HISTORY OF THE PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESSMEN’S ASSOCIATION
(Reprint of the research performed by Carl Bucki during the early 1980's)
The history of the Professional and Businessmen’s Association
reflects the growth and development of Buffalo’s Polish American community. The
changes experienced by the P&BA and its predecessor organizations have mirrored
the patterns of change within Polonia. Indeed, Polonia’s professional and
business organization has often been the critical catalyst for community
progress.
Throughout its long history, the P&BA has been reorganized on numerous
occasions, and has carried five different names. Its origin dates from at least
1903, when an organization known as the Association of Polish Businessmen in
Buffalo (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Przemyslowcow w Buffalo) assisted in the
formation of the Dom Polski Association.
Shortly thereafter, its name was apparently changed to the Association of Polish
Merchants and Businessmen. Responsible for the founding of this earliest Polish
businessmen’s organization was Alexander Cwiklinski, one of Buffalo’s leading
general contractors and lumber dealers. Located at 35-51 Lathrop Street, his
mill is now the site of Mroz Lumber Company. A 1908 publication entitled Album
and History of the Polish Settlement in Buffalo reports that Mr Cwiklinski was
“one of the few Polish businessmen who wanted to industrialize the Buffalo
Polonia and make it independent of the Americans (i.e., non Poles)...to that end
he organized the Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen and three times
did he have to rescue it from oblivion.”
The membership of the Association included many of Polonia’s most notable
personalities. The first president was Anthony Schreiber, owner of a major
brewery located on Fillmore Avenue. Albert Nowak, who served as the group’s
second president for many years, had acquired great wealth through the wholesale
merchandising of hay, grain, and poultry. His son, Maximilliam Nowak, followed
his father’s example both in business and as a subsequent president of the
Association.
From its founding and through much of the 1920's, the Association of Polish
Merchants and Businessmen assumed a leadership position in the struggle to
advance the well being of Buffalo’s Polish American community. Of course, a
primary element of their concern was for the promotion of trade and industry.
Thus, for example, the Association was primarily responsible for the
establishment of a branch post office in the Broadway-Fillmore area. Until the
1920's, the West Shore Railroad trestle caused frequent disruption of traffic
where it crossed Broadway at street level near Memorial Drive. It was the
Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen which led the eventual effort to
raise that track.
Patriotic causes were also an important focus of the Association’s attention.
During World War I, it supported the formation of a Polish army in Niagara on
the Lake, Ontario. After the war, the Association’s Committee to Aid Polish
Children forwarded more than $35,000 to Europe. Meanwhile, at home, the
merchants and businessmen maintained an active scholarship program. The
Association frequently became an advocate for important civic causes. It worked
to establish on Peckham Street the school now known as Emerson Vocational, and
thereafter lobbied successfully for a $500,000 allocation for that school’s
present facility. During the early 1920's, the Association supported a proposal
to locate a public high school for 1000 students in a Polish area on Buffalo’s
East Side.
The early members of the Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen shared
the belief that the industry and trade were necessary to the strength and
vitality of their ethnic community. Indeed, one of the original motives for
organizing the Association was to permit entry into what, for the community, was
then the novel area of banking. Thus, through this predecessor to the P&BA, a
Savings and Loan Association was created. Until 1906, the Polish community in
Buffalo conducted all business activity either through individual
proprietorships or under partnership arrangements. Although the corporate
framework offers distinct advantages to certain business operations, Polonia’s
merchants were unwilling to experiment with this unfamiliar structure. Finally,
on December 13, 1906, Joseph Nowicki, Lawrence Winiewicz, and Andrew Nowacki
called a general meeting of the Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen.
Held at the Dom Polski Building, this meeting had as its purpose the formation
of the first Polish stock company in New York State. Called Polska Spolka
Akcyjna (Polish Stock Company), it was founded with an original capitalization
of $50,000 for the purpose of the manufacture and sale of men’s clothing.
Eventually, the corporation operated branches on Broadway and in the Black Rock
area of Buffalo, and in Hamtramck, Michigan. The Broadway store remained in
business until 2000. The formation of Spolka had two important results.
First, the business community became acquainted with an important legal
structure. Second, under the auspices of the Association of Polish Merchants and
Businessmen, Polonia acquired control over another dimension of its own economy.
Reflecting this goal was the very motto of this experimental corporation,
namely, “Swoj do swego,” that is “Let us support our own kind.” Indeed, the P&BA
has adopted this purpose as a vital dimension of its current program.
The Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen focused its primary
attention on the large Polish community of Buffalo’s East Side. Meanwhile,
Polonia also witnessed the growth of similar organizations in other geographical
areas and within professions. In the Black Rock region of Buffalo, Jacob Strzep
organized a Polish Merchants Association, which in 1906, was described as being
“quite prosperous.” Boleslaw Grzywinski, the builder of St John Gualbert’s
Church, co-founded a businessmen’s association for Cheektowaga in 1916. Prior to
the Second World War, both the attorneys and the health professionals formed
active societies that have survived and prospered to the present time. Unlike
the Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen, these other groups were not
direct predecessors to today’s P&BA. Nonetheless, they did create a climate of
cooperation that would prove critical to the eventual successful reorganization
of Polonia’s professional and business communities.
The Association of Polish Merchants and Businessmen attracted a significant
share of the most important members of Polonia’s commercial and professional
establishment. Their breadth of influence brought to the organization a strength
which not only produced the accomplishments described above, but which in turn
captured even greater membership support. So powerful was the organization that
by 1924, it was giving serious consideration to the possibility of erecting its
own headquarters. Unfortunately, the Depression intervened. The economic
nightmare that brought disaster to the business community also destroyed the
vitality of organizations based on that community.
Sometime during or after the later half of the 1920's, the businessmen of
Polonia reorganized themselves under the name of the Polish Chamber of Commerce.
This society was the immediate forerunner to the P&BA. As prosperity returned
during the 1940's, the scene was ripe for the creation of a more dynamic
organizational structure.
The P&BA was formally founded in October 1943, at a meeting that Joseph Jakiel
called to order in the Polish Falcons Hall on Sycamore near Broadway. Those
attending this meeting included John Aszkler, John Burczynski, Adolf Cepura,
Roman Czarcinski, Stanislaus Czaster, Joseph Dziminski, Edward L Kazmierczak,
Alexander Kiliszewski, Bartholomew Klementowski, Leon Kolipinski, Edward Kurpisz,
John Labinski, Leonard Lipowicz, Joseph Mikolajczak, John Rusek, Daniel B
Schunke, Stanislaus Sielski, Stanley Turkiewicz, Frank Wardynski, Joseph
Winiewicz, Peter Wojda, Joseph Zoladz, and Walter Zoladz. Selected as the new
name for the organization was the Polish Businessmen’s Association. On March 27,
1944, at a meeting in the Polish Union Hall, the Association assumed its current
name and elected Leon Kolipinski as its first president.
During his administration, on October 17, 1944, the membership approved a
constitution calling for the election of 15 directors. These were chosen at a
general meeting on March 20, 1945. Six days later, in the Polish Falcons Hall,
the directors of the Professional and Businessmen’s Association held their first
board meeting.
In the decade following World War II, The P&BA experienced phenomenal growth
both in its membership and in the scope of its activity. Maintaining an office
at the Adam Plewacki Post, the Association enjoyed a treasury surplus as high as
$10,000 during the mid 1950's. General meetings always featured a guest speaker
or other presentation. At these monthly gatherings, attendance by fewer than 200
was deemed to constitute a disappointing turn-out.
During the 1940's and 1950's the P&BA introduced a number of programs and events
that have continued on a regular basis to the present time. These included the
Summer Stag, the Golf Tournament, the President’s Ball, and the selection of an
annual “Man of the Year”. Overall, the P&BA’s scope of activity has focused on
four areas. Socially, the Association has sponsored a range of events which from
time to time have included family picnics, Crystal Beach days, and fashion
shows. The second area is civic involvement. The P&BA formerly sponsored
candidates nights. On various occasions, it has adopted resolutions in support
of particular public causes. Underlying these social and civic activities is the
potential for achieving a third goal, namely economic gain.
Through the P&BA, an uncountable number of business contacts and relationships
have developed. By publicizing opportunities for business with fellow members,
the P&BA has always advanced the theme of Buffalo’s first Polish corporation,
that is, to support our own people. Finally, the P&BA has maintained a goal of
community service. During the 1950's, its annual scholarship program provided
tuition assistance to a student at each of five high schools. More recently, the
P&BA has shifted this financial support to the college level. On numerous
occasions, our organization has rendered monetary assistance to meritorious
ethnic causes. During the last decade, it has been either the sole or joint
sponsor of an ethnic festival, a Polish orchestral concert, and a commemoration
of the investiture of Pope John Paul II.
Amidst growth and activity, the Professional and Businessmen’s Association
acquired a measure of influence that no other Polish American organization has
ever achieved. Reflecting the P&BA’s political clout is the success that so many
of our members have encountered in that arena. For Example, four of the last six
mayors of Buffalo were P&BA members. Unquestionably, the P&BA’s level of
influence was greatest during the 1950's and into the early 1960's. In those
years, a full slate of ten candidates frequently sought the office of P&BA
Director. Indeed, because our by-laws set this maximum number of candidates, the
board’s challenge was often to dissuade individuals from running. Once
nominated, candidates spent much effort and money to get elected. Onegentlemen
in the early 1950's is even reputed to have treated the entire membership to a
full dinner as part of his campaign drive.
As the P&BA looks to its future, it must respond to the patterns of growth
within the community. Polonia has become increasingly decentralized,
particularly with regard to its businessmen and professionals. In 1944,
virtually all of the P&BA’s original organizers resided within traditional
Polish American neighborhoods. By 1960, only half of the membership remained in
these same areas, and today more than two-thirds reside outside of the regional
ethnic settlements. Inevitably, these demographic trends produced changes in the
needs and expectations of the P&BA membership. In the past, a Polish
businessmen’s organization constituted but another of many forums in which
members could meet with ethnic compatriots. Today, when our membership resides
throughout Western New York, the P&BA frequently provides the primary avenue for
ethnic associations. Thus, more than ever before, P&BA social and other events
perform a vitally essential role in uniting the elite of Polonia. When retaining
a cultural dimension, these activities foster a revival of ethnic spirit and
pride. In short, the Professional and Businessmen’s Association has helped to
create one of the necessary bases for a vibrant Polish presence in Buffalo.
During the past 57 years, the programs of the Professional and Businessmen’s
Association have served the changing mood and needs of its membership. For
example, after the Second World War, Polonia’s business and professional
communities discovered the necessity to reach beyond the limited markets of
their ethnic neighborhoods. Thus, the P&BA offered its membership an opportunity
to share the experiences associated with their economic progress. Today,
however, the P&BA finds itself in an age in which ethnic Americans desire to
reaffirm their respective cultural identities. Accordingly, the organization has
sought to unify those professionals and businessmen who recognize the shared
values of their Polish heritage. Our challenge for the future is to sustain the
patriotic goal of fostering this unity for the good of our members and
community.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Carl Bucki researched and authored the History of the
Professional and Businessmen ’s Association during the early 1980's. Mr Bucki, a
member of the P&BA since 1978, is a Past President and Financial Secretary. He
was Chairman of the P&BA Archives Committee during his tenure on the Board of
Directors. Mr Bucki currently serves as United States Bankruptcy Court Judge for
the Western District of New York State. Thank you Judge Bucki! Not only does
your research give us the history of the P&BA, it gives us a better appreciation
for the early days of Polonia in Buffalo.
