![[Buhaczkowski Picture]](Buhaczkowski_W.JPG)
Rev. Witold Buhaczkowski (portrait by: Pam Kladzyk)
(1862 - 1925)
Rector, Polish Seminary at Orchard Lake, Michigan
Article by: Rev. Jozef Swastek
Source: Sodalis Polonia, October 1975, Orchard Lake, MI
In the history of the Polish Seminary in Orchard Lake, Rev. Witold Buhaczkowski played an exceptional role. As a professor, the second vice rector, second rector, but chiefly as the person who relocated the Seminary to Orchard Lake, he well deserves the title as "Second Founder of the Polish Seminary in America."
Rev. Buhaczkowski, just as Rev. Jozef Dabrowski, the founder of the Polish Seminary in Detroit, came from in the Russian zone of partition where (just like Rev. Dabrowski) he was born in the Lublin area. He was born in 1862 (not 1864 as some official publications have it listed), twenty years after Rev. Dabrowski's birth. He completed his priestly studies in Rome, where he attended the Polish Papal College (just as Rev. Dabrowski did before him). He finished his theology studies at the Gregorian University and was ordained a priest on March 5, 1887.
Four months later, on July 10, he requested that Pope Leo XIII permited him to go and serve in the Detroit Diocese in North America. Receiving approval he left for the United States in July (not in June as is written in many biographies and obituaries). His arrival in America, directly at the Polish Seminary, which opened in December 1886, was previously arranged (probably in June 1886) with Rev. Dabrowski who had made a special trip to Rome and Krakow in a search for priests who could serve as teachers at his institution.
As a professor, Rev. Buhaczkowski lectured the following subjects: the Bible, dogma, Church history, canon law, logic, liturgy, the catechism, and three languages: Latin, Polish, and French. During vacations, he and other teaching priests made the rounds of the Polish parishes in order to collect offerings for the seminary and recruit new students for the school.
When Rev. Mieczyslaw Barabasz, the first appointed vice-rector of the Polish Seminary, left the school in the summer of 1892, Rev. Buhaczkowski was named as his successor by Bishop John S. Foley, the ordinary of the Detroit Diocese. Rev. Buhaczkowski held the office of vice-rector for eight years, to the year 1900, when Rev. Jan Mueller took over the position. During his time as vice-rector (according to the recollections of Rev. Stanislaw Ick, who was a student at the time), Rev. Buhaczkowski was the actual administrator of the Seminary, because Rev. Dabrowski, despite his title as rector and spiritual guide, devoted too much time to the Order of the Felician Sisters.
Shortly after his nomination as vice-rector, Rev. Buhaczkowski decided to become an American citizen. He received his naturalization papers on December 16, 1892 in Detroit, Michigan. He was then thirty years old.
When Rev. Rector Jozef Dabrowski, the founder and first director of the Polish Seminary, died in February 1903, Rev. Buhaczkowski was named the head of the school by Bishop John Foley, in the same month. As the second rector Rev. Buhaczkowski was head of the seminary for nearly sixteen years.
It was a time of dynamic developments at the Polish Seminary. Rev. Buhaczkowski took over the reigns under very difficult conditions for the school -- shortly after a famous student strike, that resulted in the dismissal of twenty-nine students -- nine from the theology course and twenty from the philosophy course. As a result of the dismissals there were no more than eight students in the philosophy-theology courses; three in philosophy and five in theology. The situation as saved by the high-school youth of which there were 200.
In the autumn of 1903 when Rev. Buhaczkowski started his first academic year of administration, the attendance was 222 students, of whom 212 were in the high-school. This number grew during Rev. Buhaczkowski's administration, in his seventh academic year (1915-1916) reaching 368 students.
The growth of the student population forced Rev. Buhaczkowski to expand the facilities twice at the seminary in Detroit. When this was insufficient, he decided, against strong resistance and protest from Detroit Polonia (which at all costs wanted to keep the seminary in Detroit), to relocate the school outside the city. He did this in the summer of 1909 purchasing at auction the property of the former Michigan Military Academy in the town of Orchard Lake, about twenty-five miles from Detroit's center. The cost of the beautiful 100 acre site and its eight buildings near the beautiful Orchard Lake was $83,000.
To make the purchase of the Academy possible, Rev. Buhaczkowski not only took loans from two banks, but also used his life savings. He was certain that the seminary would prosper at Orchard Lake and all the loans would be paid back. He was not disappointed in his expectations.
The school prospered well. In 1914 construction started on a new building for the Philosophy and Theology students. It was a fireproof building of brick and steel to house 200 persons, along with a chapel and a lecture hall, still in use on Josephat Hill. At the same time the small wooden buildings, as well as the larger brick ones of the former Academy, were being remodelled to accommodate the ever growing numbers of students and professors.
During this time, student societies were organized among the students. During Rev. Buhaczkowski's administration there were seven societies at the seminary: Sacred Heart Society (1903), the Philopatrian Society (1908), the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Society, Newman Literary Society (1909), Nicholaus Copernicus Society and Hope of Lithuanians Society. The first basketball team was organized in 1903. The baseball team won 53 games, losing only three, in the period from 1910 to 1914 inclusive. The Athletic Association founded in 1913 contributed much to this success.
Theater and music flowered. Each year the students performed plays in Polish (such as "Zemsta" [Revenge] by Aleksander Fredro in 1915) as well as in English (such as "Edward the Confessor" in 1914). The orchestra and choir at the school gave public performances in Detroit and Pontiac. The professors not only conducted but wrote original music (such as "The Orchard Lake Waltz," 1915). The students started two publications: the "Student Journal" (1912) and "Wrzos" (1913).
Three times the library and the chapel had been changed and expanded. The refectory was used in turn by groups. The dormitories were placed where possible, even partially in the gymnasium. In 1909 the school received its own infirmary in the administrative building where it still remains.
During the administration of Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski there were changes in the system of schooling. The classical, lyceum structure was reformed in 1914 to make it compatible with American high-school standards, and the following year this led to accreditation by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In June 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the high-school graduated a class of forty-eight, the largest class up to that time in the history of the school.
The philosophy and theology courses were expanded. The college, as a separate teaching institution did not yet exist formally, but after the high school accreditation candidates for theological studies had to go through a three-year course in classical philosophy after finishing the high-school. The theological course took three years to complete, and for the academic year 1915-1916 was expanded by an additional year of study.
Through Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski's initiative the Polish Seminary became the base of operations for a new Polonian order of nuns. In 1905 Rev. Buhaczkowski invited two Polish nuns, Sister M. Antonina Kolas and Sister M. Alojza from the Order of the Most Sacred Sacrament, freshly arrived in the United States from St. Petersburg to take up the mission of domestic service to the school in Detroit. After six years of fruitful work, the sisters expanded their group to nine members and in 1911 decided to take up the role of teaching. After leaving the seminary in Orchard Lake, they settled in Donorach, Pennsylvania, and later in Garfield Heights, Ohio. Presently they are known as the Sisters of the Holy Ghost (C.S.Sp.) and conduct educational -charitable work at four locations in the state of Ohio.
During Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski's term the Polish Seminary celebrated its twenty-fifth year of existence. The anniversary celebration was combined with a formal blessing of the school at Orchard Lake by the Apostolic Delegate Diomede Falconio who came to the ceremonies from Washington, capital of the United States. The celebration took place on May 4, 1910 with the participation of Archbishop Joseph Weber from the Resurrectionist Order, and a group of priests and lay alumni. Before the celebration the seminary was visited by Bishop Pawel Rhode, the first Pole in the Catholic hierarchy of the United States. After the silver anniversary celebration the seminary was visited by Bishop Edward Kozlowski, consecrated in January 1914 as the auxiliary bishop in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski also kept continuous contact with religious and cultural life in Poland. The gates of the seminary were always open to Poles from all the zones of occupation. Among visitors during that time were: Prof. Wincenty Lutoslawski and Archbishop Albin Symon. Rev. Buhaczkowski was a personal friend of Archbishop (later cardinal) Aleksander Kokowski from the time of his studies in Rome. In 1912 the "Ateneum Kaplanskie," an important publication, wrote with praise about the Polish Seminary, and especially about Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski.
"He took over the reigns under difficult circumstances, for the school was reduced through the dismissal of all clerical personnel, and he was able to start a new course in philosophy and theology. In the Seminary he found 222 students. By the start of the academic year in 1914 he had 276. The increase of 54 students under such catastrophic circumstances can be only considered excellent."
Not only the beginning, but also the end of Rev. Buhaczkowski's administration is noted favorably in the history of the seminary. When finally, because of declining health, Rev. Rector Buhaczkowski made the decision to resign from his post in November 1915, the property had only a small debt of $32,000.
After leaving the seminary Rev. Buhaczkowski, now fifty-three years old, wanted to go into retirement. For a while he lived in Detroit at St. Josephat's parish rectory, then in Jackson at St. Joseph's orphanage of the Felician Sisters. In 1920 after the end of the World War, he left for Europe in search of his married sister, Maria Zaryn. After a stay in Poland that exceeded two years, he again returned to the United States.
He did not stay in Detroit long. After a few months he went to Naples where he spent the last two years of his life. He died at 6:30 am in the international hospital at Via Tosso, in Naples, where he spent the last days of September 1925. He was buried the following day at the British cemetery, in grave number 17, section No. H. The funeral took place under the care of Landolfi, an Italian.
The funeral information was taken down by the American Consul in Naples, Homer M. Byington. He also sent post-mortem notification to Bishop James Gallagher of Detroit; to Maria Zaryn, the deceased's sister, then living in Zegrze in the (then) Warsaw voivoidship; and to the Detroit Trust Company in Detroit.
Buhaczkowski, Rev. Vitold.
Professor. Came to U.S. from Rome, Italy in 1886. Became vice-rector of the Polish Seminary in Detroit, Mich. From 1903 to 1916 rector of the Polish Theological Seminary in Detroit and Orchard Lake, Mich. In 1909 bought "Michigan Military Academy" and transferred the Theological Seminary from Detroit to Orchard Lake, Mich. Died on August 10, 1925 in Naples, Italy.
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943