Michigan Polonia and the Polish Mission support the work of the Keweenaw National Historic Park in Calumet, Michigan. We are preparing a submission for their permanent exhibit regarding the Polish community of Calumet.
We have documented their recruitment by Michigan immigration agent Maximilian Allardt and their settlement in the Keweenaw. We seek colleagues who might have something to contribute. Please review this “Call for Artifacts for Union Building Exhibit”
http://www.nps.gov/kewe/parkmgmt/upload/artifact%20site%20bulletin.pdf
Contact information for the Union Building Exhibit:
James Corless
Superintendent
906-337-3168

Refer to: H2017
Risk and Resilience in a Copper Mining Community Exhibition

The Earliest Polish Immigrants to Calumet

For more than a year I have been researching the earliest Polish immigrants to Calumet, Michigan. I have used every resource that I could find and combed the microfilms from Salt Lake City. This summary file shows those Poles who were in Calumet as early as 1870 to 1874. While it is certainly subject to corrections and additions, I have made every attempt to make it as thorough as possible. I have not included the children of families that immigrated unless a son or daughter married in Calumet in these early years.

The chart includes this information for each person. (1) The earliest record located which is usually the immigration record. In some cases it was a marriage or birth record or another source. (2) The 1874 Michigan State Census and the 1880 U.S. census and whether each person appeared on the record. (3) The date and place of marriage when I was able to find that. The book “ A History of the Poles in America to 1908” by Waclaw Kruszka and James S. Pula (Catholic University of America Press, 1998) stated that the first Poles in Calumet came from the towns of Bnin, Kornik, and Poznan in the Poznan/Posen province of Poland. (4) The St. Stanislaus Kostka Society was formed in 1874 and articles of incorporation were signed in 1875. (6) The ship for each immigrant and the route traveled is included.
The Earliest Polish Immigrants to Calumet Chart
I have written two articles about several of these families with more detail. “Some Poznan Families Immigrated to Calumet, Michigan” about six of these families was published in the Spring 2009 issue of Rodziny, the Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America. “Early Polish Immigrants Settled in Southern Illinois” traces seven Poznan families who first settled in Calumet and then moved to Jefferson or Washington counties in Illinois. The article will appear in the Fall 2009 issue of the Quarterly of the Illinois State Genealogical Society.

Joseph F. Martin

Romeoville, Illinois

The First History of St. Anthony of Padua Church

Joseph Martin has written and published the first history of St. Anthony of Padua Church, the Polish parish that was in Red Jacket, Michigan. After more than a year of research he pulled together a 25 page booklet and had it velo bound for durability. He traced the history of the church from its beginnings in 1882 until it became defunct in 1927. The work is fully referenced and includes original photographs of the inside and the outside of the church and eight of its pastors from the collection of Cecile Wendt Jensen, the inside of St. Stanislaus School and more. He included the members of the various Polish fraternal societies of the church, the names of some of the teachers from the school, a copy of the contract one of the pastors signed with the Sisters of St. Joseph to teach at the school, and many other details.

Since it is difficult to make a sight unseen decision to purchase or not, he has attached one page from the history to give readers some idea of the contents. (http://mipolonia.net/St.AnthonyOnePage.pdf) He is providing copies for $15 each plus $2.50 for postage. Since he is printing the books “on demand,” please allow about two weeks for delivery. Questions? email Joseph at: MartinJo@lewisu.edu

Mail checks to –

Joseph F. Martin
Lewis University
100 Faculty Lane
Romeoville, IL 60446

Pamiątka Srebrny Jubileusz Kościół św. Antoniego Padewskiego w Red Jacket, Mich. 1883-1908

5th of November, 1882

A committee was benignantly received by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, president of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company and he gave them two lots on Seventh street and six hundred dollars in cash. With this aid their spirits rose and the church became an accomplished fact. At the end of October Father Pawlar removed again to Sacred Heart and from there superintended his new church. It was a frame structure 75 x 41, with the sacristy and the "traditional few rooms for the priest." The church was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua on the 5th of November, 1882, by Bishop Vertin.

Rev. Antoine Ivan Rezek, History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette, (Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Co., 1907).

St. Anthony Parish Roman Catholic Church

St. Anthony Parish Roman Catholic Church
St. Anthony of Padua
Św. Antoni Padewski
Calumet, Michigan
Established in 1882

—The Polish Church society was organized in the present year, 1882, with Rev. Fabian Pawlar as the organizing pastor. The Church Executive Committee are M. Mytkowski, Andrew Bartkowiak, Simon Tobianski, A. Osinski and Vincent Saltka, who have in charge the construction of a frame church building 40 X 75 feet in area, which will seat sixty people and cost $2,900.

Rev. Antoine Ivan Rezek, History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie
and Marquette, (Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Co., 1907). (pp. 306-307)

Parafia św. Antoniego Calumet MI (St. Anthony's Parish, Calumet, MI)