One of he leaders of the Independent Polish National church in Plymouth is the Rev Joseph Dawidowski, a son of John and Frances Dawidowski, of German Poland. The family consisted of eight children, three sons and five daughters, all of whom, with one exception, have remained in their native land. The death of the father occurred in 1891.
Joseph Dawidowski, son of John and Frances Dawidowski, was born 5 Nov 1877, in German Poland, and was educated in Roman Catholic seminaries in his native land. Later he entered a Roman Catholic college in Rome, from which he graduated, and in 1890 was ordained to the priesthood. The same year he emigrated to the United States, and was sent to Detroit, Michigan, where he was appointed professor of Latin in the Roman Catholic Polish seminary. He remained in this position until 1901, when he decided to join the Independent movement. He was given charge of the church at Priceburg, where he remained until 1904, when he was transferred to St Mary's Polish National Church at Plymouth.
This church was organized at the time of the founding of the Polish National church, in 1897, and the following year a church edifice and parish house were erected. The membership has increased rapidly, and at the present time includes three hundred and twenty-five families and two hundred single members. Among this number are to be found many of the leading business men of the borough. The parochial school numbers eighty-five pupils, a noteworthy fact when it is remembered that children over ten years of age attend public schools. Rev Dawidowski is loved and respected by his parishioners, and his pastoral labors are reaping their reward in the growing enlightenment and increasingly higher standards of living which prevail among his people. He is also working hard to abolish the celibacy among the priests of the Polish Independent church in this country, and is also trying hard to introduce the Holy Bible and especially the New Testament into his church, and to leave out the remainder of the Roman ceremonies. All of the services are now conducted in the Polish tongue. They were formerly conducted in Latin and very few of the Polish congregation could understand it, and they were very much overjoyed when they heard the services in their native tongue.
Rev Joseph Dawidowski married in 1905 and his lovely wife is a great help to him in his religious reformation work.