Commentary

Her aunt, Gale Cushman says, has a bee in her bonnet about this thing. But it is Cushman who lives in the small northern Mississippi town of Senatobia, where she recently got the city government’s approval to erect a memorial to Latvian immigrants in a local cemetery.

Cushman hardly remembers the 40 or 50 Latvian Displaced Persons she said were settled in Senatobia after the Second World War. But her aunt, who now lives in California, went to school with some of them. It is she, Cushman said in a telephone interview, who got the idea that they ought to be honored in some way.

The Latvians lived in Senatobia from about 1949-1953, picking cotton on local farms. Although there were enough of them to own a church and put out a newsletter, today there is no sign of them but for about 15-20 graves in the city-owned Bethesda Cemetery, Cushman said.

“Here’s this cemetery with mostly Smiths and Joneses, and then there’s this one corner with these strange names,” she said. “There’s nothing here left. And they were such a unique people who lived among us for a while.”

That’s why Cushman’s aunt decided something ought to be done to memorialize a small part of Senatobia’s history. And, as it turns out, an interesting part of Latvian history.

After the Second World War, tens of thousands of Latvian DPs came to the United States. With the help of their sponsors, most settled in northern states. But a small group found themselves in the south, with the Senatobia colony being perhaps the best known.

It was a Major Callicott, a U.S. Army official working with Displaced Persons in Europe, who arranged for the Latvians to come to his hometown of Senatobia and, according to Cushman, other locations in the south. The Latvians arrived in New Orleans on the U.S.S. Omar Bradley and were taken by train north to Senatobia. Along the way, some were let off in other communities.

(According to a series of messages posted on GenForum in 1998, the major was actually Col. A.T. Callicott. He owned a large plantation in Senatobia and helped 200 Latvian families settle there.)

The Latvians apparently organized their ethnic community quickly. They purchased a church built in the 19th century and published a newsletter, Ziņu biļetens, from 1949-1953, according to Benjamiņš Jēgers’ Latviešu trimdas izdevumu bibliografija, 1940-1960.

After the Latvians left, the Senatobia Latvian Lutheran Church eventually became the Senatobia Christian Church. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 but soon after was destroyed in a fire, Cushman said.

One elderly Latvian woman may still live in Senatobia, Cushman added.

Now that she has the city’s approval to erect a monument, Cushman said, she will be soliciting donations from local civic organizations. She said she is not sure how big the memorial might be or how much it might cost, but she would like to have enough to also arrange for a permanent display of Latvian memorabilia in the Tate County Courthouse.

Interested in helping Cushman—and her aunt—honor the Latvians of Senatobia? Write her: Gale Cushman, 4461 Highway 51 S., Senatobia, MS 38668.

I just wonder how many other places like Senatobia there are in the United States and Canada where all-but-forgotten small communities of Latvians once lived.

Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.

Comments about this article

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)