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Articles
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The Zivics of Lawrenceville The following article appeared in the December 1991 issue of HISTORICAL HAPPENINGS. It was written by Joseph Borkowski. The five Zivic Brothers were born at 4927 Plum Way, and lived there for many years. They lived for a few years after that in the 4900 block of Hatfield Street. Later, the family home was at 4741 Butler Street.
Pete and Jack Zivic represented the United States on the boxing team in the 1920 Olympic Games at Antwerp, Belgium. After their return to the United States, they turned professional and fought as such from 1920 until they both retired in 1930.
About this time, Eddie and Fritzie began their careers in boxing. During the Depression, when boxing was in the doldrums here in Pittsburgh, they and their manager, Luke Carney, motored to Califonia where Eddie and Fritzie added to their prestige.
Fritzie Zivic reached the heights of professional boxing on October 4, 1940 when he beat Henry Armstrong for the World Welterweight Title. he successfully defended the title against Armstrong on January 19, 1941 before the largest crowd (23,190) ever in Madison Square Garden for a fight. He lost the title eight months later on July 29, 1941 to Fred (Red) Cochrane in Newark, New Jersey. Fritzie continued to fight until 1949. He had 230 fights.
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Stephen
Collins Foster (1826-1864)
Born on July 4, 1826, while the country celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence, Stephen Foster has become Lawrenceville’s most famous native son. He was the son of William Barclay Foster, founder of Lawrenceville and Eliza Tomlinson. Foster’s parents moved to Allegheny City (now Pittsburgh’s North Side) when Stephen was very small.
He developed a love for music at a very tender age of about three or four, and from that point forward there was no stopping him. Foster is considered by many to be the world’s foremost composer, and is the only person to have written two state songs – “My Old Kentucky Home” (Kentucky) and “Swannee River” (Florida). A third song “Oh! Susanna” was considered by the state of California as being their state song, but it was rejected.
Today he is considered the founder of “Pop Music” and his works are played throughout the world. There are many books written on Stephen Foster and the University of Pittsburgh maintains the Stephen Foster Memorial Center in his honor. It is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh close to the Cathedral of Learning. |
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