Josip Marohnić

Who was Josip Marohnić?

Josip Marohnić remains up to this day the most influential Croatian emigrant in the Americas.

Marohnić was born in Hreljin, Croatia, and lived in the USA for 28 years where he emigrated alone in 1893, later his wife Andrijana and daughter Josipa joined him. He started working at a Chicago's local printing house, soon he started attending Wheaton College, founded his own print house, bookstore became publisher, writer and editor of his newspaper "Hrvatski glasnik".

In 1897 Marohnić moved to Pittsburgh where he founded the Eastern Catholic St. Nicholas Parish and invited a Croatian pastor to spiritually lead the US' Croats. He acted as the main accountant of the National Croatian Community between 1897 and 1909. He was also the founding father and lifetime President of the Croatian Fraternal Union from 1912 until his death on January 23, 1921 leaving behind his wife and four children. Marohnić devoted his life to Croats 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 first poet among Croatian emigrants, he published his collections "Jesenke" in 1897 and "Amerikanke" in 1900 and his "Census of Croats in America". Also, in 1911 he was the first Croat officially invited by an American President.