ĽUDOVÍT LADISLAV ŽAMBOKRÉTY (ŽAMBOKRETHY)
Evangelical priest, publicist, historian, Slovak national revivalist.
27.11.1844 Zemianske Lieskové – 25.06.1911 Púchov. Buried here.
He came from an old Slovak family of landowners from Malé Žabokriek (Borčanyi incorrectly states that he was from Nitra). He was the father-in-law of JUDr. Karol Štúr, a Slovak national figure and nephew of Ľudovít Štúr. He was married to his daughter Kornélia. He studied at the Evangelical Lyceum in Bratislava and theology in Vienna. After completing his studies, he was briefly a chaplain in Kochanovce and then, in the years 1875–1911, a parish priest in Púchov.
He contributed to the construction of the Evangelical church in Púchov. In German, he published the publication Ein kleiner Uberblick uber die Geschichte der Evang. a. c. Kirchengemeide in Puchó (A brief look at the history of the Evangelical a. c. church in Púchov, Trenčín 1878). He also wrote patriotic poems, which he published in the magazines Junoš, Sokol, Orol and elsewhere. He translated from German (H. Heine) and Hungarian (K. Tóth, M. Schaffy). He also wrote articles on ethnographic topics and church-historical contributions.
He popularized modern agriculture and fruit growing. He helped build fruit nurseries. In the 1880s, he was a leading figure in the branch of the Economic Association of the Ilavl and Púchov districts. He also devoted himself to practical folk education and journalism in the field of veterinary medicine. He published the book Malá apatéka (Little Pharmacy) (1872), which is an overview of the most serious diseases of cattle and medicines against them.
JÁN TURZO (THURZO) z NOSÍC
Educator, Evangelical priest and writer.
06.11.1678 Hložka (today the local part of Beluše, Púchov district) – 1759 Trenčín.
He was buried in the Evangelical cemetery. The grave has not been preserved.
A branch of this family still lived in Trenčín and Sedličná in the 20th century. He came from an old Trenčín county yeoman family. His ancestors were originally hereditary mayors in Nosice. In 1578, his great-grandfather is mentioned as the mayor of Trenčín.
He received his primary education at the noble school of the Ostrošič family in Beluša under Ján Petrík and at the school of the serf town of Beluša under the rector Hnilicen. He then studied at the Evangelical school in Trenčín, at the gymnasiums in Rába (Györ), Levoča and Rožňava, and in the years 1705–1708 he studied theology, philosophy and natural sciences at the University of Wittenberg.
He briefly worked as a teacher in Wrocław, Poland, and also as a school rector in Žilina. In 1709, he became an educator and teacher with the Suľovskýs at Roháč Castle (Suľov), then in 1712 with Pavel Silvay in Zemianský Lieskový and in 1713 with Alexander Žambokréty in Malé Žabokreky. In the years 1714–1741, he was the rector of the suburban trivial school in Trenčín.
He also occasionally worked as a preacher in Súľov and Trenčín. While still studying in Germany, he contributed congratulatory verses to a joint collection. In 1736, he published a verse-based mourning collection in Latin and Slovakized Czech on the death of his friend Daniel Knogler, a descendant of an Austrian exile and a Trenčín burgher.
He is the author of a trilingual Latin-Slovak-Hungarian work for grammar schools on the formation of Latin verbs and four-language grammar (1729, but not published). He is also the author of an unpublished Latin Description of the Trenčín County (Descriptio comitatum Trenchiniensis). He collaborated with the famous polyhistor Matej Bel on his monograph of the Trenčín County (Notitia… comitatus Trenchiniensis, which still remains in manuscript).
JÁN SILVAY
Progressive and rational farmer, tabular judge and supervisor of the Trenčín Evangelical Seniorate.
1755 Zemianske Lieskové, buried at Salaš in the crypt in Zemianske Lieskové.
His ancestors came to the vicinity of Trenčín from Bardejov. In 1602, Rudolf II. promoted them to the status of yeoman. They owned properties in Rozvadze, Malé Stankovce, Bobrovník, Hanzlíková, Kochanovce, Zemianske Lieskové, Trenčín and in Belá pri Trenčíne.
In the 19th century, Ján Silvay was the most important member of the family. He spent most of his life on the family estate in Zemianský Lieskov. Since 1809, he had rented the Somoš estate in the Štvrtok nad Váhom municipality from Tedeáš Pongrác, co-owner of the Beckov estate. Here he had a farmyard with livestock and an inn (now the Ranč restaurant is located in its place). He kept written records of his farming, clear tabular statements of income and expenses, and statements of agricultural production for the entire year. In his ex-librus, he included Cicero's saying: The body is nourished by food, the noble spirit by hard work, and the motto: "pray, work, and hope." His records always included the following quote every year: "if you live according to need, you will always be rich; if according to desire, you will always be poor."
He followed many tried-and-true sayings, summarized in 75 principles. Here are just a few:
1. Expenses should never exceed income.
5. What can be done today, do not put off until tomorrow.
14. The farmer should be the first to rise and the last to lie down.
16. Do all work on time.
17. Strive to have a large manure pit.
18. To cultivate the field well means to plow it well and fertilize it well.
20. Do not buy what grows in the field or can be made at home.
30. It is not enough to want to have something if you are not able to cultivate it.
41. If the soil is fertilized, it does not grow old or get tired.
44. Avoid sleep, wine and love, for they are the greatest enemies of diligence.
59. When you build something, do not build much, but build it well.
66. Bad is the case with the master who is taught by his master.
JÚLIUS SZALAVSKÝ
Baron, public figure, politician, Trenčín County Governor.
13.04.1846 Hlohovec – 07.03.1936 Zemianske Lieskové – Malé Žabokreky, buried in Adamovské Kochanovce.
He studied in Trnava and at the Law Academy in Bratislava and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Budapest. In the years 1872 – 1884 he was a lawyer in Nitra. At the same time he also developed public activity, mainly in the county administration.
He first became the Nitra sub-county governor, then the Nitra county governor, later the Trenčín and at the same time the Bratislava county governor. He was a founding member of the Committee of the Upper Hungarian General Education Association (Felvidéki magyar kozmuvelodési egesulet – FEMKY), whose goal was to ensure the education of the Slovak people in the spirit of the Hungarian national and state idea for the Trenčín County.
From 1896 he was its chairman. During World War I in 1914-1916 he served as a government commissioner in Bratislava County, which included organizing the purchase of grain for civil and military purposes, the so-called civil guard and hospital service, and the treatment of wounded soldiers. He was also a deputy of the Hungarian Parliament, a member of the Upper House.
He was instrumental in establishing the Museum Society of Trenčín County in 1911 and became its first chairman. When the County Society of the Hungarian Royal Red Cross was established in Trenčín on 18 December 1912, he became its chairman. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, he resigned as chairman of the Red Cross and handed over the financial balance of the society to the city of Trenčín, with the intention that the money would be used to support war invalids, widows and orphans.
He was instrumental in establishing a sugar factory in Trenčianská Tepla. In retirement, he lived in Malé Žabokreky – Zemianské Lieskové in a mansion that now houses a school cafeteria.
ONDREJ STAŇO
High school professor, publicist, cultural figure and local chronicler.
28.11.1919 Melčice – 17.04.1986 Melčice, buried in his native village.
He came from a peasant family. He attended five grades of primary school in Kochanovce and then eight years at the Ľudovít Štúr State Real Gymnasium in Trenčín, where he also graduated with his class teacher Jaroslav Tupý.
In the years 1940 – 1945 he studied Slovak language and history at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bratislava. After graduating from it, he worked as a high school professor at the Business Academy (High School of Economics) in Trenčín from 1945 to 1981. In the years 1964 – 1975 he served as deputy director of this school. He was an excellent teacher, strict and demanding of himself and his students. He became friends with the director of the District Library in Trenčín, Juraj Gonci, a well-known publicist and poet.
Ondrej Staňo often filled the program of the Poetry Theatre at this library with his cultivated speeches. He also took care of the beauty and purity of Slovak as a long-time language corrector of the Trenčianske Novine. He was a long-time chronicler in his native village. He mainly recorded ethnographic interesting facts. He often published contributions from the literary history of the Trenčín region and Slovakia. Part of his legacy has been preserved in the State District Archive in Trenčín.
JÁN ŽAMBOKRÉTY
Economic official and diary author.
about 1680 Zemianske Lieskové – Malé Žabokreky – 1748
He came from an old Slovak yeoman family from Malé Žabokreky (in 1913 they merged with Zemianske Lieskové). He worked as an official on the Ilešházi estate in Dubnica. He alternately participated in battles on the side of the imperial and Kuruck armies in central Považie. He often hid from the opposing parties.
He participated in the Rákoci assemblies in Sečany and Onóda. He recorded the events of his time as a direct participant in the Latin-Slovak diary under the title Revolutionis Rakoczianae Kurucká vojna dictae Diarum (remained in manuscript). The work is a valuable historical source for the history of the anti-Habsburg estate uprising of Francis II Rákoci.
JÁN HADÍK
Evangelical priest and writer, (Haidikus),
1631 Trenčín – 9.7.1681 Hamburg, Germany
He was the last Evangelical priest of the independent church congregation in Melčice, where he served from 1658 to 1664. His father, Jonáš Hadík, was also an Evangelical priest. His mother, Anna, née Piláriková, was probably the sister of the Beckov Evangelical pastor and Baroque writer Štefan Polárik.
He studied in Žilina, Trenčín, Bánovce nad Bebravou, Bratislava, Levoča, Kremnica, and Wittenberg. In addition to Melčice, he served as rector of the Evangelical grammar school in Ilava, as a priest in Slatina nad Bebravou and in Uhrovec. He became a senior of the Hadňanský contubernium (brotherhood) with its headquarters in Malá Hradná. During religious persecution, he spent the rest of his life in German exile.
He is the author of several Latin occasional poems of religious persecution.
FLORIÁN AUGUSTÍN BALOGH
Roman Catholic priest, historian and promoter of modern agriculture and fruit growing.
20.09.1821 Melčice – 03.09.1898 Horné Kočovce (today part of Púchov)
He came from a family of landowners. He graduated from high school with the Trenčín Piarists and theology at the seminary in Nitra. He was ordained a priest on 8.9.1844. He briefly worked as a chaplain in Kysucká Nová Ves and as a parish priest from 1846 until his death in Horné Kočkovce. He is buried in the chapel above the railway station.
He contributed to the development of modern agriculture and fruit growing among his parishioners. He called on the Slovak people, above all, to plant cultivated fruit trees. He published articles on fruit growing and gardening in Hungarian professional journals (Falusi gauda, Kertesz gazda). He devoted himself to church history. He published contributions from this field in Hungarian and German journals (Magyaer Sion, Katolische Christ, Pressburger Zeitung).
His work Beatissima Virgo Maria Mater Dei, qua regina et patrona Hungarorum, I. and II., Zagreb 1873 (The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Who Is Queen and Patron of Hungary) and the contribution A kocskoczi pletabánia törtenete (History of the Kocskoc Parish, 1866) deserve attention.
He was a founding member of the St. Adalbert Association, a founding member of the Roman Catholic Gymnasium under Znievo, and a supporter of Slovak national movements.
PETER PAVOL ROY
Evangelical priest, biographer, national revivalist 1.6.1839 Nové Mesto nad Váhom – December 1909 Melčice
He came from a family whose ancestors, French Huguenots, according to family tradition, came to Slovakia before religious persecution in France. After graduating from theology in Bratislava, Leipzig, Erland and Vienna, he worked in Stará Turá, Púchov and in the years 1874 – 1904 in Kochanovce, where he is also buried. He was the son-in-law of J.M. Hurban and the father of the poet Vladimír Roy. In the years 1884 – 1904 he was a consenio of the Trenčín Seniorate. In the years 1904 – 1909 he lived in retirement in Melčice.
He is one of the founders of the Slovak national bibliography. He was a popular speaker, a passionate nationalist and a folk education worker. He published articles on history, national and religious life. He was a member of the Slovak Museum Society and a participant in the Book Printing Association in Martin, a member of Matica Slovenská.
