ZajednicÌŒar = Fraternalist. [volume] (Allegheny, Pa.) 1894-current, 1956-06-20
Croatian immigration
To Allegheny County
BY STJEPAN GAZI, Member, Lodge 20
Copyright applied for. Rights of republication reserved)
CHAPTER III - PAR iii
THE CROATIAN IMMIGRATION TO THE
UNITED STATES
The First CrOats i'm North America
Missionaries The protestant colony
BY STJEPAN GAZI, Member, Lodge 20

r he exact beginning of this emigration can not be deter
] mined. However, the big movement had to start before
1880; for the Croatian Government took the first step in
1883 to gain control over it. Austria never put any law
on emigration into effect, neither did Hungary. Croatia
alone tried to regulate emigration by issuing an Ordinance
on Emigration in Croatia and Slavonia in 1888 and by or
ganizing a special service in 1891. Finally the ordinance
was brought up on April 5, 1901, when emigration from
Croatia across the ocean was in full swing. The top year
in this regard was 1907, during which 1925 people left
the country. Al, 1926 of them went to the United States.
Through those years the flow of immigrants to this coun-
try was not an even one, it remained subject to fluctu-
atoms. After a steady swelling until 1903, there was a
drop in 1904, followed by another increase until 1907. In
1908 their number attained an all time low, improving
somewhat before the war whose outbreak put a stop to
immigration.
Most of the Croats who wanted to leave America with
a small capital did not realize their hopes. Of all the Croats
and slovenes who came to the United States until 1925,
511 ,227, a mere fourth, 126, 1861 returned to their home
land.0
After having landed on American soil and passed the
medical examination, the immigrant peasants were herded
together by their travelling agents and dispatched to their
prospective work. They were employed in the coal mines
of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, pittsburgh was then
the center of distribution), or sent to Cleveland and Chi
cago, destined for the copper, iron and coal mines of
Idaho, Michigan and Minnesota, and the heavy industries.
They were divided into groups of hundred men to begin
their work under the conditions imposed by the companies.
The ma jority lived in company dwellings, purchasing their
food and clothing in company stores. First of all they were
obliged to refund the money lent by the companies for
their journey, an unforeseen complication, which made them
toll a year or more without the expected benefit.
The Croats, originally agriculturists, became coal,
iron and copper miners and workers in heavy industry. But
in time many of them changed their occupation. Besides
those of Louisiana, Texas and the Pacific Coast, who re-
manned fishermen, they became masons, long-shore-men,
l%umbermen, farmers and businessmen. The large fishing
companies in New Orleans, Louisiana, Galveston, Texas,
Monterey and San Pedro, California, at the coasts of
Oregon and Washington and on the Columbia River, are
owned by Croats.
The great majority of Croats are Roman Catholics.
Although Catholic missionaries of Croatia were the first
to reach North America, the religious life of their people
here was organized very late. More than a century and
a half had passed since Father Ivan baron Ratkaj -
Veikotaborski, 1880, until the landing of the first immi-
grants. And another fifty years had to go by before the
first Croatian priest came to the United States, 1894.
There lies, without doubt, the explanation, why the Cath
oc Church did not take root among it's Croatian adher-
ents in America as deeply as among their Slovenian broth
es. The Slovenian priests joined their people as pioneers
and immigrants thus founding until our day more than
sixty churches compared with only thirty-three built by
Croats numbering twice as many as the Slovenes.h The
Croats of America, facing their parish priests, encountered
conflicts which were due to the difference of mentality
that existed between the Rev. Fathers OF the old country
and their own, penetrated by a new spirit of freedom
How many Croats or Americans of Croatian origin
live presently in the United States? Various authors of
books on the subject tried to answer this question. They
advanced figures ranging from 5000 q. D. Mladineo)
to 500, 900 &C. Kamber). The Official Census Of the United
States of America in 1880 acknowledged 1905 persons
foreign born and of foreign parentage from Yugoslavia,
211, 416 Of them were foreign born, and the rest born in
the United States of foreign parents, 227,475, and of mixed
~parentage, 80, 504. Considered that the Croats represent
about 500 of the entire immigration from Yugoslavia,
their number will be approximately 0 10000. Although the
fact should not be disregarded, that a good many old i'm
migrants declared themselves Austrians, Hungarians or
Italians, the estimation of l. D. Mladineo would be almost
to r~ealty.'
The Croats are today dispersed all over the United
States. Yet their largest groups are still concentrated
around big cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Los Angeles
and many others. The history and life of those from Pitts
burgh and surroundings shall be the particular subject
of these studies.
1oIseljenicka SIuzba, (Beograd, Drzavna stamparija, 1925, IS
11kanber, Dragutn, Hrvati u America, madrid, Osoba Duh, III
~, 1859, 18; l2Matina, Mato, DR., Official Souvenir, Rankin
Pa, Rev. Mauna, 1904, 81; laMladineo, Ivan D, The Jugoshvs
New York, Jugoslav Center of Propa ganda, 1921, r.
ChiIdren's Home In July 18th Fiesta
DIES PLANES, Ill. = The Annual Croatian Frater
nal Union Children's Home Outing will be held Wednes