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

country dresses for Hanka, because she v;ill not need them
here,
. . . Our dresses are the reason that the native
6 0
people make fun of us and they cause sin."
26
The wooden shoes described by Russell were
the
holzschoen worn by Silesian peasants in the nineteenth
61
century.
During their first years in Texas, the
settlers
at Panna Maria met many difficulties. One difficulty from
Europe that they were unable to escape in Texas was
illness
.
Although there are no parish death records for the
6 P
years before the Civil War, secondary accounts describe
the problems of illness in the new community.
The
Silesians, after an exhausting trip by sea and land, vrere
destitute upon their arrival in Karnes County.
Due to
their emaciated condition and to changes in food and
climate, they were very susceptible to various
fevers
and illnesses.
In fact, Panna Maria's reputation as an
unhealthful
location caused many of its original settlers.
60
Leop. BM. Moczygemba to Dear Fathers, June 18,
1855, in Brozek and Borek, p. 14.
Alma Oakes and Margot Hamilton Hill, Rural
Clothing, Its Origin and Development in Western Europe
and the British Isles (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, 1970), p. 155.
6 2
Edward J. Dworaczyk, Church Records of Panna
Maria, Texas (Chicago: Polish Roman Catholic Union of
America, 1945), p. 25.