Live from Winona (II)

Yesterday was another day of digging for gold in the Polish Museum, followed by an evening of chasing trains around while trying to wrap my brain around all that I am learning. And before I hit the road this morning (headed for Pine Creek), here are a couple of the more interesting quotes from my breakfast-time reading. The first comes from Professor Borzyzskowski himself (56-57)

The diocesan capital of Pelplin, an ancient seat of Cistercians who arrived there in the 13th century from Bad Doberan, constituted a particular religious center for Poles and even more for Kashubs. The crucial factor was the position of the bishop and seminary, where generations of Polish and German clergy had been educated, where everybody had to know Polish, what enabled understanding of Kashubian. That role had been increasing since 1836, when the bishop's progymnasium was founded as Collegium Marianum to be known as a forge of Polishness, and since 1869, when the journal and publishing house "Pilgrim" was established. The ministry and position, also the financial status of a clergyman formed for many Kashubian-Pomeranian families, especially rural ones, a professional climax for their sons' careers. Therefore, Kashubian proverbs said Who's got a son in Pelplin, who's got a daughter in the convent, who's got a priest in family, won't be touched by poverty.

This would confirm that religious vocations were cultivated and discerned in Kaszubian families; as in other Catholic cultures, having priests and/or nuns in the family were considered an honor. The next quote is from the Kashubian-born Rev. Augustyn Hildebrand in his 1865 Pelplin book upon the former Pomeranian archdeaconry, quoted at Borzyzskowski 57-58.

At present, the number of Kashubs amounts to more than 120,000 souls. In the modern times, among all Polish tribes, these people have been exposed to the highest danger of losing their tongues and their native customs because of the German element. Indeed, in spite of the numerous unfavorable circumstances, the Kashubs have faithfully preserved their holy Catholic religion as well as both their tongue and the customs of their forefathers. One should expect that they shall still preserve their mother tongue and transmit it to their children, together with the native customs and virtues which have guided their forefathers. Although the language of the Kashubs differs in some words and way of pronunciation from the pure Polish nation, it does not mean that they form a nation separate from the Poles, as various German tribes who speak different vernaculars do not constitute separate nations. The Kashubs always speak purely Polish, if one speaks to them in a clear and slow way. They use prayer books in correct Polish and the priests preach to them also in correct Polish. And nobody who thinks fairly would refuse respect to clergymen who truly care about safeguarding and maintenance of the mother tongue among their parishioners.

Father Hildebrand's clear "Hochdeutsch-Plattdeutsch" delineation between Polish and Kaszubian provides a key to the roles of Polish and Kaszubian among the immigrants in Winona and Pine Creek.

Live from Winona

I'm up here in Winona this week, spending the remnants of my summer "vacation" in my ancestral stomping grounds. In the morning I go to the Polish Museum (now with awesome Wikipedia page), to soak in the ambiance, look through the collections, and chat with any of my countrymen and countrywomen who happen to pass through.

Here's a delightful little snippet (translated in the English version of Borzyzskowski's The Kashubs, Pomerania and Gdansk, p. 62) culled from a 1911 article in Gryf by the Kaszubian scholar Jan Karnowski (1889-1939).

The Kashubian population is characterized mainly by two attributes: religiousness and justice. Religiousness is a fundamental breathing of the Kashubian soul, not guided by reasoning, but deeply grasped through feelings. It is in customs, tradition, and above all the personality of priest that stand in for the reasoning. The justice of a Kashub is firm, persistent, with no allowances. This may be a reason for that famous suing mania, that relentless stubbornness and persistence in own rights. A Kashub is ready to forgive all faults and grudges. But he shall never forgive an injustice. 

It is enough to hurt those two aspects of a Kashubian soul and the hostility will last forever! Such an effect had the anti-Polish policy of the Prussian government. As said above, more or less until the period of Kulturkampf, the Prussian government enjoyed a significant confidence within the Kashubian population. The cultural struggle, however, opened their eyes.

Confirming, of course, a lot of what I already suspected about my countrymen and countrywomen. But it is interesting to note Karnowski's contention that most Kaszubians were "more or less" comfortable with Prussian rule prior to the Kulturkampf. The fact that my Kaszubian forebears were not driven out from their homeland is important because it suggests (among other things) that when they reached Winona they did not bring any particular feud with the Germans. Perhaps their desire to form their own congregation with their own Polish priest was simply that.

Reverend Joseph F. Cieminski (II)

Old SS. Peter and Paul Church,
Duluth, MN

In 1910, Father Cieminski transferred to Duluth, Minnesota, to serve as pastor to the troubled parish of Saints Peter and Paul. According to the 1917 Acta et Dicta of the Saint Paul Catholic History Society (vol. 2, page 262), Duluth's second Polish Catholic church had become a battleground between the Diocese of Duluth and a group of "independent" parishioners determined to bring it into the Polish National Catholic Church. Already a group of "independents" had seceded from Duluth's first Polish Catholic church, Saint Mary Star of the Sea, resulting in the 1907 foundation of Saint Josephat's Polish National Church. The legal battle over Saints Peter and Paul had been won, but Father Cieminski had to spend the next five years putting the parish back in order.

1915 saw Father Cieminski moving to another trouble spot, the parish of Holy Cross in Minneapolis, founded in 1886 by his mentor and friend, Father Pacholski. Holy Cross had been in turmoil for several years, due to a scandal involving (or not involving) its longtime pastor, Father Henryk Jazdzewski. Sensing an opportunity, a faction of "independents" had already broken away from Holy Cross and founded Sacred Heart Polish National Church. Again, Father Cieminski was called upon to heal a congregation and bring it safely back to the fold.

In 1932, Father Cieminski, now aged 65, replaced the late Father Pacholski as pastor of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in WInona. For the first time in his career as a priest, Father Cieminski had the enviable task of building upon an already rock solid foundation. Nor did he need to worry about following in Father Pacholski's giant footsteps. For one thing, he was Kaszubian born and Winona raised; for another, he had drawn some of the very toughest parish assignments in three separate dioceses and succeeded every time. In 1943, his exemplary efforts were rewarded when Pope Pius XII raised him to the rank of Monsignor. In 1946, his retirement after fifty-one years in the priesthood was celebrated with an outpouring of gratitude of respect from his parishioners, his fellow priests, and the Winona community.

Father Joseph F. Cieminski died in a Saint James, Minnesota retirement facility on November 19, 1959. Over his ninety-two years he had experienced - and taken an integral part in - dramatic changes for both the Roman Catholic Church in Minnesota and the Kaszubian community of the Upper Mississippi Valley. He lies buried in Winona, among other members of the Cieminski family, in Saint Mary's Cemetery.

Reverend Joseph F. Cieminski (I)

Jozef Franciszek Darzyn Cieminski was born on August 4, 1867 in the Kaszubian village of Borzyszkowy, which is in the parish of Bytow. He was the first of ten children born to Franciszek and Maryanna Darzyn Cieminski, who emigrated from Prussian Poland to the United States in 1881 aboard the paddle steamer Grimsby.  The humble peasant boy's fifty-one years as a Roman Catholic priest would take him from the post of archdiocesan Secretary to the rectory of a Polish colony on the Minnesota frontier, and from Minneapolis troubleshooter to respected patriarch of Winona's Kaszubian Polish community. Kaszubian born and American educated, Father Joseph F. Cieminski exemplified through his long and accomplished life the hard work and achievements of America's Kaszubian Polish community.

Young Jozef studied in Winona schools until he went away to seminary. He was then ordained in Saint Paul, in 1895. Father Cieminski's first assignment was as secretary to Reverend John Ireland, first Archbishop of Saint Paul. The strong-minded Archbishop Ireland, it should be noted, was no admirer of Eastern Europeans, or of Poles in particular. But Father Cieminski's talents were soon needed elsewhere. His first parish assignment transferred him to Saint Stanislaus Kostka in the newly established Diocese of Winona, where he served as assistant to the pastor, Father James W.J. Pacholski. The fact that Archbishop Ireland dispatched his secretary out of the diocese to work alongside the extremely capable Father Pacholski suggests that the disturbances at Saint Stanislaus were more substantial than the records (at least those presently available to me) would indicate.

Father Cieminski's next assignment, in Wilno, Minnesota, returned him to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul. The Polish colony in Wilno had been established in 1883 under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. It represented an attempt to steer underemployed Polish-American urbanites into the Archdiocese's wide-open western spaces; an outstanding recent article by John Radzilowski treats Wilno as an exemplar of Polish-American farm life. Radzilowski also chronicles Archbishop Ireland's ham-fisted attempt to control Wilno's Saint John Cantius parish by replacing a popular Polish-speaking priest with an unfortunate Bohemian priest who (due solely to his ethnicity) was run out of the parish in some time. 

From 1896 to 1902, Father Jan Andrzejewski had labored to build for St. John Cantius what Father Waclaw Kruszka describes as "a new, spacious, and magnificent temple," only to depart just before the building's consecration in a confrontation (according to the 1983 Parish Jubilee Book) over the church organ. Arriving in 1902, Father Cieminski brought the parish back into line despite the fact that Father Andrezejewski remained in Wilno for quite some time. In 1906, Father Cieminski also engaged the School Sisters of Saint Francis from Rochester (otherwise known as the Rochester Franciscans) to staff Saint John Cantius's elementary school. In 1907 Father Cieminski was recalled by the Diocese of WInona as pastor of Saint Casimir's Church in Wells, Minnesota. It would be nice to think his three years in the little Faribault County town were free of any major troubles. Two extremely challenging assignments lay ahead in the near future.
In 1910, Father Cieminski transferred to Duluth, Minnesota, to serve as pastor to the troubled parish of Saints Peter and Paul. According to the 1917 Acta et Dicta of the Saint Paul Catholic History Society (vol. 2, page 262), Duluth's second Polish Catholic church had become a battleground between the Diocese of Duluth and a group of "independent" parishioners determined to bring it into the Polish National Catholic Church. Already a group of "independents" had seceded from Duluth's first Polish Catholic church, Saint Mary Star of the Sea, resulting in the 1907 foundation of Saint Josephat's Polish National Church. The legal battle over Saints Peter and Paul had been won, but Father Cieminski had to spend the next five years putting the parish back in order.

1915 saw Father Cieminski moving to another trouble spot, the parish of Holy Cross in Minneapolis, founded in 1886 by his mentor and friend, Father Pacholski. Holy Cross had been in turmoil for several years, due to a scandal involving (or not involving) its longtime pastor, Father Henryk Jazdzewski. Sensing an opportunity, a faction of "independents" had already broken away from Holy Cross and founded Sacred Heart Polish National Church. Again, Father Cieminski was called upon to heal a congregation and bring it safely back to the fold.

In 1932, Father Cieminski, now aged 65, replaced the late Father Pacholski as pastor of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in WInona. For the first time in his career as a priest, Father Cieminski had the enviable task of building upon an already rock solid foundation. Nor did he need to worry about following in Father Pacholski's giant footsteps. For one thing, he was Kaszubian born and Winona raised; for another, he had drawn some of the very toughest parish assignments in three separate dioceses and succeeded every time. In 1943, his exemplary efforts were rewarded when Pope Pius XII raised him to the rank of Monsignor. In 1946, his retirement after fifty-one years in the priesthood was celebrated with an outpouring of gratitude of respect from his parishioners, his fellow priests, and the Winona community.

Father Joseph F. Cieminski died in a Saint James, Minnesota retirement facility on November 19, 1959. Over his ninety-two years he had experienced - and taken an integral part in - dramatic changes for both the Roman Catholic Church in Minnesota and the Kaszubian community of the Upper Mississippi Valley. He lies buried in Winona, among other members of the Cieminski family, in Saint Mary's Cemetery.

Reverend James W. Gara

Jakub (James) Gara was born on March 3, 1875 in the coal mining village of Jawiszowice, which is roughly 50 miles west of Krakow in modern Poland. He was one of ten children born to Jan and Sofia (Chromik) Gara; his older brother Andrew (1859-1922) was also a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse. Unlike Andrew, who studied for the priesthood in Rome before being ordained at La Crosse, Jakub pursued his vocation after emigrating to America in 1893. After attending seminaries in Detroit and then Milwaukee, Jakub was ordained to the priesthood on January 6, 1898 at La Crosse.

Father Gara's first few years as a priest were spent pastoring small parishes in the logging towns of northern Wisconsin. On June 19, 1904 he became pastor of Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Church in the largely Kashubian community of Pine Creek, Wisconsin. Until this time, it was common for Polish-speaking priests to move frequently from one parish to another. Father Gara's longest serving predecessor, Father Dominik Majer, had been pastor in Pine Creek for six years, from 1878 to 1884. His own older brother, Father Andrew Gara, had served the parish from 1898 to 1901. Father James Gara would serve as pastor of Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus until his death at the age of 62 on December 29, 1937.

As pastor of Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus, Father Gara was of course at the center of the local Catholic community. In these days, the word of the pastor in a Roman Catholic parish was virtually law. Since Pine Creek and the nearby town of Dodge were nearly 100% Roman Catholic, this role was even more significant. Although the majority of his parishioners spoke Kashubian Polish as their native language, and not "good" Polish, Father Gara immediately became the honored and revered leader of Dodge-Pine Creek's Catholics. Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus's buildings and furnishings were maintained in excellent shape, and new structures were built as needed. The parish itself remained debt free, no small accomplishment during the Great Depression. Father Gara's forceful preaching and powerful oratory were also well known across the river among Winona's Kaszubian Polish community; as Rector of the Pine Creek Deanery he provided crucial assistance to the Bishop of the La Crosse Diocese.

Yet Father Gara's devotion to Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus was most obvious in his everyday attention to his people's spiritual needs. Over his more than three decades as pastor he performed countless baptisms, weddings and funerals. He heard thousands upon thousands of hours' worth of confessions. He was always prepared to go out and attend to a parishioner in distress, regardless of the time or the distance involved. Despite his high status in the community, Father Gara always remained a man of the people. Ron Galewski recounts how the popular priest enjoyed stopping by the saloons of Dodge and Pine Creek to buy a round for the house, and laughed as the lucky beneficiaries joked about where their Sunday collection money was going.

Years of this service took its toll on Father Gara's health. On June 24, 1936, he was elevated to the rank of Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius XI, with the title of Monsignor. On September 21, 1936 he was formally invested in this role at Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus by Bishop Alexander J. McGavick of LaCrosse, as around one hundred area priests and other dignitaries looked on. Yet shortly afterward, the new Monsignor Gara was assigned an assistant pastor to help him in his duties. On December 7, 1937, Monsignor Gara was admitted to Saint Francis Hospital in La Crosse. He insisted on returning to his beloved parish for the Christmas services but was forced to go back to the hospital in days. He would not live to see the new year.

More than 1,500 people attended Monsignor Gara's funeral at Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus on January 3, 1938. The mourners included priests and nuns from all around Wisconsin and Minnesota, other local dignitaries, and (of course) his beloved parishioners. According to the Winona Republican-Herald for January 5, 1938, many of those in attendance had to stand outside the church. He lies buried among his flock in Sacred Heart Cemetery, where his grave looks out over the church and the countryside he loved and served so well and for so long. Out of all the selfless priests and sisters and brothers who have served Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus over its 150 years of existence, Monsignor James W. Gara best exemplifies the role they have played in the life of the parish.

Derdowski w Winonie (II)

When Hieronim Derdowski assumed the editorship of Wiarus in 1887, Winona became a major center of Polish-American intellectual life. At the end of the nineteenth century, two fraternal organizations competed for influence in American Polonia: the more traditional "Polish Roman Catholic Union of America" and the more liberal "Polish National Alliance. Wiarus may have changed it affiliation back and forth from one to the other, but the force of Derdowski's impassioned rhetoric never faltered. And whether or not one appreciated the sound of Derdowski's voice, it was always heard: in Minnesota, in Chicago, on the East Coast, and even in the Old Country itself.

Derdowski held his countrymen and countrywomen in Winona even closer to the heart. He shared Father Byzewski's vision of Wiarus as the defender of Winona's Kaszubian community. But he also used Wiarus to guide them in balancing their multiple identities as Kaszubians, Poles, Americans, and Catholics. His famous statement Nie ma Kaszëb bez Polonii, a bez Kaszëb Polśczi (No Kaszubia without Poland, no Poland without Kaszubia) was aimed both at the Old Country and the United States. Derdowski supported the use of the Kaszubian language and the retention of Kaszubian customs at home. But he also saw that as part of American Polonia (that is, the Polish community in the United States), Winona's Kaszubians would also require a command of "good" literary Polish. Ultimately, the Kaszubian language would more than hold its own in Winona well into the twentieth century but the Polish identity prevailed almost immediately.

By the time of Derdowski's arrival, Kaszubians were already playing an increasingly large role in Winona's political life. The Fourth Ward was already quite a Democratic bastion; John Balthasar Bambenek had been elected to the Winona County Commission in 1886 and would serve as member and chair for the next decade. Wiarus encouraged good citizenship and followed the practice of endorsing candidates for elective office, but Derdowski focused his personal efforts more on public causes, such as obtaining better working conditions in Winona's sawmills or raising bond money for the Winona and Southwestern Railroad. Of course, he still enjoyed public mudslinging matches with other members of the Polish community, as in this 1893 bout with one Klemens Brelinski of Chicago.

Derdowski also involved himself - perhaps too much so - in the affairs of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Parish. As always, his opinions were rapidly and powerfully expressed. After Father Byzewski left in 1890, a series of pastors and assistant pastors served Saint Stanislaus, some of whom met with Derdowski's approval and some not. Tensions often rose, especially during the parish's rapid growth in the early 1890s and the buildup to the construction of Saint Stanislaus Basilica. When Father Konstantin Domagalski was run out of the parish or when the School Sisters of Notre Dame Convent was besieged, or when the Parish Council rebelled... Derdowski was in the thick of things, fanning the flames. With the 1894 arrival of Father James W.J. Pacholski as pastor, Saint Stanislaus returned to an even keel and Derdowski became a more settled (if not perfectly so, as this excerpt from January 1896 demonstrates) participant in the life of Winona's Kaszubian Polish community.

Sadly, Derdowski did not have long to live. He had never fully recovered from a 1902 stroke, and providing for Joanna and their two daughters, Harriet and Helen, was always a strain. He was able to eke out a living with Wiarus and by running a printing business on the side. . Sadly, his death in 1902 was scarcely even noticed by the Republican-Herald. Joanna Derdowska kept up the good fight, running Wiarus until 1915, when she sold the newspaper and moved with her daughters to Saint Paul. Paradoxically, Pani Derdowska's death in 1929 was marked by a much greater expression of the debt Winona owed to her and her larger than life husband.

Derdowski w Winonie (I)

Saint Mary's Cemetery sits nestled among the bluffs which mark the south-eastern edge of Winona, Minnesota. The south-eastern corner of St. Mary's rises steeply to a bluff-side mausoleum complex which marks the cemetery's southern boundary. This is the old Polish section, where a wild array of monuments, many home-made, mark the resting places of Winona's first- and second-generation Polish immigrants. Close to the road at the foot of the old Polish section is a simple granite headstone, more substantial than most of the humble markers surrounding it, but certainly not garish or even ornate. Beneath this stone, all but forgotten in his adoptive home town, lies the Kaszubian Polish culture hero Hieronym Derdowski.

Hieronym Derdowski was born on March 9, 1852 in the southeast Kaszubian village of Wiele, and emigrated to the United States in 1885, at the age of 33. By this time, Derdowski had already studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood in Rome, fought against the Prussians as a soldier in the French army, been a five-time visitor to German jails, and (for the last five years) a prominent newspaper editor in the city of Torun. However, Derdowski was far better known for his poetry. He was equally at home writing in the "good" Polish of the literary elite as he was in the Kaszubian vernacular he had grown up speaking. Indeed, his 1880 poem O Panu Czorlińscim co do Pucka po sece jachoł (Mister Czorlinski Goes to Puck for Fishnets) is commonly regarded as the start of Kaszubian literature.

Derdowski was not, at the time that he emigrated, under threat of arrest. He was broke, but he always had been broke and he always would be broke. His precise reasons for emigration are still the subject of much speculation, but it seems to me that he felt he had exhausted his possibilities in German Poland. America offered a growing Polish diaspora along with financial opportunities and other freedoms he would never know in his homeland. In America he could start again, make a fortune, win new fame... and start a family. He had already identified his future bride, Joanna Lubowieczka of Gostomie. Once he had established himself in the new land Joanna would come over to become his wife. In the spring of 1885 Derdowski mortgaged his share of his inheritance for 300 crowns and took the big step.

In America, Derdowski moved from city to city, from newspaper to newspaper. He found new causes, started new quarrels, and quickly made himself a name. But he had not started to make a home. His Kaszubian friend, Father Jan Romuald Byzewski, had become the pastor of Winona's Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church in 1875. The Polish newspaper he and some parishioners had recently started, Wiarus (Faithful Defender), needed an experienced editor. Would Derdowski consider a move to Winona? In the middle 1880s Winona was still a thriving, blossoming town with a bright future. It also contained one of the nation's largest concentration of Kaszubian Polish immigrants. The culmination of his dreams was almost completely within reach.

The missing part of Derdowski's happiness soon appeared in the person of his beloved Joanna, who arrived from Poland in October 1887. On October 29 of that year Father Byzewski united them in marriage  in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Hieronym Derdowski took the train to Winona, where they were met at the Milwaukee Road station and conducted to their new living quarters over the Wiarus offices at Second and Carimona. And there I will leave them for the time being. But I have a modern side note to pass along.

I gleaned most of this information from articles in a book I found, quite by chance, and purchased at The Book Shelf in downtown Winona this spring. I could not wait to get out to the corner of Second and Carimona to visit the site of the Derdowskis' first home. But there was no two-story building within a block of that intersection. Could the author, Dr. Leo Ochrymowycz, have confused something? Doubtful. But I could not doubt the evidence of my eyes, either. Further research turned up a Wiarus office with upstairs living quarters at 329 East Third Street. But 329 East Third Street is not on the corner of anything, and Dr. Ochrymowycz had definitely said "corner." Then, a picture from The Kaszubian Community of Southeast Minnesota caught my eye. A publication from the Wiarus press clearly stating that it had been published "Second and Carimona."

I started searching again. This time I started looking through Winona city directories, and found that there had been a pharmacy at 579 East Second Street in 1906. It was later the Marouschek grocery. Searching for "579 East Second" at the Winona Newspaper Project turned up an an article dated September 6, 1887 stating that the city had granted "Mr. Frank Drowskowski" (that is, Frank Drazkowski, president of the Wiarus) to move his business to that location.

Dr. Ochrymowycz had been right all along - but what had happened to the two-story building on the corner of Second and Carimona? It turns out that the Marouschek grocery had been leveled by a gas main explosion in January 1919.

The Founder of Pine Creek?

     These perplexing sentences introduce the section on Pine Creek in the 1917 Curtiss-Wedge History of Trempealeau County:

It was probably around 1862 when the Polish people began to settle in Pine Creek. They were induced to locate here by John Schmangle, a man who spoke English, German, and Polish.

"Probably around 1862:" the origins of Pine Creek were mysterious even a century ago. The questions of who first settled there and when they settled will likely never be worked out satisfactorily. But I do think I have solved the mystery of who "John Schmangle" was. Or at least some of it.

    The US Land Office records show that John Schmangler of Trempealeau purchased the SESE quarter of section 34 in Arcadia Township, totaling 40 acres, on New Year's Day 1861.

He apparently homesteaded this property: military records show that John Schmengler of Arcadia enlisted in Company C of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on August 20, 1862. He was mustered out on September 20, 1865, without having participated in any of the Civil War's major battles. On June 1, 1868 he purchased two more parcels of land: 40 more acres of section 34 in Arcadia Township and 58.27 acres of section 2 of Dodge Township. An 1877 plat map of Trempealeau County lists "J. Shmengler" owning property in Dodge. He then passes from the history of Trempealeau County.

     The 1900 US Census shows John Schmengler, born in Germany in December 1832, veteran of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, as living in Hazel Green, Wisconsin. A1903 transaction shows that one Florence A. Cannon, of Duluth. took possession of 120 acres in Itasca, Minnesota homesteaded by John Schmengler. The 1905 Wisconsin state census is the last to mention him; he is buried in Hazel Green beneath a headstone indicating his military service but no date of death.

Why did someone who evidently played such a major role in the founding of Pine Creek vanish so completely? It would be fascinating to know more.

Katarzyna Bambenek 1861-1887

  In 1882 Winona, the wedding of two Kaszubian Poles tended not to be newspaper material. But on April 19 of that year, the Winona Republican Herald noted among its "Local Brevities" the nuptials between Mr. Jacob Bronk and Mrs. Kate Czapiewska. I remember seeing this pop up on the Winona Newspaper Project site and being struck by (for lack of a better word) the dissonance between the Anglo-Saxon diminutive "Kate" and the properly inflected Polish feminine surname "Czapiewska."

As noted, Jacob Bronk (1851-1919) was a city policeman; he had been widowed in the previous year. A son of Winona's first Kaszubian settlers, Jozef and Franciszka Bronk, he was becoming a man of stature in the local Polish community. Kate Czapiewska was born Katarzyna Bambenek on April 15, 1861 in Widno, Poland, daughter of Marcin and Magdalena Stoltman Bambenek. This made her the older sister of my great-grandfather Karol Bambenek (1864-1937).

I was able to learn on my own that Kate was the widow of one Walenty "Valentine" Czapiewski. From Jacob Bronk's 1889 marriage to his third wife Mary, I inferred that Kate did not live to see her twenty-eighth birthday. For quite a while, that was it. But church records show that Walenty Czapiewski died on December 25, 1881 from a stone-working accident. The Winona Republican Herald of December 27, 1881 remarks the accidental of one "Billy Chopla," who must be the same man.  Church records also indicate that Katarzyna Bronk died, aged twenty-six,  on December 16, 1887 from complications of childbirth. She was survived by her husband Jacob Bronk and their two children: John (1883-1966) and Agnes (1884-?).

     Although I seem to have lost track of Agnes, who is last recorded by the 1930 US Census living with her husband Harry Means in San Francisco, CA, I am pleased to report that Katarzyna Bambenek's descendants through her son John are alive and well and thriving to this day. Being able to prove that her stock has not totally vanished from this earth makes me rather less unhappy about her too short life.