Z

Zlatarich

Along with Sam Jerisich and John Farragut, Petar Zlatarich was one of three European settlers to establish the town of Gig Harbor. In the mid-1860s, the men met on a steamer bound for Victoria, British Columbia and, by the time the vessel docked at Nanaimo, they had decided to become business partners. Peter hailed from Dalmatia, Croatia and changed his from Petar Zlatarich to “Peter Goldsmith” upon his arrival to America. Peter, Sam and John fished the lenghth of Vancouver Island, and throughout the Puget Sound, in a boat they rowed by hand. On one of their excursions to the south Sound, they happened upon a sheltered little bay with ample fishing grounds nearby. They decided to settle there and start a community that would come to be known as “Gig Harbor.” They cleared land, built rudimentary homes and established a nascent fishing industry. Peter married Millie, a woman 30 years his junior, and together they had a son, Peter Jr. After 1880, when he was registered as a 51 year old Pierce County fisherman in the U.S. Census, little is known of what became of Peter and his family. But for a few documents recording the transfer of title to land, and as a witness to marriage, the trail of his wherebouts quickly grows cold. The Washington Death Index lists one “Millie Goldsmith” who died in 1900 at the age of 39. Fourteen years later, just miles away from Gig Harbor, there is a “Peter Goldsmith” interred at the Pauper’s Cemetery in Tacoma. His birth and death dates match our founding fisherman. Burried right next to him is 32 year old Peter Goldsmith Jr. Both men died the same year. (source: “First Croatian Fishermen on Vancouver Island,” by Dr. Zelimir Juricic [cousin of Samuel Jerisich]. Zagreb:Matica. 2001; also findagrave.com) BK/28-29, WFL