Hainer Family: RE: Ignace Hainer, Heroic Statesman & Abolitionist
University of Missouri Professor Ignace Hainer was a Hungarian lawyer and statesman, who, prior to coming to America, served as a journalist for Lajos Kossuth's revolutionary Hungarian newspaper and as an adjutant-general and secretary to Hungarian Premier Lajos Batthyany, during the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848, and was imprisoned by the Austrians before accepting exile in the United States of America for his brave stand for freedom and equality for all. After settling in New Buda, Decatur County, Iowa, he was appointed a delegate to the National Convention and then appointed as a professor of modern languages at the University of Missouri. Professor Hainer was recognized as one of the foremost Latin scholars in America. One of Ignace Hainer's students, Stephen B. Elkins, later became a U.S. Senator from West Virginia.
The following excerpt from "The Hungarian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland" by Susan M. Papp, published by Cleveland State Univesity in 1981, documents Hungarian Ignace Hainer's heroic stand not only as a Hungarian statesman, journalist, and lawyer, but as a heroic American, who lost his position asprofessor of modern languages at the University of Missouri in Columbia after five years because of his belief in the abolition of slavery.
"The majority of the Hungarians served under the Union flag for several reasons. During the Hungarian War for Independence in 1848, these men fought for the liberalization of Hungary. They left their homeland because they could no longer live under the oppressive and tyrannical rule of the Austrians. Rather than surrender their advanced social and political ideas, they chose to live in exile. Among the reforms they achieved in Hungary was the freeing of the serfs. How could they then, living in a country whose constitution assured freedom and democracy, fight for the retention of slavery? Naturally, they sided with the abolitionists and fought for the Union."
"Hungarians made no secret of their strong anti-slavery sentiments, sometimes even at the risk of losing their positions, IGNACE HAINER, a settler of New Buda, Iowa, became a professor of modern languages at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He held this position for four years, after whcih time he lost his job along with others because of his belief in the abolition of slavery. Anthony Vallas, who eventually became president of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, was dismissed as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana (Louisiana State University) because his sympathies were with the Union."
Ignace Hainer's wife was Etelka (Adelaide) Barthos Hainer. They had four sons:Victor, Julius, Eugene and Bayard; and five daughters: Laura, Ada, Norma, Hermine and Vesta.
Eugene Hainer was elected to U.S. Congress. Bayard Taylor Hainer, who was born in Columbia, Missouri, while his father Ignace was a professor at University of Missouri, was appointed Associated Supreme Court Justice to Oklahoma Territory by President McKinley.
Ignace Hainer, who was also a Decatur County, Iowa farmer, school teacher, postmaster, county treasurer, and minister, died in about 1899, in Davis City, Iowa, following a lengthy journey to his homeland of Hungary. He will be remembered as a true hero of freedom and democracy.
Posted by: Thomas M. Blaise, B.A. University of Oklahoma (a/k/a author Tom Blaise Shepherd), great grandson of Ada Hainer Blaise, grandson of Eugene Frank Blaise (Tulsa banker & oil man), and great-great grandson of Ignace Hainer.