The
Polish
Texans
T. Lin4say Baker
The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures
San Antonio
1982
4308
THE TEXIANS AND THE TEXANS
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A series dealing with the many kinds of people who have contributed to the history and heritage of Texas.
Now in print:
Pamphlet Series- The Indian Texans, The Norwegian Texans, The Mexican Texans, (in English), Los Tejanos
Mexicanos (in Spanish), The Spanish Texans, The Polish Texans, The Greek Texans, The
jewish Texans, The Syrian and Lebanese Texans, The Afro-American Texans, The Belgian
Texans, The Swiss Texans, The Czech Texans, The French Texans, The Italian Texans, The
Chinese Texans and The Anglo-American Texans.
Book Series- The Irish Texans, The Danish Texans, The German Texans
and The Polish Texans
The Polish Texans
Copyright 1982
The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures-San Antonio
Jack R . Maguire, Executive Director
Pat Maguire, Director of Publications and Programs
Production Staff: Sandra Brown, Illustrator; Sandra Carr; David Haynes; Meredith Rees; Alice
Sackett, Indexer; and Tom Shelton
Library of Congress Number 82-82513
International Standard Book Numbers
Hardbound 0-933164-98-X
Softbound 0-933164-99-8
First Edition
This publication was made possible, in part, by grants from the Institute of Texan Cultures Associates,
the Texas Folklife Festival and the Houston Endowment, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
The
Polish
Texans
T. Lindsay Baker
Contents
The Poles in the Early History of Texas 1
Founding the First Polish Colonies in America 9
First Years on the Frontier 2.'3
Expansion of Silesian Settlement .'39
The Civil War Years 47
Reconstruction for the Silesian Poles in Texas 55
The Poles Come to East Texas 61
Soldiers from Mexico 71
Polish Life in 19th Century Texas 7 5
Business and Commerce 81
Polish Texans in the 20th Century 9.'3
Suggested Reading 10.'3
Photo Credits 107
Index 111
The Poles in the Early History
of Texas
Poland, one of the oldest countries of central Europe, came into being as a
separate entity in A.D. 966. In this year King Mieszko I accepted Christianity
and founded Poland as a Christian state. For many years it was one of the largest
and most important countries in Europe.
Poland was not without its difficulties. Probably the greatest of these prob­lems
was that the nobles assumed more and more of the ~ower which was needed
by the king during the 1600's and 1700's, when new and powerful nations were
arising in Europe. This had the effect of dividing the country's power. By the
end of the 1700's, about the same time that the United States was winning its
independence, Poland was cut apart and annexed by her strong neighbors:
Austria, Prussia, and Russia. By 1795 the Polish state disappeared from the maps
of Europe, and for a century and a half no separate Poland existed except in
the hearts and minds of her people. Three unsuccessful insurrections were raised
by Poles-one in the 1790's, others in 1830 and 1863-but they were crushed.
Only the end of the First World War and the major political changes which
followed it allowed the return of a Polish state.
Most of the Poles who came to Texas did so during the many years that their
homeland was divided and ruled by others. Because of the oppression that they
felt, many of these people came to the New World for political freedom as well
as economic and social advancement.
Today the Poles are by
no means the largest eth­nic
group in Texas, but
there are thousands of
Texans who trace their
roots back to Poland. In
the first half of the 1800's
considerable numbers of
individual Poles came to
Texas. Some of them
were adventurers, only
seeking their fortunes,
while others came to stay
and establish permanent
homes. These Poles
played an active role in
the Texas War of
Independence, fighting
both at Goliad and San
Jacinto . Then in the
1850's permanent Polish
colonies were established
Partitioned Poland, after 1795 in the San Antonio area
by farmers from the
region of Upper Silesia, in southwestern Poland today. Landing in Galveston
in 1854, they traveled northwest. Settling at Panna Maria, Bandera, and San
Antonio, these people founded the earliest Polish colonies, the first Polish churches,
and the first Polish school in America. '
The farmers from Upper Silesia were followed, after the Civil War, by Polish
emigrants from all parts of their divided motherland. Most of these later arrivals
settled in the lower Brazos River valley, where they became successful cotton
farmers and where many of their descendants live today. Even now the Poles
remain quite visible with numerous religious and secular celebrations observed
in different parts of the state, and they contribute an important element to the
varied culture of Texas.
The first plan to bring Polish settlers to Texas was a failure . The reason was
that people in America were simply not well enough informed about conditions
in Europe. In 1812, while Texas still belonged to Spain and while Spain was
fighting Napoleon in Europe, the Spanish consul at New Orleans pointed out
to his superiors that there were large numbers of Poles fighting in Napoleon's
army in Spain. The consul, Diego Morfi, believed that many of these soldiers
would grasp any chance to desert Napoleon if they were offered land in Texas
2
and transportation. Morfi maintained that the Poles would devote themselves
to farming and would contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the province.
He proposed to give the Polish exiles land along the Gulf of Mexico near the
Louisiana border, offer them self-government, and exempt them from taxes.
The problem with Morfi's plan was that his ideas were based on his assump­tion
that the Poles were fighting for Napoleon only because they were compelled
to do so. He was wrong. They supported Emperor Napoleon as the only power
on earth that could restore their unhappy country to its former freedom. Morfi's
superiors, however, knew more about the situation in Europe and rejected the
plan. They further stated that they were afraid that settlements of foreigners,
especially former soldiers, would be dangerous in Texas, and added that they
were reluctant to spend the money to execute the plan. Therefore, Morfi's idea
was never realized, but surprisingly, Poles appeared in Texas only half a dozen
years later.
Napoleon's defeat caused his soldiers to scatter in all directions, and many
of them sought their fortunes in the New World. One group of these exiles formed
an association at Philadelphia for the establishment of their own colony in
America. Their goals were mainly political, with plans for the rescue of Napoleon
from the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic and for the placing of Joseph
Plan of Champ d'Asile, a French colony near the Texas coast
3
Bonaparte on the throne of Mexico as the King of Spain and the Indies. The
exiles established a colony at Demopolis, Alabama, but the settlement soon failed.
Then in 1817 another group of veterans organized a new association in
Philadelphia, this time to establish a colony in Spanish Texas near the Louisiana
border. They expected to find local support for their political ventures. Early
in 1818 some 400 armed men landed on the Texas Gulf Coast. The Frenchmen
and Poles had been joined by other exiles: Spaniards, Americans, and former
pirates from a host of nations. This group seized land on the Trinity River near
present-day Liberty and formed the military colony of Champ d'Asile .
One of the participants in both of these exile colonies was Constantin Paul
Malczewski, a former Polish officer in the French army and brother of a well­known
Polish poet, Anthony Malczewski. When the new expedition was form­ing
in 1817 to come to Texas, Malczewski deserted the Alabama settlement to
join in starting the new one. He was one of four artillery officers who directed
the construction of the fortification which protected the new settlement.
The founding of Champ d'Asile, 1818
Life in Champ d'Asile was organized on a strictly military basis, ;md its in­habitants
were divided into three "cohorts." Naturally, the Spanish government
was suspicious of this effort and sent a military force from San Antonio to oust
the exiles. But sickness, hunger, and misfortune had already discouraged the
colony. Many colonists took a boat to Galveston Island, were given a ship by
Jean Laffite, and sailed to New Orleans. Malczewski went to Louisiana and then
to Mexico. As late as the 1830's he was serving as a general in the Mexican army.
4
Another Pole appeared in Texas in 1821, Captain joseph Alexander Czycerzyn.
He was one of the 52 men who sailed with Captain James Long on his second
expedition to Texas in an attempt to wrest control of the province from Spain.
The party seized the town of Goliad and the nearby presidio of La Bahfa and
held them for a few days. Then a larger force of Mexican troops arrived and
forced the invaders to surrender on October 9, 1821.
While a handful of Polish immigrants may have settled in Texas during the
years of early Anglo-American settlement, it is definitely known that numbers
of Poles came to the area after the outbreak of the Texas Revolution of 1835.
Several Poles fought under Colonel James Fannin at Goliad in March 1836.
Recalling the Battle of Coleto Creek, after which the Mexicans forced the Texans
to surrender, one of the Texan survivors remarked that the Texan artillery officers
were "tall fine-looking Poles." These officers intentionally allowed the Mexican
soldiers to draw comparatively near to the Texan troops before they opened fire,
whereupon they "poured shot upon our hasty and over confident assailants."
Among the men with Fannin was Michael Dembinski, an exile from the unsuc­cessful
Polish insurrection of ~830. After the Texan troops under Fannin, including
the Poles, were forced to surrender, they were held prisoners for about two and
one-half weeks at the old La Bahfa presidio. Then on Palm Sunday, March 27,
1836, they were marched out in several groups to be executed by firing squads.
Only a few escaped to tell the tale.
Several Poles participated on
the Texan side at the Battle of
San jacinto, at which Texas won
its independence. The best
known of these men was Felix
Wardzinski, who had been born
in Poland in 180 1 and had come
to Texas in january 1836 to enlist
in the Texan army. He was
described by Captain Robert
Oliver as being five feet seven
and one-half inches tall, of light
complexion with blue eyes and
brown hair, and by occupation a
professional soldier. After the
close of the war W ardzinski was
awarded a headright certificate Wardzinski bounty land certificate
for one-third league of land in return for his services to the Republic of Texas.
Another Pole who participated in the Battle of San Jacinto was Frederick
Lemsky. As one of the musicians, he played "Come to the Bower" on the fife
as the Texan army crossed the prairie to attack the Mexican camp.
5
"Surrender of Santa Anna, » by W H. Huddle
During the days of the Republic ofTexas it was William H. Sandusky in 1839
who surveyed and made the maps for Austin, the new capital. He was a descen­dant
of Antoni Sandusky, a Pole who had come to the British colonies in North
America at the time of Queen Anne's reign in England. After surveying and
mapping the new capital city Sandusky served for a while as the private secretary
to President Mirabeau B. Lamar and then accepted a mission as draftsman for
the preparation of maps of the harbor at Galveston. Sandusky died in 1846, but
in his short 33 years he made a lasting contribution to Texas.
·'
~ustin about 1840, » watercolor by William Sandusky
6
After Texas entered the Union in 1845 Poles continued to come as individual
immigrants. One such person was Charles Radziminski, a lieutenant in the
United States army during the Mexican War. After the conflict he became the
secretary of the commission appointed to survey the international boundary
between Mexico and the United States. In this capacity he crossed thousands
of miles of the Southwest on foot and on horseback during the three-year survey.
He died near Fort Belknap, Texas, on September 18, 1858.
One more Pole who came to Texas
during the period of early statehood
was Erasmus Andrew Florian, who
became known in Texas as a banker
and insurance agent. Florian, whose
original name was Florian Liskowacki,
was another exile from the unsuccessful
Polish insurrection of 1830. Taken pris­oner
by the Austrians after the failure
of the insurrection in Russian Polind,
he was imprisoned for a number of
months and then deported to the
United States by the Austrian govern­ment
in 1834. He spent his first two
years in America working for a New
York bank, then moved to Memphis,
Tennessee. In 1853 he came to Texas.
Within only a few years he became one
of the most influential bankers in San
Antonio, served the city during the > Erasmus A. Florian
Civil War as a member of the city
council, was one of the first insurance agents in the San Antonio area, and helped
form the San Antonio Gas Company.
7
The last thatch-roofed cottage in Ft.uznica, Poland
8
Founding the First
Polish Colonies in America
The history of the Poles in Texas changed drastically on December 3, 1854.
On this day a party of about 150 Polish farmers disembarked from the sailing
ship, Weser; at the old wooden Merchant's Wharf at the port of Galveston. These
peasants, from the region of Upper Silesia, now in southwestern Poland, were
to establish the first permanent Polish settlements in the United States.
In the 1850's Upper Silesia constituted the southeastern tip of the Kingdom
of Prussia. The region had been cut off from the Polish.'state for almost five cen­turies
when the Texas emigrants departed. Despite the long rule by foreign kings
and nobles, the Polish peasants who inhabited the area retained their Polish
national identity, Polish culture, and Catholic religion.
A number of factors caused the Upper Silesian farmers to seek a new home
in another part of the world. Most of the causes were economic; others were
social. Upper Silesia had severe economic problems during the 1850's, among
them a depressed economy and inflation. The already high food prices in Upper
Silesia were driven even further upward by the Crimean War, which began in
1853. Because bread was needed for its soldiers, Russia, traditionally a source
of cheap grain, prohibited grain exports. This forced grain prices skyward in
Upper Silesia.
From the 1840's through 1850's Upper Silesia was racked by epidemics of
cholera and typhus. To these health problems was added a great flood of the
9
~ Upper Silesia,
-----Present boundaries of
West Germany
Poland
--International Boundaries
--Regency Boundaries
----County Boundaries
10 Ul 1(}
Czc~tochowa •
~pole
10
A farm wagon in the yard of the inn at Ruznica, Poland
River Odra, the principal river of Silesia, in the summer of 1854. The inunda­tion
destroyed many of the crops and further increased the poverty of the region.
The emigrants who came to Texas did not fit the American stereotype of Slavic
immigrants- poverty-ridden masses grasping for crusts o~,bread. They came from
the peasant class, a group misunderstood by Americans both in the past and
at the present. "Peasants" might best be described as members of the farming
class. They were landowners, taxpayers, and far higher in social status than the
landless laborers they employed. But the peasants were far lower in status than
the nobles, to whom they bowed in almost hereditary deference. The Texas
emigrants, although frightened by the economic problems in their homeland,
were not yet seriously hurt by them. They departed Europe for Texas because
they saw the route to economic advancement blocked in Europe but open to
them in America. Instead of just wanting property, they wanted more property.
While the economic causes were the most important reasons for emigration
from Upper Silesia to Texas, other factors also prompted the Polish farmers to
leave. Among these was discrimination in which a minority German population
was dominant over a Polish majority. The situation was described by a pastor
among the Silesians in Texas during the middle years of the 1800's. He could
calm even the most vocal complaints of the immigrants by reminding them of
11
the social discrimination that they had suffered at the hands of the Germans in
Upper Silesia:
I thank you for your Prussian joys . . . and what freedom did you
have? Didn't you have to work a great part only for the king? As soon
as a boy grew up, they took him to the army, and for the defense of
whom and what? Not your kingdom but the Prussion one. You lost
your health and lives for what purpose? And taxes? Were they small?
Did you forget how you were racked? You talked among yourselves
that they took the holy pictures from the walls and covers from the
beds of the poor. Wherever you went, you had to have a certificate
from the officer of the Diet in the village.
Similarly, the editors of an Upper Silesian newspaper in the mid-19th century,
commenting on the migration of Polish farmers to Texas, stated that the only
reason they could imagine for the people to have gone to Texas was that in
America they had "an equality of classes and greater freedom of life than here."
It is possible that the failure of the Revolution of 1848 to alleviate discrimina­tion
against the Poles in Upper Silesia may have contributed to the movement
to Texas. At least one later immigrant to Texas, Stanislaw Kiolbassa, had been
Bernard Kiol:.bassa and family
12
an active Polish nationalist during this period. He was elected to represent his
district in Upper Silesia in the Prussian national parliament in 1848. Despite
the fact that he could speak no language other than Polish, he participated in
the activities of the parliament and served on the Committee for Mines and
Foundries. When another deputy introduced a motion to have Kiolbassa expelled
from the assembly because he could not communicate in German, other members
came to his aid and defeated the attempt to have him unseated. Several years
later in 1855 Kiolbassa and his family departed Silesia for Texas, where his
descendants continue to live today.
Poles also left Silesia to evade conscription into the Prussian army, which was
known throughout the world for its rigid discipline. At the age of20 every young
man in Prussia was subject to military draft. Active service lasted for three years,
followed by two years in the
active reserves and then 15
years in inactive reserves.
Even men up to the age of 60
were liable to be called into
service in the event of inva­sion.
It was not uncommon
for a father to send all but one
of his sons abroad, leaving an
"only son" who was exempt
from duty. This was successful
for several years, but when the
authorities realized how men
were evading the draft, the
laws were changed so that the
"only son" left in the country
was no longer exempt.
Added to both the eco­nomic
and social causes for
emigration were a number of
personal motives . Some
people departed to escape
scandals, to avoid family Ignatius Burda in a ?russian anny officer's unifonn
friction, to see new country,
because others had gone, and for dozens of other such reasons. Similarly, the
decision to stay behind frequently was based on personal reasons. One man wrote
from Texas back to Poland about his brother that "he doesn't want to come because
he follows his wife's own ideas."
While these were the causes of emigration, other factors were significant both
in starting and continuing the movement. These factors included favorable reports
13
from Texas, the efforts of emigration agents, and the spread of exaggerated rumors
and stories painting the New World as a paradise.
Generally praising the new country, letters back to Europe were instrumental
in encouraging others to leave for America. As early as February 1855 the high
sheriff of an Upper Silesian county reported to higher authorities that the reason
for movement from his district was reports from persons who had left the area
and who wrote letters back home about their "well-being in America." By the
next year the president of the Regency of Opole, the government district which
Interior of a restored 19th century Upper Silesian peasant cottage, located at the Museum of the
Opole Countryside, Opole, Poland
encompassed the area sending emigrants, reported to Berlin that "favorable news"
from Texas was increasing the tendency of the local farmers to leave the province.
Letters discussed agriculture, gave advice for travel, and described food in
Texas. One peasant wrote to his family and friends in these words: "I talked
with Joseph about it and he told me with tears in his eyes that it would be best
if you came. When he came he was alone, but it was not so hard as in Silesia,
because here he can breed whatever animals he wants and it costs nothing. He
14
told me that with the help of God he could sell his wheat for $100 .. . Come
the sooner the better." The same man described agriculture in Texas this way:
"If you have money, you can keep even 1,000 head of cattle, as the Americans
do. You can plant cotton, which is very expensive, and I, John Moczygemba,
plan to grow it."
Emigration agents, businessmen who represented shipping companies at the
ports, made the way easier for the farmers to leave. As early as 1852 they had
appeared in Upper Silesia and within three years were operating in the very towns
and villages which were sending emigrants to Texas. The work of these en­trepreneurs
generally was criticized by their contemporaries who claimed that
they duped the farmers into leaving their homes and booked their travel on unsafe
ships. Not everyone was so critical, however, for one Silesian who emigrated
described his agents as looking after his emigrants "as a father does for his
children," while another wrote that his agent cared for "every person, even for
the smallest child." Whether honest or not, emigration agents did provide a useful
service to the departing farmers by facilitating their travel to the ports and from
the ports to the Texas coast. Their contribution was in making the travel
immediately possible and a bit easier.
During the 1850's the situation in Upper Silesia was ripe for the spread of
stories about better life other places. Thus, tales about Texas were believed by
the peasants. The countryside, in fact, was filled with rumors about Texas and
a better life. Stories concerned free land, a Polish church waiting in America,
and tales of "golden mountains," which most likely originated in the California
gold rush half a decade before. Many of the farmers had no concept of how far
they would be going or what problems they might encounter along the way. Some
even thought they needed to go only to the nearest railway station from which
they would go "directly to America."
Given the causes for emigration from Upper Silesia to Texas, together with
the numerous promoting factors, the stage was set for increased migration. One
important element was lacking-a catalyst to initiate the movement. This catalyst
was to be a young Catholic priest, the Reverend Leopold Moczygemba.
Moczygemba was born in the Upper Silesian village of Pluznica, on the road
between the county seat towns ofToszek and Strzelce Opolskie, on October 24,
1824. He spent his childhood in Pluznica and nearby Ligota Toszecka, where
his father was an innkeeper and miller. He studied in the market towns of Opole
and Gliwice, and then, at the age of 19, he decided to become a Catholic priest.
In 1843 he traveled to northern Italy and became a member of the Order of
Franciscans Minor Conventual. Studying several years in Italy, he completed
his novitiate as a Friar and was ordained a priest. Because of his health he went
to Wurzburg in Bavaria to complete his study. After a year there he transferred
m 1849 to the Oggersheim monastery outside Mannheim.
15
Reverend Leopold Moczygemba Ewa Moczygemba, mother of
Reverend Leopold Moczygemba
For several years Father Leopold dreamed of becoming a missionary in some
distant part of the world, but neither his family nor his superiors felt that he
was sufficiently prepared. He waited for an appropriate chance to present itself.
Finally the opportunity came in the form of Bishop Jean-Marie Odin, the Bishop
of Galveston in Texas. This Frenchman had returned to Europe in search of
priests and monetary assistance for his far-flung diocese iri' the wilds of North
America. Coming to Europe in 1852, he recruited numerous missionaries, among
them four Franciscan Fathers and one lay brother to minister to the German
immigrants in Texas. One of these Friars was 28-year-old Reverend Leopold
Moczygemba. The missionaries sailed for America in the late summer of 1852,
arriving in Galveston about the first of September.
The Friars were given custody of the German parishes in what then was con­sidered
to be west Texas. They received the churches at New Braunfels,
Fredericksburg, Castroville, and D'Hanis, as well as a number of mission parishes
to be served from these four. Father Moczygemba was assigned to New Braunfels,
where he was the first resident Catholic pastor. Among his activities there was
the complete transcription of the baptismal and marriage records which his visiting
predecessors had prepared. Today one can read the early church records at Sts.
Peter and Paul Church in New Braunfels in Father Moczygemba's clear hand­writing.
From New Braunfels Moczygemba moved to serve the Alsatians at
Castroville in 1854.
16
Clearing the wilderness
Although living conditions were not easy on the Texas frontier in the 1850's,
Father Moczygemba was able to observe the economic and social advancement
of his German parishioners. He quickly realized that his family and friends could
probably find the same success if they, too, came to Texas. Father Leopold began
writing letters back to his friends and relatives in Upper Silesia, encouraging
them to come to Texas. The letters were successful.
As early as the summer of 1854 groups of peasants in Upper Silesia were selling
their properties in order to emigrate to Texas. That year approximately 150
farming families left for Texas; in 1855 about 700 people <;migrated; and in 1856,
the last year of mass migration, about 500 came to Texas. The local govern­ment
authorities realized the importance of Father Leopold's letters in stimulating
the movement. The high sheriff in one of the Upper Silesian counties reported
aNew Braunfels,» lithograph by Carl G. von Iwonski
17
to the police administration in Opole in the summer of 1855, that emigration
from his district was being prompted by letters from "Father Moczygemba, who
works in Texas and comes from Pluznica and has many relatives and friends
in the Toszek region, who tries to persuade them to immigrate to America with
prospects of a better life."
After having disposed of their property the first group of peasants left Upper
Silesia in late September 1854. As they traveled through Berlin the press noted
their passage: "On the 26th of September, 150 Poles from Upper Silesia arrived
by train in Berlin and on the next day in the afternoon left by the Cologne Rail­way
for Bremen, from where they plan to go by ship to Texas (to America)."
The newspaper report continued: "This is worth mentioning because, as is known,
Slavic people are so attached to their native land that emigration among them
is extraordinary." After they arrived at Bremen they boarded the 265-ton wooden
bark Weser, which, in October, departed on the two-month journey to Galveston.
A small group of Silesian Poles, for reasons not known, failed to board the Weser;
but sailed later on the brig Antoinette.
A surprising amount of information is available about the travel of these and
later Polish emigrants from Upper Silesia to Texas. All the departing farmers,
for example, traveled by train to the ports. Railway construction in Prussia in
the 1840's and 1850's had made this form of travel comparatively easy and fast.
The railway companies, in fact, encouraged departing emigrants to go by rail
by offering them special rates and generous baggage allowances.
Most of the emigrants headed for Bremen as their port of departure, but a
few of them chose other ports such as Hamburg or Szczecin. From these ports
on the North European Plain, they generally sailed e,ither to Galveston or to
Indianola, although a few individuals found their way to New York or New
Orleans. Soon Indianola became the favored port of arrival because of its near­ness
to San Antonio, only about two weeks away by oxcart. Father Moczygemba
recommended Indianola to prospective settlers.
The typical voyage for the Silesian emigrants lasted about two months. They
traveled in the steerage quarters of the sailing ships, a part of the vessels which
took its name from the adjacent steering apparatus. It was a dark, windowless
area which on the eastbound trips from America was filled with cargo bound
for European ports. For the westbound trips, the area was fitted with rough board
floors and platform-like bunk beds for carrying the emigrants, who spent most
of their time below deck. Generally, two passengers were assigned to each bunk,
which they padded with mattresses filled with sea grass or straw.
According to one of the firms which is known to have provided transportation
for Poles to Texas, the meals on the ships were served "in abundance." Among
the foods prepared by the ship's cook for the steerage passengers were salted beef,
salted pork, potatoes, rice, barley, butter, beans, peas, sauerkraut, and dried
18
plums. The voyagers were
permitted to bring along a
limited amount of personal
food. All the steerage passen­gers
were expected to take
turns in helping the cook pre­pare
the communal meals.
The cost of passage from
North Germany to Galveston
in the mid-1850's varied from
35 to 45 gold talers, with
children under the age of 10
having a 5-taler discount and
infants traveling at no cost.
The price of passage varied
with the number of emigrants
on each ship- the more pas­sengers,
the cheaper the fare .
Along with the transportation
each emigrant received a
stipulated amount of baggage
space both in the hold of the
ship and in ·the steerage
Indianola, looking east on Main Street, 1873
Steerage bunks on an immigrant ship
19
quarters. The lighting of fires and the smoking of tobacco were prohibited on
the ships, as was the carrying of either matches or gunpowder. Firearms had
to be deposited with the captain for the duration of the voyage.
The letters from the settlers in Texas back to Upper Silesia give us a further
view of what the immigration must have been like. Much of the advice con­cerned
financial affairs. One Pole wrote home that the best money to take was
"gold, and talers are good, but heavy." H e then advised, "Don't take many bank
notes, and if you have them, take only new ones ." Other immigrants already
in Texas recommended, "Take as much gold as you can . .. because you can
make a profit from it." Father Moczygemba wrote candidly to his family, "Hide
your money well," adding, "take care on the ship; the less company that you
have the better." Yet another Pole in Texas wrote home to recommend that his
family leave their legal affairs in proper order so as not to have any troubles
with the local court. He also advised them to find a reliable emigration agent
to arrange their travel and to "pay attention not to be cheated once more." One
immigrant in Texas obviously wondering who would be coming from Poland,
asked his addressee to "write who will come."
The immigration to Texas from Upper Silesia consisted of about 1500
individuals . Starting in 1854, it continued on a sizable scale until the winter of
1856-5 7, after which time immigration dwindled to only handfuls of peasants
annually. Conditions both in Texas and in Upper Silesia contributed to the
decline. In Texas the severe drought of 1856-57 caused the immigrants to cease
encouraging their countrymen to join them, while in Upper Silesia improved
economic conditions made staying at home more attractive than before.
After the first group of Silesians had arrived at Galveston in early December
1854, they secured transportation to Indianola farther down the coast, and then
they turned inland to San Antonio. Numbering 159 they arrived in the Alamo
City on December 21. Father Moczygemba came from Castroville to greet the
new arrivals and to lead a part of their group to a place he had chosen for their
main settlement. The site was about 60 miles to the southeast at the confluence
of the San Antonio River and Cibolo Creek in the newly organized Karnes
County. The group reached the place about Christmas-time, .and Father
Moczygemba offered a Christmas Mass for the group under the largest live oak
tree at the site. Soon the location came to be known as Panna Maria, or Virgin
Mary in Polish, and the community today has the distinction of being the oldest
Polish settlement in the United States.
Most of the Poles who remained behind at San Antonio went in the opposite
direction-west to the community of Bandera. It had been established in 18S4
by Charles DeMonte!, John james , and john H . Herndon, but raids by hostile
Indians had threatened to force the inhabitants back east. The American promot­ers
were more than pleased to help populate the place with the new Slavic immi-
20
"San Antonio de Bexar, " lithograph by Hermann Lungkwitz
Galveston in 1852
21
grants. DeMonte! provided them with transportation in wagons from San Antonio
(some sources say Castroville) with the stipulation that none of the settlers could
return in the wagons. As an American who witnessed their arrival recalled at
a later date, "When these Polish people were dumped off here they had to stay,
as they had no way to leave." At first the Silesians went to work for established
residents in town and soon became substantial members of the community.
Although it became the second permanent Polish colony in America, Bandera
never had a large Polish population, having a total of only about 20 families
by 1858.
A few of the Silesians, particularly craftsmen, stayed in San Antonio, where,
within a dozen years, they had formed their own Polish Catholic parish and lived
in a recognizable Polish Quarter. This Polish district remained a separate entity
well into the 20th century, but today descendants of the Poles live in all parts
of the city and no longer have their own separate church.
In 1855 immigrants from Upper Silesia established another pioneer Polish set­tlement
in the state. Founded in eastern Bexar County that year, the colony was
called Martinez for several years. In the late 1860's the Poles changed the name
of the locality to Saint Hedwig, as it is known today. Saint Hedwig is the patron
of Silesia, who is greatly revered by people in the region and whose grave has
been a pilgrimage site for three centuries.
Charles S. DeMonte!
22
Church of the Annunciation at
St. Hedwig, 1925
A thatch -roofed cellar similar to the houses first built by Polish settlers at Panna Maria
The john Gawlik house erected at Panna Maria in 1858, classic example of Upper Silesian folk
architecture in a Texas setting
24
on their own land made a deep impression, as did the fact that they did not live
in villages as they had in Europe. One of the Silesians wrote home, that "there
are no villages ... We live quite a distance from the church. It is farther than
you live from the manor." In the mid-19th century the pastor at Panna Maria
wrote to Europe that the homes of his parishioners were "hidden in the woods"
outside the village and that mostly they were "made of wood, similarly to
Lithuanian houses." About the same time the priest at Saint Hedwig wrote that
in his community "the houses of the Poles are situated in the brush, far from
the church, and all I can see are clouds and trees ."
The houses that the immigrants built in Texas were remarkably similar to
those used in Upper Silesia even today. They have steeply pitched roofs originally
designed to allow snow to slip off easily, although snow is uncommon in the San
Antonio area. Other striking elements of Upper Silesian architecture in Texas
include the arrangement of rooms, rear roofs that reach very near to the ground,
the location of ventilation openings for upper rooms, and meat-smoking rooms
within the homes. Even though they have disappeared in Texas, thatch roofs
were another interesting eleme~t of Polish rural architecture that survived in Texas
into this century.
Of course, all the elements of Silesian peasant housing did not remain un­changed
in Texas. The most prominent alteration in the style of architecture
was the addition of porches to the south-facing, windward sides of the houses.
The porches became standard on Polish houses in central Texas, and they
undoubtedly were the most popular areas of the homes during nine months of
the year. People enjoyed the cool shade of the porch and used the area for many
of their activities: visiting, quilting, sewing, and occasionally sleeping.
Soon after the Poles arrived they had to make legal arrangements for the land
where they wanted to live . Before they came Father M~czygemba had made
preliminary arrangements, first planning to settle the Poles at a proposed town
of Cracow near New Braunfels. For unknown reasons he abandoned this idea
and then planned with john Twohig, an Irish-born banker and capitalist in San
Antonio, to settle the Poles on land Twohig owned at the proposed Panna Maria
settlement. It is not known whether the priest and the Irishman discussed land
prices at this time, but after the Silesians arrived they were charged prices far
in excess of other local land prices for the property at Panna Maria.
While other land in Karnes County was selling for less than $1.50 an acre,
comparable land purchased by Poles at Panna Maria in sales completed before
the Civil War averaged $5 .88 per acre, with some farmers paying as much as
$10.80 per acre. The cost of land at the other Polish colonies was much more
reasonable: $1.00 to $2 .00 an acre at Saint Hedwig and $2 .00 an acre at Bandera.
For the farmers at Panna Maria who could not afford Twohig's high prices, Father
25
John Twohig
R V Snoga's stone store at Panna Maria was
constructed by John Twohig as a storage bam.
The Panna Maria countryside, looking toward the San Antonio River valley
26
Moczygemba bought a block of 238 acres. He retained 25 acres for the church
and parceled out the remainder to immigrants who needed land.
Even before the Silesian farmers had made formal arrangements for their land,
they had begun preparing it for planting. Very quickly the Poles adopted corn,
the staple food crop in Texas, for both animals and men. One of the early set­tlers
at Bandera recollected that an American neighbor by the name of Curtis
introduced his family to roasting ears and that they had never seen anything
like this food in Silesia. Several sources state that a Mexican rancher, Andreas
Coy, gave the Panna Maria settlers their first corn for bread and seed.
The Polish immigrants cultivated a wide range of crops in Texas. One of them
wrote home that the land was good and fertile, especially well suited for raising
melons, potatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins. Father Moczygemba, traveling
in Europe in 1858, noted that the area settled by the Poles was particularly good
for raising cotton, sugar cane, and tobacco. Although one of the immigrants wrote
to Poland that he planned to raise cotton, its cultivation did not reach any sizable
levels among the Poles until the years following the Civil War.
Livestock played an import~nt role in Polish Texan agriculture for many years.
Oxen were especially valued during the first years of settlement. Not only did
they transport the immigrants and their possessions in carts from the coast, but
they also provided the brute strength needed to break the unplowed soil, to move
heavy timbers, and to do other heavy work. They had the further advantage
of living on grass alone, not needing the grain required by other animals.
Oxen plowing near the Upper Silesian village of Sucho Daniec. Early Polish arrivals in Texas
also used oxen as draft animals.
27
Cattle raised for meat also were important in the early days. Many of the Poles
lived in areas which before their arrival had been used exclusively for raising
livestock. On some farms the Poles adopted practices similar to those employed
by the Americans who had held the land before them. Despite this fact , however,
John Moczygemba obviously was still thinking in terms of European practice
when he suggested that his cousin bring a boy from Poland as an indentured
servant to tend cattle for him. Animal husbandry was especially important in
the early years at the Saint Hedwig settlement. The mild climate and the fact
that no permission was necessary to graze cattle on the unfenced prairies impressed
one peasant so favorably that he wrote home: "You don't need to leave anything
in the fields for feeding stock because there is very much for them far and near."
Also, purchasing a milk cow was an important event for the immigrant families.
A Bandera pioneer recalled that "we bought our first milk cow at Castroville
. . . father went down there afoot and drove her home."
With the passage of years horses became the status symbols in the Polish
immigrant communities, and they became the preferred animals for both agricul­ture
and transportation. Some of them almost became family pets. Other animals
frequently found on the Polish farms included chickens, ducks, geese, goats, and
pet dogs.
During the initial years in Texas the dress of the Poles set them apart from
the people who lived around them. Probably the best description of the clothing
of the immigrants in the 1850's comes from L.B. Russell, who lived in Karnes
County at the time that the Poles arrived. He recollected them wearing
" ... the costumes of the old country, many of the women having what
at that time were regarded as very short skirts, showing their limbs
two or three inches above the ankles. Some had on wooden shoes, and
almost without exception they had broad-brimmed, l~w-crowned black
felt hats, nothing like the hats then worn in Texas. They also wore
blue jackets of heavy woolen cloth, falling just below the waist, and
gathered into folds at the back with a band of the same material."
Quite a stir evidently was caused among the male portion of the American
population by the short skirts of the Polish girls and women. Soon after they
first arrived in Texas Father Moczygemba wrote back to his family saying, "Don't
take any country dresses for Hanka, because she will not need them here. Our
country dresses are the reason that the native people make fun of us and they
cause sin."
Although it is a bit difficult for us today to imagine the Polish farmers clamping
about the prairies in wooden shoes, such footwear was quite common in 19th
century Silesia and remained in use there until after the Second World War.
Because they were on the frontier of settlement the Polish immigrants felt quite
isolated. The great, open spaces both impressed the Poles and made them feel
28
An Upper Silesian peasant girl in folk dress Silesian peasant girls near Opole bearing a
decorated tree, the symbol of the coming spring
uneasy. Expressing the isolation that he felt, one of the settlers wrote home to
Poland about the northern United States being "as far away as we are from you."
Thus, the immigrants, quite understandably, were afraid of attacks from the
Indians. They were wise to be cautious, for Indians not only raided around them,
but they also attacked the Poles. These raids were the most serious at Bandera,
the most exposed of all the Silesian settlements, and the fear of attack became
a part of the lives of the Poles living there for a full 20 years.
In a typical attack Albert Haiduk was wounded not far from his home at
Bandera. Hearing what he presumed to be cattle breaking into his cornfield one
night, he went out to drive them away, only to see three Indian warriors coming
toward him from across the field . He hid behind a tree, and the first two of the
three raiders passed by him. The third, however, saw him behind the tree and
shot an arrow into his side. Fortunately Haiduk turned to one side as the Indian
shot the arrow, and it did not penetrate too deeply. The injured man made it
back to his cabin, where, without any light (for fear of attracting the Indians),
his wife cut the arrow from his side using a small knife.
Other Silesians were not so fortunate. The best-known Silesian victim of the
Indians was a 25-year-old Polish shepherd named Theodore Kindla, who was
attacked near his sheep camp in the Sabinal Canyon southwest of the Bandera
colony. He was surprised by a group of warriors as he scouted from his camp
in search of a new water hole. A Mexican companion saw the Indians in time
to hide, but Kindla did not see them until it was too late. The Mexican watched
29
"Preparing the Ambush, " engraving by WM. Cary
in horror at the event that followed. The attackers first roped the Pole to prevent
him from escaping, then lanced him several times and shot a number of arrows
into him. Then, as he lay on the ground, still alive, they scalped him and peeled
the skin from the bottoms of his feet .
Leaving him for dead, the attackers moved on. Kindla, gowever, had sur­vived
their tortures, and he attempted to stagger back to his camp, succeeding
only in going a few hundred feet. After the Indians had gone and the Mexican
herder felt the area was safe, he went to Kindla's aid only to find him dead. Has­tening
to the town to warn others of the danger, the Mexican returned the next
day leading a party of settlers. They found the young man's body already so
decomposed that they had to bury him in the ground where he had fallen.
In a later incident the Indians attacked the Catholic pastor at Bandera in the
rectory inside the town. Breaking out the windows and shooting at him with
bows and arrows, the attackers were held back by the priest using his rifle. Finally
a party of Silesians came to his rescue, driving the Indians away.
Although Indians posed a more dangerous threat, the Polish settlers were also
terrified by the rattlesnakes they found in the area where they settled. Probably
the fact that the immigrants had not known such reptiles in Europe caused them
to fear them so much in Texas. The apprehension that the immigrants felt for
30
...
the vipers was well expressed by one of them a century ago: "There was tall grass
everywhere, so that if anyone took a few steps he was soon lost to sight. Every
step of the way you would meet rattlesnakes .... And several died of snakebites
.... Everybody without exception had to carry a stick, hoe, or pitchfork wherever
he took a step as protection against snakes ." Stories have survived up to this day
about encounters with rattlesnakes. One of these concerns Father Moczygemba,
who had planned a dinner to welcome to Texas a group of newly arrived
immigrants. They complained to him about the conditions they had found in
Texas, but Father Leopold succeeded in calming them. Then, just as he was
serving the soup, a big rattlesnake tumbled down from the rafters onto the table.
As a Pole recounted the story: "How they shrieked until they could get out of
the hut!"
Father Adolf Bakanowski's plan of Panna Maria, prepared in April 1869
One of the immediate goals of the Silesians was the establishment of churches
and schools. The first church to be erected was at Panna Maria. In March 1855
Father Moczygemba purchased land, and in May of that year he was already
busy examining stone to be used for construction. As a result of various prob­lems,
not the least of them securing building materials and illness of workers,
the construction was conducted in stages. The first began in summer 1855, when
Father Moczygemba entered into a contract with a German stonemason from
San Antonio, but it ended with the walls only about 15 feet high and all the
builders too ill to work. Work stopped for several months. Then in early 1856
31
effort was renewed with another
mason, this time a Polish immigrant
named John Gawlik, who had just
arrived from Upper Silesia. The new
mason completed the walls up to their
planned 20-foot height, but again work
lapsed, this time because lumber or­dered
for the roof had not arrived.
Then Gawlik fell ill. When the wood
finally did arrive Father Leopold was
forced to make another agreement in
hopes of completing the project. The
third agreement was with another
German from San Antonio, a Mr.
Stark, who cut the wood, but did not
finish the job. In the end Moczygemba
made an agreement with an Upper
Silesian immigrant, Gerwazy Gabrys,
who finished the roof sometime in mid­summer
1856. With the shell of the
building complete, a Mr. Boden from
San Antonio made the frames for the
windows and doors, completed the
doors and floor in the sacristy and room
of the priest, and built stairs to the
priest's room located above the sacristy.
By September 1856 the structure was
finished, even though only linen
Church of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary at Panna Maria
covered the windows and the sanctuary had no bencht::s, floor, or choir. Father
Moczygemba blessed the building on September 29, dedicating it to "the glory
of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary," and the oldest Polish parish
in America received its first church. The structure continued to serve the parish
until the 1870's, when it was severely damaged by lightning and then completely
rebuilt. This reconstructed building, several times enlarged, continues to serve
the Panna Maria parish today.
Soon the settlers at Bandera and Saint Hedwig began the construction of their
own churches. The Bandera Poles began their project in 1858 under the gui­dance
of Father Anthony Rossadowski, who took Father Moczygemba's place
as priest for the Polish Texans. The building at Bandera was a small log cabin,
but it served the religious needs of the community until the 1870's when Father
Felix Zwiardowski supervised the construction of the present stone church for
St. Stanislaus parish, the second oldest Polish parish in America. The Saint
33
'.
Parishioners at the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Bandera, 1915
Reverend Felix Zwiardowski as
a young man
34
Hedwig Poles began their church in
either 1856 or 1857 on land which had
been donated by one of the settlers.
They amazed their Texas neighbors by
the way they were able to move the
large timbers for the building with their
oxen as they erected the log church,
which was used until after the Civil
War, at which time it also was replaced.
The San Antonio Poles did not have
their own separate church until 1866,
when they began having their own
religious services in a former bakery
and warehouse in the Polish Quarter of
the city. Before this time they had
attended Masses read by visiting Polish
priests in San Fernando Church on the
main plaza of San Antonio.
Although information concerning it
is limited, it is clear that a Polish school
35
St. Michael's Catholic Church at San Antonio
San Fernando Cathedral at San Antonio
Students of St. joseph's School at Panna Maria
existed at Panna Maria at least as early as 1858. In that year Father Moczygemba
visited Europe and was interviewed by newspaper correspondents to whom he
related that there was a "small schoof' at the colony and that he planned to "take
a young Pole to be a teacher" there. Another source from the 19th century reports
that Peter Kiolbassa served as teacher in the community "under Father Anthony
Rossadowski," who was priest among the Polish Texans from 1856 to 1860.
Kiolbassa was the son of the deputy to the Prussian parliament in 1848, who
had come to Texas in 1855.
After the Civil War when Polish missionaries from the Congregation of the
Resurrection came to Texas, a permanent two-story stone school building was
built at Panna Maria, and it served the community for mfiny years. Today a
new school building stands near the old one which is now a historical museum.
Probably the most important factor in closing immigration from Upper Silesia
to Texas was the great drought of 1856-57, one of the most severe droughts in
Texas history. The bad weather started before Christmas 1855, when a series
of wet, cold northers swept across the state. The fronts followed one another
until late March 1856, setting back planting several weeks. Then at the time
the late crops were maturing, the drought set in. By late summer the local press
complained that the weather was the driest in the memory of the oldest settlers
and that even the best wells in the area were going dry. This was only the start,
for the dry weather continued for a year. Several sources agree that 14 months
passed with no rain whatsoever at the Panna Maria colony, while in the prairies
around Seguin, only about 20 miles from Saint Hedwig, the ground cracked
open as much as a foot wide and 30 to 40 feet deep.
36
With the drought came inflation and high food prices. Corn in San Antonio
reached the price of $2.00 a bushel, while only a few months before it sold at
75 cents for the same amount. In rural Karnes County the same grain during
the peak of the drought sold for $3.00 a bushel, and flour cost an incredible $24.00
per barrel. Because of the inflated food prices some of the immigrants may indeed
have suffered from hunger. A local American noted that "had it not been for
the abundance of wild game" the new immigrants "would have starved to death."
In order to earn even a marginal income, many of the Silesians went to work
for other area residents, men working on farms and ranches and women working
as domestic servants.
An unexpected result of the drought was a break in relations between Father
Moczygemba and the people he had brought to Texas. The settlers had perhaps
expected an idyllic land and found a rough frontier. From the early days of set­tlement
the immigrants had complained about conditions to Moczygemba, but
their discontent broke into personal hostility against the priest in 1856. The priest,
who had become the superior of the Franciscan missions in Texas, was caught
between responsibilities to "his" people and to his religious order. For months
he wrote to Rome requesting "a Polish father" to care for the Silesians in order
for him to fulfill his duties ~s superior. But he received responses to his letters
only rarely, and then, there was very little assistance. Finally another priest, Father
Anthony Rossadowski, did arrive, and Moczygemba departed Panna Maria for
Reverend Leopold Moczygemba in later life Marianna Moczygemba Wrobel and her
daughter Ewa Wrobel, sister and niece of Rev.
Leopold Moczygemba, Poland, 1880's
37
the German settlements in the state. A number of sources state that his very
life may have been in danger, as some of the colonists wanted to hang the priest,
and others wanted to drown him in what little water remained in the San Antonio
River. Father Leopold left Panna Maria in October 1856 and departed Texas
entirely in 1858, to return later only for brief visits. The anger of the immigrants
remained strong for a number of years, for in 1867 missionaries reported to Rome
that the Silesians "cannot forgive him up to this day" for having brought them
to Texas.
The anger had abated by the 1870's, however, for Moczygemba was able to
return to the settlements in 1874 to visit with his brothers and their families,
and in 1877 to witness the blessing of the cornerstone of the new church at Panna
Maria. He spent most of his later life working among German, Italian, and Polish
immigrants in the northern United States. He was co-founder of the Polish
seminary at Detroit, and he helped organize the Polish Roman Catholic Union,
the largest Polish Catholic organization in the United States. Moczygemba died
near Detroit in 1891 and was buried in that city.
38
Expansion' of Silesian Settlement
During the 19th century Silesian Polish settlement expanded both in the San
Antonio area and elsewhere in the state. Among the new Polish communities
were those at Meyersville and Yorktown in DeWitt County. As early as 1856
Poles had begun moving to these two areas which already had been settled by
Germans. In time, antagonism developed between the two groups over the ques­tion
oflanguage use in the Meyersville church. In the end the Meyersville Silesians
moved their religious affiliation to the Catholic parish in Yorktown, which after
the Civil War had its own church and school. As a result Yorktown, which the
Silesians called Jordan, became the center of Polish ethnic affairs in the DeWitt
County area, a role that it continues to play to this day. In the 1860's a number
of Polish families moved near the Coleto community in DeWitt County, and
for many years visiting Polish priests served the inhabitants of the area, but with
the passage of time its population merged with the people around it, and Coleto
lost its Polish identity.
A series of Polish communities at one time existed along the Gulf Coastal Plain
of Texas. The easternmost of these communities was Saint Francisville, located
near present Bay City in Matagorda County. Traditional accounts state that the
community was founded by stragglers who felt that they could not make the com­plete
journey from Galveston to San Antonio. Known by the Americans as the
"Polish Village," the community had its own church but never had the financial
resources to keep its own pastor. Among the names of Polish families in the
community were Gola, Sisky, Ryman, Bonk, Waschka, and Petrucha. At the
39
.•.
Farm scene near Yorktown
present time the old wooden church beside the cemetery at Saint Francisville
stands empty except on All Souls Day, when the Silesians gather annually to
tend the graves of their ancestors and to attend a Mass in remembrance of them.
Also on the Gulf Coastal Plain were Silesian Polish communities at Inez and
Victoria. Inez, known at the time by the Poles as Gazeta from the local name,
Garcitas, had about a dozen Polish families who were visit~d by traveling Polish
priests as late as the 1870's. Victoria, which had a much larger general popula­tion,
had a number of Polish families . In the 1860's the community had over
a dozen Silesian families and ties so strong to the other colonies that at least one
of its daughters left to join a Polish convent which had been established in Panna
Maria. Polish priests also visited Victoria regularly well into the 1870's.
In Atascosa County, to the south of San Antonio, the Poles established a col­ony
at Las Gallinas. Known by the immigrants as Gaina, the community was
located in range country. It numbered as many as 25 families and also through
the 1870's was visited by traveling Polish priests, although like many of the other
small Polish colonies, it today has lost its Slavic ethnic identity.
As a result of the suffering from the drought of 1856-57, some Silesian immi­grants
departed Texas entirely. Traveling north to a place near the Missouri River
40
west of St. Louis, they founded a colony in Franklin County, Missouri, which
they called Krakow. They were joined by immigrants from other parts of Poland
and expanded their settlement area to include the communities of Owensville
and Clover Bottom. Contact remained between the Silesians of Texas and of
Missouri, with visits of individuals between the colonies through the years. A
former schoolmaster from Panna Maria edited a newspaper in Franklin County,
and there was even a "pilgrimage to Panna Maria" organized by local people
in 1973.
Silesian Polish settlement areas
continued to expand in Texas during
the later years of the 1800's as well as
in the current century. The next major
Silesian settlement founded in Texas
was at Czestochowa, about five miles
upstream from Panna Maria on Cibolo
Creek. By 1873 there were enough
Polish farmers in the area to establish
a school, which served the 'additional
purpose of being a chapel to which the
pastor from Panna Maria made a
monthly visit for Sunday Mass. On
other Sundays the farmers from the
upper valley had to go on foot or in
wagons to the mother colony. When the
church at Panna Maria was seriously
damaged by lightning and had to be
rebuilt, the farmers at Czestochowa de­cided
that they would be wiser to spend
their money building a new church
within their community, thus causing
a measure of bad feeling with the
people at Panna Maria. Despite the
The Black Madonna, or
Our Lady of Czestochowa
opposition, however, the Czestochowa farmers did build their own church, which
was dedicated in 1878. Several months later, as a sign of their reconciliation,
the parishioners from Panna Maria presented to the new parish a large painting
of the Virgin of Czestochowa, the patroness of Poland.
The next settlement founded in the valley of Cibolo Creek was Kosciuszko,
located in Wilson County a few miles farther up the valley. It was founded in
1892, when a Polish school was built there. The community was named for
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, hero of both the American Revolution and the Polish Insur­rection
against the Russians that began in 1792, the centenary of which was being
41
I I
The old convent building at Czestochowa
Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Czestochowa, consecrated in 1878,
later expantkd
42
celebrated by Poles around the
world at that time. The school
was followed by the building
of a church in 1898.
The last Polish colony
founded in the Cibolo Valley
was in Stockdale, a commu­nity
already established by
Americans years before Sile­sians
began moving into the
area in the late 19th century.
The Poles there erected a
small chapel, which was served
by priests from Kosciuszko,
but they never had the ability
to support their own pastor.
Convenient transportation
for agricultural product~
brought a number of younger
Poles from the older settle­Thaddeus
Kosciusko, Polish hero of the
American Revolution
ments to a new town named Falls City, founded in 1884 on a siding of the San
Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad between San Antonio and the Gulf of Mexico.
The movement to the new town, a few miles west of the Cibolo Creek settle-
., '
The City Saloon at Falls City, 1921
43
ments, doomed Czestochowa and Panna Maria to economic stagnation, while
Falls City became the center of business for the Karnes and Wilson County Poles.
From 1902 the Falls City Poles had their own Polish church and Polish schools.
Outside the area of general Polish settlement is the White Deer colony. Located
in the northern Texas Panhandle, the Polish community was founded in 1909.
In that year three young men from Panna Maria set out for west Texas to explore
the possibilities for beginning a Polish settlement in the region. They were joined
at Rhineland in Knox County by another young Silesian, whose family had
moved there, and the four headed northwest toward the Panhandle. Two of the
men found work in the wheat harvest, one returned home to help with the cotton
harvest, but one, Henry Czerner, remained to search for land. After discussions
with a number ofland agents and promoters, he met Timothy Dwight Hobart,
who represented the White Deer Land Company. Hobart agreed to give the Poles
an option on a large block of land in the vicinity of the White Deer community,
and that very year Poles began leaving south Texas for the Panhandle.
Henry Czemer and Ben Urbanczyk Wedding of Mary Gordzelik and Henry
Czemer at White Deer, 1912
By 1916 about 20 Polish families had settled at White Deer, but because the
others were slow in coming the land company put the remaining acreage up for
public sale, and others purchased all of it within six months. One of the first
things done by the Poles of White Deer as an organized group was the construc­tion
of a church. In 1911 they purchased land for it on the north side of the
town, and by 1913 they had built the structure. The Poles at White Deer con­tinue
to be an active group, and their annual harvest festival each autumn is
well known throughout the region.
44
The experiences of the Vincent Haiduk family give us some idea of what it
must have been like to settle at White Deer in the early years of this century.
In November 1910 the family moved from Panna Maria area to White Deer
in two railway boxcars. Most of the family, including seven children, their fur­niture,
personal belongings, and 450 bushels of shelled corn, rode in one of the
cars. The other boxcar carried one son, Ben, and all the livestock, which had
to be watered at each stop along the way.
After they arrived at White Deer the Haiduk family spent the next months
with one of their daughters, Rosie, who had married john Urbanczyk. The only
building at the farmstead was a granary, which to the great discomfort of the
residents faced the north and the cold, icy blasts of wind. During the day the
parents sent the children to walk along the railroad tracks to pick up pieces of
coal which dropped from the passing railway cars to fuel the one big stove that
sat in the center of the granary. Rosie Haiduk Urbanczyk was not at all happy
with her husband for having brought her to the windswept, treeless plains, and
she complained to him: "We have four children and there ain't nothing here."
Her husband replied that, despite the uncompromising surroundings, they were
going to stay and "going to make it." In later life Rosie reminisced, "So we made
it," adding with pride, "We had the first Catholic child born in White Deer."
~-
~ '-'
'
John Urbanczyk and family
46
The Civil War Years
During the 1850's the Poles and the Texans usually just eyed each other with
curiosity and from some distance. One man who accidentally rode into the Panna
Maria settlement in 1855 recollected in later years: "In the month of November
... we came upon some dugouts not far from the Cibolo, but we found people
there that couldn't understand what we said to them . . .. They might have
come from the moon or stars for what we knew or could find out." Of such
encounters one of the Silesians recalled: "Sometimes one of the Americans would
appear. We couldn't talk with them, so they just gazed at us in wonder, smiled,
and .. . went away." '
The feelings of many of the "native" Texans in the 1850's were prejudiced,
however. During these years in San Antonio there were a number of incidents
in which, for example, young troublemakers pelted both students and teachers
at a Catholic boys' school with stones. Intoxicated riders attempted to go on
horseback into the Catholic churches during religious services. At least some of
the negative actions were directed specifically against the Poles. About the same
time that the third group of Silesians were arriving in Texas the local newspaper
in San Antonio carried reports of public speakers warning "the late immigrants
from Poland ... not to settle in this section ."
The Silesians in Texas, for the most part, probably did not even know it when
the Civil War began in 1861. It was early in this year that the citizens of the
state voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession from the Union. The Silesian
47
immigrants had not been in the state long enough to have become voters, and,
furthermore, most of them still spoke only Polish. The war years were difficult
for the immigrants. Many of them despaired as the conflict dragged on and on,
seemingly forever. One of the Poles later related that "we were looking forward
to our end."
Most of the Silesians were either indifferent toward the Confederate govern·
ment or openly opposed to it. These feelings probably were not based on their
opposition to the institution of slavery, although no Silesian slaveholders have
been identified, but rather from the fact that many of them had come to America
so they or their sons could avoid conscription into the Prussian army in Europe.
They did not want to fight in anyone else's wars, either in the Old World or
in the New. Tales still told in Polish Texan families attest to the fact that the
Silesians tended to avoid all Confederate officials-especially conscription officers.
Relations became particularly strained between the two groups during the Civil
War years. This situation became even more serious when it was learned that
some of the Silesians had deserted from the Confederate Army to fight on the
side of the North. This information became common knowledge in the spring
of 1863, when the local San A,ntonio newspaper published the names of certain
soldiers who had changed sides. The list included several Silesians.
Also presenting problems on the home front were the shortages and inflation
of the wartime economy, the effects of which already were becoming evident in
south Texas by the second year of the conflict. By this time flour was selling
for $40 a barrel in San Antonio, cornmeal sold for $2.50 per bushel, and coffee
went for between $7.00 and $9.00 a pound, or for $1.00 in gold outside the city.
Footwear became especially expensive, with shoes costing $8.00 to $10.00 a pair
and a pair of boots selling for $20. If these difficulties were not already enough,
the area south of San Antonio to the Mexican border, especially after the fall
of Brownsville to Union forces in 1863, became infested w,ith renegades and ban-
A United States-Mexican boundary survey team at Brownsville
49
dits that preyed on the settlements in the area- many of them places inhabited
predominantly by Poles.
Coupled with the economic problems and diffiLulties with the Americans and
renegades, the war years saw a recurring drought. This time the dry period began
in 1862 and continued through 1865. Even though occasional rains relieved the
suffering for brief periods of time, most of the streams remained dry, and livestock
wandered off in all directions looking for both grass and water. As one American
who lived in Karnes County at the time recalled, the San Antonio River dried
up entirely and "stunk with carrion from its head to its mouth."
If all this were not already enough to cause the Silesians to despair, in 1863
they lost their only Polish priest. Father Julian Przysiecki had come to Texas
as early as 1857 and from 1860 onward, through the war years, he was the only
Polish clergyman in the state. He rode on horseback to serve the Poles from Panna
Maria over 100 miles to Bandera. The pastor was killed in a riding accident
at the Saint Hedwig community in 1863, where his grave may be seen today.
His death left the Silesians without a resident Polish pastor for three years.
To keep their faith alive, the Poles met in the little churches to recite the rosary,
sing hymns, and chant the Mass in the vernacular, while at least some of their
urgent religious needs were met by visiting priests, most of them French or
German Benedictines from San Antonio.
Although the Silesians attempted to avoid conscription into the Southern army,
a considerable number of them did fight for the Confederacy. One such person
Peter Kiolbassa dressed as a Union soldier John Moczygemba in Confederate uniform
so
-
was Albert Lyssy, an 18-year-old Pole from Karnes County. He was registered
for the draft in Karnes County in February 1862 and then was conscripted into
the 24th Texas Cavalry two months later. The unit was ordered to the Arkansas
Post, a reinforced earthen fortress up the Arkansas River from its mouth on the
Mississippi. Reaching there by October 1862, the unit spent time drilling and
building up the defenses of the fort against an expected Union attack. Life must
not have been too unpleasant for the men, for the winter was mild, and when
cool nights did come the troops had comfortable quarters in log cabins which
had been covered with split boards. They seemed satisfied with their rations of
pumpkins, cornbread, and sorghum.
The Union attack on Fort Hindman, near Arkansas Post, 1863
The expected federal attack came on January 10, 1863, at which time gun­boats
started bombarding the Arkansas Post with cannon fire, and federal troops
began landing below it. The next morning the Union forces began attacking
the fortress from both land and water. The Union forces greatly outnumbered
the Southerners, and most of the men in gray knew that they would not be able
to hold out indefinitely against their blue-clad enemy. As the federal troops were
preparing for another charge on the Confederate positions, without warning white
flags appeared among the men of the 24th Texas Cavalry. Before the Southern
officers could suppress the flags of surrender, Union soldiers crowded the lines
and made the capitulation complete. Thus unidentified members of Lyssy's own
unit effected the surrender of the Arkansas Post and the capture of most of its
5,000 defenders .
51
Without delay the Confederate troops were ordered to stack their arms. That
night they slept on the bank of the river, and the next morning they were placed
on troop transports and sent down the Arkansas and then up the Mississippi
to prisoner-of-war camps in the northern states. Lyssy and a substantial number
of his fellow prisoners, however, were not destined to sit out the remainder of
the war in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Union army officers already were discussing what to do with the foreign-born
men who had been captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post. On the fourth of
February 1863 the commander of Camp Butler, Illinois , wrote to one of his
superiors that many of the men held at the camp had been "pressed" into the
rebel army and that they were "anxious to take the oath of allegiance" to the
Union and join loyal federal regiments in camp nearby. He noted specifically
that these men were "foreigners, Germans, Polanders, etc." At the same time
the camp quartermaster made a similar report. Within a short time, as a result
of these requests, the commander of the United States Army Department of the
Ohio issued orders that all the men in the camps who had been "forced against
their will to serve in the rebel army" should be released and allowed to enter
Union regiments. Thus, within only a few days of their capture, Albert Lyssy
and a number of his compatriots were allowed out of the prisoner-of-war camps.
The last national flag of the Confederacy
52
After his release Lyssy joined the 16th Illinois Cavalry, where he served as
a private in Company G for a year. Then on May 12, 1864, he was captured
again, this time by the Confederates. The capture took place near Tunnel Hill,
not far from Dalton, Georgia, and at the time Lyssy was injured by two gunshot
wounds, one in the hip and another shattering the bones just above his right
wrist. A prisoner of war for the second time, Lyssy stayed a captive of the Con­federates
until almost the end of the war, when he was returned to Union hands
in an exchange of prisoners. While he was a prisoner of war in the South, Albert
received only limited attention to his injured arm and wrist, causing them to
grow together abnormally. After this happened nothing could be done to repair
the damage. Returning to Union forces on February 26, 1865, Lyssy went first
to Benton Barracks, Missouri, and then to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was
mustered out of service on August 19, 1865. He made his way back to Karnes
County, but he was never able to return to his former occupation as a carpenter
because of the injury to his arm. He was forced to leave the skilled job for that
of a teamster, where his right arm was needed less.
Another young Silesian who fought in the Confederate Army was Alexander
Dziuk. As a boy he had immigrated to Texas from the Upper Silesian village
of Ptuznica in the 1850's and had settled with his family in Karnes County. As
an older man he remembered the war years: "At the age of eighteen ... I was
drafted into the Confederate Army and sent to Arkansas ... . We were badly
fed, especially at the beginning, and were armed with old flintlocks . . . . I
remained in the Confederate Army until the end of the war and when I got back
home even my own mother could not recognize me." The probable reason that
his mother had difficulty in recognizing her son was that he had suffered serious
lung ailments in the army and lost a considerable amount of weight. His lung
problems were so severe, in fact, that he was given a disability discharge from
one of the units in which he served. Despite the health problems, however, Dziuk
lived to a ripe old age and became one of the most influential settlers in the Panna
Maria colony during the later years of the 19th century.
Not all the Silesians who fought in the war for the side of the North did so
by changing from one side to the other. Some of them entered the federal service
directly, as did Joseph Cotulla, for whom the south Texas town of Cotulla was
eventually named. Joseph had come to Texas from Upper Silesia in 1856. The
year before, some of his family members had preceded him. Later he, his mother,
and his grandmother sailed to Texas on the bark Von Bealieu, and then they trekked
to the Las Gallinas settlement in Atascosa County, where the other members
of the family had settled. In the second year of the Civil War young Joseph Cotulla
left his Las Gallinas home in the company of six companions, all of whom headed
for the Rio Grande and Mexico. They crossed the border and headed for Mata­moros,
where the group split up. Cotulla crossed the river into Brownsville, which
by that time was already in federal hands, and he volunteered to serve in the
53
1st Texas Cavalry in the Union Army, a unit composed primarily of Texans
who supported the North. He sailed under orders to New Orleans, met members
of his regiment, and then spent the next two years in the United States Army,
seeing action mostly in Louisiana. Cotulla received his discharge in San Antonio
at the end of the war and returned to his home in south Texas, where he became
a prominent rancher.
Joe Cotulla and family at their ranch home near Cotulla
The Poles were greatly relieved by the close of the war in late spring of 1865 .
They saw the federal victory as an act of God in his mercy relieving their long
suffering. As one Pole recollected: "At last God took pity on us: The Confederacy
was defeated." Even though the end of hostilities did' not solve all the problems
that the Silesians faced, it did bring most of the Polish soldiers back from the
battlefields to their families, and this probably was the most important thing for
both the men and their families .
54
Reconstruction for the Silesian
Poles in Texas
The Reconstruction period, the name generally given to the years immediately
following the Civil War, was probably the time of the greatest social unrest in
the entire history ofthe state of Texas. As the war ended, the Confederate adminis­tration
which had existed in the state deteriorated . Lawlessness became ram­pant,
and finally there were no legally constituted bodies to restrain it. The situa­tion
became so bad, for example, that robbers were able to break into the state
capitol in Austin to steal the last gold money that the state possessed. It was
not until June 19, 1865, that the first federal troops arrived in Texas to declare
officially the authority of the United States over the former rebellious state. It
was still several weeks before United States troops began reaching many of the
inland points to start restoring order.
Complicating the army's efforts to bring the lawlessness under control was the
fact that most white Texans resented the soldiers' presence. The Texans offered
very little resistance, but only because they lacked the force to do otherwise. To
the typical Southerner, the acts of the United States Congress were viewed as
hostile, and the loss of their voting rights and the granting of these rights to the
freed slaves were seen as acts of insult and oppression.
The lawless conditions in the state affected virtually all the Silesians either
directly or indirectly. In almost all the settlements Poles fell victims to thieves,
robbers, and even murderers. In urban San Antonio, in an incident common
55
at the time, Jacob Kyrish was severely hurt when he was mugged on a city street,
while for several weeks during 1869 a group of thieves operated in the area of
the Polish Quarter of the city, as the local press noted, working "near the Polander
church, stealing everything they can get hold of."
At Saint Hedwig an elderly Pole was the victim of Bill Thompson, brother
of the notorious Texas badman, Ben Thompson. Falsely claiming to be a deputy
sheriff, the outlaw "arrested" a man and charged him with stealing fence rails,
and then he "arrested" several former slaves and stole their guns. Next the hoodlum
came upon the old Silesian, a man in his eighties, and tried to rob him. The
Silesian was defiant, so Thompson shot him in the arm and side and then moved
on to harass others. For several days he and his gang of toughs terrorized the
road between San Antonio and Helena, the county seat of Karnes County.
Reverend Adolf Bakanowski
As if such incidents were not serious
enough, in Karnes County the difficul­ties
took on a serious political cast.
The area was known through the state
at the time as a lawless place, and by
chance it happened to be a center of
Unionist Silesian sentiment. Clearly
trouble was bound to erupt between
the resentful, defeated Southerners
and the "scalawag foreigners" who
supported the Union. As a sym­pathetic
Northern observer noted at
the time, "They seem to have settled
the meanest place in Texas." Father
Adolf Bakanowski, the pastor at
Panna Maria from 1866 to 1870, the
peak of the troubles, later remembered
the situation:
They knew that we Poles held
with the side of the North, so that was why they considered us their
enemies .... They began to make every effort to drive them (the
Poles) from the country, even by force of arms .... When they saw
a Pole without knowledge of the language, a peasant with no
education, these Southerners looked upon him as they did upon the
Blacks, and felt that they had the same right to deny him his human
rights as they did the Blacks.
Helena, the county seat, only four miles from Panna Maria, was the center
of the rebellious feelings. It furthermore had a statewide reputation as a rough
town. Even though the ordinary occupation of the inhabitants generally was stock
56
The old Karnes County courthouse at Helena
raising, a German immigrant, ~ho settled there in 1868, noted that they most
enjoyed stealing horses and raiding the freight wagons that passed along the near­by
road inland from the coast . A Northern sympathizer who passed through
the area about the same time described Helena as "a mean little Confed town,
with 4 stores, 4 whisky mills, and any amount oflazy vagabonds laying around,
living by their wits."
Violence first erupted between the Southerners and the Poles over the ques­tion
of voting rights. As new officials registered loyal citizens to vote in the sum­mer
of 1867, they permitted only freed Negroes and supporters of the Union
to sign up. Among these "loyal" voters were newly naturalized Silesians who had
never voted before. During the registration at Panna' Maria, a group of
Southerners rode in on horseback from Helena, acted abusively toward the
registrars, and actually beat two newly naturalized immigrants who, as the
cowboys jeered, wanted to make "d--d Yankees" out of themselves. One of the
Southern party announced before all present that he would wager any amount
of money that after only two months no one who took any oaths of allegiance
to the United States would be left in the town.
This incident was only the first of many in which the cowboys from Helena
harassed the Silesians. On numerous occasions the cowboys would ride into the
Polish village roping the children and shooting their pistols at the feet of any
peasants they happened to meet. In one incident they rode on horseback into
the church at Panna Maria during the Mass and conducted themselves in an
obscene way. When Polish men were not at home the other locals were known
57
to ride up to the houses and bang on the shutters to frighten the women and
children inside, while they also enjoyed the sport of riding up to open fires where
women were cooking or washing in order to throw a handful of bullets into the
fires just to see the foreigners run for shelter. In an especially cruel incident,
a party of toughs rode up to a Polish girl who was milking the family cow. They
frightened her severely, threatening to shoot her on the spot, and then, without
warning, killed the milk cow at her side.
The harassment continued until the spring of 1869 when, after a large group
of armed Southerners had harassed the entire Panna Maria community on Easter
Sunday, the Poles requested military protection from the United States Army
authorities in San Antonio. Apparently unknown to the Poles, plans already had
been made for the establishment of an army camp near rebellious Helena. Thus,
on April 10, 1869, the army came to Karnes County, and the temporary Post
of Helena was established at least in part for the protection of the loyal Silesian
farmers. Within a year the troops had restored Karnes County to order, and
the camp was abandoned as no longer necessary.
Federal troops guarding the election process
58
It was during the Reconstruction years that the Silesians began entering the
social and political life of the areas in which they lived. Emanuel Rzeppa of Panna
Maria initiated this activity by serving as justice of the peace for the precinct
encompassing the Polish settlement in 1869, but he was followed by many Silesians
in public office. Among these mid-19th century Polish participants in the political
process were August Krawietz as constable in Bexar County, Thomas Kiolbassa
as city alderman in San Antonio, John Adamietz as both deputy sheriff and county
commissioner in Bandera, Albert Adamietz as county treasurer at Bandera, and
Alexander Dziuk (the Civil War veteran) as county commissioner, Albert
Kasprzyk and P. Jurecki as constables, and Joseph Kyrish, John Gawlik, and
John Kusar as members of a committee investigating fire damage to the
courthouse, all in Karnes County.
John Adamietz
59
.
Hog slaughtering at Falls City, 1921
60
The Poles ' Come to East Texas
The social and economic problems which caused so much trouble for the
Silesians in the San Antonio area somewhat ironically set the stage for the begin­nings
of Polish immigration to east Texas, the other major area in the state in
which Poles settled. The immediate cause prompting their immigration was the
freeing of the Negro slaves upon whom the planters had depended as laborers
on their cotton plantations.
A group of Walker County cotton planters met in a general store at Old
Waverly, Texas, on September 19, 1866, to discuss their problems in securing
workers. At this very time the landowners may have b~en wondering how to
get their 1866 cotton crop out of the fields and to the cotton gins. The store where
the men met was owned by Meyer Levy, a Polish Jew who had lived for many
years in the South and who had various holdings in the state.
Meyer Levy was himself an interesting person. He departed Europe in 1848,
spending a short time in England, and then emigrated to the United States about
1850, landing at Norfolk, Virginia. He worked as a merchant and trader through­out
the Southern states in the years before the Civil War and appears to have
traded at various points on the Brazos River in Texas as early as 1858. After
the outbreak of the conflict Levy reportedly received a letter of marque from
the Confederacy and operated as a privateer and blockade runner, trading among
Southern ports, England, and the West Indies. His family lived in New Orleans
during the war, and his wife, the former Jane Hart of Georgia, is said to have
61
been imprisoned by federal troops after they occupied New Orleans on account
of her "impertinence to a Yankee officer." After the Confederate collapse Levy
returned to Texas, selling his ship to secure capital in order to reestablish his
mercantile business. It was a store built with this money in Old Waverly where
the planters met in September 1866.
The minutes of the meeting record the foundations laid for the arrival of the
first organized group of Poles in east Texas six months later. The 12 planters
gathered there "for the purpose of Considering the propicity (sic] of sending to
Europe for foreign laborers." C.T Traylor was selected as chairman of the
meeting, and H.M. Ellmore was appointed secretary. The members established
themselves as the Waverly Emigration Society and commissioned Meyer Levy
to travel to Europe to recruit 150 "foreign laborers" to work on their lands. Each
planter requested a certain number of workers, some of them asking for specific
types of skills, such as cook, house servant, "man about the Yard," blacksmith,
carpenter, gardener, "one Woman to cook, Wash, Iron & Husk." The planters
agreed to pay for the passage of the immigrants to Texas and to pay the men
$90, $100, and $110 for their work in their first, second, and third years in
America respectively, with women receiving $20 less for their labors each year.
In addition, the planters obligated themselves to provide the workers with a "com­fortable
cabin" and food .
"The First Bale of Cotton, " engraving by Frenzeny & Tavernier
62
The immigrants, in return, were expected "to do faithful labors and all that
may be required" as workers "on a Cotton Plantation, in Walker Co., in the
State of Texas, . . . for the period of three years, from the date of landing in
Texas." In addition , the immigrants were expected to repay to the planters from
their salaries in three installments the cost of their passage to America.
As the agent of the Waverly Emigration Society Levy sailed for Europe to
recruit the "foreign laborers" for the Walker County plantations. Finding that
Polish peasants in the years after the unsuccessful Polish Insurrection of 1863
were eager to emigrate to America, he recruited a party of them and sailed to
New York. According to one source, he allowed the emigrants to leave the ship
at New York "to see the city" while the vessel was being stocked with the provi­sions
for the remaining trip to Texas, and when the time came to sail "none of
them reappeared." He, thus, was forced to return to Europe for another group
of emigrants, which he did, arriving with them on the Texas coast sometime
in April1867. The group of peasant farmers passed through Houston in the fourth
week of April and then made their way to Walker County, about 60 miles to
the north. Thus, in May 1867 the first Polish immigrants to east Texas arrived
at their new homes.
The Poles settled in and aro'und what became the town of New Waverly. They
soon were joined by other Polish immigrants who had come to Texas on their
own and had heard that there already were Poles living in the New Waverly area.
During their initial years in the state the east Texas Poles worked as agricul­tural
laborers for the land owners, but within a decade some of them already
were buying their own land and erecting their own homes. As years passed and
the lumbering industry grew in the Walker County area, many young men from
the Polish settlement worked in the sawmills. This type of employment, as was
the case with agricultural labor, gave them the cash money they needed to buy
their own farms. By the beginning of this century the New Waverly Poles had
bought almost all the farmland near the community and ·had purchased or were
buying considerable amounts of land outside the immediate area.
New Waverly served as the mother colony for most of the Polish colonies later
established in east Texas. Although it was located in the Trinity River basin,
the other colonies were in the Brazos River valley, most of them in the rich bot­tomland
which was ideal for growing cotton. Large numbers of Poles passed
through New Waverly on the way to such communities as Anderson, Brenham,
and Chappell Hill.
The story of the Joseph Bartula family was repeated time after time with only
names, places, and dates changed, as hundreds of Polish families came to east
Texas. Bartula was a cartwright from the village of Brzostek, located in Pilzno
County in Austrian Poland. He and his wife and five children emigrated to Texas
in 1873. They landed at Galveston and journeyed to New Waverly, where they
63
St. Mary's Catholic Church at Bremond, about 1900
St. Joseph's Catholic Church at New Waver(y
64
heard that they would find other Poles. They spent a few months at New Waverly,
and then Bartula decided to move on to Bremond. Living there well into the
20th century, Bartula was well known in his older years as the founder of what
became the major center of Polish population in Robertson County.
In east Texas the Polish Catholic parishes indicate the location of Polish settle­ments.
As early as 1867, for example, the Reverend Felix Orzechowski, a priest
serving as a missionary in Texas from the Congregation of the Resurrection,
began visiting New Waverly to minister to the religious needs of the Poles living
there. After spending several months working under primitive conditions in the
Walker County area, he established Saint Joseph's Church at New Waverly in
1870. This was the first Polish church founded in east Texas, and it served as
a base of operations for other Polish missionaries in surrounding towns.
From the first years of Polish settlement New Waverly served as a funnel for
immigrants to other areas, such as the nearby towns of Plantersville and
Anderson. In these two latter locations the Poles followed economic pursuits more
or less the same as at New Waverly: they farmed first on rented land and then,
after they had saved enough money, bought their own property. From Saint
Joseph's parish at New Waverly, Father Orzechowski visited both of these newer
colonies, offering Masses in the homes of the immigrants. Six years after the
founding of the church at New Waverly, the Poles opened a new church at
Anderson, with Plantersville as its mission. Although the original church at
Anderson has been replaced, there remains a Polish parish in the town with
beautiful stained glass windows portraying Polish saints. Today the Polish parish
for the Plantersville community is located in nearby Stoneham. Anderson always
has had a greater population than Plantersville, a position which was enhanced
when approximately 100 new Polish immigrant families settled there after 1880.
The northernmost of the east Texas Polish colonies was the next to be estab­lished.
This community, Marlin, has a claim to age almost as great as that of
New Waverly. One writer recorded that as early as 1870"quite a group" of Poles
were already living in the town, while one of the early settlers there claimed that
in 1880 there were approximately 30 Polish families in the area. Joseph Bartula
of Bremond stated that in 1877 there were already 60 Polish families living in
Marlin, but this must have been an exaggeration, for the Polish population of
the town had reached this point only in the early 20th century. In spite of the
fact that the Marlin area had been occupied by Poles for many years, by the
beginning of this century only 13 of the 60 families living there at that time had
managed to buy their own farms . The others rented their land or sharecropped.
A Polish parish came into being at Marlin in 1872, when it was established
by the Reverend Joseph Mosiewicz. Through the years the Marlin parish re­tained
its Polish identity, as shown by the fact that 71 of the 87 families in the
parish in 1936 were of Polish origin. For a few years the Marlin church became
65
Hauling cotton bales at Brenham early in the 20th century
a mission of the daughter parish it had formed in nearby Bremond, but later
it returned to the status of being an independent parish, as it is today.
Probably the next Polish community to be established was at Brenham, the
county seat of Washington County. By 1871 small groups of 15 to 20 Polish
families annually began coming to the fertile area around Brenham, which already
was occupied by Germans and others. The earlier settler~ had started planning
for the establishment of a Catholic parish, securing the land about 1870. The
Poles joined them in founding the actual parish in 1875. With the passage of
time and the arrival of more Slavic immigrants, the Poles came to constitute
the majority of the parishioners, so that by 1936 they represented 150 families
out of the total of about 200 in the Brenham parish .
Poles began settling in the area around Chappell Hill, 10 miles east of Brenham,
about the same time that they started settling around the latter. In the rich, black
soil of the Chappell Hill area many of the Poles became wealthy farmers . A
description of the Chappell Hill-Brenham Poles early this century demonstrates
the level of affiuence that they had achieved: "It is a pleasant sight to watch the
Polish farmers on their way to church ... in [their) comfortable, even elegant
carriages, with expensive harness and handsome, well-cared-for horses."
66
In the early years priests from Brenham visited Chappell Hill to minister to
the settlers there, but in 1889 the Poles in the area decided to organize their own
separate parish. It exists to this day as the Saint Stanislaw parish of Chappell Hill.
In 1873 the first small parties of Poles began moving to the vicinity around
Bryan. They came there either from the existing Polish communities in east Texas
or directly from Europe for the next three decades. The Bryan Poles, unlike many
of their fellow countrymen in the other Polish colonies, lived in a very mixed
society. The town was first occupied by various people, including substantial
numbers of Irish settlers, and it grew through the arrival of Poles, Czechs, and
Italians. Perhaps because none of these ethnic groups were dominant, relations
among them were friendly and conducted in more social areas than in com­munities
in which one group predominated. In the early years all the Catholics
in the town shared the same church, with each group having special ethnic ser­vices
and festivals of their own. Bryan, which actually attempted to recruit new
immigrants, advertised itself and its Brazos valley region in brochures which were
printed in multiple languages. Several steamship companies had agents' offices
in the downtown Bryan business district. Such inducements undoubtedly must
have influenced some of the Poles to come to Bryan rather than to settle in other
towns or regions.
As already mentioned, Polish settlement at Bremond began with the arrival
of the Joseph Bartula family in 1875. Bartula found a job on the J.C. Roberts
plantation, was satisfied with the conditions he found, and started writing letters
to other Poles who then moved to the area. This started the Polish colony at
Bremond. Large numbers of Poles came to the area in the next few years, making
it probably the largest single concentration of Poles in the state. When Stefan
N esterowicz, a visiting Polish
journalist from the North, came
to Bremond in the early 20th cen­tury,
he declared, concerning the
town: "I am in the capital of
Texas Polonia."
Despite Nesterowicz's praise
everything did not always go
easily for the Bremond Poles.
When the 50 Polish families there
decided to build a church in
1877, they were so impoverished
that they could raise only 115
dollars. It was only the assistance
of others living in the area that
allowed the Bremond Poles to Stefan Nesterowicz and family
67
erect their church, and even after it was built they could not afford to pay their
first pastor a salary. He was forced by economic necessity to raise cotton as a
side occupation to give himself an income.
As the years passed many of the Poles in Bremond became successful mer­chants
and farmers. Six decades after the founding of their ethnic community,
a historian of the region gave them credit for having been the principal element
in the economic development of Bremond. The Poles came into commercial
prominence in the town; they were the largest religious body in the county and,
in general, took the commanding position in the social and ethnic affairs of the
Poles in east Texas. Stefan Nesterowicz was right: Bremond did become "the
capital of Texas Polonia."
Street scene at Bremond, 190 7
The later years of the 19th century saw the establishment of three additional
Polish colonies in the lower Brazos valley. These communities were within the
towns of Bellville, Richmond, and Rosenberg. Many of the Poles who settled
in this area came there from the Chappell Hill vicinity.
Working as cotton farmers as they had elsewhere in the state, the Poles in
the three southernmost east Texas Polish colonies were slow in founding their
own parishes. Even though the Bellville Catholics had erected a church building
as early as 1905 , it was 1942 before they could support their own resident priest.
In the 1930's over half of the 45 Catholic families in the town were of Polish
origin. At Richmond it was 1935 before the Catholic parish was organized,
although almost 70 years before, land had been secured for the erection of a
Catholic church. In 1935, when the church was built, the Catholic congregation
68
Mrs. Felix Urbanczyk and Mrs. Ben Urbanczyk posing with (stuffed) fox
70
r
Soldiers from Mexico
One very interesting group of Polish exiles came to Texas in the years follow­ing
the Civil War. Some of them settled among the Silesians while others located
in east Texas. These men were former soldiers in the army of Emperor
Maximilian in Mexico.
One of the better known of the exiles was Joseph Sadowski, a native of
Grujczyna in Grodno Province of Russian Poland. As a 15-year-old he fought
as a sharpshooter in Lelewel's division in the Polish Insurrection of 1863, seeing
action at Wlodawa and Siemiatycze. After the collapse of the insurrection por­tions
of his division were lured across the border into Austrian Poland by a Polish­speaking
Austrian army officer, whereupon they were captured and imprisoned
by the Austrians for several months in Krakow and later in Olomouc. After eight
months as prisoners this group of former rebels was given the opportunity to
leave the prison if its members enrolled in the Austrian army. Sadowski thus
joined the Polish Uhlans which within months were sent as part of Maximilian's
army to Mexico. His military unit sailed on the English ship Peru on a 48-day
voyage to Vera Cruz. Fighting for the emperor, Sadowski was captured by the
liberals, in whose army he found substantial numbers of Poles who had deserted
from the imperial army. Young Sadowski joined them for a while, but then he
deserted the liberal cause, "because of the lack of any kind of order." After the
death of Emperor Maximilian he received a passport to leave the country, but
had no money. "I walked on foot to the coast," he later related, "and having found
a ship there, I went on board and was taken, eventually, as a nonpaying guest,
71
Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1867
72
Maximilian, emperor
of Mexico
to Houston." From there he moved on to Rockport, where he worked for some
time in a slaughterhouse, and then about 1880 he settled in Bremond, where
he became a farmer.
Another of the exiles from Maximilian's imperial army was Mathew Pilarczyk,
who settled in Karnes County. He also came from Europe to Mexico in the army
supporting the French-backed Austrian emperor. After Maximilian's fall Pilarczyk
was captured by the liberals and, according to the stories he later told, he was
due to be killed by a firing squad. "The instant the Mexican gunners started
shooting," he related, "one comrade and I broke away and ran. Good fortune
attended us while almost all the others were shot down." Pilarczyk continued
his tale: "We reached the river and plunged in and swam it with Mexican
horsemen on our heels anxious to cut us down." The two men crossed the river
and came upon a Mexican teamster hauling wood and offered to give him
whatever objects of value they had if he would conceal them. "He saved our lives,
for when the horsemen came galloping up asking to be put on the track of fleeing
men this teamster directed them away from us and without question saved our
lives." Pilarczyk and his friend plodded on day after day until they reached the
Rio Grande and safety in Texas. Hearing that there were Poles at Panna Maria,
Pilarczyk made his way there, where he settled. In later years he married into
one of the Silesian families and became a substantial member of the agricultural
community. His grave today lies at the Panna Maria cemetery, and his
descendants enjoy telling visitors about their colorful ancestor.
Mr. and Mrs. Mathew Pilarczyk on their 50th wedding anniversary
73
Polish Life in 19th Century Texas
Most of the Poles who immigrated to Texas, whether to the San Antonio area
or to east Texas, had been farmers in the old country. After they arrived in Texas
the majority of them continued to till the soil. The fact that most of them con­tinued
to live in rural areas and to do the same type of agricultural work to which
they had been accustomed in Europe helped to cushion the cultural shock that
they felt in immigrating to America.
The Poles in Texas primarily became cotton farmers who raised a few head
oflivestock on the side. From the outset the immigrants in east Texas grew cot­ton,
and after the Civil War it became the most important crop grown by the
Silesians of the San Antonio area. Traditional accounts state that the Silesian
Poles learned how to cultivate cotton from freed Negro slaves during the
Reconstruction period. As one visiting writer noted, it gave them "the cash that
they wanted." Large crops just after the Civil War made substantial profits, but
soon the prices plummeted to as low as three cents per pound. An even worse
problem followed: the boll weevil invaded Texas cotton fields, destroying
thousands of acres of cotton in the fields annually. In Karnes County, where
the Poles were almost the only farmers in the 1880's, 44 percent of the 1887 crop
was ruined by the insects. Other years were not so bad, however, and 1889 was
a good year for the Poles. Some in Karnes County managed to produce a bale
of cotton to the acre in addition to making good corn harvests. The next year,
the valley of Cibolo Creek in the Silesian settlements was described as "a
magnificent picture of great fields of corn & cotton, sorghum, and ... oats."
75
A family of cotton pickers
The account described orchards, vineyards, and "great rows of bee stands," adding
that "the Emperor of Prussia is not more independent nor near so happy."
Most of the Silesian farmers worked on land that belonged to them or their
families, but when the Poles first started moving to east Texas, they worked on
land that belonged to other people. The majority of the east Texas Poles simply
lacked the money to buy their own land. They used one or the other of two plans
to pay the landlords for the use of the land . Some of the Poles agreed to pay
a sum of money per acre as rental. Early in this century the amount varied from
as little as $2.00 an acre in the New Waverly area to as ~uch as $6 .00 an acre
in the Chappell Hill vicinity. At some places in the New Waverly area the tenant
was allowed to clear brush and trees from a landlord's property and then use
the land for farming for a stipulated length of time rent free. Other Polish farmers
paid to use land by sharecropping. The farmers received the right to farm the
land in exchange for one-fourth of the cotton or one-third of the corn they raised.
According to a report by one agricultural expert, some of the Poles preferred
to rent or sharecrop instead of own their land. Like many other frontier farmers,
because they did not own the land, they felt no need to fertilize it or attempt
to conserve the soil through crop rotation. Thus, by renting, they could make
all the profit possible from a piece of ground and then move on to other fields
when they had exhausted the nutrients in the soil. Though such procedures may
have been profitable to individuals , they clearly were damaging to the future
economy of the region.
76
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mika and family of Panna Maria
Fortunately most Polish farmers were eager to own their own farms . The de­sire
to possess land, in fact, became a compulsion for some of the immigrants.
A Polish observer just after World War I noted that all the American merchants
and farmers with whom he had talked who lived around the Poles stressed that
the characteristic desire of the immigrants was to buy land. Another Polish visitor
a few years earlier noted that the desire to own land was a particularly Polish
trait because, through the centuries in Poland, land ownership had been tied
to political rights. He reported that nothing could cause the Silesians of the San
Antonio area to sell their land, and they always wanted to buy more. He added,
"There are peasants [in Texas] whose land is worth 50,000 rubles [$25,000], but
who are as poor as when they arrived."
The autobiography of one of the Polish immigrants, Peter Gorski, tells about
the change from tenancy to land ownership:
When I came to Marlin in 1880 there were about thirty Polish
families that had been living here for some time . . .
Not one of these owned his own land. They paid the landowners
three dollars an acre rent, or gave them a third of the corn harvested
and a quarter of the cotton.
77
The Pollok family of Panna Maria, 1913
Mrs. Felix Mika Sr. of Panna Maria, working in her vegetable garden
78
Twenty years ago [c. 1888], the first to buy land wasJ. Przybylski.
He paid fourteen dollars an acre. Soon after that E. Wilganowski fol­lowed
in his footsteps and bought a farm.
I farmed on rented land for twenty-two years, and seven years ago
[c. 1901] I bought a hundred acres for forty-two fifty an acre, paying
cash for the whole .
Today I wouldn't take seven thousand five hundred dollars for the
same land.
The Poles in Texas were considered by others to be very good farmers , a reputa­tion
which they retain today. Under the same conditions the Poles almost always
produced more cotton than others who lived around them. There are a number
of factors which contributed to this situation, but one of the most important was
that the Poles worked in the fields themselves. Because the Poles owned the land
and had immediate benefits from their hard work, they had motivation that hired
workers lacked. In addition, entire Polish families worked in the fields with the
men at harvest or when more labor was needed. They more than doubled their
work force in times of need without requiring any additional financial outlay
for labor.
Cooperation was one of the 'interesting features of Polish agriculture in Texas
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This cooperation frequently was
within families, such as father and sons working together at harvest or haying.
Such efforts were quite evident among the three Urbanczyk brothers, Ben, John,
and Felix, during the early years at White Deer in the Texas Panhandle. The
two younger brothers, Ben and Felix, bought many things together: tractors,
land, cattle, and automobiles. They even shared the first well that they drilled-
Ben Urbanczyk astride his threshing machine, 1908
79
located halfway between their two houses. When heavy agricultural machinery
became more readily available, the Urbanczyks bought their own wheat-thresh­ing
equipment together. At harvest time Ben ran a big Rhumley steam engine,
Felix operated the threshing machine, and John supervised the hauling of grain
to the threshing area with horses and wagons.
The other form of cooperation common among the Poles was among neigh­bors,
usually in age groups. The men who had grown up and played together
as youths helped each other with their agricultural work as older men. This was
a general exchange of working time in which, for example, the farmers of a cer­tain
area met at one farm to harvest a crop and then moved on to the next farm
and then the next until the harvest for them all was completed. As mechaniza­tion
continued in the 20th century the exchanges among same-age groups were
replaced with contract work. As one man bought a corn picker, another purchased
a hay baler, etc., and with a comparatively limited capital outlay entire neighbor­hoods
became mechanized.
Felix Urbanczyk and family at White Deer, 1917
80
Business and Commerce
Although the struggle required great effort on their part, most of the Poles
who came to Texas advanced both socially and economically. Some of the
immigrants found their success in agriculture, while others did so in business
and commerce. One of the most prominent Poles during the 19th century was
Edward Kotula, who became an influential merchant in San Antonio. He was
born in Silesia in 1844, immigrating to Texas as a boy and living first at Panna
Maria and then at San Antonio. His father died while he was a boy, so from
an early age Edward had to earn a living for himself. First working as a teamster,
he later began carrying mail on horseback between towns during the Civil War.
After the conflict he secured a position as a clerk in the mercantile establishment
owned by Dan and Anton Oppenheimer in San Antonio. Rapidly moving up
in the firm, he then invested his savings in an adobe general store with a capital
of 1500 dollars. He succeeded and continued to expand his commercial business
until he finally moved his store into a large business located on Military Plaza
in the city. Entering other commercial areas, particularly ranching, real estate,
and wool marketing, he built a reputation as a "wool king of Texas." After 1893
Kotula closed his store on Military Plaza and devoted his efforts to his other
interests. He died in 1907, a greatly respected member of the San Antonio busi­ness
community.
The range of the economic mobility of the east Texas Poles may be seen in
the numbers of commercial establishments they owned. At the beginning of this
century in Bremond, the center of the greatest Polish commercial activity, there
81
Ed Kotula as a student at St. Mary's College in San Antonio, 1888
ED. KOTULA. A. B. STEPHENS. ED. B. KOTULA.
ED. KOTULA & CO.
~rirm! GROCERIES ~eu!
402 Military Plaza, San Antonio, Texas.
Advertisement for Ed Kotula & Co.
Interior of Ed Kotula's store on Military Plaza in San Antonio
82
were many Polish-owned businesses: three blacksmiths, two cotton gins, a butcher
shop, a wholesale beer distributor, several saloons, several grocery stores, one
pharmacy, one dry goods store, and a hotel. In contrast, at the same time the
Bryan colony had only one Polish business to patronize, a saloon.
Not all the Poles were successful. One notable Pole who "went bad" was Martin
Mr6z, a young Silesian from the San Antonio area who became an outlaw in
the Pecos River valley of New Mexico and far west Texas. Martin left the San
Antonio area in the 1880's and, with three other young Poles, went to Live Oak
County to become a cowboy.
Dee Harkey, who later became a United States marshal, was a friend of Mr6z
at the time, and he later wrote of these days: "I knew him when he couldn't talk
English." Mr6z moved on west, and by 1890 he had gathered his own band of
cattle thieves operating in the Pecos River valley near present-day Carlsbad, New
Mexico. He was described as "a big, rough, blue-eyed blond who wore neither
underwear nor boots," but who went about in a pair of rough brogan shoes. He
married a buxom, fair-haired prostitute in the saloon town of Phoenix, New
Mexico, and built up a notorious reputation as a man not to be disagreed with.
In the spring of 1895 the local cattlemen's association offered a reward for the
arrest of Mr6z. He was captured, then escaped, and finally fled across the border
to Juarez. There he was arrested by Mexican authorities but subsequently released
from jail. In the meantime his wife had come to El Paso, on the Texas side of
the river, to try to get him out of the Mexican jail. She hired the well-known
gunman, John Wesley Hardin, who had read law in prison and who had been
pardoned by the Texas governor, as her
attorney to secure Martin's release from
jail in Juarez. After Mr6z was freed he
was surprised and angered to learn that
his wife and Hardin were living togeth­er
in a rooming house across the river.
To add insult to injury, the two were
living on money which he had left in
his wife's possession. Because of the
reward for his arrest, Martin was
unable to cross the border for fear of
apprehension by lawmen. Finally on
June 29, 1895 , he was lured across a
railway bridge by United States
Marshal George Scarborough on the
pretext of seeing his wife and was killed.
As Dee Harkey recollected, ''When
Martin and Scarborough started john ffislry Hardin
83
A street scene in Juarez, Mexico, about the time that Martin Mroz was evading law officers
through the weeds [at the American end of the bridge], I do not know what was
said, but Scarborough killed Martin." The body of Mr6z was buried in the
Concordia Cemetery at El Paso, and within only a few weeks the space next
to him was filled by the mortal remains of his rival, John Wesley Hardin, who
was killed in a gunfight.
'
Relations between the Poles and other Texans should not be judged by those
of Martin Mr6z with the lawmen of El Paso and the Pecos valley. The relations
between the two groups, however, must be viewed in two parts: those of the
Texans with the Silesians of the San Antonio area and with the east Texas Poles.
After the end of the Reconstruction period the Silesians and their Texas neigh­bors
lived in comparative harmony, although the two groups continued to remain
somewhat distant in all but commercial and official dealings.
The Polish settlers were not the only immigrants to suffer discrimination and
unfair harassment at the hands of earlier settlers. This is often the case as the
people who feel themselves "native" come to fear economic competition or act
on social prejudice.
There were occasions when other Texans came to the aid of the Silesians, as
one did by giving the stone for the building of a new church at Saint Hedwig
in 1867. In another gesture of good feeling toward the Poles, three times more
Americans than Poles attended the 1879 funeral of the Reverend Bronislaus
Przewlocki at Bandera.
In east Texas the Poles appear to have been considered by some as mere re­placements
for the black slaves. The separation of the white Southerners and
the immigrants was shown by R.L. Daniels in an 1883 article published in
Lippincott's Magazine, in which an east Texas Polish farmer was portrayed as calling
his landlord "Massa," a term generally reserved for use by the former slaves in
addressing their masters. Daniels observed that during a Polish wedding feast
85
he attended in east Texas, the doors and windows of the house were filled by
spectators who were "mostly our colored friends, who good-naturedly condescend
on such occasions to patronize 'dem white niggahs,' whom they hold i.n undis­guised
contempt." Only a few sentences farther in the article, he noted the literacy
of the Poles, stating that an astonished Negro man remarked, "Dey kin write
an' cipher same like white folks." Clearly, for many years the east Texas Poles
held a somewhat subordinate position.
Relations of the Poles with the Negroes also were mixed. In the Silesian settle­ments
of south Texas the two groups generally got along amicably. After the
Civil War it was the freed slaves who reportedly taught the Silesians how to cul­tivate
cotton, and during these years some of the Poles employed blacks as
agricultural laborers.
In east Texas the Poles and the blacks were in direct economic competition,
a situation which did not provide a background for good relations. Each group,
however, seems to have been able to accommodate itself to the presence of the
other, and very few examples of conflict between them have been noted. When
Stefan Nesterowicz visited the east Texas Polish colonies early in this century,
he observed interestingly that the spoken English of the Polish farmers in Planters­ville
and Anderson was something akin to "the Negro dialect" because "They
have more to do with the blacks than with the Americans." Even more curious
was the journalist's comment that in the Chappell Hill area, "almost every black
understands a few words of Polish,'' an ability that few whites were able or willing
to show. ·
The principal European ethnic group with whom the Polish Texans had deal­ings
were the Germans. In east Texas there seem to have been comparatively
smooth relations, as was the case between the Silesian Poles and the Germans
..
Reverend Vincent Barzyriskz~
about 1866
in the San Antonio area. There were
exceptions. The earliest known conflict
between the two groups was over language
use in the Catholic church at Meyersville
in DeWitt County. This conflict was
resolved when most of the Poles left that
parish and joined other Poles in the York­town
church. After the Civil War the two
groups again had a disagreement related to
religious matters. In 1866 the Germans in
San Antonio were actively organizing their
own separate Catholic parish, and they
attempted to convince the Poles to join
them. Seeing what he felt to be an attempt
of the organizers to Germanize the Poles,
their pastor, Father Vincent Barzynski,
86
Faculty and sturknts of St. joseph's School, Meyersville, about 1898
The Rafael Kolodziejczyk family of Yorktown
87
protested: "The Germans are great for giving advice and ruling the Poles ...
but we ... do not want to change our faith for theirs, because we Poles have
our own saints in heaven." The Germans then organized their parish without
the help of the Poles.
Only the Silesian Poles
had dealings with Mexicans,
but these were oflong stand­ing.
From their first days in
Texas the Silesians had
known the Mexicans, initially
as the teamsters who drove
oxcarts for them from the
coast to the sites of their set­tlements
inland. In addition,
it was a Mexican, Andreas
Coy, who was one of the first
persons to help the Poles
during the great drought of
1856-57. Soon the relations
between the two groups
became even more intimate,
with one of the Silesians,
who happened to be one of
the Reverend Moczygemba's
brothers, marrying into a
John Moczygemba and family Spanish family during the
early years of settlement.
Spanish-speaking people frequently lived near the Silesians, and many of the
young Poles first learned their native Polish, then Spanish as a second language,
and finally English as a third. A visiting Polish anthropologist' in 1930 said that
the Mexicans had influenced Silesian culture in Texas more than other groups.
One group of nonagricultural Poles in Texas were the coal miners who worked
for a number of years at Thurber, about 70 miles west of Fort Worth. The town
was the site of mines opened in 1886 by the Johnson Coal Company and sold
in 1888 to the Texas and Pacific Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Texas and
Pacific Railway. A high percentage of the inhabitants of the company town were
immigrants, and most of the actual underground work was done by Poles and
Italians, who lived on what was known as Hill Number 3. A railway line leading
to the mines bisected the hill, with the Poles living on the south side and the
Italians on the north.
Among the best-remembered occasions in Thurber were its Polish weddings.
Before the service in the Thurber Catholic Church the bride and groom in their
88
Downtown Thurber, 1910
july 4th celebration at Thurber, 1910
View of Thurber, town owned by the Texas & Pacific Mining & Mercantile Company
89
Vl!edding of Pauline Tudyk and Thomas Katzmarek at St. Hedwig, 1894
festive dress were driven about the town to show off their finery. After the wed­ding
service the couple rode to the bride's parents for a magnificent wedding
feast. Frequently hundreds of guests attended the celebrations, which sometimes
lasted for three and four days. When night came it was time for dancing either
in the parents' home or in the dance hall located on "Polander Hill." These dances
also served as a means of se~uring money for the new couple. In order to dance
with the bride it was necessary for a man to throw a coin, trying to break a big,
thick dinner plate. If he failed to shatter the plate, he lost both his money and
his opportunity to dance . Most of the guests chose to throw silver dollars, which
were more likely to break the plates. As one historian of Thurber wrote, "It was
not uncommon for the newly married couple to receive three or four hundred
dollars by the time the celebration was over," adding, "if the bride was pretty
and popular, and if she chose her attendants with care, the 'plate breaking' income
would often be more."
Most of the Poles left Thurber when the coal mines closed in 1921, although
a few remained for a decade to work in the nearby oil field and brick factory.
In 1933 the company closed the town entirely, demolished most of the buildings,
and left it the ghost town that it remains today.
91
Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Yanta and daughter Mary of Panna Maria
92
Polish Texans in the 20th Century
As the years passed the manifestations of the 20th century began appearing
in the Polish towns and communities. When a Polish visitor arrived at Falls City
in 1907, he looked around from the railway platform to see the wooden false­front
buildings and loungers watching the day pass by only to be surprised with
the discovery that "there are telephones in this desert!" Not long after this visitor
came to Texas, automobiles began appearing in the Polish colonies. One of the
first Silesian families to own