PIVOCH, GEORGE Orange Grove-Oysterman-Saloon-Dance Hall-Winery

George Pivoch, for several years a resident of Triumph in Plaquemines Parish, is an outstanding example of the success that may be achieved in the United States of America by a young, hard working immigrant boy entirely lacking in knowledge of the language and customs of his adopted country, with no capital other than an inborn determination to succeed and with very little educational advantages. After reaching the United States and locating in New Orleans nearly thirty years ago, Mr. Pivoch, then a youth of seventeen years, worked for fifty cents per day in the oyster fields of lower Louisiana. He mastered the language and by dint of hard work and thrifty habits, accumulated sufficient capital to engage in business for himself and today owns a large and well-developed orange grove and also has a mercantile establishment, a tavern and dance hall and a large winery at Triumph where he located permanently in 1929. His mail address is Buras, Rural Route No. 1. George Pivoch was born in Podgora, Croatia, on the sixteenth of April, 1894, a son of Mitchell Pivoch, a farmer, veteran of the first World War and who died in 1917, and Madeline (Letica) Pivoch, now living in Podgora. Mr. Pivoch acquired a limited education in the schools of Croatia and came to America alone in 1911. In 1929 he came to Triumph and started development of his orange groves which now aggregate a total of thirty seven acres with over twenty acres planted in fully-matured and bearing trees and a number of younger trees that have not yet reached maturity. In 1934 he established a dance hall and tavern and has conducted these enterprises since, along with a good sized oyster business and his orange groves. In 1938 Mr. Pivoch started an orange winery and now has over eight thousand four hundred gallons of high grade orange wine. Average output of his orange groves equals around four thousand bushels annually and he also produces some grapefruit. In September, 1921, Mr. Pivoch became a naturalized American citizen and later returned for a visit to his native country where on the eighteenth of July, 1926, he was married to Miss Simica Simich, also a native of Podgora. Mr. and Mrs. Pivoch returned to the United States in 1927 and now are the parents of three children, Madeline, born July 27, 1928; George Louis, Jr., born the thirteenth of December, 1930, and Eleanor May Pivoch, born April 1, 1934. Mr. Pivoch is a recognized leader in the local Croatian colony and for many years has been one of the most active members of the Croatian Benefit Association. In religious life, he is a communicant of the Catholic faith.