The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas [Paperback]

Dr. T. Lindsay Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1996

This award-winning history was the first to provide a detailed and well-documented account of the first organized Polish immigrant communities in America. Author T. Lindsay Baker, who conducted some of his research while a Fulbright lecturer at the Technical University of Wrocaw, tells the story of the settlements founded in Texas in the mid-1850s. As residents of Upper Silesia, the ethnic Poles bound for Texas had long retained their own language and adhered to their Catholic faith, despite being politically bound to the Kingdom of Prussia. As farmers and peasants, they were part of a feudal society, but among those who had some status and capital, freedom was possible through immigration. Baker shows that the desire to immigrate to Texas reached a fever pitch in Upper Silesia in the 1850s. Arriving on the coast at Indianola, Silesian immigrants moved inland and established the first settlement in present-day Karnes County, naming it Panna Maria. There the Reverend Leopold Moczygemba led the formation of St. Mary's, the first Polish Catholic church in the United States. Other settlements developed in a swath of counties from Matagorda northwest to Bandera; the only settlements outside that area were in Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley and Carson County in the Panhandle. The Civil War, some hostile nativist Americans, droughts, and other difficulties of frontier life did not lay waste to the settlers' way of life. As Baker shows, the Silesian settlements of Texas had a far-reaching impact. For example, Peter Kiobassa left Texas after the Civil War and settled in Chicago, where he helped establish that city's first Polish Catholic community and then entered politics, becoming the first Polish-born state legislator in America. T. Lindsay Baker has written many books on western and Texas history and material culture. He is director of academic programs and graduate studies for the Department of Museum Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This 1979 work won several regional history awards. As the title indicates, it chronicles the earliest Polish communities in Texas in the mid-1850s. Libraries serving these constituents?in Texas or elsewhere?will want this.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

T. Lindsay Baker has written many books on western and Texas history and material culture. He is director of academic programs and graduate studies for the Department of Museum Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: TAMU Press (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890967253
• ISBN-13: 978-0890967256
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,086,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Transplanting a Culture, December 19, 2009

By 

Orville B. Jenkins "Research Guy" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas (Paperback)

This is a beautifully presented story of the first Polish settlements in the United States. The first settlers came from Upper Silesia, a part of Poland that was at that time part of the Prussian Empire. This excellent story flows here from the author's personal research from historical sources and personal interviews on site in the Hill Country of Texas.

This is a fascinating story and he details the story of US and world events form the Silesian Polish perspective from the 1830s and 1840s. Great boatloads of Silesians shipped to Texas to escape the famine and poverty imposed by the feudalism still prevailing in 19th century Prussia and eastern Europe. This was exacerbated by the huge loss of the potato crop in a drought.

These Silesians migrated to Texas to establish anew life. This story covers their story in every fascinating detail introducing us to the key people, places and events in Texas history. This story fills in a lot of common gaps in the connections related to the US Civil War and European events of distress.

This story tells how the Polish language and culture were planted in Texas, and later the upper Midwest in areas like Wisconsin and Illinois. In the Texas Hill Country towns Americans and Germans learned Polish as they lived among the majority Poles in certain towns. Tidbits of the likewise intriguing story of German Catholic settlers is intertwined here.

Ethnic Germans from various parts of the Prussian Empire had settled in Texas the early 1800s, and continued to immigrate through the 19th century. There were connection and similarities between the Poles and Prussians who found themselves together in Texas counties as a result of their separate migrations. Germans had been well established in the eastern colonies before the American Revolution, especially in Pennsylvania.

Many of the Poles arriving as a whole community from 1854-56 had lived in a German political and legal situation for a long time, and their leaders spoke German to various degrees, and felt an affinity for the German speakers they met upon arrival in Galveston and along their trek to counties west.

This study from a key Texas scholar in history will be an entertaining and informative read to most action and adventure fans. But this is a true story and many will find a personal connection in their own family history in this story of migration, resettlement, the rich mix of cultures along with the picture of a tenacious social and cultural life and ethnic identity moving in partnership with Americanization of a prominent ethnic community.

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas (Paperback), January 3, 2009

By 

Charlene A. Hathaway (Beavercreek, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas (Paperback)

The main reason I bought this book is because my great grandmother and my grandfather are on the cover. I love the book! I highly recommend it.