Get the latest tech news

Wends of Texas

he Texas Wends or Wends of Texas are a group of people descended from a congregation of 558 Sorbian/Wendish people under the leadership and pastoral care of John Kilian (Sorbian languages: Jan Kilian, German: Johann Killian) who emigrated from Lusatia (part of modern-day Germany) to Texas in 1854.[1] The term also refers to the other emigrations (and all descendants) occurring before and after this group. However, none came close to the size or importance of the Wendish culture in Texas.

Resisting the merger of Lutheranism and Calvinism being forced by the national church, this group, comprising members of many congregations and villages, met at Dauban[3] on March 23, 1854, to make decisions on what was to be done. Finding the largest city of Texas (at that time) beset by yellow fever, they hurriedly continued on to Houston(then about half the size of Galveston). Several Wendish men served honorably in 1st Battalion Infantry, Waul's Texas Legion, having been recruited by a Captain Robert Voigt, Company C. The unit was eventually captured and sent to detainment by federal troops in 1863 at Yazoo City.

Get the Android app