History & Culture

Buffalo's Polish Pioneers

Stephen Grendel

It is more difficult to write the history of Buffalo's Polish pioneers than of its first Italian or German settlers. In the case of the latter, the gathering of material is easier, because Germans and Italians came to Buffalo regularly in one interval of about thirty years, beginning to immigrate to this area first as individuals, then in small groups, and after a number of years in crowds. The pattern of Polish immigration appears to be somewhat different. Some Polish names are mentioned during the early period of the village of Buffalo but they soon disappear. The same happens with a few other Polish pioneers who came to Buffalo and left the city, going probably farther west after only a few weeks or months of living here.

The forerunners of Polish permanent settlers began to appear in the rapidly growing city of Buffalo about 1850, but they seem to include only Jewish people from the Russian dominated part of Poland. We may, therefore, consider the year 1870, or perhaps a few years preceding it, as the point which really marks the beginning of permanent Polish settlement in this area. These immigrants were the true pioneer founders of Buffalo's Polish community and builders of the Polish cradle on the east side of the city.

The first Pole usually mentioned in connection with Buffalo is Pieter Stadnicki, claimed by some to be one of the founders of the city of Buffalo. He was supposed to have personally assisted Joseph Ellicott in making the first survey of the streets of the future city. Rev. Waclaw Kruszka, a Polish American historian, accepted this story about fifty years ago, and others repeated it after him. However, we have not been able to verify this claim through research; we could not find any proof that either Pieter or his brother, Jan Stadnicki, ever visited America or lived in Buffalo. We have found only that at the turn of the nineteenth century the firm of "Pieter Stadnicki & Son" was well-known for its speculation in American securities and lands; it was located in Amsterdam, Holland, and later became famous as the greatest stockholder in the "Five Houses". Joseph Ellicott named two streets in the Village of Buffalo after Stadnicki and Busti, but neither of these men ever lived here, according to available extant records. Buffalo's Polish historical memoir, Księga Pamigtkowa Zlotego Jubileuszu Osady Polskiej i Parafii Św. Stanislawa B. i M., 1873-1923, contains interesting stories about early Polish pioneers and settlers that give leads for research; but in many cases these stories differ from the official records of the state and federal censuses and the City Directories, and verification is not possible. On the other hand, we should also take into consideration the contemporary statement of John J. Henderson, a commercial editor of the Buffalo Daily Courier, who on February 23, 1856, stated as follows: "It is admitted on all hands, and we have every reason to suppose, that the Census of the city has not been accurately taken. In every ward there are families, who were never called upon..." Therefore, we are not always obliged to take the records of the censuses as final.

Other alleged Buffalo Polish pioneers include Count Komorowski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Major Mogilski, Captain Bzowski, Krzyzanowski, Kazimierz Stanislaw Growski, Henry K. Glowacki, Grabowski, Chaplain Sebastian Szczybury, and Grzegorz Bniski. The claims regarding them cannot be verified, or only tenuously and tentatively.

The name of Count Komorowski is connected with the early Holland Land Company and the surveying of the Village of Buffalo. That Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz made a journey to Niagara Falls was inferred from his poem:

In boundless savannahs, where man never strayed
Amid woods, that nen'er echoed the axe's keen blade
In the foaming abyss, where the clouds of bright stream
Round the falls of the roaring Niagara gleam.. .

It is now known that Niemcewicz, an aid-de-camp of Kosciuszko, sojournend in the United States from 1797 to 1807, and that he visited Niagara Falls in October 1805, but there is no proof that he visited Buffalo.

Major Mogilski was supposed to live in Buffalo about 1834, selling history books written by Joseph Hordynski of Boston. Captain Bzowski is said to have come to Buffalo in 1833 and to have lived for many years on Fillmore Avenue among the Poles. He supposedly died in 1896. But he may be considered a legendary figure, because in 1896 Polish newspapers were published in Buffalo, and his name would undoubtedly be mentioned in them. However, his name is nowhere to be found, and he cannot be verified.

Dr. Francis E. Fronczak claimed that "for a time there lived in this city" Krzyzanowski, who may be identified as General Wladimir Krzyzanowski. At the age of thirty-six, he was authorized to organize a regiment of infantry in 1861 and later, during the Civil War, became a brigadier-general of the New York volunteers by brevet of March 2, 1865. After his discharge, he was supposed to have lived in Buffalo. There is no proof that he ever lived in this city.

Casimir Stanislaus Growski, was born on March 5, 1813, in St. Petersburg, Russia. A descendant of an old Polish family, he served under Prince Radziwill in the Polish Uprising of 1830 and in 1834 came to the United States. He lived for a while as an assistant engineer on Lake Erie and then went to Canada where in 1870 he became naturalized and constructed the International Railroad bridge at Buffalo. His whereabouts in Buffalo are unknown.

Henry K. Glowacki was born in 1816 in Poland. Imprisoned in 1830 in Trieste, he came in 1834 to Batavia. He studied law and, as a partner of Joshua L. Brown, practiced law until his retirement in 1879. His connection with Buffalo can be traced through the marriage of his adopted daughter, Elizabeth, to Buffalo's attorney, Le Roy Parker, but we have no proof of his living in Buffalo. Grabowski's story is given in the Album edited in 1906. It can not be verified at all. Frank Grabowski, a laborer living at 35 Spruce Street, is mentioned in the City Directory of 1878, but we can not identify him further.

On a Black Rock cemetery there was supposedly a grave of a Polish chaplain, Sebastian Szczybura, who died about 1840. The grave has not been found. The pages of Buffalo's City Directories list some residents whose names may be Polish, but we have not been able to verify whether the persons were all really Polish or only some of them. In 1835, Constance Strzelecki, a painter for R. G. Buchanan, lived at Niagara near Main Street. In 1837, at Sheppard's music store, there lived a teacher of French, Pierre Kowalewski.

The City Directory of 1840 contains the names of Anthony Giesz, a brewer and cooper, who had a home on Main Street and of a laborer, Christian Stucki, working at the Eagle Furnace Co. There still exists the possibility that some of the above mentioned persons may have been born in Poland, instead of in Germany, Russia, or Bulgaria.

An early Buffalo newspaper, The Western Star, notes on July 23, 1834, that two Polish exiles named John Hiz and Gregor Sadlowski, officers of the Polish army, arrived in Buffalo. They were among soldiers exiled to America by Austria, and were desirous of employment as soon as they learned the English language. The note ended with an appeal to the citizens of Buffalo to be grateful to the countrymen of Kosciuszko. How long Hiz and Sadlowski stayed in Buffalo and if they were able to find some opportunity to make a living is unknown, but the City Directory had no record of their residing in the city. They probably moved west after a brief stay.

Another Buffalo newspaper, The Daily Commercial Advertiser, on September 29, 1835, carried a notice about another Polish immigrant, August Wengierski. According to this notice, a meeting of young men of the city was to be held in the room of Wengierski and Zuboff on Monday evening to make arrangements for Mr. Wengierski's Dancing School. Wengierski began his residence in Buffalo in the month of July. He lived at 268 Main Street (No. 1 Kremlin Block) with James D. Sheppard, a dealer in musical instruments. The same newspaper noted on October 1, 1835, that Mr. A. Wengierski, during the past six months has been encouraged to offer his services in dancing and waltzing to the gentlemen and ladies of the city. He intended to introduce such favorite figures as the Cracovian, Gavote, Spanish dances, Hungarian Gallopade, and others. The cost of the course of sixteen lessons was $6.00. Wengierski left the city during some weeks for New York City and returned again to resume his instructions in French language. The City Directory of 1835-36 verifies his name and residence in Buffalo.

The above immigrants who have some connection with early Buffalo or with the later development of the city consist mostly of upper class Poles who came to these shores seeking freedom and a new way of life. This way of life was extremely difficult for some, as we can see from the recollections of a woman who lived in the 1830's in Troy and made this observation about a group of Polish gentlemen: "Ragged, but aristocrats beyond all concealment, working at the cobbled paving of the streets, with bleeding fingers. A few days later, one of these gentlemen, after gazing pitifully at his torn hands, drew a revolver and shot himself".

We are now coming to the first forerunners of the Polish pioneers, those who came in the interval of twenty years between 1850 and 1870. Their arrival is recorded both in the Federal and State Censuses of this time. According to the Federal Census of 1850, there lived in Buffalo thirty-four residents who were born in Poland; but all of them, judging by first names — Rebecca, Pelis, Mahan, Abraham, Solomon, Samuel, Barnett, Handura, Barnard, Isaac - were Jewish people who came as pedlars, clothiers, merchants, and grocers, and not as laborers. They were locally called "Hoch-Polish", and probably immigrated from Russian Poland for economic reasons or to evade military service. The names of the immigrants who, according to the City Directory, started to arrive in Buffalo in 1847 were Caroline Frank, Newman Jacobs, Samuel Litcher, Barnard Litchinstren (Litchenstein), and Money Fridenberg.

The state census of 1855 shows sixty-six and that of 1865 shows 126 Polish-born immigrants, but all except one were Jewish. The lone exception could be traced as the first Polish Catholic pioneer of this city. He was Martin Stephanowski, forty-seven years of age, laborer, owner of a frame house ($1,100.00 value), married to Barbara, forty-five years of age. They had four children : Wenzel sixteen years old, Joseph twelve years old, Albert seven years old, and a daughter Mary aged five years, all of whom were born in Poland. Martin Stephanowski was a peasant not able to read or write. He learned to be a cooper and came to Buffalo in or a little before 1864 and lived on Camp near Genesee St. In 1866, he moved to a new location on 242 Monroe Street, between William and Peckham, and earned his living as a cooper. He raised his children, and a few years later in 1875, Joseph became a cooper like his father and Albert became a cigar maker. The State Census taker of 1875 enumerated him as born in Austria. Probably Martin Stephanowski came from the Austrian part of Poland and, living among the Germans of the fifth ward without any contact with his countrymen who had just started to come to the city, he told the census taker that he was an Austrian-born immigrant. In the same census, his children, Albert seventeen years old and Mary fifteen years old were reported as born in Erie County, as allegedly born in the United States. Martin Stephanowski died about 1880 and his son, the cigarmaker Albert, lived with James, also a cooper, at 242 Monroe Street. Joseph Stephanowski owned a house on 19 Camp and the widow, Barbara, was mentioned as the owner of the house at 327 Monroe Street. In 1889 Joseph purchased another house on 714 Broadway and in 1889 moved to 312 Watson Street. Thus, the story of Stephanowski seems to make him the actual forerunner of the scores of Polish people who in a short period suddenly appeared in Buffalo and settled in the vicinity of the present St. Stanislaus Parish and its surroundings.

The City Directories of 1860 to 1862 record Rev. John Zawistowski.  In 1861-1862 he was listed as pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church on East Street near Amherst. In 1863 Rev. Ignatz Zawetawsky was listed as living at Mulberry above Goodell Street. The 100 Anniversary Book, 1849 to 1949, of St. Francis Xavier Church listed Rev. John I. Zawistowsky as its pastor from Jan. 21, 1859, until July 5, 1861. To him is given the credit that in 1859 the parish was incorporated under the title "The German Roman Catholic St. Francis Xavier Church of Black Rock Dam". He blessed the small cemetery and added a small steeple to the church. He also bought a new church bell, which was blessed by Bishop Timon. The Liber Baptisorum of the parish records his first signature under Jan. 30, 1859, and his last under June 1861. Rev. J. I. Zawistowsky later left Buffalo and died in May 1889 (place unknown) at the age of sixty-seven. But Rev. John Zawistowsky cannot be regarded as the first Catholic Polish pioneer of this area, because he lived here only a short time.

Before we start to recall the story of the first Polish settlement in the city of Buffalo, we must know the reasons why and how the Polish im-migrants, who already for a number of years were settling in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Cleveland and other cities of the West, decided to make their home in Buffalo.

Scattered families were already in Buffalo about the year 1870, since there lived in the vicinity of Saint Mary's Church on Pine and Broadway, and on Ash, Walnut, Spruce, Sycamore, Genesee, and Carroll Streets among the predominantly German population about thirty Polish fami­lies. The majority of these Poles attended Saint Mary's Church. As their numbers increased, Rev. Jacob Nagel, the first assistant of St. Mary's Church, informed the Polish people that henceforth every Sunday at 8:00 a. m. a Mass would be said for them by one of the Jesuits in a chapel adjoining St. Michael's Church; furthermore, Bishop Ryan on his visit to Rome would try to obtain a Polish priest for the Buffalo's Poles. There was, however, no organization to unify these immigrants until the ar-rival on December 8, 1872, of Rev. Ivannef Maria Gartner, a priest of Bohemian nationality. During his stay of several days, Rev. Gartner held church services for the Polish immigrants, confessed them and preached a sermon in broken Polish. His advice to them to organize themselves was realized on December 12, 1872, when the St. Stanislaus Society was founded; it became the nucleus of the future Polish parish and Buffalo's first settlement. After the departure of Rev. Gartner, the Polish immi­grants continued to attend church services in St. Michael's chapel. As no Jesuit there knew the Polish language, August Berendt, a layman, read the Gospel and made important announcements. Casimir Wojtkowski and Ignacy Celmer were members of the choir. The members of St. Sta­nislaus Society soon began to think seriously of building their own church and sought for an appropriate site in the populated Buffalo area. Rev. Jacob Nagel advised the society to build a church beyond St. Ann's Pa­rish, in a then undeveloped area of the city where the streets had recently been mapped out.

It is important to note that in this area large tracts of land belonged to a member of St. Mary's Parish, a German, Joseph Bork, who was an enterprising man, a real estate speculator, city treasurer, commissioner of deeds, and later one of the presidents of Buffalo's Catholic Institute. St. Mary^'s Parish was a German congregation organized by the Redempto­rist Fathers. The pastor of the church, Rev. Elias Fred Schauer CSSR, and Joseph Bork concluded that the surest means of attracting Polish immigrants, who were passing in large numbers through Buffalo to the West, would be a Polish church and school, because the Poles were un­willing to live where there were no priests of their nationality and no religious services or instructions in their language.

In the meantime, Rev. Ivannef Maria Gartner went to Rome where he chose a young Polish student of theology to be the first priest of the Polish people in Buffalo. Rev. Gartner handed his young protege, John Pitass, 124 dollars in gold for travel expenses. The latter arrived in New York on May 8, 1873, and on May 12 reached the Suspension Bridge which is at present the area of Niagara University. In a few days, Rev. John Pitass received all of the minor orders and was ordained to the holy priesthood on June 7, 1873. The next day, on Holy Trinity Sunday, he said his first Mass with the assistance of his friend, Rev. Karl Lang-ner, and in the afternoon attended the meeting of St. Stanislaus Society at which Father Pitass organized a parish under the patronage of St. Stanislaus B. M., enrolling eighty-two families.