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“Depending on how you look at things, it was either pure chance or divine intervention,” Chet Janik laughed as he described how he was able to leave Communist Poland as a young boy and immigrate to Cedar, Michigan. “Without the town supporting my great uncle, and without the kindness of the consular official, I never would have grown up here.” Reflecting on his life in the United States and his career as he winds down his time as Leelanau County’s longest serving administrator, Chet narrates the journey with vivid details.

During the late 1800s, millions of people fled the Polish districts of Germany, Russia and Austria to come to the United States. Mostly peasants who lacked basic subsistence, they were attracted by ample job opportunities for unskilled labor in the United States. Many settled in cities such as Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee to earn a living in meatpacking, construction, steelwork and heavy industry.