Franciszek Pelowski 1829 Szwedzki Ostrów - 1910 Pine Creek
Anna Kajzer 1837 Kościerzyna - 1895 Pine Creek

Franciszek Pelowski and Anna Kajzer were married June 23, 1857 in Kościerzyna; as family history has it, he had served in the Prussian Army; on the one existing document we have, his name is signed "Franz Pellowski." In 1859 the Pellowskis sailed for New York on the ship "Donau" with their infant son Alojzy; although he died at sea, another son, Jakub, was born aboard the Donau. The 1860 US Census found "Franz," "Hannah," and "Jacob" in Dubuque, Iowa, and in 1865 they purchased a farm in Latsch Valley, which is just north of Pine Creek. Their first winter there, Anna lived with their two little boys in a dugout carved into the side of a creek, while Franciszek went north to make money in the logging camps. They raised nine children to adulthood, most of whom went on to have large families of their own; at present, their descendants number more than a thousand. Franciszek and Anna are buried high on the hill of Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Cemetery in Pine Creek. Significantly, "POLANd" appears on both of their graves: a country which never existed in their lifetime. Franciszek is buried as "Frank Pelowski." This hints at three successive identities - Franciszek, the Kashubian farmboy, Franz, the former Prussian soldier, and Frank, the American farmer whose grave proudly marks him as Polish.