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Serbian Americans

Americans of Serb descent

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History

One of the first Serb immigrants to the United States was the settler George Fisher, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1815, fought in the Texan Revolution, and became a judge in California. Another notable early Serb in America was Basil Rosevic, who founded a shipping company, the Trans-Oceanic Ship Lines, around the year 1800. In the early 1800s, many Serbs immigrated to New Orleans seeking employment. In 1841, Serbs founded the Greek Orthodox parish with Greek immigrants in New Orleans, further solidifying their presence in the region.

Serbian Americans fought in the American Civil War, primarily on the side of the Confederacy, as most Serbs living in America at the time were in Louisiana and Mississippi. Several Confederate military units were formed by Serbian and Croatian immigrants in Louisiana, such as the Cognevich Company (named for Stjepan Konjeviç, who immigrated to Louisiana in the 1830s), and the First and Second Slavonian Rifles. At least 400 South Slavs fought in these three units during the Civil War. Several other known Serb soldiers in the Civil War came from Alabama and Florida, specifically from Pensacola.

Serb immigrants first came in significant numbers to the United States in the late 19th century from the Lika, Dalmatia, and Bay of Kotor regions. The primary area of settlement for Serbian and Montenegrin Americans in the 19th century was California, particularly the San Francisco Bay Area. Serbs in mid-19th century Sacramento owned saloons, coffee salons, restaurants, and produce markets.

Other Serbs often found employment in mines, and numerous Serb families moved to mining towns in California, mostly in the Sierra Nevada. Amador County, in particular, had a large Serb population in the late 1880s and 1890s due to the California Gold Rush. The Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Jackson, built in 1894, was the first Serbian Orthodox church in America.

Serbian miners, especially from Montenegro, and their families also settled in great numbers in Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s with the primary areas of settlement being Juneau, Douglas, Fairbanks, and Sitka. By World War I there were two Serbian societies established, one in Juneau and other in Douglas (around Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Sava) for the preservation of Serbian customs heritage in Alaska. In 1905 a newspaper called "The Serbian Montenegrin" was founded in Douglas. Serbs also made up a large number of the miners at the Treadwell gold mine until its collapse in 1917 and subsequent closure in 1922. In 1910, there was a massive explosion on the 1,100 foot level of the Mexican mine at Treadwell. 39 men were killed, 17 of whom were Serbian.

Serbian-Americans volunteered in the First Balkan War. During World War I, as many as 15,000 Serbian-American volunteers returned to the Balkans to fight for the Allied cause in their homeland, especially from Alaska and California. Serbs in the United States who did not volunteer to fight marched for the creation of Yugoslavia, sent aid to the Balkans through the Red Cross, formed a Serbian Relief Committee, and urged notable Americans to support the Serbian cause. Distinguished Serbian American scientist Mihajlo Pupin, a friend of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, led the Serbian National Defence, a Serbian-American organization which collected money and attempted to influence American public opinion with regard to the Balkans. During World War I, Pupin's Consulate in New York served as a center of Serbian-American diplomacy and volunteering of Serbian Americans to the Serbian front.

Following World War II, a significant wave of Serb immigration to the United States began, including members of the royalist Chetnik movement, after the country came under the authoritarian rule of Communist leader Josip Broz Tito. These waves primarily settled in industrial midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh, as well as coastal areas such as Los Angeles and New York City, building on earlier Serbian communities. Many Serbian American cultural and religious organizations have been formed at that time.

A select group of seven pioneering Serbian American engineers, affectionately dubbed the "Serbo 7", played pivotal roles in NASA's Apollo program during the 1960s, leveraging their expertise in systems engineering, avionics, and project management to help propel humanity's first lunar landing in 1969. Their contributions spanned critical phases of spacecraft design, testing, and mission coordination, including troubleshooting during the dramatic Apollo 13 crisis.

The 1990s saw another surge due to the Yugoslav Wars, as Serb immigrants escaped ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia as well as economic collapse in Serbia. Demographically, the Serbian American population grew steadily during this period; census data shows 100,941 people declaring Serbian descent in 1980, rising to 140,337 by 2000.

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