The first settlers of Winona came from New England, New York, Pennsylvania,Ohio, and Illinois. Within a few years the character and atmosphere of the city changed with the arrival of people from Germany, Poland, Ireland, Norway, England, and many other lands.
The first Polish immigrants to Winona came to the new townsite on the Mississippi a few years after Minnesota Territory was open to settlement in 1851. After the Germans they became the largest ethnic group in the city. Polish immigrants came to Winona in increasingly greater numbers and their ethnicity was strengthened by organizations and institutions which supported their old world traditions and heritage.
Even though Poles were not the largest ethnic group in the city, they were the most cohesive and unified because of their common religion and customs. Most of them came from the Kaszubian region of Poland that borders the Baltic Sea. Both their language and culture differentiated them from other Polish emigrants to America. They maintained a distinct Kaszubian dialect, tradition, and folkways. Even the architecture and decoration of their homes reflected their unique Kaszubian origins. Winona's Kaszubian community ranked fourth in size in the United states behind Buffalo, Detroit, and Stevens Point.
The Kaszubians had immigrated because of limited economic opportunity in their homeland and Austrian, Prussian, and Russian oppression which threatened the survival of their ethnic identity. Over a period of years, Polish names were changed or were spelled in a Germanized fashion. Many of the Poles who came to Winona even identified themselves on the early census rolls as "Prussians". As late as 1880, the largest group of foreign born in the city, according to the manuscript census, were the Prussians. Historians have had difficulty in analyzing the Prussian group because it is well known that the people who declared themselves as Prussians were often culturally Polish, German, and Bohemian.
Not all the Poles who immigrated to Winona were Kaszubs. Winona's East Side, Polonia also included over a thousand Poles who imigrated from Poznania and Upper Silesia. The regional differences among the Polish community, while important, were diminished for most of them by nationality and religion. Winona also attracted a small group of Polish Jews who settled in the city in the nineteenth century. A number of them established independent businesses which contributed to the growth of the city. More research needs to be done on this small but important group of people in Winona's history.
When Poles first moved to Winona in 1855, they joined St. Joseph's, a German-language parish. Many Kaszubians were bilingual as a result of their origins in Prussia. However, they wanted their own church in order to retain their traditions. Many of the Germans in St. Joseph's parish were Bavarians, unable to understand the Poles' feelings of alienation towards that church and their suspicion of things German. In 1873, the Poles built a church and established a parish in honor of St. Stanislaus Kostka. A school was built in 1888, in which classes were taught in both Polish and English. Because of the rapid growth of the parish, funds for a new church were subscribed, and in 1894, a magnificent basilica was erected.
Two Polish communities developed in the city. The primary Polish community was located in the fourth ward in the eastern quarter of the city, and there was also a satellite Polish community located in the first ward in the west end of the city. Even though the communities were geographically separated, they were unified in spirit, culture and behavior because most of the Poles in the first ward were members of St Stanislaus Parish and many of them sent their children to the Polish school in the fourth ward. In addition, most of them shared a common Kaszubian background and family relationships, and many of them belonged to the same Polish fraternal and religious associations.
The Poles who first came to Winona maintained a link with their homeland through correspondence with their relatives and friends. As a result, more Poles from Kaszubia and other regions of Poland came to Winona. By 1888, there were 700 Polish families in the city. During the decade, Winona's population grew rapidly, and a substantial part of the growth was Poles, who had heard about the opportunities for work in Minnesota. By 1905, Winona had the largest number of foreign born Poles in any city in the state with 1,355. St. Paul, with 1,225 was a close second.
Ethnic groups developed institutions and organizations which reinforced their ethnicity and enabled their people to assimilate to American society more easily. The Polish people centered their community around their church and the parochial school where the Polish language was used for instruction. Fraternal societies and insurance companies were also supports for Polish ethnicity. The Winona Poles even attempted to establish their own bank because they were concerned that the German bank was profiting from their savings. Next to the church the Polish language weekly newspaper Wiarus , published in Winona from 1886 to 1919 had great influence on sustaining Polish culture and traditions. This newspaper, edited by Hieronim Derdowski from 1886 to 1902 was distributed throughout the middle west and to subscribers as far away as California. Derdowski's newspaper carried stories of local interest and news from Polish communities in the United States and Europe. Derdowski was a staunch supporter of the working man and the Polish community. He vigorously defended the position of the working people in a number of strikes which occurred in the city. Usually his was the only newspaper to do so. He was also active in political issues usually supporting the Democratic Party. In 1900 when James Van Sant a Winonan was running for governor on the Republican ticket, Derdowski threw his support to his fellow Winonan. The vote in the Fourth Ward reflected the influence of his newspaper.
Derdowski was one of Winona's most prominent citizens. Born in Wiele, Poland, he was a newspaperman and a poet. The Prussian government considered his work subversive and he left his native Poland to avoid possible imprisonment. Many of his poems appeared in the Wiarus. His poetry has been published in Poland and two statues commemorating him were erected there.
There were a number of notable individuals in the Winona Polish Community.
Polish-Americans at Saint Mary's College established an enviable record for winning prestigious national scholarships.
Dr. Hugh Joswick won the Rhodes Scholarship in 1976.
Dr. Gerald Langowski won a Fulbright Scholarship for study in Chile in 1959-60.
Ben Czaplewski won the Woodrow Wilson Scholarship.
Dan Przybylski founded one of the leading industrial plants in the city.
Julian Wera was the first Winonan to make it to the major leagues, he played for the New York Yankees with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth in 1928-29.
Henry Kowalewski introduced butterfried shrimp and fish to the Hiawatha Valley region.
Dr. Richard Kowles is a nationally known geneticist.
Robert A. Kierlin, Michael Gostomski, and Stephen M. Slaggie are Co-founders of the Fastenal Company.
The entire Polish community made a significant contribution to the growth and stability of Winona. Their characteristics of loyalty, devotedness, determination, and a strong work ethic helped make this city an exciting place to grow up in and a comfortable place to live. Polania's tradition and heritage remains strong in Winona today.
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