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For our citizenship is in heaven… (Phil. 3:20)
In the early 20th century, immigrants from Bohemia (called Czechoslovakia after World War I, now known as the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic) settled in various parts of the United States, one of which came to be called New Bohemia, in Prince George County, Virginia. That community still endures a century later.
Early on a Bohemian-born former Roman Catholic by the name of Joseph Alois Kohout (1863-1941) and his wife Mathilda (1874-1939) bought a farm and began to minister to the immigrants who settled just outside Petersburg. Rev. Kohout wrote in 1914:
It was in the month of May, 1907, that I first visited Virginia, coming from the Northumberland Presbytery, Pa., and found at that time only three foreign families, Bohemian, Slovak and Polish, in this locality. Two months later with my wife, I visited the Jamestown Exposition, and stopped also to see our friends near Richmond. As my wife and I both liked it here, we bought a farm in the neighborhood of the three above named families, and rented it to one of them. By and by my countrymen from West and North moved down to Virginia, and I visited them from Pennsylvania several times a year, preaching to them and ministering to their spiritual needs, until in the spring, 1910, I settled my family on the farm with the intention of farming for my living, and serving spiritually my people. This I did free of any outside support for three years, until my missionary work branched out to such an extent that I could not keep up both in this way with very good success. Within the last two years this locality east of Richmond has become thickly populated, so that the number of families, including the settlements in New Kent County, may reach about 300. These foreign settlers are composed of Czechs or Bohemians, Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenians, and belong to various religious denominations — Presbyterians, Baptist, Lutheran, Nazaren and Catholic.
Rev. Charles R. Stribling of the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg wrote in 1914 about the organization of the Bohemian Presbyterian Church:
On the day of the dedication, the building was packed with Bohemians — probably not a dozen Americans in the congregation. The former pastor, Rev. Frank Uherka, who had worked there most acceptably, was present and acted as an interpreter. He is now working at Jessup, Pa. Their present pastor, Rev. J.A. Kohout, whom I admire and love, gives much of his time to his own people, and for this receives little or no remuneration. The Presbytery and the Assembly’s Committee jointly employ him to work in Prince George County, and at mission points near Richmond. If you could have seen the tear-stained faces, the earnest tense expression on their countenances, as the congregation listened to the rugged eloquence of one of their elders, your soul would have been moved as mine was.
Rev. Kohout ministered not only to the community of New Bohemia, but also returned to his native Old Bohemia after World War I, where he labored to provide relief to orphans and to distribute Bible and evangelistic tracts. His wife wrote in 1922 of the challenges their family endured in his two-year absence and of God’s provision for them:
Among the first things which we did was to take our Heavenly Father at His word. Our salary was small, and we realized it to be insufficient for us to exist upon. Two of the older children were to go back to college, but for the sake of their father’s work overseas, were ready to abandon the idea and help support the family. But God in His goodness provided a way by which I could keep the family, that is those who remained at home, and a way opened also for the two older children to go back to the college. Our older daughter was given a position by the president of the college, which paid her board and room; and another younger daughter received a loan which she is paying up this year, by teaching.
R.E. Magill, Secretary and Treasurer of the Presbyterian Board of Publication (PCUS), wrote a glowing tribute in 1922 to Rev. Kohout’s work both at home and abroad.
With exceeding modesty, Mr. Kohout has given a few incidents of his helpful service to his own people, but from other sources it was learned that the exposure of the bitter cold and the hardships of travel in a poverty stricken country, put him in a hospital, where he was laid up for over three months….Mr. Kohout has assumed personal responsibility for the expenses of three of the orphans…Mr. Kohout supported himself and four assistants for sixteen months and published 50,000 evangelical tracts on a fund of less than one thousand American dollars, which was raised by friends when he went to the homeland.
An overriding concern and interest for Rev. Kohout in his ministry to New Bohemians and Old Bohemians was that they become citizens of heaven. In his own words:
Only as Christians will they really be useful and good citizens, and an honor to this grand old State of Virginia.
The Kohouts eventually moved back north, and both husband and wife were laid to rest in Erie Cemetery, Erie, Pennsylvania, after completing their earthly labors and entering into their heavenly rest. The story of their witness to immigrants in Virginia is a story of love, compassion and service. May it be an encouragement to 21st century Christians who seek to serve the kingdom of God wherever the need exists at home and abroad.
