In 1888, three wine-making communities were founded here on some 2000 acres after local land developer Ralph L. Spencer invited some 200 Hungarian wine-making families to settle the region. They named their largest community Budapest in honor of the capital of Hungary, while Tokaj recalled Hungary’s famous wine-making region and Nyitra was named after an ancient fort in the northern region of their homeland. Homes, streets, shops, a school, a Catholic church, a cemetery, and other municipal facilities were built, and the wine industry flourished in this climate. In 1908, passage of the Prohibition Act in Georgia brought their decline, and the residents were forced back to the Pennsylvania mines. The rectory still stands on a hill as a tribute to the master masons who erected it, and the pioneer Hungarians who became part of the Georgia soil lie in the little fenced cemetery over the hill, many graves still marked with names foreign to these parts. By ancient tradition, the inhabitants lie with their heads toward the East and their beloved homeland.