Meet the Bohemians of Franklin County: Northampton author will speak about his new book on the history of Bohemians in Turners Falls

James Bridgman of Northampton will speak about his recent book, “Forgotten Immigrants: The Bohemians of Turners Falls, Massachusetts,” on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Great Falls Discovery Center on Avenue A in Turners Falls. CONTRIBUTED
Published: 01-17-2025 9:53 AM |
James Bridgman of Northampton will speak about his recent book, “Forgotten Immigrants: The Bohemians of Turners Falls, Massachusetts,” on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Great Falls Discovery Center on Avenue A in Turners Falls.
The book describes the lives of emigrants from what is now the Czech Republic who arrived in our area beginning in the 1860s. After the first family to arrive wrote home to encourage relatives and neighbors to come to the area, around 300 people ended up moving to Franklin County. Many of them ended up in Turners Falls working for the John Russell Cutlery Company, which was founded in Greenfield in 1833 and built a new factory (for which it needed workers) in the relatively new industrial hub in 1870.
In the book, Bridgman discusses the situation of the first Bohemian family to arrive, the Schuldas. Most people in their area of Bohemia were relatively poor, farming for wealthy landowners or owning their own small plots of land. Even when they possessed their own land, they were seldom well to do: they didn’t have enough land to establish multiple children as farmers. In fact, it was illegal to divide land among children. Moreover, the young men of the area were subject to lengthy military conscription from the the Austrian Empire.
Bridgman describes daily life for the Bohemians before and after their immigration to these shores. He has clearly done his research. The book draws on public records, family documents, and newspaper articles to paint a picture of people who made the most of their environment wherever they lived.
He explains that in some ways life in Turners Falls was as difficult as it had been in Bohemia. Childbirth was risky everywhere in the late 19th century, and many diseases had no cure.
Their grueling conditions at the cutlery factory (where many of the Bohemians ended up) subjected workers to industrial accidents and to a lung condition known as grinder’s consumption. This eventually fatal disease was contracted by inhaling knife-grinding dust over time.
Bridgman notes that some of the Bohemians went back to Europe, and others moved on to other parts of the United States. Nevertheless, a significant number remained and raised families in Turners Falls.
The book meticulously describes their work, their Catholic faith, and the societies they formed and joined to gain some form of life insurance. It also discusses the ways in which they spent leisure time. Like many working-class people of their era, a number of the Bohemian men seem to have drunk to excess. Nevertheless, they also engaged in sports and organized picnics and other activities for their families.
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Jim Bridgman notes early in his book that the story of Bohemians on these shores is generally less well documented than that of other ethnic groups, in large part because Bohemia was swallowed up by its neighbors over the years and thus no longer exists.
His book beautifully fills in holes in Bohemian-American history here in Franklin County.
I asked him how he became interested in the project. He explained that he was the third-great-grandchild of Joseph and Mary Bily Schulda, the couple whose family first came to this area from Bohemia.
When in ninth grade he was asked to explore his family history by a teacher, his mother told him that her grandfather had always said they were Bohemians. When he asked her where Bohemia was, she laughed and said, “I have no idea.”
He began looking into his roots in the 1980s and really got into the project after 2019. By then, a host of new materials was available online. A chance visit to eBay netted him Joseph Schulda’s original naturalization papers, which helped him find out precisely where in Europe the family had lived.
This led him to a 2022 visit to the Czech Republic, where he was able to visit the Schuldas’ house. He was passionate enough to compile all the information in the book, which ends with a list of all the Bohemians he could identify who immigrated to Turners Falls.
I have no Bohemian blood, yet I was fascinated by Bridgman’s account of the lives of his ancestors and their compatriots, both in Bohemia and in Turners Falls. His work is a sterling contribution to our local history.
Jim Bridgman’s talk on Saturday Jan. 25 will describe life in the Bohemian homeland, followed by a discussion of details of the emigration/immigration process and an account of what these pioneers found when they arrived in Franklin County.
The talk, which is sponsored by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for sale after Bridgman’s presentation.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning writer and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com