Chwieroth FamilyThe Chwieroth family left its mark principally in Philadelphia where the Polish Beneficial Association was born on December 13, 1899. No matter what kind of work they did, whether it was making saws, umbrellas, knitted goods, or whatever, Frank Chwieroth, who came from Poland in 1887, and his son, Joseph, who was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1902, were life members and officers of P.B.A. for three quarters of a century.
Instead of the suffix in their last name, the families in Poland, sparse as they were, liked rut or didn't the last "h." The number of persons in Poland who spelled their name Chwierot was 69 in 1990; Chwierut, 306; Chwirot, 307. Whatever it was, its origin was chwierutnac, the Polish word for "to move, shake, stagger."
The name is too little outside Pennsylvania and New Jersey to discuss right now. The progenitor of the family in Philadelphia raised seven of twelve children with his wife, Catherine, whom he married in 1890, and their offsprings remained for the most part in the city of brotherly love and not far from it. The records of St. John Cantius Catholic Church, tucked away in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia, include a long line of Chwieroths.
For example, when Joseph Chwieroth, former treasurer of the Polish Beneficial Association, passed away in Philadelphia on December 15, 1975, the funeral services were held in the same church as they had been for his parents and most of his siblings. They were all buried in Resurrection Cemetery. Joseph Chwieroth's death was attended by close family and a multitude of friends, neighbors and organizations led by the Polish Beneficial Association. He was elected treasurer of the society in 1956, and upon his death his wife, Helen, and two daughters, Dorothy Fabiszewski and Lorraine Ellis, broke the mold. They did not want to succeed him.
His father was one the founders of the Polish Beneficial Association. Although the Polish National Alliance and the Polish Roman Catholic Union of American had lodges in Philadelphia, the pastors of St. John Cantius and St. Laurentius parishes, Revs. Marian Kopytkiewicz and Gabriel Kraus, respectively, and several Poles in Bridesburg, including Frank Chwieroth, felt they needed their own package of sick and death benefits. Thus they formed P.B.A., to use the shorthand title, and elected Chwieroth president. The Polish newspapers in Philadelphia devoted a lot of space to their activities. Chwieroth got as much attention in the press as the Polish priests.
As the Polish population grew, Chwieroth organized branches in other places, first in the Philadelphia diocese, where Fathers Kopytkiewicz and Kraus were popular, and then in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, with fewer Polish parishes. The Chwieroths will always be remembered as officers who always worked for the Polish Beneficial Association and its members.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2009); Post Eagle, January 28, 1976; Hoffman, William F., PoIish Surnames: Origins and Meanings; Rymut, Kazimierz, Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych (Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland).