ZajednicÌŒar = Fraternalist. [volume] (Allegheny, Pa.) 1894-current, 1956-06-13
Croatian immigration
To Allegheny County
BY STJEPAN GAZI, Member, Lodge 20

UNITED STATES
The First Croats in North America
Missionaries - The protestant colony
New Orleans California - The "New Immigration
r he first known Croat who reached what is today the
I United States was a young aristocrat, Ivan baron
Ratkaj = Velikotaborski Q647-16S3), a Jesuit priest, who
was sent by the Catholic Church as a Missionary among
the Indians of New Spain.
After a thorough preparation for this work in Rome,
and Spain, he finally arrived in Mexico in 1880, from
where he continued his journey to New Mexico, the site
Of his mission. The Jealous Jesuit was preaching to the
savages of the Taramuhasi tribe until he was poisoned by
one who particularly disliked his advocating the doctrine
of: love your enemy. This happened in Carrizozo Carl
chico, December 26, 1888
Another Croatian Jesuit priest, Father Ferdinand
Konscak, lin Spanish Padre Fernando Gonzales or Con-
zac), 1703-1759), went across Mexico to Southern Cali
fornia in 1882. He devoted more of his time to regional
exploration than to mission work, travelling through un-
known and hostile country to convert the Indians between
the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. A better
astronomer and geographer than a missionary, he gath
cred rich information in these fields.
After his death, his diary was published in Spanish in
Barcelona under the title "Apostolicos Afanes". It was
Ferdinand Konscak who made it known that South Cali
fornia is a peninsula and not an isle as it had been erro-
neously stated before
The most famous of his accomplishments was a geo.
graphical map of Lower California. This and other maps
he ndQ drawn were uSeQ unu the AIA-Cn century Dy
various %navigators of California waters. He died during
his mission in San Ignacio, Mexico, October 10, 1882
Joseph Kundek, another prominent Croatian mission
airy, came to the United States in 1888. His residence was
Jasper, Indiana, but his parish embraced a vast territory
extending from st. Louis, Missouri, to Pittsburgh, Penn
sylvania. He was the first known Croat to reach Allie
gheny County and the city of Pittsburgh during the spring
of 1841. Later he paid a second visit to Pittsburgh
Father Kundek's parishioners were mainly German
and Swiss Catholic immigrants, on which account he is
enormously considered a German or Swiss priest. He was
esteemed as a poet and a musician already in his native
country and did not neglect his talents in his parish.
Three years before his death in Jasper, Indiana, December
4, 1857, he had founded the Benedictne Abbey of Saint
Menhard, Indiana, 1854, assisted by Swiss Benedictine
monks from Einsiedeln, Switzerland
The first noteworthy immigration of Croats to Amer
lea dates back to 1888, 1886 and 1741, when some Croats
joined the German protestants from Salzburg and the rest
Of Austria who settled on the Savannah River in Georgia
and founded the Ebenezer colony under the leadership of
the pastors Gronau and Bolziuss
Their protestant forefathers had left their country
led by the former Croatian Ban Krsto baron Ungnand, and
had gone to Austria and Bavaria in 1889, when the Re-
formation was suppressed in Croatia. During the Amer
lean Civil War, their colony, some twenty five miles from
Savannah, was destroyed by Shermans Army, 1864, and,
doubtless, deserted by its survivors. Only the cemetery
recalls it's existence, where the headstones reveal many
Croatian names.
There was another CrOatlan influx to America. A
vessel from Dubrovnik entered the Port of New York in
1890, shortly before the fall of the old Republic of
Dubrovnik.
Moreover, Dalmatian sailors had preceded the first
Americans to the coast of California. Some of their fish
ermen established themselves in New Orleans, Louisiana,
prior to 1848, cultivating oysters. They amalgamated
their former societies into the United Slavonian Benevo-
lent Association of New Orleans in 1874. Yet the oldest
Croatian Society in North America, named "Slavonian
Mutual and Benevolent Society,", was founded in 1857 by
the Croats of San Francisco, California
On the coast of California the Croats had settled as
fishermen near San Francisco, Monterey and San Pedro,
while in the interior they had started to grow apples and
grapes, thus becoming the pioneers of one of CALIFORNIA;
main trades.
The great number of the Croatian immigrants belongs
to the so-called new immigration. After the American
Civil War the most important contribution to this country
came, besides Ireland, from Germany.
1t gradually diminished, however, towards the end
of the century, due to the rapid industrial development of
Germany. The gap was Immediately filled by the new
Corners from the Habsburg Monarchy. Austria Hungary,
which had furnished relatively few of them until 1870,
became the main source of immigrants during the years
preceding World War l. Among the 3,172, 461 arrivals
367, 239 represented Croatia and Slovenia, two thirds
IL: -I -- I1.J cI 49, 49,