Marion T. Banasawitz, M. D.   Marion T. Banasawitz, M.D., a rising young practitioner of medicine and surgery at No. 426 East Bridge street, Grand Rapids, is a native of the city, was born January 7, 1873, and a son of Philip and Helena (von Bozenski) Banasawitz, natives, respectively, of Russia and Poland. Philip Banasawitz is probably the only Siberian exile in America. He was one of the leaders in the last revolt of Poland, in 1863, against Russian rule, was captured and sentenced to be hanged. The noose was already around his neck, but at the last moment, through the intervention of powerful friends, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Siberia. After a penal service of four and half years in that frigid country he was pardoned and escorted beyond the boundaries of Russia, and all his property was confiscated. He went to Germany and there married Helena von Bozenski, a representative of one of the oldest noble families of Poland, and in 1869 reached Grand Rapids, where Philip is now engaged in the tailoring business at No. 426 East Bridge street. Three sons and three daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Banasawitz, viz: Cassimira, unmarried and living under the parental roof; Wanda, wife of William Rakoski, a wholesale clothing merchant in Chicago, Ill.; Marion T., the subject of this sketch; Joseph, foreman of a furniture factory at Shelbyville, Ind.; Stephen R., a priest and bachelor of theology and bachelor of canon law at Lavale university, Canada, and Stephania, at home. Dr. M. T. Banasawitz was educated in St. Mary’s German school in Grand Rapids; at St. Adalbert’s Polish school, same city; St. Jerome’s college, at Berlin, Canada, where he took a four years’ course in the classics; at the Vermont Medical college in Rutland, from which he graduated after three years of study, and later graduated from the Grand Rapids Medical college, in 1896, and in this institution has been professor of materia medica and therapeutics, in the veterinary department, for the past two years. For the first six months after graduating at Grand Rapids, Dr. Banasawitz practice his profession in Chicago, Ill., then returned to his native city, and has since met with flattering success in the general practice of medicine and surgery. He is a gentleman, a scholar and a persistent student, and has bright prospects for future usefulness and financial success. The doctor is a member of St. Adalbert’s Polish Catholic church, and politically is a republican, as are his father and brothers. The history of the father’s sufferings and losses for opinion’s sake is one of peculiar interest, yet the old gentleman is modest in speaking of it, although a volume might be written touching his sacrifices to the cause of liberty.