DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out on the South Texas plain, in a place called Czestochowa — later spelled Cestohowa, and also known around those parts as St. Joe on account of the St.
Joseph Catholic School there — there is a cemetery that holds more than a century and a half of stories in its soil. And like most good stories, this one starts with a gift. Two men stepped forward.
Jacob Lyssy, born in 1837 and gone by 1880, and John Pawlik, Jr., born in 1845 and gone by 1912 — both of them parishioners of the Czestochowa parish — each donated one acre of land. One acre apiece. They handed that land over to Bishop Anthony D.
Pellicer of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, to be set aside as a burial ground for the newly established Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church. A community was planting itself in Texas, and it needed a place to lay its dead. Now, the earliest graves, they didn't always get a marker.
Some were left unmarked entirely. Others had their markers displaced over time, moved by weather or the slow hands of the years. But the earliest marked grave still standing belongs to Franciscus Gawlik, who died in August of 1878.
That name has endured. For decades, if you had walked this cemetery and read the stones, you would have been reading in Polish. Most markers were inscribed that way right up until the 1930s.
This was a Polish American community, holding fast to its language even in its grief. Then came 1918. The Spanish influenza didn't spare Texas, and it certainly didn't spare Czestochowa.
The epidemic ran from 1918 all the way to 1920, and several graves in this cemetery date from that terrible stretch. Among the most heartbreaking: Frances Moczygemba Gawlik and three of her children. All four of them died in the same week of March, 1920.
The same week. Let that land where it will. Among the graves of interest are many people who were instrumental in building this parish from the ground up.
The Reverend Stanislaus Przyborowski — born 1872, died 1957 — served the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church for thirty-five years, and beyond that, he established several other Catholic churches in the area. Thirty-five years of Sundays, of baptisms, of last rites, of everything in between. The Reverend Edward Dworaczyk, born 1906, died 1965, made his mark differently — as the author of many Polish history books, preserving in print what this community lived in person.
And then there are the veterans. By the year 2000, more than seventy-five military veterans had been interred in this ground. Several served in the Confederate Army.
Others answered the call in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Generation after generation, century after century, this community sent its sons into the world's conflicts, and this cemetery received them back. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, there were eight hundred and sixty-four graves here.
Eight hundred and sixty-four. Various caretakers and volunteer labor have kept the site maintained — tended by hands that understood what it meant to preserve something. This cemetery, the marker says, remains a chronicle of Polish American settlement in Texas.
And that's exactly right. Every unmarked grave, every stone inscribed in Polish, every family cluster cut short by influenza, every soldier laid to rest — it's all one long, unbroken sentence about a people who came to this stretch of Texas and decided to stay.
What the marker says
Jacob Lyssy (1837-1880) and John Pawlik, Jr. (1845-1912) of the Czestochowa parish each donated one acre of land to Bishop Anthony D. Pellicer of the Archdiocese of San Antonio to be used as a burial ground for the newly established Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church at Czestochowa (later spelled Cestohowa). The town also was known as St. Joe because of the St. Joseph Catholic School there. Early graves were often unmarked, or their markers were displaced. The earliest marked grave is that of Franciscus Gawlik, who died in August 1878. Spanish influenza attacked the lives of many Texans during the epidemic of 1918 to 1920. Several graves date from that period, including those of Frances Moczygemba Gawlik and three of her children, who died in the same week of March, 1920. Most grave markers were inscribed in Polish until the 1930s. Among the graves of interest are those of many persons who were instrumental in the formation of the Czestochowa parish. The Rev. Stanislaus Przyborowski (1872-1957) served the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church for 35 years and established several other Catholic churches in the area. The Rev. Edward Dworaczyk (1906-1965) was the author of many Polish history books. Of the more than 75 military veterans interred here by the year 2000, several served in the Confederate Army. Others served in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. At the dawn of the 21st century there were 864 graves in this cemetery. Various caretakers and volunteer labor continued to maintain the site, which remains a chronicle of Polish American settlement in Texas. (2000)