Washington State Colonization Company
This company apparently focused on land sales to Polish/Lithuanian immigrants. Although the Malinowskis’ didn’t buy through them, it was still a factor in why they had so many Eastern European neighbors.
The Washington Colonization Company is mentioned in “They Tried to Cut It All” by Ed VanSycle as being formed by Mankowski & Jaklewicz1 who tried to encourage Polish/Lithuanian farmers to the Wishkah with “if the land can grow trees this big imagine what it can do with vegetables”. The land the realtors had purchased for resale was logged stump land. The problem was the ground was very hard to clear of the huge stumps and the soil really very poor for farming when the work was completed. Many of these families struggled and with the depression finally lost their land. It was taken over by the State of Washington in many cases.
Miss Baaginstos remembers going to his office in Aberdeen to purchase their land up the Wishkah. The 1925 plat map shows about 7 blocks of land held in the society’s name. Story is told that the settlement of “Polandville” was as a result of his work.
On March 22, 1909 this note appeared in the newspaper the Aberdeen Herald: C. Mankowski, manager of the Polish colony on the upper Wishkah was in the city Friday and state that a large number of Polish families were on the way to join with the colony. He reports gratifying results from experiments made on logged off lands and the colony is more than satisfied with the investment.
The only Mankowski shown in G.H. Censuses is Joseph Mankowski who immigrated in 1907 (according to 1910 census). In 1910 he lived in Aberdeen and was employed as a laborer in a sawmill. Marian Adam Jaklewicz is also on the 1910 Census.
The attached 1910??? (25??) property owner’s map shows many Polish names but also several properties held by The Company. Many of the Polish people in the valley appear to have purchased their own properties, not going through this company. This map shows Township 19N Range 9 West with their property in Sections 10, 11, 14, 15 and 21.
C. Mankowski had one piece in his own name in Section 14.
A piece of their holdings, which was reclaimed by the state, is still held as a game reserve. The locals say that the homes that were built on the Polandville property were burned in the 70’s when the ‘hippies’ caused a serious problem squatting in them.
At one time supporting the community was a Polish Catholic Church and school. The little community was known in the area as Polandville.
(A table of some of the sales is available on the 2011 Malinowski CD or by contact the site admin but doesn’t copy well into this software.)
