These 92 signatures are found at the end of a 1869 planning document for Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Parish in Pine Creek.  Tradition holds that the parish bore two names because of its mixed Kashubian and Bohemian congregation, but only two Bohemian surnames, Rezab and Brom, can be discerned. More interestingly, 51 of the signatures are preceded by the mark "xxx," which indicates that the signature had been written by someone else. Some of the signatures are quite stylish, while others are nearly illegible. Based on this document, one could assume that more than half of Pine Creek's population was non-literate.

It would be unfair, however, to criticize them for their lack of literacy. Many of them had been kept out of school in the Old Country because their work was needed on the family farm. In addition, men were able to manage their farms successfully without manuals or written records; women were able to manage their households successfully without handbooks, sewing patterns, or written recipes. Most importantly, this first generation of Kashubian immigrants made great financial sacrifices to make sure that their children would be well educated at the parish school - both in English and in Polish.