D. Means of Communication

    One road ran from Neusatz over Sz. Tamas to Topolja and Maria Theresiopel (Szabadka, Subotica) as well as also one from Kula towards Ó-Becse.  There the streets are constructed of small hard material, so it was rendered almost completely nondriveable in persistent rainy weather.

 E. Mountain Range

    All of the visible elevations of the local community are several hills called mountains.  The whole village is surrounded by these hills.  Yet from west to east one finds a narrow sliver through which the flowing muddy water passed by the village.  Of these elevations which lie towards Hegyes, one was named Vadas and the others still have no names.

 Ortsippenbuch Sekitsch offers a wealth of family names, first names, and dates which can be furnished upon request.

 For more information about Sekitsch contact:

Oswald Hartmann is also editor of Der Sekitscher Bote in the magazine Das Donautal Magazin.

   The vineyards are hard call in quantitative as well as qualitative respects, nevertheless the owners made all possible efforts with them.  he vineyards are also often filled with fruit trees such as apple, pear, sour cherry, nut, and peach trees.  Other fruit trees are not found here.

   Of the fields, one third  always remain fallow, and in the remaining fields wheat, oats, barley, Kukurutz?, and potatoes are grown.  The stubble fields were are like meadows, the straw, especially the oat straw, was used as cattle feed, and the remaining used to heat the oven, burn bricks, and other uses.  The cultivation of the fields was done with the plow, the harrow, the Dornenschleife (torn-bow?), and the wooden roller.  A perfect economy did not exist.

 B. Products, Business Activity

 Livestock Breeding

    The livestock breeding was done by the farmers only for their own needs, for slaughtering (Schlagen?) and for trade little was supplied.  The horses are a good Hungarian? Breed, 15-16 fists high and strongly built; the reproduction occurred through community stallions.  The price changed, however it never climbed over 200 florints for very beautiful flawless horses.  There were no oxen here, as the field cultivation was just done with the horses, and there were also only 10-12 head of steer in the community.  Only a few sheep of the usual breed were kept.  Pigs of the usual kind were raised only for their own needs, one head cost 8-10 florints per year.

 1 Trade

 Trade is very insignificant here as either annual or weekly markets are held here.

Grain Trade

    Annually 6000 Metzen of pure wheat and 9000 Metzen of barley were sold by the farmers of the community of Szeghegy.  The best prices were always calculated under the “Bacsaer” for the wheat.  Also the oats.  All of the locally grown grain available for sale was bought up by foreign traders which was then taken either over to Verbaß or Kula on the Franzen Canal, partly by private ship, partly in the tugboats of the Danube steamboat business to Bezdan and from there on the Danube to Pest (Budapest), Raab, and Wieselberg.

 Sekitsch Section IV.

 The People

a. Population: Szeghegy (Sekitsch) numbered 2,927 inhabitants, of which 1437 were male and1490 were female.  Of these 2856 belonged to the Evangelist religion A.C., 53 were Roman Catholic, 17 were Muslim, and 1 Greek was not “unierten?” religion.  The Catholics are partly from Bohemia, partly from other parts of Hungary and in time became residents, the Isreliten (Jews?) first resided here in 1843 and 1847.a.   Population: Szeghegy (Sekitsch) numbered 2,927 inhabitants, of which 1437 were male and1490 were female.  Of these 2856 belonged to the Evangelist religion A.C., 53 were Roman Catholic, 17 were Muslim, and 1 Greek was not “unierten?” religion.  The Catholics are partly from Bohemia, partly from other parts of Hungary and in time became residents, the Isreliten (Jews?) first resided here in 1843 and 1847.

Under the circumstances, as the population was very moderate and the climate is very healthy; besides the cholera in 1831 and 1836 and 1849 they were afflicted with no illness which was always on the increase, especially since their prosperity was always raised more through activity, diligence, and improved farming.

b. Teaching institutions: There are 2 schools here with one class each, which are occupied by two teachers.  The children were instructed separately according to sexes.  The school was erected for the settlement from community funds and also continually maintained.

   Formerly both public schools were right, but with the demands of the present day school youth it was highly indicated to expand the schools which were no longer enough for the 500 school attendees.

   Formerly the school was attended only during the winter time for 4-6 months, now however the school attendance lasts 10-11 months yearly.

d. Living quarters: At the time Szeghegy had 380 homes, a hundred more than at the time of settlement.  The old homes consisted usually of only two rooms, a kitchen, stable and Schopfen?  The new homes, however, were built with their gables facing towards the streets, a raised column corridor, 4 rooms, 2 kitchens, a separate stable for horses and cattle and a wagon “Schopfen”, all under the length of one roof.  The front room is the so-called guest room or extra room, with divan, curtains, polished furniture well kept which were only made for strangers and guests; the living quarters are very clean.  The homes have compressed walls, are covered with straw (thatch) in most parts; however the new homes are covered with shingles or tiles.

e. Nutrition: The local inhabitants eat a good white wheat bread (Brod) which was almost hardly ever made with half fruit? and corn.  With the meal of the wheat a whiter flour “extract” was usually made, from which the flour dishes such as dumplings with sauerkraut (the so-called Ritschas), in lard baked cake, Schmarren (pancake), strudel, etc.

   Almost through the whole winter pig meat and wurst were eaten.  For breakfast there was also bacon or ham; then the poorest themselves fattened one or two pigs from 1-3 centimeters.  Beef was only eaten on Sundays and holidays even by the poor.  At some celebrations such as baptisms and weddings it was never missed.  Lamb and veal were enjoyed only by the rich.  Poultry such as geese, chicken, duck, and turkey (Pockerln) were enjoyed very much by all classes, which is why poultry breeding was so big.  Each family also kept one or several cows, from which milk was used, especially sour in the summer, for cheese, Topfen (Quark) (sour curd cheese), Quargeln (smelly sour cheese), Schmierkäse (cheese spread) which were among the most favorite foods of the people of Sekitsch.  With the food, for those who allowed it, they drank beer and wine, and spirits which were less liked. 

   The women seldom drank wine, and beer or spirits even less.

f. Clothing: The clothing of the people of Sekitsch on workdays appeared to the foreign observer to be only a little dirty and consisted of a low round felt hat, differentiated from the Hungarian by the wide brim, a jacket made of either French blue cloth for the well-to-do or some other cheap stuff, a vest (called Leibl) of the same French blue cloth, pants of a white linen which was made from yarn spun from hemp, often also colored blue, a pair of socks reaching up over the pants bound under them, and a pair of slippers, which were replaced with wooden shoes (Klumpen) in violent weather.

  On workdays the women wore Kanaffas, skirts of a darker color, a blue linen apron, a French blue Röckel? (skirt), and a cloth slung around the head and slippers.  In the winter they also wore a wraparound sleeveless fox pelt that reached down to the knees called a Czurak.

g. Room appliances: When one enters the doors of rooms in the local village, one often notices to one side a large absurd oven made of clay.  On the other side on opposite corners lie two beds with cushions of all colors on tremendously overloaded beds, and finally one also found the usual curtains and in the third corner a wooden covered bench, which have backs that can be pressed on each side by means of a roll in the middle.  For sleeping the back of these benches standing between the table and the bed were now turned towards the latter where a space for the smallest of the family could lay down.

h. Customs: which deserve mentioning, there are a few: At baptisms 10 – 12 godparents were invited who were entertained with homemade presents.  The engaged were only always found in the parsonage on Sundays and then to the bride’s father’s house for eating, drinking during which the wedding and the trousseau were discussed.  In cases of death those who attended the grave were always relatives, who also entertained the next-of-kin, however never in excess.

k. Pleasures: The people of Sekitsch knew of no pleasures besides the baptism, wedding, and funeral feast celebrations, other than the Kirchweih (church consecration), then the people of Sekitsch will want to bring in everyone omitted to enjoy the pleasures and through their excessive festivities they consumed a lot of food and drink as compensation for a year of work and abstinence.

r. The character of the local people is diligence, thriftiness, which often bordered on miserliness, sobriety, cheerfulness, sensitivity, often however also arrogance, now and again rudeness and selfishness, and furthermore a certain ambition.

   After another 24 pages reporting about weather conditions (mainly statistics), plants and animals follow the signature (see photocopy) which reads:

   Sekitsch, the 25^th of February, 1860 Philipp Hartmann

   Judge Weinrich, notary Official seal Michael Spieß

   Heinrich Stein