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Tarnobrzeg County

The county covers 9.2592 sq. miriametrs [1 miriameter = 10 km.] and numbers 60,078 inhabitants in 70 political gminas and 68 cadastral gminas. It occupies the northernmost part of Galicia, and borders the Kingdom of Poland on the northwest and northeast, Mielec county on the southwest, and Kolbuszowa and Nisko counties on the east. It is low, sandy country, largely covered with pine forests and watered by the Wisla and its smaller tributaries, the Trzesn and Leg, as well as by the San, into the right bank of which the Bukowa and Lukowica flow in this county. The well-hydrated river lands are fertile, but the rest has poor, sandy soil, from beneath which quicksand comes to the surface. Only in recent years, has planting trees in the dunes begun, stabilizing them.

According to Dr. Pilat’s Wiadomosci statystyczne (Lwow 1891), of the whole area, a total of 166,633 morgs, major estates, or property entered in the hypothecary registers, occupies 84,520 morgs, and minor estates 81,112. Of these, farmland comprises 55,700 (16,008 major vs. 38,790 minor), meadows 22,318 (11,815 vs. 10,503), gar-dens 622 (221 vs. 401), pastureland 20,511 (2,176 vs. 18,339), forests 56,380 (51,969 vs. 4,411), bogs and ponds 1,435 (all ma-jor), unused 8,615 (748 vs. 7,866), for buildings 946 (142 vs. 805). Due to the rather large complex of Count Tarnowski’s estates, only 13.57% of the land in this county is in the hands of Jews. Of 59 land-owners (there are no public and church-owned estates at all), 45 are Christians and 14 Jews. Of those owning over 200 morgs, 44 are Christians and 9 are Jews; of those owning fewer than 200 morgs, 1 was Christian and 5 were Jews. Jews possess a total of 11,617 morgs of farmland, mead-ows, and pastureland, and 4,640 of forests. There are a total of 156 registered proper-ties; 144 of them are inns, 12 distilleries, 3 breweries, 14 mills, 3 sawmills, and 54 ma-norial farmsteads.

Industry is undeveloped, and since the soil is not fertile, this county is one of the poorer ones. The industrial stagnation was caused by the lack of means of communi-cation and the frequent floods of the Wisla and the San. Currently, as a result of the construction of the Debica-Nadbrzezie rail-way, the county has undertaken the task of building embankments on the Wisla, con-trolling the San and Leg, and planting for-ests to anchor the dunes.

The political county is divided into two judicial districts, that of Tarnobrzeg and that of Rozwadow. The former covers 44 gminas, 86 manorial areas and 37,551 in-habitants; the latter covers 26 gminas, 24 manorial areas, and 12,294 inhabitants. (Mac. [Dr. Maurycy Maciszewski] — Volume 12, pp. 183-185.)

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego - Warsaw 1892].

Translated by William F. Hoffman, PGSA Fall 2002 Rodziny.