POLISHVILLE — The Consul General of the Polish Consulate in Chicago, Dr. Pawel Zyzak, will visit the Polishville Community Center on Sunday, June 2, from 3-4:30 pm. The center is 10 miles northeast of Fairfield and 5 miles south of Brighton on the graveled 136th Street. Look for signs on Pleasant Plain Road or Germanville Road.
The Consul General will be in southeastern Iowa as part of a tour of Polish heritage communities in Nebraska and Iowa, in order to meet descendants of Poles whose ancestors came to Iowa and Nebraska in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as more recent immigrants from Poland. The Polish-American descendants of the Poles who settled in the Polishville area and Jefferson County said they are honored that the Polish Consul General has chosen to visit Polishville.
The first Polish settlers in what would later become Polishville arrived in the mid-1850s. Other Poles followed and a Roman Catholic church, St. Mary’s, was built in 1882/83 to accommodate these Polish immigrants, with some Czechs joining them. From the available data, Polishville was the sole Polish rural settlement in all of Iowa, though Sioux City saw an urban Polish community develop after 1905.
Schedule of Events:
3:00-3:15 pm: Opening remarks
3:15-3:35 pm: Guided tour of Polishville grounds
3:35-4:15 pm: Comments from Consul Zyzak, questions, discussion/conversation
4:15-4:30 pm: Photos
Light refreshments will be served.
