Buffalo at the Crossroads by Peter H. Christensen

Author:Peter H. Christensen [Christensen, Peter H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501749773
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Poles in Buffalo

Franciszek (Frank) Ruszkiewicz arrived in the United States on October 5, 1888, when he was only thirteen. Born in the area of Torun, a town in the Prussian zone of partitioned Poland, Ruszkiewicz settled with his family in Buffalo. Although he did not speak a word of English, he was able to secure a job at the Buffalo Hardware Company,19 making a mere two dollars a week. He soon moved onto Charles Boller & Sons on Chicago and Carroll Streets, where he worked for four years until he suffered a saw injury in the planing mill at the age of nineteen.20 He recovered speedily and resumed the path of industrial employment at the D. L. & W. Railroad shops, where he started as a car mechanic, continued as a painter, and finally became a boilermaker. Simultaneously, he was attending evening English classes. In 1896, only eight years after his arrival in Buffalo, and with a recently developed interest in politics, he ran for the office of district committeeman from the Fourth Election District of the Eleventh Ward, at the time demarcated by Broadway, Fillmore Avenue, Clinton Street, and the eastern border of the city. Despite the fledgling political career in Buffalo, however, Ruszkiewicz moved to Albany, where the support of the Republican Party helped him secure a position of elevator man at the Capitol. But eventually western New York promised better opportunities, and in 1901 Ruszkiewicz moved back to Buffalo, took college courses in business, and on January 1, 1902, started working as a license clerk in the mayor’s office.21

Ruszkiewicz’s story, shared in part by the Buffalo Times in 1904, was familiar yet noteworthy. The unremarkable beginnings of a young worker with no English skills, a series of industrial jobs, and even an industrial accident mirrored many recent migrants’ lives. In this context, the later and less common accomplishments of becoming a politician with a white-collar job served as evidence that immigrants could succeed if they were sufficiently ambitious and hardworking. But that triumphant narrative went far beyond the popular notions of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps and assimilation. It was also a tale of a young Pole who presumably chose to reject his impoverished working-class background and embraced those aspects of the immigrant reality that made him suitable to be a respected Buffalonian and a full-fledged member of the American nation. Ruszkiewicz learned English, sought attractive job opportunities, and got involved in local politics. All that arguably demonstrated his commitment to American opportunities and American democracy. Educated, politically active, and with a position at the mayor’s office, he was a model immigrant—a shining example in the American story of white middle-class urban respectability.

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