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As we know, most of us are of Polish origin. But you will
discover that there are Dubiels living in Germany who are
German, that is, they can trace their families back hundreds
of years without any movement from or to Poland. In the
United States, of course, most of us are the descendants of
people who came to this country from Poland, most likely
during the peak immigration years of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century: 1870 – 1921. Immigration peaked
about 1910. The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 slowed
that number to a relative trickle. This central period
brought in approximately three and a quarter million Poles,
constituting the population center of Polonia.
Fewer than 50,000 Polish immigrants came to the United
States prior to the Civil War. But it was during this period
(1854) that the first significant Polish settlement in the
United States was made in Panna Maria, Texas. The 96
families from Silesia (southwestern Poland) also can be
credited with establishing the first Polish Roman Catholic
parish. Panna Maria is often cited as the first “permanent “
settlement.
(See the Polish Genealogical Society of Texas:
http://www.pgst.org/)
Many of the pre-Civil War Poles settled in Chicago, possibly
up to 10,000. These immigrants were not quite like the
people who would follow. They tended to be better educated
and assimilated into the existing culture relatively
quickly.
In the 1850’s a number of Poles from the Kaszubian region
settled in central Wisconsin, in and around Stevens Point.
Stevens Point is still home to one of the oldest Polish
newspapers in America: Gwiazda Polarna. Poles also began to
settle in Detroit at this time.
Thanks to Dick Pierce for his book
The Polish in America.
Alas, out of print.
(See:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~atpc/polonia/usa/plam-history.html)
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