The Majdič Mill and Mansion

Digging into and understanding why our family immigrated to the United States has been a key point. And much like most genealogy I started asking the questions too late and the stories I’ve heard are hazy with time and history on the exact factors that pulled the family to the United States or pushed them out of Slovenia. Every family has lore about whether one was rich in the old old country (Great, but why would you leave?) or poor (Okay, but how did you afford to leave?) and the truth generally lies somewhere in the middle. There’s still a bit about grandpa Majdic’s story I’m piecing together, but here’s a deep dive that while he was in the coal mines of Kansas, what his cousins and great uncle were doing in Slovenia.

In 1874, Peter Majdic (1823-1908), the brother of Jakob Majdic (for most family who will read this, this is grandpa Majdic’s grandpa) inherited a small wooden mill with six grinding stones in Zgornje Jarše from his father, Janez Majdic.  By 1862, he modernized the mill with a new waterwheel and intake from the Sava River and installed the first turbines. In 1874, he purchased another mill in Kranj from an Austrian named Baron Khisel that would go on to be used off and on for nearly 200 years, most recently burning down in 2022 after it was converted to a mixed use project.  

Peter’s son Franc Majdic (1854-1931), took over the original family milling operation in Jarsche and expanded it. 

Peter’s son, Vinko Majdič (1858–1924), took over the Kranj mill in 1887. Under his leadership, the mill underwent substantial modernization, including the installation of new turbines in 1893 and 1897, increasing its capacity to produce 2,500 wagonloads of flour annually and employing over 100 workers.  It was said to provide the first electricity to light a lightbulb in Kranj in 1893. Between 1910 and 1919 he also had a steam mill in Zagreb. For many years he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Crafts in Ljubljana, a member of the State Provincial Council in Vienna, a board member of the Kranj-Tržič railway, a member of the Slavenska banka and the zinc factory in Celje. From 1919 onwards he was the president of the first Ljubljana Fair. This are is now memorialized as the Majdičev log in Kranj.

Peter’s son, Peter Majdič (1823-1908) worked in his father’s mill, and in 1888, his father bought him a steam mill in Spodnja Hudinja near Celje from the Swiss entrepreneur Lutz. Majdičev mlin was the first major Celje company to be entirely in Slovenian hands. This was particularly important at a time when Slovenians were just beginning to take up positions in the economic and political fields that had previously been marked by the German monopoly.

Over time, he modernized his mill to such an extent that, according to contemporaries, it had no competition in the entire Eastern Alps. Later, he bought another mill in Škofja vas, which he later converted into a woolen products and blanket factory due to the crisis in the milling industry.

With the help of friends and the legal assistance of Dr. Josip Vreček, he founded the Merkur hardware wholesaler in Celje as a response to the monopoly position held by the German Julius Rakusch’s store until then. In 1906, he opened a Merkur branch in Kranj, bought a fireclay factory in Štore, and founded a linen products industry in Jarše, which still operates under the name Induplati today.

With the help of excellent Slovenian linguists, he published the first major price list of hardware products, thus directly contributing to the development of Slovenian terminology in this field. He was also active in the field of tourism (Savinja and Logar Valleys), and due to his sense of technological progress, his name is also found among the founders and honorary members of several automobile and motorcycle clubs.

What’s Left?

While I’m still trying to trace down Majdic ancestors of Jakob Majdic in Slovenia, the Majdic name/legacy is prominent for this milling history and while I didn’t have a full picture of the family history when we traveled. Here’s a brief school project on the Majdic family mansion and when we visited in 2024, we did see the building which was under repair and the bust that was placed in the park out front. Here’s the building from a previous renovation:

And some images from “Majdič Park” the grounds just in front of the building, as well as the building itself from when we visited.

What I haven’t quite figured out is what exactly happened during WWII with a combination of family, Slovenian and world politics, it is always interesting when you find your family property listed in a declassified CIA briefing which I will leave here without a ton of comment as I’m still working to unravel some of the various phrases I’ve read about our Slovenian family’s politics and activism at the time of the war: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00457R002100630007-6.pdf