Pulaski Centennial 1910 - 2010

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Please click on the "Contact Us" link to submit stories for this page via email.  Please include the topic and source of your story.

Topic:  Pulaski and my Add-a-Pearl Necklace
Source:  Pam Marnocha-Janssen


I was asked to post the text of the speech I presented at the Opening Ceremony, and so here it is, pretty much in the exact format... the speech represents but a few of my thoughts, but it also represents the depth of love I have for this community. Pam

Good Evening. My goodness… what a privilege it is to stand here this evening and share my thoughts on “Pulaski Present.” Elaine allowed me the space to talk about whatever that means to me. That was pretty risky…

In putting together those things that came to mind, it soon became obvious that the ‘present’ to which I was drawn could easily be understood with another meaning… Pulaski Present is a present, a gift. 

Many years ago, my parents gave me an add-a-pearl necklace as a gift. Each year they continue to add the gift of an additional pearl, usually at Christmas. Now, I really don’t think you’re all that interested in a story about my necklace… I just wanted to have a smooth little segue! 

You see, the many people who have touched my life, all of our lives, in the village are like those pearls, strung together to form one necklace. 
Tonight I would like to share just a few of my pearls… I would love to, but I can’t possibly tell a story about all of you in one evening… perhaps my words will help you remember the luster of your own pearls.

One of the earliest memories from my childhood comes from a time when my family lived on the ‘main drag’… highway 32, in town. After supper, it wasn’t unusual for me to sneak across that fairly busy street to climb the white fence at what we all called the monastery. The friars would be out, walking quietly, and I would scale that fence and they would smile… and I would smile… and then my dad would come and paddle my behind for crossing the road. So much for smiling! I’ve been told that the Franciscans regularly gave blood for my grandfather’s life-giving transfusions. I also know enough history to understand that the village is a better place because men like Fr. Fulgence and Fr. Francis, among others, were active in the community. The gentle spirit of Francis of Assisi has touched thousands of people in area parishes and the local community through the friars, who have been present among us as long as we’ve been a village, and are here still.
Add-a-Pearl

Pulaski is home to several medical clinics today. We had access to a different kind of healthcare when I was a kid. I remember exploring the ruins at the old St. Mary’s School while it was in the process of being razed. I stepped on a rusty nail, which went right through my rubber flip flops and imbedded itself in my foot. A trip to see Doc Shippy was in order. I still remember the smell of that inner office, the sound of the needles being boiled … can you imagine, reusable needles… I also remember Doc Shippy driving me into St. Vincent Hospital for a minor surgical procedure when I was a little girl, when my dad couldn’t get away from work. And when we were kids, Mrs. Shippy regularly invited us to play with her grandchildren when they came for a visit… we spent a lot of time in the ‘little park’ which today bears his name, Shippy Park. I think Doc would have enjoyed the Armed Forces Band playing in that park last year during the Polka Days Craft Sale.
Add-a-pearl

And speaking of parks… 
Who doesn’t remember playing softball or baseball at the ‘Big Park’ and then hanging your baseball glove on your bicycle handlebars and racing off to Vanniewenhoven’s root beer stand… Today the kids and their families still go to the ballpark and the DQ. How about heading over to the Cue Ball as a teenager… the sound of pinball machines, the jukebox, ordering fries and a coke from Joan Nachtwey… making sure you didn’t do anything that would make Ralph scold you. I don’t remember ever seeing Ralph yell at anyone, but his silent gaze kept most of us under control. Today we have a newly opened teen center. Do you remember walking downtown and visiting Bonnin’s, the Dime Store, Wielgus’ or Segall’s, and then stopping at Prokash’ for a malt… the sound of bowling balls bouncing off the wooden lanes… and if you stood outside, you could hear the pins rolling around. Even now, on a hot summer night, you can hear the mechanical pinsetters stirring the pins for their resets. And who could forget Bernie and Rachel Karcz’ Christmas spreads for the bowling leagues, complete with cannibal sandwiches. The bowling alley continues to provide a place for a little friendly competition among neighbors.
Add-a-pearl

Pulaski has always strongly supported youth involvement in sports… from the smallest tykes, PYO, middle school, high school sports. John Storzer, Fred Kestly, Doug McDermid, Jim Ritchie… some of the many men who laid the foundation for today… But I am of the opposite sex… and I am especially proud to put Janet Banaszynski’s name alongside their names. Janet went around and asked local business people for the small amount of money she needed to start and maintain a girls’ softball league. Janet took us girls and introduced us to sports… years before Title IX. Barney and Ethel Banaszynski watched all the neighborhood kids play tag football in the field next to their house, the Schroeders, the Borowski and Krawczyk kids – by the watertower – and Robert and Anna Riordan sponsored a tag football game in their side lot for the neighborhood boys, Danny and Phylis Mroczynski’s boys and Jimmy Krawczyk among others, every fall… and made sure to invite the girls to referee (I got to be the head referee because I was the oldest… and certainly the bossiest)… all this followed by 
hot chocolate and hotdogs in their home. They were such gracious hosts.
Add-a-pearl

Pulaski News, Kathy Gerds and her staff, Jacqui Banaszynski… our own Pulitzer Prize winning writer (and one of those tag football kids)… 
Church picnics and weddings and dances at the Swamps… 

Polka Days… Dick Rodgers and Alvin Styczynski, and all those Maroszek Brothers and the New Generation right down to the latest little ones, including Tammy and Bruce’s boys… 
Rodeos, antique car shows, tractor pulls, village-wide rummage sales, parades
Add-a-pearl

Andrzejek’s and penny candy, where you went with your dime and took forever to choose your flying saucers, or candy necklaces, or snaps, or… Christine waiting for us to finish dilly-dallying around so she could go back behind the curtain and into her house.
Wendzikowski Brothers Meat Market and homemade Polish Sausage… 
as Rachael Ray would say… YUMMO!
Wojcik Plumbing… Alice answering the phone and always ready to chat, memories of Howard asking you for a screwdriver, or a rag, or an extra hand, or for one of those fresh-baked cookies he spotted on your kitchen countertop.
Mark Wojcik, who spent countless hours at the ballpark and always smiled and gave you a little wave when you said… Hi Mark. And talk about the biggest fans at the ball park… here’s to you, Marian and Ray and Kathy Rybicki! If you played ball for Pulaski, you could count on them to be there cheering you on.
Add-a-pearl

The sounds of summer nights…
lawn mowers droning, the soft grind of tractors plowing fields on the edge of town, 
the feint words of the announcers at Memorial Field carried on the night air…
young parents with strollers, kids on bikes, people walking dogs…
the band practicing their marching on the backstreets, kids circling them on their
bicycles, parents and grandparents sitting on lawn chairs and enjoying this small piece 
of Americana. Norman Rockwell is alive and well in Pulaski… our kids even traveled to the streets of New York and LA, marching in parades with national exposure. They came home from college last fall and took the stage with other high school band members, playing favorites in a tribute to one of their own, Josh Styczynski, gone from us too soon. You make us proud.
Add-a-pearl

I remember exactly where I was sitting in my 3rd grade classroom at ABVM when the announcement came over the loudspeakers that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. I remember where I was standing at work, when my sister Mickey arrived at the office, crying and confused, telling me to turn on the tv because she had heard about airplanes crashing in New York and Washington on her drive into work. I remember praying and mourning with the people of this community and finding strength and comfort in that. I remember being in a hotel room in Denver, Colorado where I was attending a meeting in 1988, turning on the television, stunned to see Pulaski Wisconsin tragically in the news. And all I wanted to do was come home. This is home.
Add-a-pearl

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the tremendous role of those who have worked in law enforcement, or volunteered on our rescue squads and our fire department…. 
Clarence Kryger tapping on the car window to see which kids were smooching on the street in front of Mike and Gretchen Marnocha’s house… oops…

I remember how life was in our family when my dad had the ambulance… and who will forget Angie Borowski and the many others who contributed for most of their adult lives to emergency care for their neighbors and friends… always ready to answer the call for help.

The fire department, with the siren wailing in the village before the days of pagers: 
it’s up-and-down pitch interrupting work, dinner, family time, sleep…

Bright Red Trucks carrying water and equipment and the precious cargo of our volunteer firefighters…

Carrying our high school students proudly through the streets, sirens blaring, on their way to State tournament competitions, people coming out their front doors to cheer them on…

Carrying their beloved fire chief, Frank Wichlacz… through a village whose streets were lined with townsfolk… waiting in lawn chairs… people with tears in their eyes… 
who stood up and removed their caps, put their hands over their hearts, saluted, politely applauded, as his body was carried on the antique fire truck he restored.
Add-a-pearl… add a great-big pearl…

As I put my thoughts on paper I noticed that every pearl involved people. Streets and sidewalks are nice, government buildings and school buildings are functional and state of the art, our churches and businesses are welcoming and well-equipped… but…

What makes Pulaski Present are those who have walked before us and those who walk with us now… and will walk Pulaski into the future, who form us into who we are by adding their pearl to the string of our lives. People are the pearls of our community. 

To paraphrase the Christian scriptures, if I may… the village of Pulaski is like a merchant searching for pearls. When he (or she) finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all in order to buy it. 

This is home… it is an add-a-pearl necklace wrapped around our hearts
strung with so many wonderful pearls!

Happy Centennial, Pulaski!


Topic:  John J. Hoff Instumental in the Settlement of the Pulaski Area
Source:  Father Constantine Klukowski and minutes from library notes, May 1949

The Village of Pulaski was named after General Casmir Pulaski, the great freedom fighter if Europe and an American Revolution War hero.  In Poland, he fought the Russians from 1770-1772.

The history of Pulaski focuses around the efforts of one man, John J. Hoff, a land agent from Milwaukee.  Mr. Hoff was born in Norway around 1846 and came to Milwaukee as a teenager.  Around 1880, Mr. Hoff was engaged by the Agrarian Company of Milwaukee to settle the territory of 250-300 square miles between Green Bay and Oconto, lying in a northwesterly direction along the Green Bay waters.  The usual price for land was $15 per acre, of which one dollar went to the agent to pay his commission.  In 1880, Hoff attempted to bring Norwegian immigrants into the townships around what became known as Hofa Park.  Failing at that, he approached the Polish immigrants in Milwaukee.  He suceeded in bringing the Valentine Peplinski, Valentine Zygmanski, Michael and Frank Lepak families.

With Hoff's encouragement, immigrants first arrived in 1881.  John Boncel set up a store and hotel.  Valentine Peplinski moved his hardware store here.  By 1885, there were 35 families in the area.

Hoff donated 120 acres of land to the Franciscan Fathers under the leadership of Brother Augustine Zeitz.  By 1886 the first Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church and monastery were completed.  The present church building was completed in 1929.

John J. Hoff also brought settlers to the Krakow and Sobieski areas.  Sobieski was situated on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul railroad and had a settlement earlier than 1885.  In all of these settlements, Hoff was helpful to the the settlers by donating land and lumber for churches and schools, providing staple food supplies, and bringing in farm machinery and other materials.

The Village of Pulaski was incorporated as a village in the State of Wisconsin on April 9, 1910, due chiefly to the effort of John A. Peplinski, Louis Prokopovitz, August O'Kray and the Rev. Francis Manel, O.F.M.  The Village then numbered nearly 500 families.

Since 1910, Pulaski has grown considerably in both population and businesses.  Much credit must be given to the efforts of those first determined settlers who founded the community of Pulaski.


Topic:  Krakow Dates Back to the Late 1800's
Source:  Tracy Mihalski

The town of Krakow, located six miles north of Pulaski, dates back to the late 1800's.

Originally Krakow, as well as most northern Wisconsin, consisted of dense pine and hardwood forests.  This area was of prime importance for its timber and attracted various logging companies to establish sawmills in the vicinity.

The Pensaukee Logging Company cut pine in the Krakow area and floated the logs down the Pensaukee River, sout of Oconto.  However, much of the hardwood remained until a land agent, John J. Hoff, purchased some forest land in Krakow.  Hoff's goal was to establish a predominitely Polish colony.  Advertising for land sales in this region showed rich opportunities.  Hoff printed special circulars, books and maps which told of various transportation facilities and options, churches, schools, stores and markets in the region.  Hoff sold 40 to 80 acres at a time for $10 to $15 per acre.

Hoff eventually encourages the start of business and trade outlets in Krakow.  Hoff offered two or three lots at no cost to the Theophil Krygier family to build the first store in Krakow about 1895.  Soon after that, Charlie Rice opened a general store.  The first blacksmith in Krakow was John Hernet from Hoff Park.  The first local sawmill was built by Henry Pieczynksi Baker and August and John Forman.  Supplies for the stores in town were hauled by oxen and horse wagon loads from Green Bay, which took two days.  Mail was carried to and from Pulaski on foot three times per week.  The first post office was located on the Stanley Krygier Store.

Krakow settlers lived off of wild game and had no access to markets.  Two-year old steers were walked to a Seymour market, the closest place for such a sale. 

Hoff generously fulfilled his promise to provide for schools and churches.  He donated land, timber and money to establish churches in Hofa Park, Sobieski and Krakow.  Hoff helped people who lost their homes from forest fires and waited tolerantly for land owners to pay their land fees, often canceling the interest.

The earliest known family to settle in the Krakow area was Frank Issac (Elzikis) family.  They cleared the first acreage in the vicinity directly east of Krakow in 1887.  Other early arrivals included the William Grych family, Charles and Joseph Rice and the Brokiewicz families.  Gradually, the area became tamed by more Lithuanian people and of Polish descent.

Families immigrated from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and the cities of Milwaukee and Chicago to Krakow.  While most traveled ty train to Sobieski, some arrived by covered wagon.

There were no roads to Krakow at this time, only paths and trails.  Money was scarce and difficult to earn.  The sawmill wage was 15 cents per day.  The breadwinners of the family left for the cities, lumber camps and mines in Illinois and Pennsylvania to earn money.

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