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Intro
I am Casmir von Thuringen, and I am a Polish cavalry soldier from the war against russia in 1863. I am 29 years old and my unit and I have one goal to accomplish after this war... To get to a land where there is no poverty, corruprtion, or oppression. We dream of the freedoms of Amerca, along with the hopes for a better life in the New World. -
Coming Overseas
After fighting for my country in the uprising of 1863 against our Russian oppressors, I have arranged to move to America for the hope of a new life away from the Russian overlords where I will be safe. I will be leaving behind my farm in Poland and my friends who have survived the war. My family was killed in the war against Russia, most by executions, but my brother died in the line of duty as a cythman, along side my cavalry unit. I barely escaped the Russian army along with some of my unit. -
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Immigrating to America
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Ellis Island
After My unit and I escaped the Russians we fled to America and, we are now just leaving Ellis Island after a trip across the Atlanic Ocean. The Island was full of people from all over the world, such as Italy, Ukrain, Czech Republic, Ireland, and Turkey. It was very crowded and took us several hours to get registered. One of the men in my unit was taken to the hospital for further examination, but the rest of us passed through just fien and will wait for him in Boston. -
Boston
Between the war, oppression, and poverty, my unit and I thought America was like Heaven on Earth. We were amazed by all that Boston had to offer when we arrived. We knew America was the land of the free, but we never expected this much freedom, justice, joy, and energy. We had gotten much more than we expected from what we heard from everyone in Poland. We have realized though, that not everyone is as accepting of us Poles as we thought. Some People seem to be disgusted Poles and other groups... -
Land in the West
My friends (unit) and I have begun to realize that the cities were becoming increasingly crowded with immigrants. Today we have decided to seriously mocing to the West. The West was full of fertile land, and some of us like myself were skilled farmers, which could get us an income of money. We have begun to save money for supplies to get to the west. We did not have much in Boston besides what we brought. I have only extra cloths, what little money I have left from Poland, and my Bible. -
Working for money
After hard work from all of us, we have almost have enough monry for supplie to the West. We recently decided that we would be definatly be moving west, and would not back down from this opportunity. Many of us have jobs in the factories, but a few of us including me are working at the docks for long shifts, almost 18 hours for the factory workers. But it will be worth it when we get to the west, -
Moving Westward
Our unit has finally collected enough money for our trip West ward and we have all packed up and are ready to go. We are boarding a train shortly which will take us to Milwakee, where we will stay for a day or two, then continue. we can't wait to own our own land in America, and finally start our own farm, and make a living. We have heard the land in the West is the perfect place for a farm, with fertile land, open space for cattle and even some nice land by rivers and lakes. -
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Into the West
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Little Poland
We have arrived in Milwakee, where we are now staying in "Little Poland". We have so far felt very accepted and welcomed here, and have been taught many new things. One Chinese Lumber worker told us that there is till plenty of land in the west, and has seen some very lush plots of land for farms that are still un-occupied. My friends and I are making plans now for what we will do when we arrive at our long wanted dream... -
HomeStead Act
We may have stayed alittle longer than we expected in Milwakee, but we are now in Oregon, where we have just applied for land. The land office informed us that the Homestead act would give us free land, if we proved that we could keep it well and prosper with it. We split into two groups, each having thier own plot of land. My group recieved land in Western Oregon, which was nice, flat land with a hill at one end, and the 2nd group's land had a nice stream through it, and close to my group"s... -
Farming
While setting up our land and buying supplies for a farm, we encountered a Polish Farming community not too far from our land. They had been here for several years and had agreed to help us start our farm, and we soon were fart of thier farming community. Most of the people in our community had fled to the West when the war started between Russia and Poland. Two of them were even riflemen who had fought in one of the same battles as my unit. -
Permenant Land
The government was very pleased with our land's harvest this year, and last year's hravest, so they have trusted us wiht this land forever. Both our groups have produced many great crops, with the help of the farming community's help. The dreams we had when we first left Poland had finally come true, and we could not have asked for anything more than what we have created with our team that we had fought with for our country This is more than we had ever hoped to accomplsih many years ago...
