John Juvan 1874-1928

Headstone GPS Coordinates: Burial location in cemetery is unknown.

Birth: 14 Aug 1874 or 15 July 1874, Ratschach, Austria

Death: 23 November 1928, Port Orchard, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

John’s memory was never the most reliable. He recorded different dates for his birthday on various documents, and what he wrote often conflicted with official records. Even government officials had to verify his information against other sources. He was usually wrong—though never by much.

In the summer of 1874, John (Johann) Juvan was born in Ratschach, Austria, to his parents Johann Juvan and Ursula Schumi. On his U.S. naturalization applications (he had two) filed over ten years apart, John listed two different birthdates: August 14, 1874, and July 15, 1874. The exact day remains uncertain, but he consistently remembered the year.

At that time, Ratschach was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a vast realm that included present-day Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Italy, Romania, Poland, and Ukraine. Immigrants from this region often simply reported they were from “Austria.” After World War I, when the empire dissolved, many re-identified with the newly formed nations. Today, Ratschach—also known as Rateče—lies in Slovenia. Just twelve miles to the north, across the Austrian border, is Arnoldstein, the town John’s family eventually claimed as their place of origin, though both John and his father were born in Ratschach.

John’s father worked as a laborer to support the family. Records are unclear on the number of siblings John had, but he had at least two.

John likely spent his youth in Arnoldstein, working alongside his father before moving into mining. He next appears in records in Erle, Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he married Clotildis Werginz of Hohenthurn (a village near Arnoldstein) on August 27, 1901. John was twenty-seven; Clotildis was twenty-two. Their marriage may have been hurried, as their first son, Antonie, was born the following month in Ruer-Resse. Another son, Joseph, followed in 1903. The family returned to Arnoldstein, where their son Karl (Charlie) was born in 1905, and later welcomed a daughter, Luzia Maria, in December 1908. During this time, John worked in Resse, Germany, likely as a coal miner.

Sometime around 1908, John emigrated. He probably sailed from Hamburg to Liverpool, then boarded the ship Victorian to Montreal, Canada. From there, he appears to have crossed into the United States at Vanceboro, Maine, by train, arriving on July 15, 1908. His path afterward likely took him to Boston, then by ship to Panama, across the isthmus, and onward to Seattle. By July 17, 1909, he had settled in Black Diamond, Washington, where he worked in the coal mines. 

Earlier that year on February 4, 1914, John took out a mortgage for $500 to purchase twenty acres in Seabeck from David Eyler, though he continued living in Black Diamond as a boarder, working as a miner and general laborer. 

On July 14, 1914, John filed his Declaration of Intention to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. In the document, he was described as 5’3” tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. What John could not have foreseen was that just fourteen days after signing his petition, the First World War erupted, thrusting Austria into the center of the conflict. International travel quickly became perilous, especially for a woman traveling with young children. That December, he requested a continuance in his application while attempting to bring his family from Austria to the United States. He likely hesitated to complete the final step of taking the Oath of Allegiance before their arrival, fearing that they might otherwise lose the opportunity for naturalization. However, with no way of knowing when it would be safe for his family to leave Austria, he did not file another continuance. When the original extension expired and the court received no further communication from him, his application was denied as abandoned.

It is unclear whether John’s family remained in Arnoldstein while in Austria. After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and fragmented into several new states. The region around Arnoldstein itself was unsettled by the Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia, which ultimately determined the border between Austria and what would become Slovenia. Still, John likely did receive word from his family that they were safe, and over time several of his children grew up and married in Austria.

In 1926, John finally settled on his property in Seabeck, Washington, where he farmed and worked as a logger. Around this time, he filed a second Declaration of Intention to naturalize.

On November 23, 1928, while working in the woods outside Port Orchard, John suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, possibly from felling trees. He was taken to Bremerton General Hospital, where he died at the age of fifty-four. Neighbors provided the information for his death certificate and arranged for his burial at Seabeck Cemetery. The precise location of his grave is unknown.

John’s death certificate listed his wife as still residing in Austria, and there is no evidence that she or their children ever joined him in Washington. John’s Seabeck estate was placed in probate under a court-appointed administrator, but whether his family in Austria ever received proceeds from its sale remains uncertain.