Felix Wierzbicki ( elix Paul Wierzbicki 1 January 1815, in Czerniawka,

Volhynia Volhynia or Volynia ( ; see #Names and etymology, below) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in ...

, Poland, now Chernyavka,

Zhytomyr Oblast Zhytomyr Oblast (), also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna (), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Zhytomyr. Its population is approximately H ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

– 26 December 1860, in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

) was a

Polish-American Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...

veteran of the November 1830 Uprising, physician, soldier,Teofil Lachowicz, ''Polish Freedom Fighters on American Soil: Polish Veterans in America from the Revolutionary War to 1939'', , 201
p. 21
/ref> traveler, and writer.

Life

When the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

commenced in 1846, he joined Company H of the

1st Regiment of New York Volunteers 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers, for service in California and during the war with Mexico, was raised in 1846 during the Mexican–American War by Jonathan D. Stevenson. Accepted by the United States Army in August 1846, the 1st Regiment of Ne ...

. The New York Volunteers was a unit organized by Colonel

Jonathan D. Stevenson Jonathan Drake Stevenson (1800–1894) was born in New York; won a seat in the New York State Assembly; was the commanding officer of the First Regiment of New York Volunteers during the Mexican–American War in California; entered California mi ...

to occupy and settle California. Then he participated in

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

. In 1849, Wierzbicki published in San Francisco the first English-language book printed in California, ''California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region''. The book is an "unvarnished" description of the culture, peoples, and climate of the area at that time. Wierzbicki described prospective settlers, and included a survey of agriculture and hints on gold mining. Wierzbicki died on 26 December 1860 in San Francisco and was buried there in the Laurel Hill Cemetery. His remains were later reinterred at the

San Francisco National Cemetery San Francisco National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery, located in the Presidio of San Francisco, California. Because of the name and location, it is frequently confused with Golden Gate National Cemetery, a few miles south of the c ...

Books

* ''The Ideal Man: A Conversation between Two Friends, upon the Beautiful, the Good, and the True, as Manifested in Actual Life'', Boston, E.P. Peabody, 1842. Signed ''A Philokalist'' ("Lover of Beauty"), credited to Wierzbicki.A contemporary review of the book
''The Boston Quarterly Review'', April 1842. *''California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region'', 1849.

Notes

References

* Miecislaus Haiman ieczysław Haiman "Dr. Felix Paul Wierzbicki", in ''Polish Pioneers of California'', Chicago, Polish R

man A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

C tholicUnion of America, 1940, pp. 39–43. * George D. Lyman, "Wierzbicki: The Book and the Doctor" (introduction to reprint of ''California as It Is and as It May Be'', San Francisco, Grabhorn Press, 1933). 1815 births 1860 deaths Polish explorers November Uprising participants Physicians from California Immigrants to the United States Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (San Francisco) Burials at San Francisco National Cemetery American military personnel of the Mexican–American War {{Poland-writer-stub