Felix_Wierzbicki

Felix Wierzbicki

Felix Wierzbicki

Polish-American physician; author of 1849 book about California

Felix Wierzbicki (Polish: Feliks Paweł Wierzbicki [Felix Paul Wierzbicki]; 1 January 1815, in Czerniawka, Volhynia, Poland, now Chernyavka, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine – 26 December 1860, in San Francisco) was a Polish-American veteran of the November 1830 Uprising, physician, soldier,[1] traveler, and writer.[2]

California as It Is and as It May Be, or a Guide to the Gold Region, 1849

Life

When the Mexican–American War commenced in 1846, he joined Company H of the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers. The New York Volunteers was a unit organized by Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson to occupy and settle California.[3] Then he participated in California Gold Rush.

In 1849, Wierzbicki published in San Francisco the first English-language book printed in California,[4] California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region.[5][6][7] The book is an "unvarnished" description of the culture, peoples, and climate of the area at that time. Wierzbicki described prospective settlers, and included a survey of agriculture and hints on gold mining.[8]

Wierzbicki died on 26 December 1860 in San Francisco and was buried there in the Laurel Hill Cemetery.[9] His remains were later reinterred at the San Francisco National Cemetery.[1][4]

Books

  • The Ideal Man: A Conversation between Two Friends, upon the Beautiful, the Good, and the True, as Manifested in Actual Life, Boston, E.P. Peabody, 1842.[10] Signed A Philokalist ("Lover of Beauty"), credited to Wierzbicki.[11][12]
  • California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region, 1849.

Notes

  1. [1]
    Teofil Lachowicz, Polish Freedom Fighters on American Soil: Polish Veterans in America from the Revolutionary War to 1939, ISBN 1936198312, 2011 p. 21
  2. [2]
    "Wierzbicki Feliks Paweł", Encyklopedia PWN
  3. [3]
    CLARK, FRANCIS D. (1882). The first regiment of New York volunteers, commanded by Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson, in the Mexican war. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. [4]
    Gillian Olechno-Huszcza (Spring 1985). "Feliks Pawel Wierzbicki in California" (PDF). Vol. 42, No. 1. Polish American Studies. pp. 59–69. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. [5]
    Felix Wierzbicki, "California Guidebook", 1849
  6. [6]
    Felix Paul Wierzbicki, California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region, San Francisco, Grabhorn Press, 1933.
  7. [7]
    Felix Wierzbicki, California Guidebook, 1849 online
  8. [8]
    California As I Saw It, 1849-1900. Vol. 15. [database on-line] Washington: Library of Congress, 1999
  9. [9]
    Miecislaus Haiman, "Dr. Felix Paul Wierzbicki", in Polish Pioneers of California, Chicago, Polish R[oman] C[atholic] Union of America, 1940, p. 43.
  10. [10]
    Sparks, Jared; Everett, Edward; Lodge, Henry Cabot; Lowell, James Russell (1842). "The North American Review".
  11. [11]
    Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature, 1928, vol. 3, p. 128.
  12. [12]
    A contemporary review of the book, The Boston Quarterly Review, April 1842.

References

  • Miecislaus Haiman [Mieczysław Haiman], "Dr. Felix Paul Wierzbicki", in Polish Pioneers of California, Chicago, Polish R[oman] C[atholic] Union of America, 1940, pp. 39–43.
  • George D. Lyman, "Wierzbicki: The Book and the Doctor" (introduction to reprint of California as It Is and as It May Be, San Francisco, Grabhorn Press, 1933).
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