Bob, A little about the Poles in Texas - -
Father Leopold Moczygemba, a Polish Franciscan missionary, had been working in the areas of San Antonio, New Braunfels, and Castroville since September 1852, and it was through his influence that a group of some 100 Polish families (accounts vary as to the exact number), from Pluznica and other villages of the Upper Silesian area of Poland, arrived in south central Texas. They sailed on the Weser, out of Bremen, and landed in Galveston on December 3, 1854; traveling inland, they founded the town of Panna Maria ("Virgin Mary") in Karnes County on December 24, 1854 (having the first Mass said there on Christmas Day following). Their new town was located on 300 acres at the junction of the San Antonio and Cibolo rivers; the land was purchased from John Twohig. This was the first permanent Polish colony in the United States, and ruins of the first stone buildings remain today.
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