Doboz Summary
Doboz
Summary
Summary
Doboz and its environs are part of the Double-Körös valley. It is characteristic of its structure that it lies over the rather deep Neogene Békési sink.
The landscape in its original state is a water-abundant and forest-covered area, with moors developed due to annual flooding. There are soft-wood gallery-forests on the banks of rivers and brooks, mixed hard-wood gallery-forests on the ridges, wet meadows, high sedges on the water-flooded plains, and alder and ash fenwood in the water-covered depressions. Most of the forests comprise oak, ash and elm groves lining the Körös rivers today. The species components of the rich marshy meadows and moorland before the regulation of the Körös rivers by today have retreated back to sodic beds along the Körös rivers. Trapa Natans and Salvinia Natans are protected plants floating on the surface of waters, which occur in the nooks of the Holt-Körös (Dead-Körös) in the most beautiful forest-covered areas of the Sebes-Körös (Fast-Körös).
The oldest relics are known from the culture of the Neolithic-Age. Excavations in our settlement have found the traces of civilisations during later migrations as well from the Copper, the Bronze and the Iron Ages.
Some graves that can be dated back to the end of the earlier phase of the Avar settlement were also explored around Doboz, in a settlement called Hajdúirtás. Life was going on here also in later phases of the Avar age, and its traces were explored as part of a settlement from the Arpadian Age: the remains of thirty-six houses sunk in earth. Júlia Kovalovszki came across the remnants of a series of villages from the Arpadian Age on the bank of the Fekete-Körös (Black-Körös) around the present village. The earliest of these might have been the settlement in Hajdúirtás, which came to the end of its existence early, in the XI or XII century. The village that lived until the XVI century under the name of Felső-Doboz (Upper-Doboz) goes back to a similarly early period. Its memory is preserved by the name of Faluhely (Village Place). The village that was named Alsó-Doboz (Lower-Doboz) in the middle ages was also of an early origin. Its remains were explored close to the Reformed church. A small, early earthwork can be also found in the vicinity of Doboz. It is Samson’s castle, which was built in the X–XI centuries, but was not used any more in the XIII century.
The name of the village was Duboz in 1075, and it was mentioned as Doboz in 1138 and 1273. According to an accepted explanation, it derives from a simple proper name translated into Hungarian. The name that served as its basis could have corresponded from a structural point of view to the colloquial adjective dobasz (‘full, overflowing) formed from the Hungarian noun ‘dob’ (‘drum’).
Originally, it was the village of the royal swineherds. King Géza I. gave significant land properties to the Benedictine abbey in Garamszentbenedek in 1075, out of which “in the village of Doboz (Duboz) there were three families serving as Saint Benedictine’s swineherds”. The letter of endowment was authentic: out of all the settlements of Békés county, the name of Doboz occurred first in a written source.
Our village was the nationally renowned centre of swine keeping and masting in the middle ages. The the so called szalontai swine was bred here.
After the XIV century, the history of the village was closely related to the history of the estate of Gyula, which was organised by king Charles Robert (1308–1342). The estate was gained by László Losonci in 1387. His son, János, died young, and the estate, which went back to the royal family was donated by king Sigismund to János, ban of Macsó in 1403. It reverted to the crown in 1476. King Matthias gave it to his natural son, prince John Corvin in 1482. His wife, Beatrix Frangepán inherited it. The widow, who remained alone, married marquis György Brandenburg in 1509, who endowed part of his churches with donations, so for instance, the parish of Gyula received two mills in 1511.
The king became the owner of the castle and its annexes in 1552. After this, the life of the population of the dual settlement – Alsó- (Lower) and Felső-Doboz (Upper-Doboz), first mentioned in a charter in 1403 – was controlled by the commanders of the castle.
In the first period of the Turkish rule, in 1563, there were sixty families living in Alsó-Doboz, and twenty-four families in Felső-Doboz, which comprised about five-hundred people. It was depopulated only for a short period of time, and data from the middle of the XVII century gave evidence of a flourishing village. It is true, however, that Doboz remained “all in ruins” in 1696 after the final withdrawal of the Turks.
When the Kuruts wars and the Serbian plunders died down at the beginning of the 1710-ies, the earlier inhabitants of the village re-settled here for the third time within the same generation. While new settlers were brought in from abroad for other parts of the county by the Harruckern family – János György Harruckern received the huge estate from Charles III in 1720 – the continuity of the population of Doboz could be proven from the middle of the 1500-ies. During the first census in 1784, already 982 persons were registered in the village.
The liabilities of the village towards the Harruckern family, the owners of the village and its environs, were regulated by amicable contracts concluded year by year. The system of private estates was also established by the 1760-ies. In addition to pubs, the serfs rented mills and ports, which was a good source of profit. They could join the trading of wood on the river Körös. Nevertheless, most of the people in the village still made their living from the forest. Some of them worked as wood-cutters, charcoal-burners, wood-carvers, bee-keepers, others fed swine on mast, or farmed growing melon or tobacco.
The Harruckern family distributed their almost county-size property in 1798. Doboz was given to Borbála Harruckern, the widowed countess Siskovich, but after she became indebted, she soon had it put up for auction. Through Terézia Grúber, it fell to the hands of the Wenckheim family. Count Rudolf became its owner in 1852. He was considered as the capitalistic reformer of the estate. His name could also be associated with the enlargement of the chateau, the construction of a barn, the creation of a game-park, and a race-horse stable of a European fame. His cousin, Dénes became the founder of the Doboz line of the family. He introduced intensive farming, and a system of vegetable irrigation, which obtained world fame. He also had a decorative mausoleum, a Catholic church and a school built.
The legislation as of April 1848 started to eliminate feudal relations in Hungary, but they did not satisfy the expectation of the broad masses. Neither did they make it possible to reinstate the separated pastures. Therefore, some pasture seizures took place in the spring of 1849. On December 3, 1848, 23 people were ordered to join the mobile national guard service from Doboz. Altogether 62 soldiers were recruited from the village. They mostly participated in the fights around Arad during the Hungarian freedom fights.
The land area that was possessed by the peasants and the village after the abolition of serfdom was one third of the settlement and the field area that belonged to it. Due to the rapid growth of the population, both the Wenckheim estate and the peasants’ farms had to swap over from the traditional agricultural production to the production of goods. After the regulation of the Körös in 1858, the area of land suitable for cultivation was increased. Development was ensured first by the booming corn production, then by stabling animal breeding, and later by the upswing of vegetable production. The estate reached the appropriate technological level in the 1870–1890-ies. The peasants’ estates with their small land areas mainly settled themselves for subsistence farming.
In the two decades before the first world war, and later, during the land reform of the 1920-ies, tiny farms were established, which were not fit to live. They could not endure the consequences of the economic crisis of 1929–1933. Now, a significant part of the couple of thousands of people living in Doboz became cotters. They were wandering in the country season after season as serfs, or construction labourers to make a living. During the war events in October 1944, there were some clashes between the Hungarian and German defenders of Doboz and the Soviet troops. Both prisoners-of-war and civilians captured as hostages were executed.
The land reform in the spring of 1945 could not solve the old problems, because the Communist government party system did not support private peasants’ farms, but forced the population into large Soviet type agricultural companies. Many of the young people were looking for an industrial working place, and left the village. More than half of the active population went to work to the plants of the nearby Békéscsaba and Gyula. The cooperative worked successfully in the 1970-ies, but later it could not meet the demands of the market any more.
Doboz was in a transitional situation, trying to find its way at the turn of the millennium both in terms of its population’s composition, and level of education. On the basis of its communal infrastructure, the quality of its residential houses, and its favourable position in transport, it is closely linked to the lives of its two neighbours, Békéscsaba and Gyula, where the people of Doboz are mainly employed in the service sector. Over the last period of time, its population has been slightly decreasing, and apart from people leaving the village, there is a significant number of newcomers.
