Marie Pearson

Czech immigrants began purchasing land in Virginia that had been overgrown and neglected after the civil war having first tried living in the northern and western states. Having followed those immigrant trails, many found that it was not suitable and looked elsewhere for settlements. Virginia offered a milder climate, two growing seasons, and cheap land per acre. Though they struggled due to being alien foreigners, they remained diligent and hard working with little assistance from the native Virginians. But they succeeded and became respectable, honest and successful farmers admired by the city fathers. More "Good Bohemians" were desired which resulted in The Bohemian Land Company publishing a book in the Czech language encouraging other "fellow countryman" to come to Virginia. Now fully translated 100 years later, it can be read by the ancestors of those who wrote personal heartwarming testimonies about their experience as immigrant farmers in Virginia at the turn of the 19th century.