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This project focuses only on Polish pioneers who were born in Poland (Prussian Poland, Austrian Poland and Russian Poland) and settled in Michigan in 1850s, 1860s and 1870s.
If you would like to connect your ancestors who came in America at a later time and settled in Michigan, please refer to a different project titled: Polish Americans in Michigan, United States of America.
The first lasting Polish community in Michigan was established in the town of Parisville. The first Polish parish, St. Mary’s Church, came to existence (according to Rev. Waclaw Kruszka) in that town in 1857. Other parishes followed, in 1871 in Bay City, in 1872 in Detroit and in 1873 in Grand Rapids.
Dr. Steven Wloszczewski claims that the two oldest Polish cemeteries in Michigan, that of Parisville and Posen, include the names of Polish persons born in the late 18th century and arriving in the U.S. between 1820-1830. According to him, "The first Polish rural settlement in Michigan still in existence [Parisville] was founded in the period 1850-1860." Posen, the first in Northern Michigan, was founded in the 1870s. Similarly, "The first Polish town quarter probably began to rise in Muskegon in the years 1830-1840." Poles began to arrive in large numbers in Detroit 1850-1860.
In an essay by Rev. Joseph Szarek titled "The Oldest Polish Village in Michigan: Parisville-The Glory of Its Pioneers." Rev. Szarek mentioned that about 1950 he officiated at the deathbed of a Polish woman nearly 100 years old who had been born in an Indian teepee in the Parisville area. Her parents had just arrived and had not yet built their home. The Indians were friendly to the Poles, who had helped them with food during a harsh winter. He also asserts that the Poles arrived in Huron County in smaller groups before 1850. These references were found in Fr. Moczygemba’s parish records; he served at Parisville 1889-1890. Rev. George Pare’s history, "The Catholic Church in Detroit," (1950), states that Fr. Constantine Dziuk, pastor of St. Mary’s Parisville 1926-1931, learned by a tradition of the town that a few Polish individuals had arrived as early as 1848 and merely squatted on the land, not knowing how to go about purchasing property. Pare also cites Fr. Kruszka, who gives the date of origin as 1852. As to the question of the Homestead Act not being in effect yet, Rev. Szarek states that the Huron County Tract Book lists the purchase as occurring in 1856 and the transaction was made under the terms of an earlier act for settling swamp lands (1850), which required a 5 year residency and improvements.
Source: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~atpc/genealogy/polonia/usa/plam-pari...