MARKOVICH CLAN FANCIED IRISH AND MEXICAN LASSES

By Adam S. Eterovich

Markovich is one of the most common names in all of Croatia. It is found in all districts. Markovich means "Markson” or son of Mark. Markovich’s were nobility with a Coat of Arms in Croatia.

Pvt. Antonio Markovich served as a private in Captain Cognevich's Company, Louisiana Militia Volunteers, Confederate Army of 1861 and John Markovich enlisted on February 13, 1865 in the Union Army at Oroville, California, as a private in Company A, 1st Regiment of Calvary.

Nicholas and John Markovich ran the New Orleans Saloon in San Francisco at the corner of Commercial and Davis Streets in 1856. They were pioneer members of the Croatian-Slavonic Illyric Society. John had the William Tell Saloon in Sacramento in 1861 and a coffee saloon in pioneer Marysville, California in 1855. John also owned a hotel at Placer, California in 1870. Perhaps another John Markovich owned the Slavonic Chop House in San Francisco in 1867,

The Markovich clan also took a fancy to the local girls during the great Gold Rush as Antonio, a goldminer, married a Californian-Mexican in the 1860's and had eight children. John married Rose Kane in Sacramento in 1863, she was Irish. Another John married Catherine McCarthy, also Irish, in San Francisco.