The following is an adapted version of an article written by Lázár Pap, originally published in Hungarian in Magyar Krónika.

America—the new world, the land of opportunity, the land of the free. In the 19th and 20th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians left their former lives behind to cross the Atlantic and try their luck Far Far Away, that is, ‘Beyond the Óperencia’, as Hungarian fairy tales go. In its series, Magyar Krónika looks at the meeting points of America and Hungary through the Hungarian diaspora living in the US. In this part, let us present the story of Dr Arthur Wadgymar, who had a quite unbelievable life. He supposedly killed his father in a duel and then fled from his brother’s revenge.

In our series, we have previously written about a Hungarian emigrant from 1948 who put his military knowledge to good use in the American Civil War. Sándor Asbóth was wounded several times during the fighting, once in the right upper arm, and later in the left arm, and a bullet lodged in his palate, too. The latter injury accompanied him for the rest of his life; the bullet could not be removed, so he suffered from constant headaches. He later died of complications from this injury.

Some Hungarian officers led Black units during the conflict between the North and the South, one such person being Lajos Kossuth’s nephew, László Zsulavszky, in whose regiment also served his two brothers, Emil and Zsigmond. Magyar Krónika investigated the adventures of a Hungarian conman of Austrian origin known as Béla Estván, too, who, among other things, tried to exploit the Confederacy’s hunger for weapons.

This time, we present to the reader a life story that, if made into a film, would be an action film, a horror film, and a black comedy all at once.

Dr Arthur Wadgymar was probably born in Debrecen in 1824. He went to secondary school in Pest, then studied medicine in Vienna. During the events of 1848–49, he served as a military doctor in the Hungarian army. After the failure of the Revolution, he fled to the Netherlands and found his calling in the navy, also as a doctor. According to some sources, he was present in the Crimean War as well. He eventually ended up in America and became an officer responsible for military supplies in the Confederate Army, and allegedly also worked as a battlefield doctor and in the laboratories of the secessionist states.

However, Wadgymar’s biography is not special because of the wars or the years spent in the navy, although these do not indicate an ordinary doctor either: it is his personal and professional scandals that make his life story completely unbelievable.

‘The rivalry for the dancer’s favour led to a duel in which the boy killed his father’

There is an account that Wadgymar and his father fell in love with the same ballerina. The rivalry for the dancer’s favour led to a duel in which the boy killed his father.

If all this were not tragic enough, his brother swore to avenge their father’s death. It is conceivable that this is why our hero had to leave Hungary, and not to escape reprisals.

In the second half of the 1850s, he was definitely living in the United States, and he started a medical practice in Louisville, Kentucky. Here he fell in love again, but the girl’s family opposed the romance, so he eloped with her, and they secretly married. However, their happiness did not last long, as the woman fell over the railing of a steamboat and was swallowed by the foam of the Ohio River. Wadgymar remarried shortly afterwards to Maria Theresa Drewes, a Prussian. However, the couple had to flee when Wadgymar’s vengeful brother learned of their whereabouts.

They went to St Louis, where they found peace for a while. Here, the family was soon caught up in the Civil War, during which the man lived for a while in Cairo, Illinois; it is not known whether his wife and children followed him. This is how he advertised his practice: ‘Physician, surgeon, obstetrician. Specialist in women’s and children’s diseases’. After the conflict ended, he returned to St Louis, where he taught botany to pharmacists and conducted scientific research. However, the most surreal episodes of his life were yet to come.

‘When he cut into the man’s body, it turned out that he was still alive, only in a deep coma’

The family moved to Texas, where, presumably out of scientific curiosity, he wanted to dissect the body of a young man. At the time, this was considered an illegal activity, so obtaining the body could not have been easy. However, when he cut into the man’s body, it turned out that he was still alive, only in a deep coma.

This scandal was further compounded by a case reported in the Glaveston News in the 1870s. The doctor amputated the leg of an injured Mexican man, and to the astonishment of the locals, the severed limb was found the next day in the doctor’s pigpen, with the animals feasting on it. The author of the article suggested that Wadgymar be rolled in tar and feathers as a suitable punishment. He managed to avoid this, but he and his family decided it was better to move on.

In 1882 he became the chief physician of Carrizzo Springs, Texas, and devoted the rest of his life to scientific work. He published in medical journals, conducted research, and studied botany. He died of influenza, along with his wife, in 1899.

This article is based on István Kornél Vida’s book From Világos to Appomattox.

Read the previous parts of the series below:

Click here to read the original article.