Polish and Bohemian Settlers

Histories: Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:

"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":

Chapter 10:


Polish and Bohemian Settlers

-As transcribed from pages 150 - 152



It is impossible to obtain the exact date of the day, or even month of the year, when the first Polish or Bohemian people came to this county, for the reason that there cannot be found anyone that kept any kind of data, and there are only three left in this county of the very first ones that came here - two men and one woman. Those that are alive are all past the age of eighty and their memory is beginning to fail noticeably, and what information I was able to gather is such as these people were able to give me from recollection only, except in one instance, that of the woman I just mentioned. She fixes the dates of their arrival by the age of one of her daughters. She has the names of all her children and the date on which they were born written down on the inside cover of a prayer book, and she seems to be sure that the age of the girl I mentioned was three weeks.

It seems that the Polish and one Bohemian family settled in two localities in this county at about the same time, and as near as I have been able to learn, they did not know of the existence of each other at the time, nor for a good many years after - the length of time no one seems to be able to tell.

During the winter of 1862 and 1863, there came to what is now known as Pine Creek, in the town of Dodge, several Polish families, as follows: Paul Lessman, Paul Libera, Mike Lessman, Frank Weyer, Joseph Lubinski, Joseph Wnuk, and some others whose names I did not get. Of these, all but Paul Libera are now dead. With them came one Bohemian family, that of Math Brom. He is still living, although past eighty years of age and quite feeble. All of these people came from the city of Winona, Minnesota.

You notice that there are several families that came at the same time and they settled in close proximity and formed a colony of their own. They claim the distinction of having the second oldest colony in Wisconsin, one in Polonia, Wisconsin, being older, and they claim their colony as the third oldest in the United States, one in St. Mary's, Texas, being first.

The other settlement that took place, which I mentioned before, was in the Town of Arcadia, what is now known as North Creek, and in what is now known as the Town of Burnside.