The history of Blissville Township in Jefferson County. Illinois, dates 
back to the 1820s and includes settlers from various places, many
of them arriving after the Civil War. While it was not uncommon to have 
immigrants from European countries arrive in the U.S. and settle in towns and
cities, it might have been less common to have them move to undeveloped wooded 
land and clear their own property to establish family farms. Yet. that is what 
happened with some early Polish settlers in southern Illinois.

The Illinois Central Railroad was the largest owner of land in southern Illinois, 
and it was involved in a large colonization effort to sell land after the war 
to support the maintenance of the railroad. Brig. General John B. Turchin (Jan Bazyli Turczyn). 
a Russian born, Civil War military leader, bought land from the company in Washington County 
in order to establish a colony of Polish immigrants Those who purchased land from him 
were to receive train transportation for themselves, their families and their possessions 
at half the regular fare and could apply the fares to their first payments. The General 
agreed to establish a station in Washington County which he named Radom. and he and his 
associate. Nicholas Michalski. developed Agencyja Polslriej Kolonizacyi to promote immigration 
from Poland and from the Polish centers in the U.S.*1 It was an ambitious project, but they 
moved forward confidently They placed ads in Chicago newspapers about Radom indicating that 
the land wasfavorable for farming.



In 1873 the first group of settlers of German and Polish descent moved to the 
area from Chicago. Among the first new residents were Michael and Nicholas Madaj. 
Vincent Kowalski. John Kozielek and Andrew Pieszchalski. who arrived on September 29th. 
On November 11th and a little later, others arrived with their families from Chicago: 
Albeit Pries. Frank Rynski. Ignatius Grajek. Jacob Zgonina. Frank Kwiatkowski. John Labuda.
Michael Witta. Andrew Pero. John Mindak. John Dudzek and Joseph Gloskowski.*2 

Because of the 1873 economic slowdown in the U.S., there were few jobs in the cities, so 
some people were easily persuaded to move. Almost all of these families appear in DuBois 
Township in Washington Comity in the 1880 U.S. census. DuBois Township was just across 
the county line from Blissville Township, and thus it was inevitable that some of the 
Polish immigrants would settle in Jefferson County.

Since these Polish families were Catholic, one of their early concerns was the
establishment of a church. At first Fr. Charles Klocke of DuQuoin traveled to Radom
to the home of John Bauer to celebrate mass with the settlers. By the fall of 1873, even
though only fifteen families lived in the area, the parish of St. Michael the Archangel
in Radom was organized, and the first small church was built the following year.*3 Fr. Joseph
Musielewicz was sent by Bishop Baltes to be the first pastor, although he served for only four
months.*4

Turchin, Michalski and their associates traveled to other Polish centers in the U.S. and had
interviews with prospective immigrants, and they placed ads in Polish newspapers.*5 At some
time the news about Radom reached the Polish immigrants in Calumet, Michigan. Many of them
had come from the towns of Bnin and Kornik in the Posen Province of Poland. In Calumet the
men worked in the copper mines and established St. Anthony of Padua Church in nearby Red Jacket.*6 
Some families from Calumet migrated again to Blissville Township, Illinois, where they established
farms. While they might have been enticed by the opportunity to own a farm, the dangerous
mining work might have taken its toll, or the cold and snowy winters of northern Michigan
might have been a strong motivating factor. Whatever the reason, many of them were in
Blissville by 1880, and all of them were there by 1890. For the most part, the main crops
they grew were wheat, corn, hay and oats.*7

The first Polish family from Calumet to arrive in southern Illinois was apparently Martin
and Agnes Nowak and their children. He had married Agnes Szatkowski in November 1857,
St. Adalbert church in Bnin. Posen.*8 When they immigrated through Hamburg in 1872. seven
children traveled with them to Calumet, and most of them moved to Blissville Township, where
they were Irving at the time of the 1880 U.S. census. Martin had purchased 40 acres of land in
Washington County in March 1876 and another 40 acres in March 1881.*9 Agnes died in 1885,
and Martin died in 1889, and both were buried at St. Michael Cemetery in Radom.*10

When the Nowak family lived in Calumet, son Andrew married Mary Gradzielewski in October
1873 at Sacred Heart Church.*11 They remained in Calumet and started their family and moved
to Illinois by 1884, where their fifth child was born in Blissville. They had at least seven
children, four born in Michigan and the other three in Illinois. In Calumet Andrew was a miner 
in the copper mines, but in Blissville he had changed to farming. Research did not show
that he purchased land in Illinois; thus it is likely that as the eldest son, when his father 
died, he took over the family farm. 



Martin Leczny purchased 72.5 acres of land in Jefferson County in December 1879, *12 probably
making him and his family the second Calumet Polish settlers to move to southern Illinois. In
November 1854 Martin had married Catherine Doniinska in Kornik, Posen,*13 the town adjacent
to Bnin. With four children they arrived in Calumet in the fall of 1872 having traveled
from Bremen to New York City. The passenger list showed their surname as "Winsniy," and
one record from Calumet showed that Martin "Lancony" worked in a copper mine. They appeared 
in Blissville Township in the 1880 and the 1900 U.S. census enumerations, where Martin was a 
farmer. His wife Catherine passed away in 1904, and he died the following year, and both were 
buried in Radom.*14

Their daughter Jadwiga Leczny married John Kujawa m 1875 in Calumet.*15 They appeared in 
Blissville on the 1880 U.S. census, so they might have moved at the same time as her parents. 
John was a farmer throughout his life, and his family of seven children must have helped with 
the daily chores. He became a U.S. citizen on 21 August 1880 at Mt. Vernon in Jefferson County. 
His witnesses were "Barney" Nowicki and Thomas Sikora,*16 both of bom also moved from Calumet. 
The Kujawa tombstone at St. Michael Cemetery verified that Jadwiga died in 1928 and John in 1937.

Ladislaus "Walter" Leczny was born in Calumet in 1874 and moved to Blissville with his family.
Given the challenge of pronouncing and spelling the family name, he like others in the family
changed his surname to Lance. He was a farmer, and eventually he bought property at Ashley in
Washington County. In September 1902 at St. Michael Church he married Julianna Rose Bok, who had 
been born in Blissville.*17 They raised nine children who lived in the area all their lives.
In a tragic situation, their twenty-five year old, married daughter Frances Szatkowski was killed
by lightning while she was driving a wagon led by two horses.*18 Walter died in 1942 and
Julianna in 1977. Both were buried in the church cemetery.



Another family that moved to southern Illinois was Nicholas and Katherine Nowicki and their children.
Nicholas had married Catherine Szatkowski in Komik. Posen, in 1851.*19 In June 1870 Nicholas arrived 
at Castle Garden with one son. and then in May 1871 Katherine arrived with four other children. They 
lived in Calumet for some years, but by the 1880 census Catherine was widowed and lived in Blissville.
where Nicholas had died in 1879. Their son Barney purchased 35 acres of land in January 1890.*20 which 
he farmed until he died. To help raise her family Catherine married Frederick Brandt in Radom in 
November 1880.*21 When she died in 1907, she was buried at St. Michael's Cemetery.



In Calumet. Michigan. Frank Zienta married Marianna Bomblinska about 1877 at Sacred Heart Church. 
Traveling from his hometown of Bnin. Posen. Frank had arrived at Castle Garden in 1872.*22 He also 
worked in the mines, and this couple appeared on the 1880 U.S. census with one son. Marianna immigrated 
about 1875 from Posen province, but her record has not been located. Their second child was born in 
Blissville in September 1881, so they moved after some other Calumet families had already settled 
in southern Illinois. He and his wife raised eleven children, and Frank was a farmer, although no 
record of a land purchase has been uncovered. Both of them died in Radom and were buried there, he 
in 1905 and she in 1940.*23



These and other early Polish settlers from Calumet overcame many challenges when they moved to the 
land around Radom. Illinois. The area had very little prairie, was covered with timber and brush, 
and was not considered agricultural land. The first settlers lived in tents until log cabins could 
be built, while others built lean-tos covered with brush.*24 Eventually, ninety percent of the 
Polish farmers in the area were landowners, demonstrating the determination and dedication typical 
of their national character. In the early years they constructed a Catholic church where they could
gather and pray, and over time they formed a community strengthened by bonds of family ties and 
cultural traditions. In September 1923, fifty years after the first Polish settlers moved to Radom.
the parishioners at St. Michael Church commemorated its founding. The following year a new church 
building was dedicated, and as a courtesy to traveling guests, the Illinois Central Railroad arranged
for all of its trains to make a stop at Radom,*25 reminding the Polish residents of that area of 
the connection to their early history. 

*1 Stephen Chicoine, John Basil Turchin and the Fight to
Free the Slaves (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 199.

*2 Histovja Parajjisw. Michaia arch, iPosSvie-cenia
Nowffgo Kos'ciol-a wRadomiu, III. (Radom: St. Michael
Church, 1924), Leszek Konarski, translator (2003), 9;
held in 2009 by Thomas Lassek of Alabama.

*3 Centennial, 1874-2974, St. Michael's Church, Radom,
Illinois (Radom: St. Michael Church, 1974), 8.

*4 Waclaw Kruszka and James S. Pula, A History^ of the
Poles in America to 1908. II (Washington, D.C.: Catholic
University Press. 1994). 259.

*5 Paul W. Gates, The Illinois Central Railroad and Its
Colonization Work (Johnson Reprint Corporation: New
York, 1968), 319.

*6 Joseph F. Martin, 'Some Poznan Families Immigrated
to Calumet, Michigan," Rodziny (Spring 2009): 17.

*7 "Southern Illinois, Polish General Farmers," Immigrants
in Industries: Recent Immigrants in Agriculture. 2
(Washington. DC: United States Immigration
Commission, 1911): 242.

*8 Bnin, Srem, Poznan, Poland, Marriages 1847-1869,
FHL microfilm 1169513, 1857, 18.

*9 Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database.
Illinois State Archives, online
http://www/ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/landsrch.html
Nowak data accessed 1 June 2009.

*10 Book 1, Deaths, 1876-1908, (1885: 33 & 1889: 44), St.
Michael Church. Radom. Illinois.

*11 Houghton County Marriage Book 1: 278, County
Clerk's Office, Houghton, Michigan.

*12 Jefferson County Land Purchases, Book 30: 478,
County Court House, Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

*13 Kornik, Srem, Poznan. Poland, Marriages 1849-1871,
FHL microfilm 1199999, 1854, 32.

*14 Book 1, Deaths. 1876-1908. (1904: 54 & 1905:55), St.
Michael Church, Radom, Illinois.

*15 Kujawa-Leczny marriage record, 10 October 1875,
Sacred Heart Church, Calumet, Michigan. Information
supplied 1 March 1991 by Sharon J. Giachino. citing no
book or page number.

*16 John Kujawa, certificate of naturalization, 21 August
1880, Jefferson County Court, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; held in
2009 by Delphine Pfeiffer of Texas.

*17 Leczny-Bok marriage. 10 September 1902, Book 1,
entry 9. St. Michael Church. Radom, Illinois.

*18 'Woman killed by lightening in Casner Twp." Register
News, Mt. Vernon, IL, 10 October 1941.

*19 Kornik, Srem, Poznan, Poland. Marriages 1849-1871.
FHL microfilm U99999, 1851 5.

*20 Jefferson County Early Land Sales, online 
http://genealogytrails.com/ill/jefferson/land_alphaindex.html,
Nowicki
data accessed 1 June 2009.

*21 Brandt-Nowicka marriage record. 21 November 1880,
Book 1, unpaginated, arranged by date. St. Charles
Borromeo Church, DuBois, Illinois.

*22 Frank "Zieta" entry: SS Tlmringia Passenger Manifest,
24 September 1872, in Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving
in New York, September 2-17,1872, micropublication
M237 (Chicago: National Archives) roll 365.

*23 Book 1, Deaths. 1876-1908. (1905: 55). Book 6.
Deaths. 1908-1956, (1940: 119). St. Michael Church.
Radom. Illinois.

*24 "Southern Illinois, Polish General Farmers,"
Immigrants in Industries; Recent Immigrants in
Agriculture, 236.

*25 Histo)ja Parajji sw. Michala arch., 31._