 He was the first Pole to be elected to such positions in the city.He was a major organizer of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, and worked as president of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, in order to regain the Poles' loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church.Kiołbassa came from the Silesian village of Świbie with his family when he was 17 years old, arriving in the town of Panna Maria, Texas, which was a new Polish immigrant settlement.