Michael Bogumil Koziczkowski

Emigration: 8 Feb 1857 Hamburg, Germany.

Immigration: 4 Sep 1857 New York, New York.

He was one of the first Polish pioneer settlers in Polonia, Portage County, Wisconsin.'

The first Poles who came to the northeastern part of Portage County, Wisconsin, were Michael von Koziczkowski and family, consisting of his wife and nine children. The pioneer of the early group of immigrants, Koziczkowski, had been the owner of a small farm in the region of Danzig, West Prussia.

He realized that the future for his nine children was dark, having read of America, sold his farm and started for the New World without knowing his destination. Arrived in Chicago, he heard of cheap lands to be had on the upper Wisconsin River. In Milwaukee he learned more, for there was at that time a movement among the Germans to take up lands in Marathon County. Proceeding in this direction, Koziczkowski arrived in Stevens Point in September 1857, with fifty dollars in money. He left his family in Stevens Point while he went to Wausau to look at land which proved unsatisfactory because too heavily wooded. Returning, he spent the winter of (1857-1858) in Stevens Point, and in the following summer worked for farmers a few miles east of the city.

In the meantime he had written to friends at home, and the three families of Zynda, Klesmit and Platta had found their way to Portage County and were employed in the same neighborhood. Later they bought land from the Fox River Company, and settled here. The land purchased was dotted with hundreds of tree stumps, huge boulders and rocks of every size. It was only after many months of patient and backbreaking labor that clearings, upon which crops could be planted, were made by the settlers.

Michael (von) Koziczkowski was born on September 11, 1811 in the Kaszuby region of Poland. He married Franciszka von Zelewska in the Suleczyno parish on Oct 30, 1838, and lived in the nearby small village of Podjazy. They had 11 children: Josephina Seraphina Koziczkowski Frank Andrew Koziczkowski Julianna Marianna Koziczkowski Johann Deidor Koziczkowski Teofil Edimonde "Charles" Koziczkowski Clementine Barbara Koziczkowski Joseph Albin Koziczkowski Thomas Koziczkowski Alexander Anton Koziczkowski Cunigunde Gertrude Koziczkowski Theresia Koziczkowski They left Poland (It was actually Prussia at that time) for the United States on February 8, 1857 from Hamburg, Germany on the vessel Howard, and landed in New York City on Sep 4, 1857. They were the first Polish family to settle in Portage County, Wisconsin and lived at Section 2, Sharon Township, Portage County, Wisconsin. They had 4 children in Wisconsin: Michael Koziczkowski Marceli "Martin" Koziczkowski Joseph Patrick Koziczkowski Martha Cecelia Koziczkowski Michael Koziczkowski died Sep 02, 1881. There is a park in Portage County named in his honor.

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

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The story of Michal and Franciszka (Zielewska) von Koziczkowski, Portage County’s first Polish family, is told through maps and documents. Their coming resulted in the development of the oldest Polish rural settlement in Wisconsin. This family originated from the Kaszuby region. The couple was married in the Suleczyno parish in 1838, and lived in the nearby small village of Podjazy. In 1857, at Sunday Mass, the priest announced to the parish that the family planned to leave for America. Their departure generated a great deal of interest with a large group of people gathering to wish them well on their journey. A young boy, Antoni Hinz, watched this unusual event with his parents. Little did he realize that in 1880, he and his wife, Jozefina nee Cybulska, and Marianna and Maria, would make the same journey. On the first day of his arrival in Stevens Point - who did he meet on the street but Koziczkowski! He often told this story with a sense of wonder.

Other families, most of them from the Kaszuby region, who arrived in the county shortly after the Koziczkowski's, are identified since their contributions were instrumental in the development of this community. http://www.pchswi.org/archives/townships/earlypolishhist.html >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Polschen, Bütow (today's Półczno, Bytów): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreis_B%C3%BCtow and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%B3%C5%82czno