[1] He was very active helping soldiers and other Polish immigrants in the U.S., as was described by Victor Labeski, one of his officers who arrived in New York on the ship Adria in 1835, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

His friends in the South were other Poles who had been living in the area, notably Gaspar Tochman, Valery Sulakowski, and Hypolite Oladowski.

When the Civil War began, Szymański was recruited as a colonel for the Chalmette Regiment,[3] formed mainly by Scandinavian immigrants from the Louisiana State Militia.

After the war he came back to his plantation, Summer Hill Farm, and his cotton and sugar cane field called Sebastopol.

In his late 20s, he moved to Mexico and finally settled down at the port of Tampico (Eureka community) along with his uncle, Aristide Romain.

Because of the untimely death of his youngest brother, Ignace François, aged one year old, Jean decided to extend the Ignatius line, so his first son was named Ignacio Francisco (1877–1933).

After graduation from the La Salle Brothers College as a book keeper, he returned to Mexico to work for the Sinclair Oil Corporation and, after World War II, he worked for Mexicana de Aviación as supplies director as well as president of the Airlines Association of the Americas until his retirement.