The Polish Society of California, Lodge 7

of the Polish National Alliance

Lodge 7’s representatives on the Board of Directors:

Krystyna Chciuk: Society President

Piotr Filipowski

Frank Jasinski

Anna Maria Słonina-Oczoś

Mary Kay Stuvland

Iwona Stafanczyk Szarek

 

THE POLISH SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA was created in 1863 by idealistic and patriotic members of the Central Polish Society of the Pacific Coast (also known as the Central Polish Committee) that convened at City Hall and in the military headquarters of the Russ House in San Francisco.  The first president and co-founder of the Society was Captain Kazimierz Bieławski (U.S. Surveyor General and draftsman) under whose leadership the Society grew in membership and prestige.  Aleksander Bednawski was an officer of the Polish Society of California from 1875 to 1897.  The Polish Society of California was the first of its kind on the Pacific Coast and one of the oldest Polish societies in the United States.  Charter members were:

 

* Dr. Marcel Pietrzycki, physician -- an ardent worker for the cause of Polish Independence
* Dr. Władysław (Ladislaus)Pawlicki, physician; personal friend of San Francisco Archbishop Riordon
* Mieczysław Balczynski, renowned San Francisco architect
* Izydor Levinson, engineer in San Francisco
* Izydor Marcinkowski, Franciszek Kosmolski, J. Bieniowski, Wiktor Dobrogoski, and Aleksander Elgass

 

Prince Andrzej Poniatowski, "a very enthusiastic worker in the Polish Colony, …paid for as many as 10 members of the [Polish] Society…"  One of the society's great supporters in the 1870s was Count Bodzenta-Chlapowski, husband of the great Shakespearian actress, Helena Modrzejewska.  The society's library was enriched by a collection of books donated in 1864 by the Polish poet Kornel Ujejski.  [Text from Silent Heroes by Mme. Wanda Tomczykowska]

 

Since 1885, the Polish Society of California has been known as Branch (or Lodge) 7 of the Polish National Alliance.  The Polish National Alliance of the United States of North America, popularly known as the PNA or the Alliance, is the largest of all ethnically-based fraternal insurance benefit societies in this country.  The Polish Club Inc. and the PNA Lodge 7 are both long-time sponsors of Łowiczanie Polish Folk Ensemble.

 

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