Polish Family History

Polish Family History

The first appearances of Polish people in America occurred in 1608. Some of these Poles were hired by the London Company to bring their industry skills to Jamestown. The Poles created glass house shops, and pitch and potash burners. These products became some of the first exports of Jamestown. As a result of their success more Poles were invited to America. They were always cooperative and willing workers. In 1619 more Poles landed in America with the intent to manufacture pitch, tar and resin for ships. They also helped start the timber industry that was necessary for shipbuilding. On July 21, 1619 the Legislative Assembly granted Poles the right to vote. Thus, the Poles were one of the first groups that fought successfully for civil rights. Polish immigration to America increased in 1776, the year of the American Revolution. The Poles that ventured to America in 1776 were traveling to fight; they supported the idea of self government. Count Kazimiere Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciusko were generals during the Revolutionary War. With the end of the Civil War in 1865, all slaves were freed and manual labor was in short supply throughout the south.

On September 19, 1866 a group of Walker County cotton planters met in a general store at Old Waverly, Texas, to discuss their problems in securing workers for their plantations. The store where the men met was owned by Meyer Levy, a Polish Jew who had lived many years in the south and who had various holdings in the state. Within minutes of the meetings record, the foundations laid the arrival of the first organized group of Poles in east Texas. The 12 planters gathered there for the purpose of considering the propicity of sending to Europe for foreign laborers. C.T. Traylor was elected 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 cooks, wash, iron and husk. The planters agreed to pay for 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 themselves with a comfortable cabin and food. The immigrants, in return, were expected to do faithful labors and all that may be required as workers on a Cotton Plantation, in Walker County for a period of three years, from the date of landing in Texas. In addition, the immigrants were expected to repay 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 to Europe to recruit the foreign laborers for the Walker County plantations. Polish peasants in the years after the unsuccessful Polish Insurrection of 1874 were eager to immigrate to America; he recruited a party of 24 families from Krakow and Bochnia Austria/Poland and sailed to New York. The families left Betna Bitz, Austria/Poland, for Hamburg, Germany, where they took a ship on April 15, 1874 and headed for New York City. Forty-five days later they reached New York, registered at Stanton Island. According to letters left in my family, he allowed them to leave the ship called the Gramon to see the city while the vessel was being stocked with the provisions for the remaining trip to Texas. They then headed to Galveston where they arrived on June 8th. Immediately the families took a train for Phelps, Texas, where it arrived around midnight. A log wagon was there to take them to the Hill Plantation near present "Old "Waverly. It is said that the women cried and wondered why they left Poland for so much misery as they traveled to the plantation. Of the group of peasant farmers were my great-great great grandpa Dunot Bochnia, his wife Ursurla, and their four children: Jan (John), Wawrzyniec (Wash or Ike), Katazyna (Catherine), and Jozef (Joseph). Francisek (Frank) was born at sea between Key West, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. Wojciech (George) was born later in New Waverly.

The families arrived on the plantation at day break. Mr. Hill met them and gave those separate houses where each family received barrels of food, including sugar, bacon, ham, flour, and whatever else they needed. After a couple of days of rest each able man was given an ax to clear land and start farming. The trees were thick and there were not any crosscut saws. Each had to be cut in four foot blocks, split for cordwood, hauled to a side switch, and shipped from New Waverly to Houston. Dunot and his family lived on the Hill Plantation for two years, they then moved to the Browder Place. On July 30, 1884, Dunot bought 154 acres of land in the John Saddler League near the Walker-Montgomery counties line from Michael Tafelski for $1,232. There he and Ursurla spent the rest of their lives farming. They grew cotton, corn, peanuts, potatoes, and other crops. During those years their sons worked in the saw mills at the lumber yard in Walker County. This gave them cash money to buy their own farms.

The majority Polish immigrants were Roman Catholic like mine. They tended to stick together in large groups of Polish settlers. For the most part the Polish people clustered in tight groups. They continued their religion, setting up the St. Joseph Catholic Church, which was greatly attended. In 1877, approximately 40 families including mine started the plans for the church. The first church was a box-house type of approximately 20 by 30 feet. My great great-great grandpa helped cut the wood and build the walls for this church. Two lots were purchased for one dollar with the condition that they would be used exclusively as the site for a church and school building for the use and benefits of the members of the Roman Catholic