Vsetin, Texas, Lavaca County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

A Mexican land grant in 1831 gave Elenor Living the land on which Vsetin sits. An influx of Moravian and Bohemian immigrants in the 1870s matched the Germans who had come to Central Texas a little earlier.

Small communities like Moravia, Vsetin and Petersburg sprang up as the former landowners broke up their large farms. Most of the earliest settlers were born in Vsetin, Moravia and named this community in remembrance.

Vsetin's bedrock was the Evangelical Unity of the Czech-Moravian Brethren Church.

Vsetin has two cemeteries. Cemetery One recorded it's first interment in 1888 and the smaller one had it's first burial in 1895.

One holds the Trlica family plot. John Trlica was a semi-itinerant photographer in central Texas noted for his small town portraits. He operated from various studios from Granger to Gonzales from the 1920s to the 50s.

Vsetin Cemetery Marker
TE photo, 2001

Historical Marker:

VSETIN CEMETERY

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.

1991

Vsetin Cemetery
TE photo, 2001

Trlica Tombstone
TE photo, 2001

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