Grossek, Rev. JanAuthor, translator, poet, etymologist. Born in Gniezno, Poland, March 24, 1891; son of Jan Grossek and Urszula Kisielnicka. Received his elementary and secondary education in Gniezno, Poznan (Poland). Warthenburg (East Prussia), Nissa (Silesia), and Penango (Italy). Studied at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland from 1910 to 1914. Served as curate in Gniezno and Winogora, Western Poland, 1914-1918. Professor of propaedeutics and German at Minsk Litewski Seminary, 1919-20. President of Minsk Litewski Teachers' Association, 1919-20. Active in the East Prussian plebiscite of 1920; edited and published the "Ermlandisehe Volkstimme" (1920), an educational weekly for the local Polish electorate already semi-Germanized. Emigrated to America in 1921; served as pastor in Bismarck, N. D.; Duryea. Pa.; Trenton, N. J.; Norwich, Conn.; Niagara Falls, N. Y.; Duluth. Minn.: So. Milwaukee, Wis.; Janesville, Wis.; Portage, Wis.; Kenosha, Wis.; and the Slovak parish in Racine, Wis. Chaplain at St. Joseph's Hospital, West Bend, Wis., from 1929 to 1939. An editor of "Kuryer Polski" (Milwaukee), 1923-1924. Author of "Glimpses": Facts and Thoughts concerning Property, Wages, Money, Taxes, Socialism, Religion, Education, Foreign Relations, Debts, Trade, Farming, Banking, Economic Conference, War, Revolution, etc. (privately published under the pseudonym of J. Gabriel at West Bend, Wis., 1933): a biography of Thomas Campbell, the English poet (in manuscript); wrote also numerous original poems and made translation into Polish of verses by Thomas Campbell. Translated into Polish verse the German classic, "Dreizehnlinden," by F. W. Weber. Retired in 1939 to do etymological research. Address: 1120 N. 18th St., Milwaukee, Wis.
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943