Johann Kilian, Pastor

Kilian lived in a dramatically changing environment. The western world was entering the industrial age, and he departed the country of his birth on a newly constructed railroad. Europe was on the move, and he was part of the massive migration flooding out of Europe into many parts of the world. The intellectual movements of nationalism and ethnic awareness were part of his experience. That was the first part of his life. Then he settled in a part of Texas, not quite on the frontier itself, but in an isolated area of a post oak forest. There his life, to a large extent, was pre-industrial, his travel was restricted by a primitive transportation system, and his intellectual life was undernourished from an absence of colleagues and stimulating literature. Within this context of both progressive and retrogressive change, Kilian demonstrated a vast capacity for adaptability.

Yet within his religious framework Kilian was anything but adaptable. There he maintained a continuity and a consistency. His gyroscope in life was a faith based on Scripture, Luther, and the Confessions; and that faith he found difficult to compromise. As a result, Kilian’s fixed beliefs were constantly challenged by the changing context of society. His response to each setting provides the dynamism of this study.

Kilian’s life should be instructive for a variety of readers. It provides information on the Wends, a Slavic ethnic group. It expands the history of immigration to Texas and the settlement of an area of the state. And it looks into the religious life of people and the issues that were important to them. But most of all, it is the biography of a person, revealing how he holds fast to certain principles, and applies them in an environment of change.

The major hurdle that confronted me in writing Kilian’s biography was the collection, transcription, and translation of his letters. Kilian adopted a practice of first writing a draft of a letter which he then revised with insertions and deletions. After making the copy to be mailed, he filed the draft for future reference. Very few of his revised letters have been found, but more than 200 of his drafts remain. A large number were kept with the records of the Serbin congregation and eventually the congregation placed them with the Concordia Historical Institute at St. Louis for safekeeping. A second portion was at one time in the possession of Hermann Schmidt, the pastor who succeeded Hermann Kilian in Serbin. These letters were placed in the Texas Wendish Heritage Society Archives in Serbin by his daughter’s family and were listed under the Blasig Collection. Many drafts and revised letters are also in the congregational archives of Trinitatisgemeinde at Weigersdorf. Some of the letters that were mailed are found in the Sorbian Institute (Serbski Institut) at Bautzen or were printed in the Wendish newspaper of that time.

While Kilian’s use of Wendish and German was that of an educated person and his handwriting was relatively legible, his use of the old German script and his insertions and changes made reading more difficult. Several people have been indispensable in assisting me in making these drafts usable as historical sources. Dr. Siegmund Musiat of the Sorbian Institute in Bautzen translated the letters written in Wendish into German. Gertrude Mahling, (Trudla Malinkowa) Wendish historian and editor of Pomhaj Bóh, not only helped me in locating letters but also provided me with guidance and read the draft of the chapter on Europe. Bill E. Biar, a life-time friend, now of Carrollton, Texas, has transcribed and translated the majority of the letters and corrected many more. And finally I must acknowledge my father, William Nielsen, who worked with many of the letters and who also tutored me in the German script and language.

In addition I would like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Dietrich Scholze of the Serbski Institut in Bautzen for support and assistance. For assistance in research I must acknowledge the work of Barbara Hilscher of the Texas Wendish Society Museum in Serbin, The Rev. Mark A. Loest of Concordia Historical Institute, and Pastor Michael Voigt of Trinitatisgemeinde in Weigersdorf. Harold Smith of Winner, South Dakota graciously read the manuscript and pointed out numerous flaws. And finally, I thank Dr. Joseph Wilson for making his extensive research on the Ben Nevis passengers available to me.