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

found people there that couldnt understand what
we said to them, . . . They might have fallen
from the moon or stars for what we knew, or
could find out.99
Of such visits, one Pole recalled:
Sometimes one of the Americans would look
at us; we couldn't talk with them, so they
just gazed at us in wonder, smiled, and . . .
went away.100
During the drought of 1856-57, after they had
become more accustomed to the Poles, several local
Americans helped to keep the colony from falling apart.
Some of these people employed individual Silesians, paying
38
them enough to keep their families from starving.
Among
the neighbors helping the Poles were William Butler, who
gave them cattle to butcher for food, and Andreas Coy,
who gave them corn for bread and seed.
However, not all Americans were so cordial with the
D
I
Silesians.
There are numerous accounts of the Americans
taking advantage of the strange, silent foreigners.
Some
Americans employed the Poles on their ranches or in their
homes and then, threatening them with revolvers, refused
to pay them for their work.
Others of the Americans sold
the Silesians livestock only to return later and steal it
99
Thomas Ruckman, p. 39.
Bakanowski, p. 29.
Dworaczyk, The First Polish Colonies, p. 18.