Arrival in New Lands – Jach’s in Portage County Wisconsin

In the Spring of 1866, Andrzej Jach and his wife Jozefina Szutenberg, left the village of Dombrowo, Kreis Karthaus, Regierungsbezirk Danzig, Provinz Preußen, Die Vereinigten Preußischen Staaten (Dąbrowa, Powiat Kartuzy, Pomorskie, Poland) and made their way to America with their family. Leaving the villages and parishes of Andrzej and Jozefina’s families must have been a hard decision to make. Leaving behind the only lands that they knew must be heart breaking. The promises of a better life for themselves and their family may have been the motivating factor. They may have heard from family and friends about the cheap farm lands for sale that were located in Portage County, Wisconsin. Regardless of the reasons why or how, they would join many other families in Portage County who were from the Kashubian region of Prussia (Stężyca, Lipusz, Sulęczyno, Kartuzy, Kościerzyna, among other parishes) (Portage County Historical Society of Wisconsin Online Archives, Waclaw Soroka’s Polonia Wisconsin, pp. 47-48, 2010).

On June 16, 1866, on the passenger ship Energie, Andrej Jach and family arrived at Castle Garden in New York. Also with the Jach family was Piotr and Julianna Tryba nee Jach.

Year:  1866; Arrival:  New York ,  United States; Microfilm serial:  M237; Microfilm roll:  M237_267; Line:  1; List number:  666; . Ancestry.com. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

The families would make their way to Sharon, Portage, Wisconsin. I believe that Andrzej and family worked and then saved money with the hopes of purchasing farm land. In 1870, the family resided in the township of Sharon. The image from the 1870 U.S. Census below has the Jach’s family name misspelled as Huck.

Year: 1870; Census Place:  Sharon,  Portage,  Wisconsin; Roll   M593_1732; Page:  146B; Image:  296; Family History Library Film:  553231. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Becoming a citizen of the United States and purchasing farmland were two important achievements for Andrzej Jach. In 1876, Andrzej Jach became a U.S. citizen. This act was captured in the Stevens Point Journal, his name was Americanized as Andrew Yach.

Ancestry.com. Stevens Point Journal, The (Stevens Point, Wisconsin)  [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: The Stevens Point Journal. Stevens Point, WI, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.

The biggest accomplishment of the Andrzej Jach family, was the purchase of farm land in Sharon, Portage, Wisconsin, USA. Below is a copy of the land patent.

Bureau of land Management. “Land Patent Search.” Database and images. General Land Office Records. http://glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch: 2010.

Finally, Andrzej Jach would be able to provide a life for his family, albeit a hardworking life. This is may have been the reason for his immigration to America. Regardless of the reasoning, I pay tribute to his decision and his undertaking.

Best Regards,

Al

Portage County Historical Society of Wisconsin Online Archives. (2010). Waclaw Soroka’s Polonia Wisconsin. Retrieved June 28, 2010, fromhttp://www.pchswi.org/archives/polish_heritage/soroka/soroka_pages_47_48.htm.