Sunday, February 26, 2017

Wolcott History – The Polish Connection

Wolcott History

Unlike many of my previous blogs, this one is not about the early English settlers, rather it is about a few decidedly non-English families that may also be found in Wolcott history. In the wolcotthistory.org website there are a series of articles about the major farms in the various parts of town. I’d like to look specifically at two of these articles. (If you want to read the rest of the article, please go directly to the wolcotthistory.org website.)

The article on “Farms in the Northeast District” notes the following:

“At the end of Beecher Road, you came upon Pikiell Brothers Dairy Farm. Harry was born in 1908 and lived in Wolcott most of his life. He and several of his brothers ran the dairy farm as well as a well-drilling company. …”

And in the article on “North District Farms” is written the following:

“The Lone Oak Farm was found in the northern section of town on Woodtick Road and was owned by the Lewandoski family. There were four Lewandoski brothers whose family came from Poland and lived in Waterbury; they were John, Steve, Thomas and Anthony. On November 25, 1913, these brothers purchased farmland in the northern section of Wolcott. …”

This same article also notes:

“Just north of John’s property was a farm owned by the Stryeski family. … but I have no other information about this farm.”

Both of these articles were based on personal interviews with members of the Pikiell and Lewandoski families.

I’d like to explore some of the genealogical information about these three non-English family names – Pikiell, Lewandowski, and Stryeski. While none of them are among the early Wolcott settlers, not being in the town until the early 1900s, between them they owned a considerable amount of property in the northern section of Wolcott where I grew up.

Brief Polish History

Poland was established as a nation-state in the 10th century. But because it included ports on the Baltic Sea, it was the object of much invasion over the centuries – particularly by Russia to the east, Austria to the south, and Prussia/Germany to the west. In particular interest to this story, the country lost its independence in 1795 and was partitioned into areas under the control of the above three countries. They did not regain their independence until after WWI in 1918.

Thus it is that immigrants to the US during this 120+ year period will be found in census records and the like as being not from Poland, but from Russia/Austria/Prussia/Germany. As an example, the census records for the Lewandoski family record them as being variously from Russia, “Russia-Poland”, or Poland, depending on which census you look at. All three of the families in this paper came from the part of Poland that was under control of Russia. They had Polish names, and they spoke Polish, but immigration officials and census takers in the late 1800s and early 1900s did not allow the recording of “Poland” as a valid entry since it was not a recognized country.

The Families

The Lewandoski family (variously spelled as Lewendosky, Lewandowski, Lewindorski, etc. in different documents) were from eastern Poland, just north of Warsaw. The four brothers mentioned in the above article were all born there in the late 1880s or early 1890s. The family did not all come to the US together, but arrived at various dates between 1900 and 1912. This was a common occurrence of the times. One family member would come over, get established, then become the “sponsor” for the next family member, etc. It was not until after the last family member arrived that they purchased their property in Wolcott in 1913.

Harry Pikiell (also recorded as Pykel) was one of 10 children born to Frank Wadyslaw and Constance [Lewandoski] Pikiell. Frank and Constance came to the US separately in the 1890s, were married in 1894 (he being 27 and she being 19) and their children were all born in the US. They originally lived in Windham, CT, before moving to Bristol, then to Wolcott in the late 1920s. I have not been able to determine if Constance was a relative of the Lewandoski family in Wolcott, but it seems quite possible.

The Stryeski family was headed by Anthony and Josephine [Kawalewski] Stryeski. They were from the area near Przasnyz Poland, north of Warsaw. Anthony came to the US in 1895 and Josephine came in 1910. They were married in 1911 and moved to Wolcott sometime in the 1920s. Their five children were all born in the US.

Immigrants

Like the rest of the US, Wolcott is a land of immigrants. As I noted in an earlier blog (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2015/07/wolcott-history-indians.html), “While the European settlers and the Indians lived peacefully side-by-side, the Indians eventually began to migrate westward to better (and less populated) areas. The Tunxis tribe [which hunted on the land in Farmingbury] was never very large, numbering perhaps only several hundred at its peak. But by the time of the incorporation of Wolcott in 1796, to encounter an Indian in town was quite rare.”

Most of the early settlers in Farmingbury/Wolcott were from England as they were the dominant people-group in this part of America. But later migrations included people from other parts of Europe such as the Polish families above. Other migrations included the Irish (from the potato famine of 1845-1852, nearly half of the immigrants in the 1840s were from Ireland), Germans (mid-late 1800s), Italians (late 1800s to early 1900s fleeing extreme poverty in southern Italy and Sicily), and others.


In more recent years we have seen large numbers of immigrants from places other than Europe, such as China, Mexico, and central/south America. Those living in present-day Wolcott are representatives of all these countries of origin and they contribute to the wonderful “quilt” that makes up this country.

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