Comments
Maris Kirsons
Where would we be w/o email and such?!
this is the first time that i have heard about this project.
i am sure that those of us who at one time lived in senatobia would be glad to contribute and to
even try to be present for the unveiling!
maris kirsons
08 Sep 2004 (Canada)
anita
My great-grandmother is one of those buried in Senatobia, and my father's godmother was one of the very few who stayed in the area... she was also buried there just some 5 years ago... I seriously suspect she might be the very elderly lady referred to, though towards the end of her life she was in a nursing home in a town some distance away. At the time I wandered about, reading the headstones (nearly all from the 1950s). It's as the lady said... pat nave maza grupina, sava maza dalina...
21 Sep 2004 (United States)
IL Grendze
My husaband's mother's family lived in Senatobia when they first came here. In fact, one of his cousins still lives there with her family. I'll try to pass on the article.
03 Oct 2004 (United States)
Vilis Varsbergs
It was USS General Omar Bundy, not Bradley, on which we came over to New Orleans. there were opver 600 Latvians on her. Callicott had about 1 500 acres and settled about 90 Latvians on his farm late in 1948. Then he cahrged his neighbors who also wanted share-croppers who would not hurt our eyes" — that is, were not black - $ 30 per family and thus in the spring of 1949 the entire ship load came to Mississippi. Mosat of us did not stay on the farms for more than one crop of cotton (summr of 1949).
09 Oct 2004 (United States)
Maris Mezs
My son (14 years old) and I spent this past Thanksgiving (Nov '04) in Memphis, TN, and then in Senatobia and the surrounding area. I wanted to show my son where I had gone to school, where we had lived, some of the fields my father had worked in, etc., etc. Mrs Cushman was a superb first contact and introduced us to other locals who were instrumental in making the trip for both of us such a success. (The weather was perfect at the time, also.) With a piece of great luck, we even found and met my 1st grade teacher, Mrs Leroy Gaines (Poagville School), who now is 96 and was a pleasure to talk to! I would very strongly encourage any Latvian-American or descendant to support Mrs Cushman's project and send a donation to her so that her proposal can see the light of day and something tangible can be placed in the Senatobia cemetery as a permanent reminder to all that see it of the post-war Latvian immigrants that arrived in Mississippi to begin their new lives in America. (Mrs Cushman's address is in the article above). God bless Latvia and our new home in America!
31 Dec 2004 (United States)
Imants Abele (John)
I was not part of the big ship load of Latvians who came to Senatobia in 1949 but my relatives got their employer Mr. Gann to sponsor us in 1950. My dad and I worked for the Gann Lumber Company building houses for a year and moved on to Sledge where Latvians had organized a furniture factory for their sponsor. My wife, who went to school at Northwest Junior College in Senatobia, and one of my daughters visited Senatobia in November of 2004 and it was hard to recognize the place. I did not find out about this project until recently.
01 Dec 2005 (United States)
Chris O'Daniel
My mom and her brothers and sister came to the Senatobia area from Latvia around 1950. There were 5 brothers and 5 sisters, the Kiperts family. My mom, who is still living, would tell me and my sisters stories of coming to Mississippi and going to school at Senatobia High School. There were very poor and were sharecroppers, but were very proud, independent people. Many of the family married American spouses and moved on to bigger locales such as the Memphis area. I am proud to be a first-generation Latvian-American.
24 Apr 2006 (United States)
Imants Lukoss
Very interesting in deed. Es ari ka jauns zens ar gimeni atbraucam Amerika, un dzivojam Senatobia.
My family also lived on a cotton plantation where they picked cotton, eventually working on a dairy farm. All this going back to 1952 when we came to the states.
My foulks are dead now, but I have two brothers; one living in Tennessi and the other in CT.
This is all neet, as life did not begin at Ellis Island. Amen.
09 May 2006 (United States)
Cecelia Guess
My great uncle is Vilis Varsbergs who posted october 9 of 2004. He is a very wise man as you may be able to see. I used to live in Cordova, TN, my cousins live in Sanatobia, we all are of latvian blood. I am now part of the Latvian community in Seattle, WA and I just wanted to share with you that we are a very close community and have a ton of fun together. I am in college, so imagine a college party during which at wee hours of the night all of us are singing and dancing together, in Latvian of course. ITs quite a unique thing to be a part of!
11 Sep 2006 (United States)
Bill Butler
My mother's brother, Bob Dean, farmed in Sledge and had several Latvian families on his property. I never really met them, since they tended to be busy and retiring, but I was and am curious as to their ways and means and how they actually got to Sledge...what the war brought them, what were the DP camps like in Europe. Anything would be helpful. I can be emailed, too. I am in Memphis, TN.
25 Aug 2008 (United States)
janet price
My grandfather, D. G. (Joe) Clayton had some Latvian familes working with him in Tate County, near Arkabutla, Mississippi. I am trying to locate these families. I believe they eventually settled in Detroit or Chicago. Many years ago he and our family heard from them, but I don't remember their names. Contact: jcprice22@yahoo.com
01 Jul 2010 (United States)
Richard Kalnins
My great grandmother (Anna Kalnins), grandfather (Alexander Kalnins, grandmother (Marta Ozols-Kalnins), father (Ludis Kalnins), uncle (Bruno Kalnins),and aunt (Ina Kalnins-Grinbergs) were part of this particular Latvian colony who were sponsored to come to the US, sponsored by the (Harvey) Howze family. My family settled in Sledge, MS to build cabinets and furniture, and helped establish and run the very successful Latvian Manufacturing Co. I don't have a lot of room here to document what I know of their history, but I have begun to some photos of my Latvian family on facebook. An interesting antcedote is that the African-American country & western singer Charlie Pride got to know some of the Latvians who lived in Sledge, MS, back then, and he even learned to speak a bit of of the language. I have a wonderful story of how Mr. Pride moved heaven and earth to get tickets to one of his sold-out performances a few years ago for my father and mother when he found out they were living just down the street from the Sanger Theatre in Hattiesburg, MS. This article was written in 2004, and I am proud to report that the memorial proposed here is a reality. I have photos of it I am happy to share with whomever is interested.
19 Jan 2011 (United States)
