Pioneering cleric's ranch declared historic landmark by California commission (12/14/97)

Pioneering cleric's ranch declared historic landmark by California commission

by Tamara Horodysky

BERKELEY, Calif. - The California State Historical Resources Commission named the Rev. Ahapius Honcharenko's ranch and burial place a California Historical Landmark during its hearing on November 14 in Oakland, Calif.

The "Ucraina" ranch, home, from 1873 until his death in 1916, of the first Ukrainian political emigré to the United States, is located in Hayward, Calif., about 30 miles southeast of San Francisco.

The Rev. Honcharenko's home and farm buildings no longer stand; only the graves of Ahapius and his wife, Albina, and the natural grotto where the Rev. Honcharenko conducted religious services remain at the site that is now located within Garin Regional Park.

Application for landmark status was prepared by Karana Hattersley Drayton, historian for the East Bay Regional Park District, with the help of Dr. Andrew Sorokowski of Harvard University. Testifying at the hearing on behalf of the Ukrainian community were: the Rev. Alex Avramenko, the Rev. Sviatoslav Kovaliv, Mykhailo Car, and Danylo and Tamara Horodysky.

The Rev. Honcharenko, whose real name was Andrij Humnytsky, was born in 1832 in Kryvyn, now Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine, into an Orthodox priest's family. He graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary and entered the Pecherska Lavra Monastery.

He was sent to Greece, where he contributed articles to a revolutionary Russian journal, Kolokol (Bell), in which he advocated the abolition of serfdom. Placed under arrest by tsarist agents, he fled to London. He arrived in the U.S. in 1865 and settled in San Francisco, in order to publish a newspaper to serve the Ukrainian and Russian population of Alaska.

The Rev. Honcharenko published a Russian-English phrase book, and from 1868 until 1873 published the Alaska Herald, subtitled Svoboda, with articles in English, Russian and Ukrainian. The Rev. Honcharenko spoke out against discrimination directed at Native Americans, Blacks, Chinese and Jews.

Father Honcharenko often wrote about Ukraine and Taras Shevchenko in his newspaper. He established the first Slavic library in the Western hemisphere. After retirement, in response to requests, he divided his Cyrillic typeset between the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress and the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley, which holds his papers.

The Rev. Honcharenko's "Spomynky" (memoris) were published in Kolomyia in 1894, and Ivan Franko wrote about the Rev. Honcharenko in his journal Narod. These writings influenced young Ukrainian socialists from the Kolomyia region to emigrate to California in order to form the Ukrainian-American Commune or "Kooperatyvne Bratstvo." This short-lived commune was on the Rev. Honcharenko's "Ucraina" ranch early in this century.

The motion for landmark status was made by Commissioner Herbert H. Brin, an ethnic historian, who said he was "honored and proud to make the motion" since his mother was born in Ukraine.

Unveiling of the landmark plaque and interpretive posters is scheduled to take place in the spring of 1998.

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