- Josip Marohnić
Josip Marohnić (
November 12 ,1866 –January 23 ,1921 ) remains up to this day the most influential Croatianemigrant in the Americas. He was born inHreljin ,Croatia (then inAustria-Hungary ), and lived in theUSA for 28 years where he emigrated alone in 1893, later his wife Andrijana and daughter Josipa joined him. He started working at aChicago 's local printing house, soon he started attendingWheaton College (Illinois) , founded his own print house, bookstore became publisher, writer and editor of his newspaper "Hrvatski glasnik". In 1897 Marohnić moved toPittsburgh where he founded theEastern Catholic St. Nicholas Parish (whose Church was a First Croatian Church in America) and invited a Croatianpastor to spiritually lead the US's croatians. He acted as the main accountant of the National Croatian Community (preceding theCroatian Fraternal Union founded on 11th convention) between 1897 and 1909 [ [http://www.croatianfraternalunion.org/about.htm About CFU] ] . He was also the founding father and lifetime President of theCroatian Fraternal Union from 1912 until his death inJanuary 23 ,1921 leaving behind his wife and four children. Marohnić devoted his life to Croatians in the US and they honored him with a magnificent funeral.Marohnić founded the “First Croatian Bookstore” in
Allegheny, Pennsylvania . As an editor, he published books, manuals, grammars, dictionaries, calendars, novels, anthologies, short stories, theatrical works, humorous books, collections of poetry, various books of folklore, maps, albums, breviaries and books of a religious nature. He was the firstpoet among Croatian emigrants, he published his collections “Jesenke” in 1897 and “Amerikanke” in 1900 [ [http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Croatian-Americans.html Literature by Croatian Americans] ] and his "Census of Croatians in America". Also, in 1911 he was the firstCroat officially invited by an AmericanPresident .A street in the Croatian capital,
Zagreb , was named after the great Josip Marohnić.See also
*
Croatian Fraternal Union References
External links
* [http://pong.telerama.com/~emq/ St. Nicholas Parish, Pittsburgh Today] ; [http://www.stnicholascroatian.com/History_10.html alternative page]
* [http://www.croatianfraternalunion.org/ Croatian Fraternal Union]
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