Zyrardów

Żyrardów, manufacturing settlement near the Pisia river (the right tributary of the Bzura river), located in błoński district, township and parish in the same location, by the Warszawa-Vienna rail road , near the Ruda Guzowata station, in the distance of 6 miles from Warszawa (Warsaw), alongside the road going from Mszczonów to Wiskitki by the rail road. The settlement has the catholic parish church made of brick, the evangelical prayer house, manufacturing school with several grades for boys and girls, two district elementary schools, township court of the 4th region, day care center for 1500 children financed by the manufacture, the manufacture hospital, local pharmacy and 3 manufacture doctors, 426 homes, 26,500 inhabitants ( including 8,000 manufacture workers). The manufacture compounds includes: linen yarn mill (23,000 spindles), mechanical weaving workshop (2100 looms), manual weaving workshop (200 looms), cotton yarn mill (18000 spindles), wool yarn mill (4200 spindles), hosiery manufacture (700 machines), 4 bleacheries with auxiliary equipment. About 8000 workers work for the manufacture. Mostly, they are Poles. Two steam mills. The name and establishment of the settlement came from the well known inventor of the weaving machines Frenchman Philip Girard, who according to a contract signed with the government of the Kingdom of Poland in 1825, setup the first in Poland weaving manufacture opened in 1835 in Marymont and run by the firm called Karol Scholtz et camp. with the following partnership: Józef Lubowicki, Counts Henryk and Jan Łubieński and Piotr Steinkeller. In 1933 the manufacture was relocated to the settlement which was established in the area of the Guzów property (at the time owned by Łubieński family) and named after Girard: Żyrardów. The Polish Bank supported financially, in the troubled times (after 1831), the new manufacture lending 3,000,000 Polish Złotych in the form of partial loans. Finally, the Bank was forced to overtake the company and owned it eventually. From 1847 till 1856 the company was run by the Bank’s own administration. The experiment failed and the Bank had to sell the manufacture to businessmen Hielle and Dietrich from Shoenlinde in Czech. Among other favors the Bank gave them the loan of 135,000 Silver Rubles. Since then can be seen at first slow then later faster, expansion of the manufacture which eventually became one of the biggest weaving enterprises in the world. In 1865, it has two steaming machines, one with 150 horsepower and the other with 70 horsepower, 7500 spindles, 500 looms and up to 1,000 workers. The surface covered by the workshop with looms was 10,000 square łokieć = 3,317.76 square meters. In 1876, were 13,000 spindles, 1,000 mechanical and 80 manual looms, 3350 workers (850 foreigners). The value of yearly production was 1,560,000 Silver Rubles.

In1880, there were 16,000 spindles, 1,650 mechanical and 200 manual looms, using the power of the steaming machines with 700 horsepower consuming 960,000 puds = 24,000 pounds of coal. At the time there were 5,600 workers including 580 foreigners. The value of yearly production was 2,200,000 Silver Rubles. The value of materials used for the production was 700,000 Silver Rubles. Now production exceeds 5,000,000 Silver Rubles. Auxiliary workshops are located in Jaktorów for many years (the station at Warsaw-Vienna railroad) 1 mile from the main manufacture. In 1885, “Towarzystwo akcyjne zakładów żyrardowskich Hiellego i Dittricha” (Shareholders Association of the Żyrardów Manufacture Hielle & Dittrich) was established with the start-up capital 9,000,000 Silver Rubles. Karol Diettrich, a son of the firm founder, became the President of the Association. The firm has its own warehouses in Warsaw and other main cities of the Russian Empire. The firm products are sold in the Kaukaz and Russian Asia markets. The Żyrardów parish was separated from the Wiskitki parish. The Żyrarów township belongs to the township court of the 4th region, Post office, Railway station in Ruda Guzowata. The township has the area of 11,057 mórg = 6,190.5 hectares (3310 mórg = 1,853.18 hectars of forest) and 27,000 inhabitants. In 1890, there were 19,074 inhabitants. Out of the total of the inhabitants 7,967 were permanent and 11,107 temporary (including 1,433 subjects of foreign states). Among registered permanent inhabitants 2 were Orthodox believers, 1,852 Protestants, 411 Jews, 207 other denomination.

In 1867, the whole township had 5839 inhabitants. In 1880, there were 7126 registered permanent inhabitants (5,134 Catholics, 1,541 Protestants, 244 Jews, 207 other denomination). The following settlements and villages belong to the township: Grądy, Feliksów, Henryków, Józefów, Kozłowice Stare and Nowe, Maryampol, Piotrowina, Ruda Guzowska, Sade Budy, Sokule, Szyszka, Teklinów, Tomaszów Stary and Nowy, Żyrardów. Information sources and illustrations from “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”, 1872 (volume 9, 32) and “Kłosy” (volume 6, 24). Br. Ch.(Bronisław Chlebowski)

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1895, vol. 14, p. 894]