My maternal grandfather was an amazing man for his day and age, but who would have known what his influence would be when he was born on May 7, 1880, to Stanko Ivanovich, a Vestryman at St. Petka church in Rakovan, county of Schvarka, and to his wife, Militza? Marko was christened on May 16, 1880 in the Church of St. Nicholas in Karlovatz, in the Serbian (Eastern) Orthodox faith, and that's all that's known about his earliest years, for he was orphaned about age 8. He was taken in by Nicola Musulin, a merchant in Rakovitza, where Marko clerked. He learned to speak German fluently, and finished the Serbian gymnasia, which is equivalent to high school.
He was 27 on May 16, 1907 when he married 17 year old Marija Mamula (daughter of Mile, a merchant, and Simitza Maravich Mamula), at St. John the Divine Church in Lika, County of Ogolin, city of Gomirje. After a fire destroyed their home, Marko sent his wife and two baby daughters, Danica and Natalia, to live with Marija's father while he went to America to establish himself. After working on the railroad in Ohio, he settled in Pittsburgh on the South Side next to the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mills, where he eventually opened a meat market at 2712 Jane Street.
Marko went to night school in Pittsburgh (learned to speak English well) for he worshiped a good education. He was a very forward-thinking man of his time, for he believed in educating his daughters as well as his son. Even more surprising, as strict as he was with his children, he encouraged them not to marry, but rather to have careers, which all three did. Danica was a teacher then a librarian, Natalia was a nurse and Militza managed her husband's pharmaceutical laboratory. His son, Mile (Michael) became a physician. All his children were exemplars of American immigrant hard work and success.
Eventually, Marko became a Mason. He was patriotic and law-abiding. He preached the virtues of cleanliness, and installed in his house a long, white bath tub. Aunt Militza reminisced that theirs was the only family in the neighborhood with such a tub, and that Marko sometimes invited others in to use it. He became an interpreter for the Serbian community, and also the banker for the Serbian steel workers, for most Serbs did not trust banks, but trusted Marko totally. In serving as their one-man bank, he urged them to respect the virtues of thrift, cleanliness and education. He was upstanding, dependable, trustworthy, notoriously punctual and highly respected.
Marko Ivanovich died at 59 years of age of organic heart disease due to myocarditis and hypertension exacerbated by broncho-pneumonia. Initially buried on November 26, 1939 at St. Sava's Cemetery in Pittsburgh, he was later disinterred and moved to Forest Lawn Glendale when his widow, Marija, moved to California where all four of her children had settled.
May he be remembered for his love of education. Danica, his eldest daughter, remembers walking with him in Pittsburgh when he pointed at a brick building and said, "Danica, the day you walk through those doors will be the greatest day of your life." "And it was," my mother told us, "for it was the day I walked into Wickersham Elementary School and began my lifelong love of learning."
I was but 9 months old when he died, and never saw him. What a power-house he was, for his regard for education has affected all his descendents from children through great-grandchildren, all of whom are, at very least, university graduates. His two young great-great granddaughters want to be a veteranerian and a teacher and both love school. It must flow from his genes down through the blood. I wish I had known him, had heard his life story from his own lips, and had enjoyed his encouragement during my own years of schooling. Spavai, mili moi. Tvoje uvjek, your grand-daughter, Danica.
He was 27 on May 16, 1907 when he married 17 year old Marija Mamula (daughter of Mile, a merchant, and Simitza Maravich Mamula), at St. John the Divine Church in Lika, County of Ogolin, city of Gomirje. After a fire destroyed their home, Marko sent his wife and two baby daughters, Danica and Natalia, to live with Marija's father while he went to America to establish himself. After working on the railroad in Ohio, he settled in Pittsburgh on the South Side next to the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mills, where he eventually opened a meat market at 2712 Jane Street.
Marko went to night school in Pittsburgh (learned to speak English well) for he worshiped a good education. He was a very forward-thinking man of his time, for he believed in educating his daughters as well as his son. Even more surprising, as strict as he was with his children, he encouraged them not to marry, but rather to have careers, which all three did. Danica was a teacher then a librarian, Natalia was a nurse and Militza managed her husband's pharmaceutical laboratory. His son, Mile (Michael) became a physician. All his children were exemplars of American immigrant hard work and success.
Eventually, Marko became a Mason. He was patriotic and law-abiding. He preached the virtues of cleanliness, and installed in his house a long, white bath tub. Aunt Militza reminisced that theirs was the only family in the neighborhood with such a tub, and that Marko sometimes invited others in to use it. He became an interpreter for the Serbian community, and also the banker for the Serbian steel workers, for most Serbs did not trust banks, but trusted Marko totally. In serving as their one-man bank, he urged them to respect the virtues of thrift, cleanliness and education. He was upstanding, dependable, trustworthy, notoriously punctual and highly respected.
Marko Ivanovich died at 59 years of age of organic heart disease due to myocarditis and hypertension exacerbated by broncho-pneumonia. Initially buried on November 26, 1939 at St. Sava's Cemetery in Pittsburgh, he was later disinterred and moved to Forest Lawn Glendale when his widow, Marija, moved to California where all four of her children had settled.
May he be remembered for his love of education. Danica, his eldest daughter, remembers walking with him in Pittsburgh when he pointed at a brick building and said, "Danica, the day you walk through those doors will be the greatest day of your life." "And it was," my mother told us, "for it was the day I walked into Wickersham Elementary School and began my lifelong love of learning."
I was but 9 months old when he died, and never saw him. What a power-house he was, for his regard for education has affected all his descendents from children through great-grandchildren, all of whom are, at very least, university graduates. His two young great-great granddaughters want to be a veteranerian and a teacher and both love school. It must flow from his genes down through the blood. I wish I had known him, had heard his life story from his own lips, and had enjoyed his encouragement during my own years of schooling. Spavai, mili moi. Tvoje uvjek, your grand-daughter, Danica.
My maternal grandfather was an amazing man for his day and age, but who would have known what his influence would be when he was born on May 7, 1880, to Stanko Ivanovich, a Vestryman at St. Petka church in Rakovan, county of Schvarka, and to his wife, Militza? Marko was christened on May 16, 1880 in the Church of St. Nicholas in Karlovatz, in the Serbian (Eastern) Orthodox faith, and that's all that's known about his earliest years, for he was orphaned about age 8. He was taken in by Nicola Musulin, a merchant in Rakovitza, where Marko clerked. He learned to speak German fluently, and finished the Serbian gymnasia, which is equivalent to high school.
He was 27 on May 16, 1907 when he married 17 year old Marija Mamula (daughter of Mile, a merchant, and Simitza Maravich Mamula), at St. John the Divine Church in Lika, County of Ogolin, city of Gomirje. After a fire destroyed their home, Marko sent his wife and two baby daughters, Danica and Natalia, to live with Marija's father while he went to America to establish himself. After working on the railroad in Ohio, he settled in Pittsburgh on the South Side next to the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mills, where he eventually opened a meat market at 2712 Jane Street.
Marko went to night school in Pittsburgh (learned to speak English well) for he worshiped a good education. He was a very forward-thinking man of his time, for he believed in educating his daughters as well as his son. Even more surprising, as strict as he was with his children, he encouraged them not to marry, but rather to have careers, which all three did. Danica was a teacher then a librarian, Natalia was a nurse and Militza managed her husband's pharmaceutical laboratory. His son, Mile (Michael) became a physician. All his children were exemplars of American immigrant hard work and success.
Eventually, Marko became a Mason. He was patriotic and law-abiding. He preached the virtues of cleanliness, and installed in his house a long, white bath tub. Aunt Militza reminisced that theirs was the only family in the neighborhood with such a tub, and that Marko sometimes invited others in to use it. He became an interpreter for the Serbian community, and also the banker for the Serbian steel workers, for most Serbs did not trust banks, but trusted Marko totally. In serving as their one-man bank, he urged them to respect the virtues of thrift, cleanliness and education. He was upstanding, dependable, trustworthy, notoriously punctual and highly respected.
Marko Ivanovich died at 59 years of age of organic heart disease due to myocarditis and hypertension exacerbated by broncho-pneumonia. Initially buried on November 26, 1939 at St. Sava's Cemetery in Pittsburgh, he was later disinterred and moved to Forest Lawn Glendale when his widow, Marija, moved to California where all four of her children had settled.
May he be remembered for his love of education. Danica, his eldest daughter, remembers walking with him in Pittsburgh when he pointed at a brick building and said, "Danica, the day you walk through those doors will be the greatest day of your life." "And it was," my mother told us, "for it was the day I walked into Wickersham Elementary School and began my lifelong love of learning."
I was but 9 months old when he died, and never saw him. What a power-house he was, for his regard for education has affected all his descendents from children through great-grandchildren, all of whom are, at very least, university graduates. His two young great-great granddaughters want to be a veteranerian and a teacher and both love school. It must flow from his genes down through the blood. I wish I had known him, had heard his life story from his own lips, and had enjoyed his encouragement during my own years of schooling. Spavai, mili moi. Tvoje uvjek, your grand-daughter, Danica.
He was 27 on May 16, 1907 when he married 17 year old Marija Mamula (daughter of Mile, a merchant, and Simitza Maravich Mamula), at St. John the Divine Church in Lika, County of Ogolin, city of Gomirje. After a fire destroyed their home, Marko sent his wife and two baby daughters, Danica and Natalia, to live with Marija's father while he went to America to establish himself. After working on the railroad in Ohio, he settled in Pittsburgh on the South Side next to the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mills, where he eventually opened a meat market at 2712 Jane Street.
Marko went to night school in Pittsburgh (learned to speak English well) for he worshiped a good education. He was a very forward-thinking man of his time, for he believed in educating his daughters as well as his son. Even more surprising, as strict as he was with his children, he encouraged them not to marry, but rather to have careers, which all three did. Danica was a teacher then a librarian, Natalia was a nurse and Militza managed her husband's pharmaceutical laboratory. His son, Mile (Michael) became a physician. All his children were exemplars of American immigrant hard work and success.
Eventually, Marko became a Mason. He was patriotic and law-abiding. He preached the virtues of cleanliness, and installed in his house a long, white bath tub. Aunt Militza reminisced that theirs was the only family in the neighborhood with such a tub, and that Marko sometimes invited others in to use it. He became an interpreter for the Serbian community, and also the banker for the Serbian steel workers, for most Serbs did not trust banks, but trusted Marko totally. In serving as their one-man bank, he urged them to respect the virtues of thrift, cleanliness and education. He was upstanding, dependable, trustworthy, notoriously punctual and highly respected.
Marko Ivanovich died at 59 years of age of organic heart disease due to myocarditis and hypertension exacerbated by broncho-pneumonia. Initially buried on November 26, 1939 at St. Sava's Cemetery in Pittsburgh, he was later disinterred and moved to Forest Lawn Glendale when his widow, Marija, moved to California where all four of her children had settled.
May he be remembered for his love of education. Danica, his eldest daughter, remembers walking with him in Pittsburgh when he pointed at a brick building and said, "Danica, the day you walk through those doors will be the greatest day of your life." "And it was," my mother told us, "for it was the day I walked into Wickersham Elementary School and began my lifelong love of learning."
I was but 9 months old when he died, and never saw him. What a power-house he was, for his regard for education has affected all his descendents from children through great-grandchildren, all of whom are, at very least, university graduates. His two young great-great granddaughters want to be a veteranerian and a teacher and both love school. It must flow from his genes down through the blood. I wish I had known him, had heard his life story from his own lips, and had enjoyed his encouragement during my own years of schooling. Spavai, mili moi. Tvoje uvjek, your grand-daughter, Danica.
