L

Lay

Anna Stanton Johnson came to Rosedale in 1904 to keep house for her brother who was starting a shop there. On her first day in Rosedale she was invited to dinner by Eleanor Savage Lay. Eleanor had arrived in Rosedale in 1891, a widow with four children: Benjamin, Lynds, Seleucia and Lillian. She became a substantial landholder in the community. Anna married Eleanor’s son Benjamin in 1906. The couple’s first daughter, Eleanor, survived only a few days. Their two other children were Lawrence and Elizabeth. Anna was well known for her singing. At one time she learned the music to several Croatian songs from the Gig Harbor community. She and her husband helped found the Rosedale Union Church. She became a writer, published poetry, and wrote a book entitled The Bible and Human Freedom. She also wrote a radio play about Abraham Lincoln. GHPHS

Lovrovich

John Lovrovich left his native Croatia when he was 17 years old with hiscousin John Bujacich. They first traveled to New Orleans where they met up with John’s brother Dominic. From there, John traveled to Colorado, working as a miner and bartender. He visited Gig Harbor briefly and returned to Colorado, where he married Dumica Malich, whom he had known when he was growing up in Croatia. They had their first child, John Jr., before moving to Gig Harbor around 1910. John began fishing with the Ross family. He acquired his own boat in 1928 – the Brac (named after the Island of his birth, off the coast of Croatia). The couple had several more children in Gig Harbor: Dominick, Tony, Peter, Mary, Millie, Nick & George. Several of the boys followed their father into commercial fishing. At first, they worked on boats owned by others in the community. In 1948, Tony, Dominic, and Nick purchased the Wisconsin with their brother-in-law. George bought the Sea Gem. Several of his sons followed him into the business and purchased boats of their own, operating them in Southeast Alaska. In 1971, Tony purchased a gillnetter and worked it with his sons. (source: Lee Makovich) WFL, GHPHS

During his lifetime, Tony worked in many shipyards as a shipwright in the Gig Harbor-Tacoma area, including Skansie Shipyard and Tacoma Boat Shipbuilding. He was a partner in a purse seiner vessel, "Wisconsin," and fished in the San Juan Islands, Monterey and San Francisco areas. In later years, he owned "Miss April," a gillnetter, and fished in Puget Sound and the San Juans. HRC