Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Cemetery
Cestohowa, Karnes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The burial ground for the Czestochowa parish was pieced together from acre donations in the 1870s and became a chronicle in stone of Polish immigrant life in Texas. Its markers—many inscribed in Polish until the 1930s—record the parish's founding priests, its authors and pastors, and the toll of the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, which took Frances Gawlik and three of her children within a single week. Among more than 800 graves lie dozens of military veterans, from Confederate soldiers to men who served through Vietnam.
Why it matters
A community cemetery like this preserves the texture of immigrant American life—language, faith, epidemic, and service—more intimately than any single monument could.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church
Cestohowa, TX
This parish grew out of one of the oldest Polish colonies in America, planted in Karnes County by immigrants who had followed the pioneers of nearby Panna Maria. After lightning destroyed the "Mother Colony" church in 1877, the Czestochowa settlers built their own sanctuary—a decision that stirred real controversy among the tight-knit Polish community before ending in reconciliation, sealed by a gift of a painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Poland's patroness. Blessed in 1878 and enlarged in the 1930s, the church anchored a community that Americanized even its spelling, from Czestochowa to Cestohowa.
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Built in 1858 by a stonemason who had emigrated from Upper Silesia, the John Gawlik House is the oldest stone home in Panna Maria, the first permanent Polish settlement in America. Its steep gabled roof with deep porch overhangs, tiny ventilation windows, and interior meat-smoking rooms carry the building traditions of rural Silesia straight to the Texas prairie. Gawlik also helped raise the settlement's Immaculate Conception church and other homes, and the house has passed through several families since.
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