THE EARLY HISTORY OF PANNA MARIA, TEXAS ... - Repositories

1848. The failure of the revolution caused him to return
13
to his home in Swibie.
Here he stayed for a few years,
but in the autumn of 1854 Kio^bassa was a member of the
26
party of Silesians planning to leave for Texas.
With his relatives and friends making plans to
leave Silesia, Rev. Leopold had to prepare for their
arrival in Texas.
The most pressing need was for land
for the new immigrants to settle on.
Father Moczygemba's first thought was for the
Silesians to settle about two miles south of New Braunfels
in a projected town named Cracow.
In June of 1853 he
purchased from William H. Merriwether several tracts of
land in this proposed settlement.
For some reason the
priest later decided not to settle his fellow countrymen
in this area.
Several explanations have been suggested
for his decision to settle them elsewhere.
Considering
his desire to be near the new immigrants at New Braunfels
where he was parish priest, Moczygeroba's transer to.
Castroville in early 1854 may have forced changes in his
plans for their settlement.
One author has proposed that
more people in Upper Silesia may have decided to come to
Texas than Father Leopold had first expected.
This
situation could have had two consequences that might have
26
Brozek, Zamorska Emigracja, pp. 4-5; A Twentieth
Century History of Southwest Texas, Vol. I (Chicago: The
Lewis Publishing Company, 1907), p. 189.