Marcin "Martin" Gornowicz

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16768815

1875 census Michael Gomowiecz (born 1835 Prussia), Agatha Gomowiecz, Frank Gomowiecz, Victoria Gomowiecz, Mary Gomowiecz, Kate Gomowiecz, Josephine Gomowiecz & Joseph Gomowiecz are living at Marion Lake, Otter Tail County, Minnesota.

FRANK GORNOWICZ FAMILY

Martin Gornowicz, born in 1833 in Poland, came to America in 1855.

He was the father of Frank Gornowicz, born in 1857 and came to Walsh County from Wisconsin in 1879. He was one of the first settlers to homestead in Pulaski Township, northeast of Warsaw. He married Clara Kulkowski, who was born at Pine Creek, Wisconsin in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gornowicz were parents of five daughters and one son, Mary, Florence, Minnie, Rosie, Brony, and Adam. Frank Gornowicz died Feb. 27, 1926, and Clara passed away April 24, 1955.

A sad incident in the life of Martin Gornowicz was the death of his first wife in the storm of 1880. When she went to visit neighbors one Sunday afternoon a storm came up while she was returning home and lasted for three days. Her body wasn't found until the spring of the year.

HISTORY OF MARTIN AND JOSEPH GORNOWICZ FAMILY: Martin Gornowicz, born in 1829, died in 1905; his wife, Agatha (Pokrzywinski) Gornowicz, born in 1829, died in 1880. With their two children — Frank and Victoria, they came to America from Poland in about 1863. Somehow they came from New York to Pine Creek, Wis., where they lived for a short time. Then they came by ox teams to Perham, Minn, where a son, Joseph Gornowicz, and two daughters were born. Joseph Gornowicz was born in 1871; Josephine (Mrs. Max Tandecki) was born about 1869; and Katie (Mrs. Louis Knaus) was born in 1865. They farmed near Perham, Minn, for about 14 years. In 1879 they came to North Dakota by ox teams. They homesteaded two quarters of land, which are now known as the Helen Gornowicz farms. They lived in sod houses for a short time, then built a part log and part board house. Joseph Gornowicz related that there was always the danger of grass fires. He told that when the family came to Warsaw area the grass was almost as tall as a man, so they plowed a wide strip of land around the buildings. He also told that it took three to four days to make a trip to Grand Forks for groceries, by ox team. The first winter the family was here, Grandmother Agatha went to visit her daughter, Mrs. John (Victoria Gornowicz) Chapiewski, who lived about a mile and a half away. It was on Feb. 13, 1880. The day was warm and beautiful. After visiting, she started walking home. On her way, one of the sudden North Dakota blizzards came up, and she became lost. She died in that storm. They found her body about three miles southwest of her home, the following spring. Hers was the first funeral held in the Polish community. The first baptism in the community was that of a child born to Mr. and Mrs. John (Victoria Gornowicz) Chapiewski. In 1890 or '91, Josephine (a widow) Spayhawa and son, Stanley, and two daughers, Leona and Magdalen, came to America from Poznan, Poland. They were sponsored by Josepine Spayhawa's brother, Martin Rybakowski, so they came to the Polish settlement, now Warsaw, in North Dakota. After coming here they met the Martin Gornowicz family. By now Joseph Gornowicz was a grown man. In 1893 he married Magdalen Spayhawa. Soon after that, Martin Gornowicz married Josephine, Magdalen's mother. She was born in 1836; died in 1905. Joseph Gornowicz, born in 1871, died in 1946, age 75; his wife, born in 1874, died in 1963, at age 89. (Walsh Heritage vol.4)