MARTIN GROSETTA
Adam S.
Eterovich
Martin
Grosetta from Dubrovnik, Dalmatia was proprietor of the Virginia Saloon in
Virginia City in 1860. This was one of
the first of approximately fifty business in Virginia City at the time. The Virginia Saloon was included in a
prominent panorama of Virginia City. (1)
Martin had
been in Mobile, Alabama in 1849 and had voted in that city prior to coming to
the Pacific Coast to seek his fortune.
He was one of many who had been established in the South prior to coming
West.
PICTURE
VIRGINIA SALOON
In 1859
Martin had a coffee stand in San Francisco at the corner of Sacramento and East
Streets. He was in many business
ventures during his lifetime in Virginia City and San Francisco. A few of his ventures were:
1860 Virginia
City 19
B. St. Virginia
Saloon
1861 Virginia
City 19
B. St. Virginia
Saloon
1862 Virginia
City 19
B. St. Virginia
Saloon
1863 Virginia
City 19
B. St. Virginia
Saloon
1864 Virginia
City 19
B. St. Virginia
Saloon
1868 San
Francisco 535 Sacramento St. Wines-Liquors
1872 San
Francisco 803 Union St. Saloon
1878 San
Francisco 527 Commercial St. Oyster
Saloon
1883 San
Francisco 1610 Hyde St. Restaurant
1884 San
Francisco 1203 Polk St. Oyster
Saloon
1889 San
Francisco 515 Clay St. Oyster
Saloon
Martin was
a citizen in 1849 at Mobile, Alabama and had voted in 1870 in San
Francisco. He was Godfather to a child
of Vulicevich in 1876 at St. Mary’s Church in San Francisco. He was also a member of the Slavonic Illyric
Society of San Francisco. (2)
ADVERTISEMENT
VIRGINIA SALOON
Martin
appeared on the Census in 1880 in San Francisco with a wife named Maria, also
from Dalmatia. It is not known whether
he had a family.
Martin was
typical of the hardy Dalmatian pioneers who ventured into the gold and silver
mining boom towns as saloonkeepers or merchants.
Martin had
other brothers or relatives in San Francisco at the time because a John
Grosetta with a large family in the early 1860’s and later a prominent
commission merchant had a business on Kearny Street in 1858.
Another A.
Grosetta had a fruit store at 311 Dupont Street in San Francisco in 1859. This A. Grosetta became a very prominent
citizen of Arizona.
1. George D. Lyman, Saga of the Comstock Lode,
1934.
2. St. Mary’s birth records for 1876, San
Francisco.