Bohemia at the Turn of the Century

What was life like in Bohemia over 120 years ago? These two historical accounts provide a rare “snapshot” of the village. One comes from an American historian who viewed Bohemia as a “quaint” and exotic curiosity, while the other comes from a Czech scholar documenting a thriving, organized, and deeply principled community.

I. The Outsider’s View: “A Piece of the Ancient Kingdom” (1902)

Excerpted from “A History of Long Island” by Peter Ross.

In 1902, a visitor to the village described Bohemia as one of the “quaintest places to be found near New York City.” To the average Long Islander of the era, Bohemia felt like a foreign enclave dropped into the middle of the pine barrens.

“This village is inhabited by Bohemians who maintain in the heart of Long Island the customs, manners, language and prejudices of their native land… It has one main street, on which are shops and stores with the names of the proprietors and the character of the business marked in words that appear to be made up mostly of consonants.

The inhabitants seem primitive in many ways. The men wear heavy shoes, short jackets and caps of the European Bohemia and the women wear the wooden shoes of their fatherland and go bareheaded. A New Yorker who happens suddenly to fall among these people can scarcely believe he is still on Long Island.

Here on a Sunday afternoon, the people give themselves up to amusement. The music sounds strange to the American but it is of the ancient kingdom. The villagers gather at the public dance halls and young and old dance and make merry… the hop brew and wines of the old country pass freely around.”

II. The Insider’s View: A Thriving Czech Colony (1904)

Excerpted from “History of Czechs in America” by Jan Habenicht.

Writing just two years later, Czech historian Jan Habenicht provided a much more factual and detailed account of the community’s internal organizational strength and its “free-thinking” spirit.

“The free-thinking Czechs in Bohemia have the C.S.P.S. lodge (Czech-Slovak Benevolent Society), established in 1887, the ‘Telovicna jednota Sokolska’ (Sokol Gymnastic Union) with 99 members, established on May 1, 1897, and the ‘Cesky hospodarsky spolek’ (Czech Economic Society), established in 1872… Local free-thinking compatriots established a free-thinking school there in 1898, and on September 26, 1893, they built a small memorial to Master John Hus for $1,100.

Czech Catholics have their little church there… Reverend Josef Sinkmajer from East Islip celebrates holy Masses and preaches sermons in Czech there now. Influenced by the Protestants, many compatriots dropped out of their fathers’ Catholic faith. Over 80 Czech families and about 74 houses are in this Czech colony… They soon established ‘the village of Tabor,’ and in 1886, it was renamed into ‘Bohemia.'”