VOYO JOVANOVICH

By Jaime von Baeyer

Last summer my family attended the Bearcreek reunion in Bearcreek, Montana.  My grandfather, Voyo Jovanovich, was born and raised there, but now lives in Hayden Lake, ID.  The most pleasurable part of the trip was riding in the car with him and his two brothers, Pete and George.  Our trip lasted two hours, wherein I heard the most amazing and wonderful stories about the roots of my family.  Throughout, bits and pieces about the depression era popped up.  It made me curious, and I saw this assignment as a great opportunity to learn about that time in our history.  So, on with the story….

Bearcreek, Montana, 1920.  Nestled beneath the awesome peaks of the Beartooth range, tucked into the hills of a tiny valley, you find the birthplace and home of Voyo Jovanovich.  Son of Serbian immigrants, Voyo was born into a large and hard working family in a town made primarily of Yugoslavian immigrants.  English was spoken by only a tiny percentage of the population and old world customs prevailed.

At the time, Bearcreek was a booming and successful mining town.  The Smith Silver Mine employed most of the town’s population.  When the Depression eventually hit the West (around 1934), the mine, and, consequently, the town of Bearcreek were shut down.  Bearcreek’s residents survived the hard times due to the incredible generosity and kindness of Vlado Jovanovich, Voyo’s father.

Like many people of Bearcreek, Vlado was an employee of the mine.  Luckily, he held an important position in mine operations and was able to work two days a week throughout the entire Depression.  He was one of very few men to do so.  Oiling the machines and pulling up rock in the summer, and running the machines in winter to prevent freezing made surviving a little easier.  Vlado was also able to maintain his impeccable credit at the local surplus store so he was able to get large quantities of flour, salt, and sugar, even during the hardest times.  That access to commodities was what kept Bearcreek alive.  When Vlado bought goods at the store, he only took what was needed for his family and divided up the rest to give to the needy families in their neighborhood.  Along with other livestock, Vlado’s family also had eleven cows.

“Every morning, Mom, Mele, and I would get up and milk those cows.  My God, we had a lot of milk.  We took what we needed, then gave the rest to the Pekichs and the other families down our road.”

Everyone relied heavily on gardening as well.  Each family had a huge garden.  The Jovanovichs were no different.  They had a huge garden from which the surplus was also shared with the community.  Voyo himself spent his early teens in the newly formed CCC.  Although he had to lie about his age to get in, since he was two years shy of the sixteen years old requirement, he and his brother Mele, who was old enough, both became part of the Corps. The point was for the brothers to stay together, but Mele was chosen to feed the buffalo herds up by Great Falls, while Voyo had to fight the forest fires scorching the land in the north over the summers.

At this same time, Voyo was entering and going through High School.  Basketball was the town’s passion, especially during the Depression.   Voyo was a star on the basketball team, along with being first in his class all throughout High School.  He was voted class Valedictorian and as a result was awarded a full academic scholarship to Rocky Mountain Business College in Billings, Montana.  He successfully completed his education there and signed up for the armed services the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed.  His intention was to go on with his life, find a good job, and start a family, but when American soil was attacked, there was no other option for him but to sign up and fight for his country.  He was inducted when he was twenty-one and was able to become a pilot right away because of his extensive education.  He flew fighter planes throughout the war.

In 1943, while Voyo was overseas, a terrible tragedy struck back home in Bearcreek.  While blasting a new line for the Smith Mine, seventy-four men were killed.  The town was devastated, and many friends were lost.  Vlado, his father, escaped the disaster by a miraculous twist of fate.  A good friend of Vlado’s had a conflict with his shift and another activity.   He asked Vlado if they could switch shifts, so Vlado worked the night shift, and the friend took Vlado’s shift the next morning.   Just hours after Vlado got off his night shift, the tragic cave-in occurred.  Had he been working his normal shift, he would have been killed along with the other seventy-four men, leaving a non-English speaking wife and seven sons and daughters.

Voyo also told me stories of the weekends in Bearcreek. His house became a dance hall every Saturday night.  “Just about everyone in the whole town came to our house,”  he explained. 

Dancing and celebrating joyous occasions such as weddings were a few of the small joys during the Depression.  Regardless of how much (or how little) they had to spare, a wedding was cause for an all-out feast and celebration.  It was customary for the bride to dance with every man there, who in turn would pin money to her dress that would be used to start her new life.  A collection was also gathered, wherein everyone gave practically all that they had to support the new couple.

Even though the Depression saw very trying times and terrible conditions, the fact of the matter was that for those Yugoslavian and European immigrants, Bearcreek, even during the 30’s, was a paradise compared to the conditions they lived in back home.  Life in America was a blessing, even when times were tough.  There was always a helping hand when you stumbled, always a friend to help you through, and an extended family of 3000 loving, caring, hard–working, and truly beautiful people.  Voyo and his family were incredibly fortunate and truly blessed, no matter how you look at it.