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Born a Gypsy:
Secondary Migration and Spatial Change in Two Polish Immigrant Communities, 1880–1925
by
John Radziłowski
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Rose Parulski was the youngest daughter of one of the original Polish pioneers in Lincoln County, Minnesota. The county is located along Minnesota's border with South Dakota and became the site of a planned agricultural colony for Polish immigrants in the early 1880s. As a young woman, from the late 1920s to the early 1940s, Parulski made yearly journeys to Chicago, the capital of Polish America, and the city whence the majority of the Lincoln County Poles had migrated. In Chicago she took work as a housekeeper and nanny, usually for well-to-do Anglo families. Yet it was the travel rather than the destination itself that filled her with the greatest enthusiasm. In Chicago, her favorite activity was to ride the "El." She would get on and just ride, often to the end of the line and back again. More than once she was the last person on the train at night as it pulled into its final station. If she heard about another city that sounded interesting, she would count her savings and call the train station to see how much a ticket would cost. If she had enough money, she would quit her job on the spot, leave everything behind, and take the trip. Years later, as she reflected on her life, her travels long ago ended by poor health and the train tracks that had once run past her house long since torn up, she would smile a little and say "I must have been born half a Gypsy."1 |
1
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Parulski's experiences were extraordinary only in the scope of her will to travel. Her fellow Polish Americans from southwestern Minnesota and from the Polish community Frogtown in St. Paul, Minnesota, also found in travel and mobility way to re-order and re-imagine their lives, families, and communities. In examining these two Polish immigrant communities between the 1880s and 1920s we get a glimpse of the range of mobility strategies Polish immigrants pursued in order to create better lives for themselves and their progeny. Furthermore, I suggest that these strategies may not be unique to these two communities, to Poles, or to this time period. Although immigrant mobility strategies of course differ across time and circumstance, the goals those strategies are designed to pursue may not differ all that much. |
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In this article I use the term "mobility" to cover several related phenomena: secondary migration, a permanent long-distance move that takes place after immigration; travel, temporary movement for family or economic reasons; residential shifting, moving within a particular community, or even a particular city; and occupational shifting, moving from job to job. For the purposes of brevity, I'm going to concentrate primarily on spatial movement. |
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The community of Wilno, in Lincoln County, in the rural southwestern Minnesota was itself formed by migration. Its members came as the result of a planned colonization effort carried out by a particular faction in the leadership of Chicago's Polish community beginning in about 1882. Initial colonists came from Chicago itself and from the nearby Polish community in LaSalle, Illinois. Later, colonists were recruited from the coal fields of Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Polish farming colonies in central Nebraska, and Polish communities in Minnesota such as St. Paul and Winona.2 |
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Some of these Poles found Wilno yet another way station on their life-journey. Although most of the Polish settlers remained in the community, some did move on. The reasons varied. Some found farming the prairie not to their taste. For example, the Lake Benton paper reported that "the senior of Wilno [age 84] Valentine Kosmatka has sold his property to Frank Domek and intends to move to Indiana, where has lived for many years before, because he says the weather is too cold for him and there are too many witches in Minnesota."3 |
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Others had fewer problems with cold weather and local practitioners of the black arts but sought better opportunities or simply a change of scenery. Several families moved to new Polish colonies in the Red River Valley, or even to Canada, where even larger tracts of land were available. Members of the Wylepski family were among the earliest settlers of Wilno, and their story demonstrates the branching patterns of migration followed by many Polish families in America. Jan Wylepski arrived in America in 1873, preceded by his brother Piotr who came the year before, and spent some time in New York before moving on to LaSalle, in 1876. In 1885, Jan and his family moved to Wilno. At the end of his life, he moved with a daughter to Tracy, in neighboring Lyon County. Jan's brother, Piotr, and Jan's daughter, Maria and her future husband Jan Polejewski, also came to Wilno in 1885. Jan and Maria Polejewski married in 1895 and then moved with her uncle Piotr Wylepski to Kittison County in far northwestern Minnesota, along the Canadian border, to Kroze, one of a group of new Polish colonies established by the Minnesota and Manitoba Railroad.4 |
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The Poles who came to Wilno had often spent several years in the United States, working at a variety of wage-labor jobs before "returning" to farming.5 The Chicago contingent, the first and largest, came from the near Northwest side community, the so-called Polish Triangle formed by the streets Division, Ashland, and Milwaukee. Most worked in the garment factories or as common laborers. In leaving Chicago, those who chose to go to the new colony often left behind family and friends. The act of immigration had stretched family bonds across the ocean and internal migration stretched them further still. Yet the same mechanisms that had provided opportunity and (as a consequence of that opportunity) stretched family bonds almost to the breaking point would also provide the mechanisms by which those bonds could be maintained and strengthened. In addition, the possibility for migration created further opportunities on top of joining the farming colony of Wilno. |
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Poles from Wilno found opportunity in nearby Polish communities or in local railroad towns, where they could find regular wage labor. These towns included Marshall, Tracy, Canby, and Minneota. Each had a small number of Poles who maintained family ties to the central community in Lincoln County. Tracy was attractive since its large roundhouse and rail depot provided a source of dependable, semi-skilled jobs with good pay. Poles in Marshall were mainly domestic servants or laborers.6 |
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The nearest Polish community of any size was sixty miles north of Wilno in Swift County, near Holloway. This tiny settlement was more closely tied to the larger Polish community in Grenville, Day County, S.D., than to Wilno. Most of the Poles around Holloway and Grenville were Kaszubs from the Baltic coast, and they tended to have closer ties to other Kaszub communities, presumably ones where they had family members.7 Despite the relative closeness of the two communities, they lacked a direct rail connection. Thus, Polish priests who came each month to serve St. Joseph's parish in Holloway came from Silver Lake or St. Paul rather than Wilno (communities that had better rail connections). There was little direct mobility between the two communities, and what did exist was due largely to the activities of a single family.8 Given the proximity of the South Dakota border, it is no surprise that the Lincoln County Poles made a fair number of trips across the state line. As in the case of the southwest Minnesota towns, individual families making frequent trips accounted for the bulk of the visits. One branch of a family would buy a farm or start a business in eastern South Dakota and would then exchange visits with family in Lincoln County. Few of the visits to South Dakota went to the Polish community in Day County. In picking a spot to set up in South Dakota, the Lincoln County Poles choose to remain close to family rather than to go to an unfamiliar Polish community. |
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Table 1 shows movement by location and year.9 Most visits were to places in Minnesota. Yet, over half the visits in Minnesota were to a location other than the Twin Cities or Winona (57 percent). Twenty-eight percent were to southwest Minnesota (the twenty southwestern-most counties). The Twin Cities generated 38 percent of all Minnesota visits, while Winona generated five percent. |
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Table I
Movement to and From the Polish Community of Lincoln County, 1890–1925, by Location (Number of Visits Recorded)10 |
|
|
St.
Paul |
Twin
Cities* |
Winona |
Other
MN |
Chi. |
Other
IL |
WI |
SD |
ND |
Can-
ada |
Other |
Total |
| 1890–1895 |
10 |
8 |
3 |
33 |
15 |
0 |
3 |
13 |
2 |
4 |
12 |
103 |
| 1896–1900 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
42 |
28 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
28 |
142 |
| 1901–1905 |
25 |
23 |
13 |
83 |
30 |
8 |
18 |
10 |
6 |
1 |
24 |
241 |
| 1906–1910 |
14 |
17 |
15 |
72 |
40 |
12 |
23 |
23 |
3 |
3 |
18 |
240 |
| 1911–1915 |
21 |
51 |
5 |
96 |
28 |
6 |
44 |
28 |
9 |
12 |
20 |
320 |
| 1916–1920 |
32 |
56 |
3 |
87 |
25 |
4 |
15 |
18 |
12 |
9 |
31 |
291 |
| 1921–1925 |
26 |
46 |
3 |
105 |
39 |
2 |
19 |
36 |
10 |
4 |
29 |
319 |
| Total |
133 |
207 |
44 |
520 |
205 |
41 |
131 |
140 |
42 |
33 |
166 |
1,656 |
| Percent |
8.0 |
12.5 |
2.5 |
31.5 |
12.5 |
2.5 |
8.0 |
8.0 |
2.5 |
2.0 |
10 |
100 |
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* Included trips to Minneapolis, suburbs, and the Twin Cities where a specific destination was not designated. |
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The implications of Table 1, however, are best seen when the various destinations are placed side by side (see Table 2). The Poles of Lincoln County were almost as likely to travel to Chicago and nearby Illinois communities as to neighboring towns in Minnesota. Of all movement of Poles recorded in Lincoln County's English-language newspapers between 1890 and 1925, fifteen percent went to or came from locations within the immediate area of Southwest Minnesota. In the same period, 14.6 percent of all movement came from or went to Chicago and environs. |
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Contact with Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Twin Cities was a frequent and yearly process. Although movement fluctuated from year to year, someone always went to or came from Chicago, someone almost always went to or came from Milwaukee, and at least half a dozen visits occurred each year between the Twin Cities and Lincoln County. Although transportation was often tenuous, given the weather and terrain of southwestern Minnesota and the lack of a nearby rail depot prior to 1900, the Poles of Lincoln County did travel to other Polish communities. In his history of Poles in Minnesota, Frank Renkiewicz noted that "separate and isolated development, especially in rural colonies, left them relatively unaware of distant others of their own kind."11 In light of the information from Wilno, this statement must be re-examined. The Poles in this study are highly mobile and thus aware of the larger world of American Polonia. |
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Table 2
Movement of Poles to and from Lincoln County by Location, 1890–1925 |
| Location |
Percentage
Of all Moves |
| Minnesota |
55 |
| Twin Cities |
21 |
| Southwest Minnesota |
15 |
| Illinois |
15 |
| Wisconsin |
8 |
| South Dakota |
8 |
| North Dakota |
2.5 |
| Canada |
2 |
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An analysis of movement to Chicago further demonstrates that Poles were not isolated. Yet, more importantly, it demonstrates the key characteristic of all Polish mobility shown in this study. Chicago was an important destination for the initial arrival of the Poles who later came to Lincoln County. More specifically, Poles from Lincoln County were recruited from the near northwest side neighborhood, the city's first large Polish community. In the years that followed colonization, the Lincoln County Poles maintained close and intimate contact with that same neighborhood.12 Of the Lincoln Poles visiting or relocating to Chicago, all of them—all—proved to have addresses or relatives with addresses in the same near northwest side neighborhood.13 |
13
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The Skorczewski family of Lincoln County received a visit from their Górecki relatives from Chicago in August 1896. In Chicago, Góreckis were found on Division, Noble, and West 18th Streets.14 In 1897, Frank Domek sold his farm to Frank Tykwin;ski of Chicago, a carpenter who resided on South Oakley Street and who had relatives already farming in Lincoln County. After Wojciech Baranowski bought a farm in Lincoln County,15 he and his family lived in Chicago for eleven years, residing at 541 Noble Street, while he worked as a laborer.16 Andrzej Kosowski of Chicago married Stanisława Stahowiak at St. John Cantius in Wilno in November 1907 and the couple took up residence in Chicago on West 17th Street, where he worked in the garment trade.17 |
14
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Poles from Lincoln County traveled to Chicago primarily for the purpose of visiting family (see Table 3). Of all recorded visits between Chicago (and other northern Illinois towns like LaSalle) and Lincoln County during the study period (398), over 62 percent (249) involved visits to family and friends. Twenty-three percent were for the purpose of permanently relocating in one destination or the other, while nine percent were for the purpose of working or finding work. |
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Although the majority of visits were from Lincoln County to Chicago, the Chicagoans also visited their country cousins. Jan Dalka, for example, settled in Lincoln County for his health.18 Members of the intermarried Dankowski and Kruk families lived in both locations and traveled back and forth. One surviving Chicago relative remembers traveling back to the city on the train, carrying geese and ducks as presents from relatives on the farm.19 |
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Although visits to locations in outstate Minnesota (that is, the area outside the Twin Cities) made up the largest single category, the large number of locations scattered around the state, from Winona to Marshall, Duluth to the Red River Valley, makes this number less significant than it might first appear. In terms of a single location in the state, the Twin Cities received more visits than any other. A few went to what are today suburban locations but were, during the study period, farming communities located close to the cities. Most went to St. Paul or Minneapolis. The exact proportion of how many went to which city is not possible to determine given that many newspaper reports noted people traveling simply to "the Twin Cities." Some Lincoln County families, such as the Tykwiłskis, had links to the Polish community of northeast Minneapolis and its central parish of Holy Cross. Others, such as the Matz, Malczewski, Danielski, Skorczewski, and Komastka families had links to the Wojciechowo community in St. Paul. Since some of these families also had relatives in Chicago, it is possible to theorize but not prove a third leg of the triangle of movement: between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Members of the Matz family, for example, owned businesses in both St. Paul and Ivanhoe. |
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Table 3
Movement to and From the Polish Community of Lincoln County, 1890–1925, by Type, Sex, and Selected Destinations (Number of Persons Moving) |
| MEN |
Twin
Cities |
Other
MN |
IL |
SD |
WI |
| Visit |
129 |
223 |
134 |
69 |
82 |
| Work |
17 |
38 |
27 |
6 |
9 |
| Relocate |
29 |
71 |
54 |
23 |
31 |
| Business |
88 |
78 |
8 |
18 |
2 |
| Marriage |
1 |
1 |
3 |
- |
2 |
| Education |
9 |
12 |
2 |
- |
8 |
| Medical |
14 |
8 |
- |
1 |
1 |
| Cultural |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| |
| WOMEN |
Twin
Cities |
Other
MN |
IL |
SD |
WI |
| Visit |
128 |
171 |
115 |
65 |
48 |
| Work |
14 |
28 |
8 |
3 |
- |
| Relocate |
19 |
54 |
40 |
7 |
16 |
| Business |
3 |
2 |
- |
2 |
1 |
| Marriage |
4 |
10 |
4 |
4 |
- |
| Education |
9 |
25 |
3 |
1 |
- |
| Medical |
2 |
5 |
- |
1 |
- |
| Cultural |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Enter Convent |
- |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
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Visits to other locations were regular, especially after 1900, but far less frequent. Families who had moved to the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota or from the Polish communities of central Nebraska generated reciprocal visits, as did families who moved to the small, widely scattered Polish farming communities in North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Visits to Wisconsin were primarily to Milwaukee, although rural locations such as Beaver Dam were also noted. Visits further afield were less frequent due to the lack of family connections. One location that did generate a few visits was Pittsburgh. A few Lincoln County Poles also had family connections to Detroit. Occasionally, the newspaper would also report visits to "the East" or "the West," but it is impossible to say what locations were involved. |
18
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For all locations, travel to visit family was the main reason for movement. Some of this travel resulted in extended stays of weeks or even months and may have also involved opportunities for wage or non-wage labor not recorded by the newspaper correspondents. Movement to relocate permanently (secondary migration) was also important. Movement for work was the third most likely cause of travel. Possibly related to this was travel for "business." This amorphous category involved any number of reasons, including taking livestock to market, consulting with business partners or suppliers, or, in the case of the parish priest, visiting other parishes to help with religious duties or going on retreats. The exact reasons for most trips "for business" were not recorded. A variety of lesser causes of movement were also noted, including travel to distant hospitals for special medical treatment (mainly to the Twin Cities or the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota), relocation due to marriage, young people going to college, professional schools, or convents, and visiting Minneapolis to attend concerts by famous Polish pianist and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. |
19
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In general, men were more mobile than women (see table 1). This is most obvious in the category of travel "for business." In visiting family, the proportion of men and women was more equal, due largely to families traveling as a group. Young unmarried women did travel for work or to visit. In the early years, prior to about 1910, the number of women working in Minnesota locations outside the Twin Cities was equal to or greater than the number of men. Men, by contrast, significantly outnumbered women among Poles who traveled to Chicago for work. In general, men seem to have been willing or able to travel further to take up wage jobs. There were, of course, women who traveled significant distances for work. Katherine Górecki Ross, for example, moved to the Twin Cities to work as a housekeeper for a Polish priest in 1916.20 |
20
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Next we turn to a Polish urban community, Wojciechowo in the Frogtown area of St. Paul. Named after its church St. Adalbert (parafia s;w. Wojciecha) which was founded in 1881 as the Twin Cities' first Polish parish, Wojciechowo was on the surface quite different from Wilno. Most of its members emigrated directly from Poland. They worked at a wide variety of jobs, and the proximity of other Polish neighborhoods in St. Paul and Minneapolis allowed a kind of critical mass of ethnic institutions that was not possible in rural Lincoln County. |
21
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Nevertheless, here, too, we see strong examples of internal mobility. At the time of the parish's founding, Poles worshiped in a joint parish with St. Paul's Czechs. Although some Poles lived around that church, others lived on highly undesirable river banks below the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and still others in scattered clusters in other parts of the city. In short, there was no single geographical focus. In 1881, the Poles were numerous enough to form their own parish and they raised money to buy a old French-Canadian parish church in the Frogtown area. Initially, Frogtown was home only to the Polish pastor and few individuals, but by 1895 a large number of Poles moved from other parts of the city to live closer to the parish so that one informant remembered that virtually everyone in that area was Polish.21 |
22
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Although it is impossible to examine the same type of movement among the Poles of the Wojciechowo community in St. Paul, given the sources at hand, there, too, we find evidence of a population for whom movement and change was quite normal. Gradually, increasing prosperity allowed Poles to expand and improve their housing stock. Yet this was not the only technique the Poles of St. Paul employed as they furthered the fortunes of their immediate families and of their community. |
23
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In order to better understand both residential and occupational change, Wojciechowo Poles were sampled in state and federal censuses and followed in the St. Paul city directory at five-year intervals.22 Each sampled individual appeared in an average of 2.5 five-year intervals. Overall, in each five-year interval about a third (32 percent) of persons sampled changed residences.23 On average, each family changed its place of residence once every fifteen years. |
24
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The sample recorded 239 individuals in 67 extended families.24 Of all individuals recorded, nearly half (49 percent) had no residential change recorded at all. Thus, subject to the vagaries of the way in which the directory company canvassed working-class ethnic neighborhoods, we are presented with a population in which half is not mobile at all, while the other half is extremely mobile (approximately two-thirds changing their place of residence every five years). |
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For example, the Mrozin;ski family was one of the few Polish families who remained along the levees on the Mississippi River, rather than moving to the Wojciechowo area. This was probably due to their main occupation—that is, as fishermen. In 1895, Józef Mrozin;ski and his large family lived at 41 E. Water Street, a property the family retained throughout the study period. By 1905, son Stanisław had moved nearby to 54 Kentucky Ave. and taken up work as a laborer. In 1915, son Piotr had established his own household at 46 E. Water; son Józef set up his household across the street at 42 E. Water. Son Jan remained at 41 E. Water and in the same occupation as his father throughout the study period. By 1920, only one member of the family, son Bernard, had moved out of the levee area and into Wojciechowo, taking a job with one of the railroads.25 |
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In 1905, most of the Józef Dochtara family lived at 291 Burgess, although Andrzej Dochtara lived nearby at 295 Stinson. Virtually all worked at Union Brass and Metal Manufacturing. By 1910, Andrzej moved closer to the rest of the family, just a few doors down at 301 Burgess St. Son Stanisław moved out of the family home, but not very far, taking up residence at 310 Burgess. Son Wilhelm J. also established his own household—at 295 Burgess. The extended family maintained residences at 291, 301, and 310 Burgess into the 1920s.26 |
27
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Moving out of the neighborhood was rare for a member of an extended family. Occasionally, an unmarried daughter lived and worked as an in-house domestic, but this was the exception that proved the rule. In 1900, two of Michał Moga's daughters worked as domestics: Elzæbieta lived in the Polish neighborhood at 283 Charles, while the other, Maria, lived and worked at 69 Summit Avenue in the house of a wealthy St. Paulite.27 When a family did leave Wojciechowo, it was often for the congenial ground of the Polish neighborhood of east St. Paul. In 1885, the Franciszek Skorczewski family, among the founders of St. Adalbert (and St. John Cantius in Wilno), lived on Farrington Ave. Five years later they still lived in Wojciechowo at 687 Virginia. As Franek's family grew, many of his sons remained in the neighborhood, but by 1910, three sons: Franciszek, Karol, and Paweł moved to the east side Polish neighborhood near the parish of St. Casimir. A fourth son, Hipolyt, joined them by 1915. Following her husband's death, Franciszek's widow Róża, also moved to the east side along with son Jan F. By 1920, the entire Skorczewski family had taken up work and residence in the vicinity of St. Casimir's church.28 Other families who owned businesses, such as the Rozenthal, Lange, and Matz families, tended to stay in place for longer periods of time. The same was true of some of the men who remained in the employ of the railroad for long periods of time.29 |
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Conclusion | |
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This article examines different types of mobility in two Polish communities. A common thread binds the two together and that is the imperative of family in the life paths of its individual members. In the case of Wilno, the Poles were willing to travel great distances with surprising frequency. Yet, these trips were not for pleasure and were almost all taken within the confines of the family network. In St. Paul, we see residential mobility, but again the movement occurs within the universe of the family. Although movement in and out is common, the central axis of family life is a constant. The examples of the Skorczewski and Dochtara families show how extended families made decisions together and moved in tandem, either closer together or to relocate to another neighborhood. The same is true of occupation. Family members followed each other: sons followed fathers, brothers followed brothers, sisters followed sisters. |
29
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Migration helped Polish immigrants re-create family networks. Although the migration process had placed severe strain on the existing webs of family bonds, love, and obligation, the immigrants' increasing familiarity with and confidence in their own ability to be mobile—spatially or otherwise—allowed them to strengthen what had been frayed and to create new networks that replaced and perhaps improved on the networks they had lost by immigrating. |
30
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The new communities that emerged out of this process were quite different from the communities they had left behind in Europe and represent a creative hybrid that fit the immigrants' needs and wants. The formation of community itself was a response to migration. The immigrants' individual lives were scenes more than a little disorder. Some of this disorder consisted of severe social problems faced by many immigrant communities. The disorder that was more prevalent, however, was caused by the immigrants' own life choices and their pursuit of economic opportunity, particularly the choice to move frequently or even to relocate. Yet this was a short-term expedient and not an ideal the immigrants aspired to. So to help mitigate both types of disorder, they created community structures (e.g., the parish) and rituals, that symbolically emphasized the harmony and unity they lacked in their everyday lives but to which they nonetheless aspired. |
31
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Although economic opportunity was a primary motivating factor in the decision to immigrate or migrate, the kinds of mobility evinced in these two communities show that economic considerations were but one factor in the type of life they sought to build for themselves and their families. Many of the visits recorded in this study were not primarily motivated by economic calculation. Surely, if the Poles of Wilno were attempting to maximize their economic opportunity, they could have found closer destinations than Chicago. Indeed, the labor-intensive nature of farming made month-long visits to city cousins a distinct liability. Yet, perhaps it is altogether wrongheaded of us to draw such a sharp separation between the economic and personal spheres of the lives these Polish immigrants lived. |
32
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Like other migrants in other times and other places, the Polish immigrants in these two communities sought the best of both worlds: economic opportunity and the maintenance or re-creation of the family and personal networks that helped provide a sense of identity, belonging, and community. Through migration, they were able to strive for toward both goals. |
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1 Rose Parulski, Ivanhoe, Minnesota, interview by the author, February 28, 1995, notes in the author's possession.
2 The history of this community is discussed at length in John Radziłowski, "Hidden Cosmos: The Life Worlds of Polish Immigrants in Two Minnesota Communities, 1875–1925," Ph.D. diss., Arizona State University, May 1999, 118–88. For birthplaces of second-generation children up to 1905 which gives a rough indication of where their parents migrated from, see John Radziłowski, Out on the Wind: Poles and Danes in Lincoln County, Minnesota, 1880–1905 (Marshall, MN: Crossings Press, 1992), 74.
3 Lake Benton News, October 18, 1893, 4.
4 Fred Wilepski, letter to the author, Aug. 7, 1996. On the northwestern colonies, see John Radziłowski, "A New Poland in the Old Northwest: Polish Farming Colonies on the Northern Great Plains," Polish American Studies, Vol. 59, no. 2 (Autumn 2002); Gazeta Polska Narodowa, May 23, 1895, and Sept. 5, 1895, 2; Naród Polski, Aug. 29, 1906, 5; "Kolonie polskie w Minnesocie," Przewodnik Handlowo-geograficzny, May 15, 1896, 77; Entries on St. Aloysius parish, Leo, and Assumption parish, Florian, Polish American Encyclopedia (Buffalo: Polish American Encyclopedia Committee, 1954), Vol. 1, 110, 305–306; News Messenger of Lyon County, July 28, 1899, 2.
5 Radziłowski, "Hidden Cosmos," 108–16, 124–25; Radziłowski, Out on the Wind, 73.
6 On Poles in Marshall, see John Radziłowski, Prairie Town: A History of Marshall, Minnesota, 1872–1997 (Marshall: Lyon County Historical Society, 1997), 44, 94n21, 101, 127, 129, 303–304.
7 On these two communities, see Pamiątka 50-Letniego Jubileuszu Załozena Parafji S:w. Józefa; Souvenir of the Golden Jubilee of St. Joseph Parish, Day County, Grenville, South Dakota, 1885–1935 (Grenville, SD: n.p., 1935); Celebrating 100 Years: St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Holloway, Minnesota, 1887–1987 (Holloway: n.p., 1987); "St. Joseph's Catholic Church to Observe Final Mass Friday," Appleton Press, April 29, 1992, 1, 3; Wiarus, Feb. 2, 1888, 4, Dec. 13, 1888, 5, Dec. 20, 1888, 4, Dec. 27, 1889, 1, April 16, 1891, 4–5. A large body of correspondence from Grenville, S.D., that appeared in Wiarus.
8 Ivanhoe Times, May 2, 1902, 4, Feb. 27, 1903, 8, June 12, 1914, 3, July 24, 1914, 1, Sept. 25, 1914, 3, March 2, 1917, 1, Nov. 5 [sic 12], 1920, 5.
9 Sources for mobility to and from Lincoln County are the Lake Benton News, 1890–1910, and the Ivanhoe Times, 1900–1925. The local news columns were systematically scanned for all cases of Poles traveling or visiting outside of the immediate area. Each instance was recorded, along with where they traveled to or from, who was traveling, and why. Non-Poles were not canvassed due to the volume of material, but available evidence shows they were not as mobile, at least in long distance, temporary movement, as the Poles. In the tables, movement to and from Lincoln County has been combined to show overall movement in family networks. In almost all cases movement from Lincoln County to each urban destination was far greater than movement to Lincoln County from the same destinations. The situation was more equal in regard to movement between Lincoln County and eastern South Dakota. The sources present certain problems that deserve a note. These problems include inconsistent reporting (especially given the language barrier), and a tendency to report on the movement of those Poles who knew English or who subscribed to the local paper or who were prominent in the community. Nevertheless, visits to Chicago, for example, were clearly seen by the English-language correspondents as noteworthy. If anything, movement was underreported, especially in the early years.
10 Lake Benton News, 1890–1910; Ivanhoe Times, 1900–1925.
11 Frank Renkiewicz, "The Poles," in They Chose Minnesota: A History of the State's Ethnic Groups (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1981), 376. See also John Radzilowski, Poles in Minnesota (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005).
12 Having recorded each date and name of a Lincoln County Pole traveling to Chicago from the local papers, the Chicago city directory was consulted for the same surname during the same year or previous or subsequent years.
13 The list of correlations between newspaper reports of visits to and from Chicago with listings found in the Chicago city directory is too long to be recorded here. Knowledge of the near northwest side neighborhood and its streets comes from the author's own visits to the area and consultation with a contemporary city street map. For definition of the near northwest side neighborhood, see Joseph Parot, Polish Catholics in Chicago, 1850–1920 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1981).
14 Lake Benton News, Aug. 26, 1896, 1; Chicago Directory, 1896, entries for Górecki.
15 Lake Benton News, Oct. 13, 1897, 4; Chicago Directory, 1895, 1749; Chicago Directory, 1897, 1957.
16 Lake Benton News, July 4, 1900, 8; Chicago Directory, 1899, 193.
17 Ivanhoe Times, Nov. 22, 1907, 3; Lake Benton News, Nov. 13, 1907, 1; Chicago Directory, 1909, 1372.
18 Ivanhoe Times, June 28, 1907, 1; Chicago Directory, 1907, 599.
19 Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Columbia College, Chicago, e-mail to the author regarding her own relatives, June 24, 1998, in the author's possession.
20 Mrs. Marcel (Katherine Górecki) Ross, interview by Thaddeus C. Radzilowski, Aug. 1972, transcript of oral interview, Southwest Regional History Center, Southwest State University, Marshall, Minnesota.
21 On the history of this community, see Radziłowski, "Hidden Cosmos," 189–239.
22 R. L. Polk and Company, Saint Paul City Directory (St. Paul: R. L. Polk and Company, 1885–1924. The years used were 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920, and 1924. The 1924 issue was used instead of 1925 (which was not available). Cited hereafter as Saint Paul City Directory.
23 In order for any change to be recorded the individual had to have appeared in one previous city directory listing. For residence changes to be recorded the person in question had to change addresses by more than one house number on the same street, since the city had a tendency to renumber streets as the number of addresses grew. Thus a change from 437 Lafond to 439 Lafond would not be recorded. If the change were from 437 to 436 (across the street), however, the change would be recorded. I preferred to err on the side of being too conservative.
24 The extended families discussed in this context consist only of individuals recorded in the city directory. On average, each extended family had 3.6 persons recorded in the directories in the years sampled.
25 Saint Paul City Directory, 1895, 986; Saint Paul City Directory, 1900, 1103; Saint Paul City Directory, 1905, 1217; Saint Paul City Directory, 1910, 1362; Saint Paul City Directory, 1915, 1161; Saint Paul City Directory, 1920, 1023; Saint Paul City Directory, 1924, 891.
26 Saint Paul City Directory, 1905, 526; Saint Paul City Directory, 1910, 570; Saint Paul City Directory, 1915, 480; Saint Paul City Directory, 1920, 389; Saint Paul City Directory, 1924, 347.
27 Saint Paul City Directory, 1900, 1086–87. Summit Avenue is and was the site of some of the city's most exclusive homes, including those of the railroad magnates who owned the rail yards where the father and brothers of their young female domestics lived and worked.
28 Saint Paul City Directory, 1885, 733; Saint Paul City Directory, 1890, 1250; Saint Paul City Directory, 1895, 1260; Saint Paul City Directory, 1900, 1401; Saint Paul City Directory, 1905, 1568; Saint Paul City Directory, 1910, 1768; Saint Paul City Directory, 1915, 1489; Saint Paul City Directory, 1920, 1329.
29 For a comparative look at family mobility in St. Paul, see Clay Mering, "Acrimony and Estrangement: A Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Divorce in Minnesota, 1900–1910," Ph.D. diss. University of Minnesota, Department of Geography, 1988.
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