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M44 OW AM" N66 1000 -MO United States Department of the Interior National Park Service *National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number R Pape 6_ St. Casimir Parish Historic District St. Joseph County IN Frugal and intent on making a good life for themselves in a new land, Polish workers evolved from boarding with other families or renting squalid shanties to acquiring their own modest dwellings in the vicinity of the factories. Scarcely furnished and crowded with numerous children and other family members, the seams of these houses were often strained even further with boarders to help meet expenses. Indoor plumbing and electricity were extremely rare in these houses until the 1920s. Most accounts suggest it took a full generation or more for most families to rise beyond the meanest subsistence. The larger houses in the district were not necessarily built for those of more substantial income. but rather to house extended multigenerational families or boarders. An example is the large Queen Anne -inspired dwelling at 815 Jackson built in 1912 for the Goralski family. Polish -born Stanislaus Goralski, who worked at Studebaker. and • his wife Francesca had four children and rented a portion of the house to other families. When the Goralskis' daughter Mary married Marion Dymski, they occupied in the rental space. Labor relations had not been harmonious in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with ill -paid workers seeking better conditions and sometimes resorting to violence in the struggle. Since a large number of the discontented workers were Polish Catholics, Bishop Joseph Dwenger (the diocese was and is headquartered in Fort Wayne) had issued a pastoral against such activity in 1885, spurred by a riot at Oliver. The following year labor troubles erupted at Studebaker. The depression that began in 1893 only worsened the plight of the Polish workers, and before the turn of the century they initiated a strike at Singer. This one was slightly more successful, resulting in a small raise in laborers' wages. but working conditions at most of the factories were still abominable and troubles continued. The South Bend Tribune in particular railed against the immigrant workers, labeling them troublemakers and rabble-rousers. and using them as examples of why immigration in general must be restricted. The nascent unions, fearing for their existence in the midst of such rising sentiment. implied the foreign workers were to blame for the violence and issued a resolution in 1903 favoring heavily restrictive immigration policies. • Labor problems may have played and dissatisfaction within and church matters. Certainly with officials taking stands against form unions and other attempts and realistic wages, many felt some role in the general unrest outside the parish in the realm of the bishop and local church their parishioners' efforts to to gain safer working conditions abandoned by the very institution