MICHALOWSKI, EDWARD S. (Oct. 11, 1885 -- ? )Civic leader. Up to Herbert Hoover's presidency, it never dawned on anyone in Pennsylvania to send a -ski to Washington. Yet, for the first time in the history of Pennsylvania in 1928, the idea of a Polish congressman from a state with a lot of Polish people popped up into the head of Edward Stanislaw Michalowski, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where his father was a grocer, and he was a leader of the Polish community in Sharpsburg, shaped like a board along the Allegheny River five miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The census of 2010 (only one of six households was asked the question) found that 22.7 persent of the 3,446 people in Sharpsburg was of Polish ancestry. The population in 1930 was 8,199.
Up to date the political courage of Michalowski has not received the scrutiny it deserves. Back in the olden days -- the 1940s -- he got a wink from the Rev. Francis Bolek, who devoted 25 words to him in Who's Who in Polish America, (see below) and death-like silence on his campaigns of 1928 and 1930 to go to Washington.
In his first campaign to the fill the seat of the 29th congressional district, he faced an old lawyer of Pittsburgh, Stephen G. Porter, who was first elected as a Reublican to the Sixty-second Congress in 1911 and defeated every candidate who opposed him until he died on June 27, 1930. For twelve years he was chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Michalowski, who received 34.06 percent of the votes cast on November 6, 1928, was the last person Porter defeated. Altogether the Republicans won 270 seats, partly because of the strong economy, and the Democrats 164.
From 1903 to 1923 the 29th congressional district included a chunk of Allegheny County, where the smoke from blast furnaces and steel mills hovered over Sharpsburg like a blanket, and Porter represented that district to March 3, 1923. Then Porter was elected in the 32nd congressional district. As a matter of fact, it was redistricted to favor the Republicans, for when Michalowski ran again on November 4, 1930, he received 16.58 percent of the votes cast. His opponent was Edmund F. Erk, a well-known Pittsburgh newspaperman who did a lot of the legwork and writing for Congressman Porter. Had Michalowski waited four years to fill the same seat, the chances of winning were much better. Erb lost in 1933, and none of the succeeding congressmen won a second term. Democrats held the seat from 1935 to 1953 when the district was eliminated.
Before Michalowski settled in Sharpsburg, St. John Cantius Catholic Church was opened January 26, 1908, and owed its existence to the Polish workers in the industries along the Allegheny River. Among them was John Brzoski, who came from Winona, Minnesota, where he and his wife raised five of nine children, and worked in a steel mill. At the same time, while he was a clerk in a hospital, Michalowski married their oldest daughter, Stella, who was born in 1886, and in the next sixteen years five children followed. Unfortunately, only fragments of his life in Sharpsburg survive. Little is known of his travels as a salesman of boilers, cheese and butter, and duty on the Jury Commission of Allegheny County. His interest in politics was no doubt widespread. He was, as Father Bolek noted, president of the Sharpsburg borough council and a civic leader in Allegheny County. If anyone has more information, please pass it along to me.
Author: Edward Pinkowski (2011) --- [email protected]
Michalkowski [Michalowski], Edward S.Civic leader. In 1936 an officer of the Allied Slavic League of Allegheny county and President of City Council of Sharpsburg, Pa. Resides in Sharpsburg, Pa.
[Ed. - Rev. Bolek spelled Michalowski's name with an addirional "k" Michalkowski]
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943