Daughters of the American Revolution Tippecanoe River / Wythougan Chapter May Meeting

The Tippecanoe River / Wythougan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held its monthly meeting in the meeting room of the Marshall County museum on Tuesday evening, May 10, with thirteen members and twelve guests.

The meeting was called to order by chapter regent Cheryl Ball. The opening ritual and prayer was led by Anita Watts Kopetski. Kelley Hall led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance, the American’s Creed, the Preamble to the Constitution and the DAR Indiana flag suit. Linda Overmyer accompanied the group on piano while we sang the Star Spangled Banner.

The message from the DAR president general compared the sacrifices the colonists made in fighting for their freedom with the Ukrainians.

Melissa Christiansen stated that Armed Forces Week is celebrated in the week leading up to Armed Forces Day, the third Saturday in May, which is May 21 this year. This day, which was started in 1949, honors everyone currently serving in our armed forces.

Anita Watts Kopetski presented the Indian minute, telling of Alice Brown Davis, who was the first woman chief of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, becoming chief at the age of 70.

Cheryl Ball explained that the group will be placing memorials on the graves of the sixteen Real Daughters who are buried in Marshall County. A Real Daughter’s father was in the American Revolution.

Door prizes were won by Dianna Michalski and Beth Cashen.

The speaker for the evening was Daniel Szombathy, who spoke of his life in Hungary under both the Nazis and the Communists, before he came to this country. He was assisted in his program by his daughter Victoria Hill. His daughter, Kathy Bacon, played two songs on the piano: one was the Hungarian Dance No. 5; the other was Daniel’s favorite hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Both daughters are members of the local DAR chapter.

Daniel was born in 1939 in Hungary in a small town on the northeastern border. It once had 3,500 people, but now has about 2,000. Both his parents and all four of his grandparents were from the same town. His father operated a business in a nearby larger town. Everyone went to church. Both the parents and all the grandparents asked the children questions about the sermon afterward. The country was mostly agricultural, and he understood parts of the Old Testament because of that background.

His father was a master woodworker. Besides wagons, his father made windows, doors and furniture. He would not touch any wood, if it had not been drying for three years.

Daniel emphasized that the most important thing to him where he worked was his conscience.

The family was forced from their home after the Russian front passed, as the Czechoslovakians forced them to move. His uncle had to fight on the Russian front. He said he was there when the Jews were put in the ghetto. “Hungary was not on Hitler’s side.” Daniel brought apples for his Jewish friends and threw them across the canal to his friends. His father used to take food to the Jews. God saved the whole family many, many times.

The front was very close, and they took his father too. There was a lot of mud. Only a horse could pull the wagons. They took eighteen wagons from his father, and never paid for them.

They had a full pantry of salami, bacon and other food stuffs and a full ice box. When they came up from hiding in the cellar, the pantry was empty. The Russians had taken all the food.

The Communists took over. Under communism in Hungary, you could still go to church and could still read the Bible. Daniel’s brother became a minister. However, that seemed to be the only freedom that the people still held. There was no free speech, no ability to own a gun, no freedom to move about the country without informing the local police, etc. If you weren't a member of the Communist party, you were given a harder, more manual job.

The Hungarian Revolution was in 1956, but there were many revolutions before that. In 1552, 2000 Hungarians, including women, beat back over 150,000 Turks. The Holy Roman Empire tried to stamp out the Reformation. Daniel called Luther’s age the Golden Age in Transylvania, because people turned to God. “That is the answer, for our country today, turning back to God.”

Daniel was 18 years old when the Revolution happened. Within a year, the prime minister was in jail. They went to school from September to June, six days a week. He learned Russian eight years, because they were their masters. Before that, they learned German, because the Austrians (German speakers) were their masters. Daniel saw that each Russian soldier was given only a handful of rice for his dinner. “That is why they stole when they came over. They were taught seventy years that there is no God. They still take the prisoners to Siberia.”

Daniel’s family donated land for a church and cemetery in 1773. “Only hope in Jesus. Nothing else.”

Daniel remarked that the Ukrainians had their freedom thirty years, and they are willing to fight for it.