John Gergen was born and baptized as János Albeck in 1908 in Nemetszentmiklós, a predominently German village that adjoined the considerably larger village of Nagyszentmiklós. Nemetszentmiklós had a population of approximately 1700; Nagyszentmiklós, about 10,000. Nemet in Magyar means German, while Nagy means large.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries “witnessed a number of efforts to modernize Nagyszentmiklós and connect it to the larger world. In 1888, the Aranca River, which meandered along the southern edge of town, near Nemetszentmiklós, was straightened into a channel and deepened to prevent flooding and to facilitate irrigation of the surrounding fields. An impressive town hall was built in 1893 and a state-sponsored secondary school in 1894. In 1905, electricity lit the town, wired in from a generator in Nagykikinda, Torontál County’s largest town. . . . The most profound changes, however, centered on Nagyszentmiklós’s railways and railway stations and on the telegraph lines that followed them.” —The Names of John Gergen, pp. 73-74.
Immigrant Identities in St. Louis, 1903-1935 