Rosa Bakó’s Story (1889-1955) 

By Veronica Doran Westbo ©2023

Rosa Bako’s story begins in Fehérgyarmat, Szatmár Megye, Hungary.  The town is the center of a beautiful and long-settled area that was called Eröhát (Back of Forest) located about 15 to 20 miles to the current Ukraine and Romania borders.  The town and its people were mentioned in documents as far back as 1387. It’s not possible to know when the Bakó family arrived there, but the Bakó name was listed as one of the six best-known noble (nemes in Hungarian) families in the early 1800s.  

The status of noble conveyed not only to the men, but also to the women, which may account for the large percentage of noble households in the town. In fact 80% of the 315 houses in 1810 were inhabited by nobles, who were predominantly protestant members of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Women, as well as men, passed down their titles to their children, regardless if their spouse was noble or not.  The nobility were allowed to own land. And as the main source of income in the 18^th and 19^th centuries was growing wheat and tobacco, that certainly financially benefited the noble landowners, who were able to own land and did not have to pay taxes. Nobles were required to serve in the military when needed. 

Fehérgyarmat may have been a lovely place to live, especially if you were a noble, but being located near forest and in the middle of a river basin, has proven disastrous for the town over the centuries. The town has been destroyed more than once by massive floods, thanks to being located in a river basin, including a major flood in 1899. Fire also destroyed the town with some of the worst fires happening in 1872, 1895, and 1900. 

The earliest record found for Rosa Bakó’s family was for the marriage of her great-grandparents,  Józef Bakó and Julianna Bagi, which took place at the Reformed Church of Hungary in Fehérgyarmat on March 4, 1793. The bride’s father was Peter Bagi. Józef’s father was most likely either Imre Bakó (whose son Józef was baptized in 1762) or Miklos Bakó (whose son Józef was baptized in 1764).  Józef and Julianna Bakó died after 1798 as that is the date their son János Bakó (Rosa’s grandfather) was born.  Along with Janos, they had at least two other children, Samuel Bakó born in 1794 and Klárá Bakó born in 1797. 

Baptisms took place within a day or two of the child’s birth. Rosa’s grandfather, János Bakó was baptized on September 16, 1798. Janos was about 35 years old when married Súzsánna Bányai. This seems fairly old for a man of some means to marry, so he might have been a widower at their marriage in January 1833. They had a son named Ferentz born in November 1834. Unfortunately, Suzsanna died when Ferentz was about 8 months old. János did not remarry until almost two years later. This was a terrible time to live and raise a family as there were two major epidemics during this time. The plague in 1834 and cholera in 1836 killed many people in Fehérgyramat, as it did throughout Europe. In March 1837, János remarried. His new wife was Julianna Fábián, daughter of András Fábián and his wife Eva Szilágy. They were also nobles. János Bakó’s occupation was Master Boot Maker.  The couple had five children together between 1838 and 1855. They were married 38 years when János (age 76) died in 1875. His wife Julianna (age 75) died fifteen years later, when her grand-daughter Rosa was 1 year old.

László Bakó, Rosa’s father, was born in July 1845. His baptism record indicates that both of his parents were nobles. In February 1874, László married Terézia Szarka, daughter of György Szarka, an ordinary tax-payer, and Terézia Szábó, a noble. Rosa’s mother Terézia was born in the nearby town of Nábrád. Terézia was 21 and her husband was 29 at their marriage. The couple had nine children between 1874 and 1893,  although two (István and Károly) died as infants. 

Rosa’s oldest brother Lajos Bakó was born in November 1874.  He was 25 when he married Maria Mandi in July of 1899. That was the year of a major flood, that destroyed portions of the town. The following year, a devastating fire overcame the town and destroyed the Catholic Church and Town Hall.  Rosa at ages 10 and 11 would have been well aware of the dangers of fires and local flooding.  Lajos was also a boot maker, like his grandfather, at least at first. He was later described as a laborer. So perhaps times and conditions had changed with industrialization. Lajos and Maria had five children born between 1900 and 1908. At least two of their children lived long lives. Rosa’s Bakó cousins must have experienced World War I and World War II first hand. Rosa’s nephew István died in Fehérgyarmat in 1984 at the age of 82. Rosa’s niece Julianna died there in 1994 at the age of 85. 

Rosa’s sister Erzébet (Elizabeth) was 42 when she died in 1918 during World War I. She was married and living in a near-by town. This was eight years after Rosa left home. 

Rosa had another sister, Julianna Bako, born in 1885. Except for her baptism record, nothing else has turned up about her life. 

While Rosa’s ancestors and siblings mostly survived these epidemics and catastrophes, the memories and stories about the events certainly must have made leaving Fehérgyarmat for America less worrisome for Rosa, her brother, and two sisters. 

Rosa was 17 when her brother Gulya “Julius” Bako left Fehérgyarmat. In 1905, when he was 26 Julius married a local girl, Ilona Sára Szábo (later called Helen) eight years younger than him. He must have convinced her to join him in the great early 20^th century migration because in March of 1906 they sailed into New York Harbor. The Bako siblings were all headed to New York City, where a Bakó cousin (Karoly Bako) was living. Julius was a carpenter and cabinet maker by trade. He first found work in Kingston, NY. The couple soon relocated to the Bronx. They had four children, born in New York between the years of 1907 and 1914. George, Helen, Julius, and Irene. In his seventies, Julius, not one to give up working, was employed as a watchman in a soft drinks company. He died in 1955 at the age of 76. His wife Helen had died two years before. They are buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester, NY. 

A few months after Julius left, his 22 year old sister Terézia (born in 1883) traveled by herself to join him and Helen in New York City.. She was 5’1”, with brown hair and blue eyes. She was single and had paid her own way. How adventurous she must have felt. Four years later, now known as Tessie, she married Gyözö Farkas, a 31 year old Hungarian immigrant, with a good job as a Furrier in a NYC Fur Factory. He had just arrived the previous June when they were married at the 14^th Street Hungarian Presbyterian Church located at the corner of 2^nd Avenue and 14^th Street, NYC. The couple lived at 415 East 14^th St. People must have had difficulty with his first name. In various records he is called Joseph or Victor. They had four children, however their only daughter Irena died as infant. The boys were Ladislaus (a variation on her father’s name of Lazslo), Victor, and Louis. The couple moved to 326 E. 78^th Street and remained in that apartment the rest of their lives. It was and still is a great neighborhood to live in. Gyözö died in September 1951 at the age of 72. Terézia died a half year later at the age of 68 in May 1952.

Next to arrive was Rosa herself. For reasons not understood, Rosa did not use her own birth date on any records in the US. She did say she was 21 on her passenger record, which was correct. But after that she becomes 5 years younger, saying she was born in 1894. Rosa was actually born on the 19^th of January 1889 and baptized shortly thereafter. Rosa sailed from Fiume to New York on the S. S. Pannonia, arriving in New York on October 22, 1910. Rosa was described as being 5’3”, brown hair and brown eyes with a dark complexion. She had $30 in her pocket. She could read and write in Hungarian but not in English. 

Rosa missed her sister’s wedding by about 6 months. She moved in with Terézia and Gyözö upon her arrival and found employment in the Fur Factory where he worked. 

In 1913 Rosa’s younger sister, Sophia, joined them. Sophia was born in 1891. On her passenger record she is described as 4’11” , black hair and brown eyes. Her relative at home was her mother Terézia Bakó. By 1920 Sophia and Rosa were still living with Terézia and Gyözö. Sophia was working at the Fur Factory too, in Caps and Neck-ware. Unfortunately, Sophia became ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. She was hospitalized at Metropolitan Hospital in April and died in July of 1920. She is buried at Linden Hill Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens, NY. 

Rosa worked as a live-in housekeeper for a doctor in Roselle, Union County, New Jersey. Despite a search of the census records of 1915 and 1920, it wasn’t possible to find out what the doctor’s name was or what the address was through the available resources online. Several possibilities exist but with no definitive answer. 

Rosa met her future husband during the summer of 1922. They were actually both the same age, 33, although Matyas Szanto said he was 32 and she said she was 27. They married 3 months later. The rest of her story is known to her grandchildren. To summarize, they had 2 sons, Stephen (born 1924) and Michael (born 1926). They lived in Flemington, New Jersey. Rosa died at the age of 68 in 1957 at her home. Matyas died in 1962. They are both buried in St. Magdalene’s Catholic Cemetery in Flemington, NJ.