ALL historic research by Maureen Mroczek Morris
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Webpage content by: Maureen Mroczek Morris
Founding of the Polish Society of
California in 1863
1877
Polish Society of California Records in City Directories
Letters Written by Polish California Pioneers in the San Francisco Bay Area
Polish Historic Sites in Northern California
Feliks Paweł Wierzbicki Award/Who was Dr. F.P. Wierzbicki?
2010 Interview with Krystyna Chciuk
Interview Links, Krystyna Chciuk
Pioneer Graves – California Polanders
Please help us identify the Poles in these photos
Read about the Anniversary Banquet: Cosmopolitan Review | PAHA | Zgoda
To obtain a Powerpoint copy of the slide show “From Pioneers to Silicon Valley”
Or a hard copy of the Commemorative Booklet, email:
|
April 1863: Polish
residents of San Francisco assembled at the Russ House
22
May 1863: GRAND MASS MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO
THE POLISH SOCIETY
OF CALIFORNIA is one of the oldest civic organizations in California and
among the oldest Polish societies in the United States. In the Spring
of 1863 San Francisco’s Polish pioneers established an organized society
to raise awareness of Poland’s 1863 struggle for independence (the January
Uprising). The Central Polish Society of the Pacific Coast (as it was
then called) was headquartered at the Russ House Hotel
in San Francisco. The first president (and co-founder of the
Society with Captain
Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski) was Captain
Kazimierz Bielawski under whose leadership the Society prospered. In solidarity with Poland’s
struggle to regain her freedom, the Poles in San Francisco arranged an
unprecedented, well-organized public campaign that raised funds for the
January Uprising and attracted the attention and support of the general
public. On May 22, 1863, in the City of San Francisco, a
“Grand
Mass Meeting in Favor of Polish Freedom and Nationality” was
convened, chaired by the newly-elected Mayor of the City, the Honorable Henry
P. Coon. The outspoken and enthusiastic support of many prominent
members of the California State Senate, the State Assembly and Civic Leaders
in San Francisco for Poland’s 1863 struggle for national
independence lent prestige to the Polish Society and furthered its goals. Polish-Americans in
Northern California have made significant contributions to the State:
In 1849 Aleksander Zakrzewski,
“engineer in the Topographical Corps of the Polish Army,” was a early member
of the Polish Society. He drew The Official Map of
San Francisco that hung for a time in the Mayor’s Office; he is also
known for publishing a lithograph entitled “View of the Procession in
Celebration of the Admission of California, Oct. 29th, 1850” (Lithograph
by Zakreski [sic] & Hartman). Dr. Feliks Paweł Wierzbicki
(pioneer physician and member of the Medical Society of the State of
California) published the first book in English in California [California as It is and
as It May Be. A Guide to the Gold Region, 1849];
he also authored the first book on California mines.
Dr. Wierzbicki is immortalized in a mural [by Polish-Jewish
artist Bernard Zakheim] in Toland Hall at UCSF
Medical Center. Count
Krystian Bolesław Hugo Soliński (Christian
William Hugo Solinsky) was a Polish 49er, as was Aleksander Putrament and others. Captain Kazimierz Bielawski,
first President (and co-founder) of the Polish Society of California,
surveyed Spanish land grants in California, and reportedly assisted in the
purchase of the State of Alaska from Russia. He drew and published a railroad map
(1865) of California and Nevada. Martin
Prag was a highly esteemed merchant who worked for the “cause of
Poland.” Aleksander Hołyński wrote California’s Gold Rush
Days in 1851 (he died in Paris in 1893). World-renowned stage
actress Helena Modrzejewska
(Modjeska) began her career in San Francisco with the help of local expatriates (Captain
Kazimierz Bielawski, Dr. Władysław
Pawlicki, Julian Horain, Gen. Krzyżanowski
[1870s], Aleksander Bednawski, Captain Franciszek T. Lessen,
and Captain
Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski); Andrzej (André)
Poniatowski, brother-in-law of banker William H. Crocker,
brought to the Bay Area the first hydroelectric power lines from dams in the
Sierra Nevada (now owned by PG&E); Captain
Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski (prototype for Nobel-prize-winning author Henryk Sienkiewicz’s
Trilogy literary character Zagłoba)
was an immigration officer, a designated “agent for Poland” and a friend of
California civic leaders; he was instrumental in naming the mining town “Sebastopol” on the
Cosumnes River; his fellow countryman, Franciszek
Michał Wojciechowski (aka Francis Mitchel) who settled in the mining
town of Sebastopol was Sienkiewicz’s inspiration for his Trilogy
literary character Longinus Podbipięta. His one-time housemate was
Polish-immigrant and gold country farmer, Franciszek Domański.
Korwin Piotrowski roomed with Łukasz Kryński in 1880. For two years Henryk
Sienkiewicz lived in California--for a time with Helena Modrzejewska in
Anaheim and Franciszek Wojciechowski in Sebastopol (former mining town in
Sacramento County). Dr. Jan Strentzel, physician and friend
of Dr. Pawlicki, was one of the pioneer horticulturalists of the
State, and father-in-law to naturalist John Muir. Dr. Marcel M. Pietrzycki, graduate of San Francisco’s Toland
Medical College became one of the best-known physicians in the State of
Washington. Colonel James Cannon Zabriskie
was a prominent San Francisco and Sacramento attorney. Gabriel Sowulewski was a Yosemite trail-builder, Aleksander S. Wołowski was a pianist, and so on. Other
early Polanders include Franciszek
Domański, Jan Degórski, Adalbert Wichrowski, Wincenty Lutnicki
(Lutnesky), Piotr Zambrzycki (Zambresky) and Jan Zachert.
Pianist Henryk Wieniawski visited San Francisco,
as did artist Jósefina [Jósefa] Junosza
(Stanisław Pstrokoński; Henryk
Sienkiewicz). Read
more.
Click here for a partial list
of Society Members (1864) Charles Meyer, Dr. L. J. Czapkay, Martin Prag, Julian
Władysław Andrzejowski, Charles H. Berlin, Franciszek
Michał Wojciechowski, Leon Czajkowski, Joseph Pałecki, Konstanty Łuniewski,
Morris Greenberg, Elie Lazard, Dr. Elkan Cohn, Max Wolff, [Max Wolff, cantor] Some early members of the Polish Society of California
included: * Dr.
Marcel Pietrzycki, physician -- an ardent
worker for Polish Independence * Dr.
Władysław (Ladislaus) Pawlicki, physician; personal friend
of San Francisco’s Archbishop
Riordon Members Listed on the recreated PNA Lodge 7 Charter, 1880
(originally Lodge 4; now part of Council 4): Jan Banachowski, Kazimierz Bielawski,
Władysław Borejko, Antoni Czarnecki, Konstanty Wiktor Engelman,
Max Engelman, Teodor Ferenc, Antoni Fijałkowski,
Gustaw Hejlman, Antoni Hirschfelder, Paweł Jachowski, Władysław Januszkiewicz, Józef Jerczyński, Ignacy Jocz,
Ignacy Kolasa, Andrzej Kopankiewicz, Count Leon Bronisław von Łąski, Aleksander Maliszewski,
Kazimierz Nowak,
Jan Nowak, Ignacy Olbinski, Ludwig Opio, Władysław
[Ladislaus] Pawlicki, M.D. Former
officers and members of the Polish Society included Captain Kazimierz Bielawski,
Captain
Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski, Dr. L.J. Czapkay, Dr. Władysław
[Ladislaus] Pawlicki, Aleksander Bednawski, Charles Meyer, Morris Schloss, Captain Franciszek
(Francis) Teofil Lessen, Gustav Hejlman
(Heilman), Antoni Hirschfelder, Antoni Czarnecki, Franciszek
(Francis) Czarnecki, William
(Bolesław) Sinkwitz, Michał Bracławski, Ignacy Kolasa, Józef Paudler, Edmund Zbigniew Brodowski,
Stanisław Stróżyński, and others (see the 100th Anniversary Booklet).
[Read about Jewish life
in San Francisco in the 1860s; “American Jerusalem”.] The Kawałkowski
family was active in the Polish community in San Francisco, specifically in
the St. Stanislaus Society. "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
Bo[d]zenta-Chłapowski, husband of the
acclaimed Shakespearean actress, Helena Modrzejewska.
Modjeska’s acclaimed English-language teacher was Jo Tucholska (Tucholsky). The Society's library was enriched by a collection of
books donated in 1864 by the Polish poet Kornel Ujejski. " –Quote from Silent
Heroes by Wanda Tomczykowska, based on the work of Miecislaus
(Mieczysław) Haiman & others.
Helena Modjeska’s
husband, Karol Bożenta Chłapowski,
donated books to Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski of The Polish Society of
California; these were immediately donated to the Society. Since 1880, 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 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. FOUNDERS’
OBITUARIES Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski (by Aleksander
Bednawski) (February 1883)
KAZIMIERZ BIELAWSKI (March 1905)
The
white eagle on a red shield represents crown lands, or Poland proper; the
white knight on a blue shield, known as Pogon (the Chase), was the coat of
arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Michael the Archangel symbolizes
the Duchy of Ruthenia. In
using this symbol of unity, the Revolutionary Government hoped, without much
success, to engage Lithuanians and Ruthenians in the common struggle against
Russia. The
January Uprising failed, but a member of the Revolutionary Government, Agaton
Giller, inspired the founding of the Polish National Alliance.
Consequently, the founders of the Polish National Alliance adopted this
symbol for its fraternal emblem. The
"shaking hands" denote PNA fraternalism. |
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Library | 100th Anniversary | 130th Anniversary | 140th Anniversary | 150th Anniversary
Historic News Articles | San Francisco City Directories | 1876 Museum Gift
Bay Area Polish Heritage Festival Booklets: 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018
Historic Letters (Sienkiewicz, Modjeska, Strentzel and more!)
NorCal Polish Historical Sites