BANANAS, ORANGES AND
POTATO CHIPS
By Adam S. Eterovich
Would
you believe that two Croatian American brothers were importing all of the bananas from the country of
Nicaragua or that the first planted
orange groves in Mexican and American California were Croatian colonists
from Mexico in 1834. It was a Croatian American that introduced the American
public to potato chips and created a
food processing empire.
King of Potato Chips
Marko
Narancich, who, as a young man, came to the United States from the depressed
homeland of Croatia in the district of Lika, changed his name to make it more
"Americanized". The name he chose, Marcus Nalley, has become famous
in the food products business throughout the Northwest. The business he
founded, though now part of a multi-national company, still bears his name. In
1903, when he was thirteen years old, Nalley followed his older brothers to the
United States. "'I arrived in New York with fifteen cents in my pocket. I
couldn't speak a word of English,' he once reminisced. Nalley traveled to
Montana where his brothers worked in the copper mines. In Butte, he worked as a
cook. He began frying potatoes and bagging and selling them for five cents. His
companions laughed at him, but he said, "You wait and see, these potatoes
are going to make me a lot of money," and they did. From Butte, he moved
to Anaconda and worked as a meat packer. It was his first exposure to the world
of business. "I learned to cut meat, but best of all, I learned how to
figure. From cutting meat to preparing food was a natural step. In Chicago, he
worked in a hotel as a dishwasher, bus boy, fry cook, pantryman, and chef. In
1913, he was made chef on the first "Olympian" on the Milwaukee Road,
running between Chicago and Tacoma. He felt at home in the Pacific Northwest,
so he left the railroad to follow his profession here. At the old Bonneville
Hotel in Tacoma, as a master chef, he became a specialist in making a new
potato delicacy: Saratoga Chips. Nalley borrowed money and bought hand-operated
equipment for peeling, slicing, and frying the potato slices. In his apartment
kitchen, he made and packaged them. He delivered them to grocery stores and
door to door. As the demand increased, the business grew. He was a pioneer in
the now multi-million dollar potato chip industry. The Boss', as we called him,
worked the hardest and the longest hours. He would get up at four o'clock in
the morning, start the factory running, load a delivery truck and spend the
long day selling and delivering his products. He worried the most, too, as
bills seemed to mount faster than revenues." Problems with keeping quality
in the packaged food abounded, but Nalley' rose to the challenge, and thus his
business grew. In 1941, the first plant was opened in "Nalley Valley".
It had expanded to several plants and office headquarters, and eventually was
sold to a national firm. Nalley's products became one of the largest food
businesses in the state. "Uncle Mark", as he was best known to his
many friends, was a warm and generous man. He loved life and he loved people.
He was an avid conservationist and was state chairman for Ducks Unlimited, a
fund raising organization devoted to the restoration of wildfowl breeding
grounds in Canada. He served for many years as a state game commissioner. Marcus
Nalley, who died in 1962, was a respected citizen who helped his fellow man.
The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, in 1931, named him "First Citizen of
Tacoma". The Pierce County Board of Commissioners, just a few months
before his death, presented him with its "Outstanding Naturalized Citizen
Award". The state of Washington has benefitted from the talent, ambition,
and perseverance of this Croatian immigrant.
King of Bananas
Jack
and Matt Pandol: A long time Reagan backer whose company imports all of Nicaragua’s
bananas said the trade embargo with that country will “shove the Nicaraguans
more into the arms of Russians.” Jack Pandol, who with this brother, Matt, runs
an import-export firm based in Delano, California said its contract with
Nicaragua represents almost 25 per cent of the firms $100 million a year
business. Bananas are Nicarauga’s biggest export to the United States,
amounting to $23,5 million last year, according to the State Department
figures. All of Nicaragua’s exported to bananas are shipped to Pandol
Brothers Inc. “It’s hard for me to criticize my government and this may sound
like sour grapes, but politics sometimes dosn’t make any sense,” Pandol said.
“I’ve gone down (to Nicaragua) and never found any ill-feeling toward me. The people there are hungry and they’re
suffering. Pandol said his firm does not pay for the bananas in dollars but
with fertilizer. “It’s a barter
arrangement,” he said. He said President Reagan’s plan to bar trade with
Managua will mean layoffs for about 1000 workers who unload and truck 150
million pounds of Nucaraguan bananas a year. A blunt, outspoken man, Pandol is
a longtime Republican financial supporter.
When Reagan was governor of California, he appointed Pandol to the state
Board of Food and Agriculture. Pandol is now one of the Governor
Deukmejian’s appointees to the state Export Finance Board. The Pandol’s people
came from the island of Hvar, Dalmatia, Croatia.
King of Oranges
Mattias
Sabich. The first Croatian pioneer in California was Mattias Sabich, coming
from Mexico to Los Angeles in 1834. He had a son, Matias, in 1841 and a son,
Francisco, in 1842 in Los Angeles. Matias was a trader and merchant. He was
listed on the 1860 Census of Population, but
at a later date his son, Francisco, an orchardist, had employed John
Cuculich as a nurseryman. Both of these names are found in Dalmatia, Croatia.
Sabich planted the first orange groves in Los Angeles and California. All
foreigners who became colonists in the Californias who observe the constitution
and laws of the Republic will be Mexican citizens as soon as they build their
own houses and begin to cultivate their lands. One of the first outgrowths of
the new movement toward colonization was the Gomez Farijas Colony. In February 1834 signs began to appear in
Mexico City inviting men, women and families to join a colonial adventure to
settle California. Among the three hundred or so colonists who left Mexico on
August 1, 1834 was a trader named Matias Sabich or Sabici (1798-1852). Sabich
married Josefa Franco Lazard, a member of one of the leading families in
Mexican and early American California. Her brother Don Antonio Franco
Coronel, was one of the first mayors of Los Angeles and Ygnacio Coronel founded
the city’s first school. Matias fathered
two sons, Mattias and Francisco and he became a well-known and apparently
wealthy member of the community. Sabich’s wife died in Los Angeles and is
buried at San Gabriel mission.