In a generation - sometimes two - the Armenians left Cleghorn for other parts of Fitchburg or the region. And my grandfather Krikor was given the name “George” when he arrived at Block Island. Her older sister Satenig had received a similar renaming by the same teacher and was subsequently known as Irene (perhaps after nationally-known dancer Irene Castle, who’d starred with her dance partner Vernon Castle in silent movie hit Patria, 1917). So Shakie (pronounced SHAH-kay), became Charlotte. When my grandmother entered first grade in 1920, her teacher told her she had to change her name. Over time, many Armenian first names give way to English names. he also worked at the Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works).Īfter the genocide of 1915, more Armenians arrived and opened businesses. from 1918 through 1924 (in 1925, she and “John H.” - possibly a son - were “removed to Chelsea”).Īnd so, it turns out that Haygagan Jasahran may have been the heart of what was never known as “Little Armenia” but which had numerous Armenian businesses nearby, including tailor Krikor Havanian (78 River St.), barber Mugurdich Yarumian (82 River St.), and grocer Melkiset Melkisethian (84 River St. Just one woman was listed as a business owner: Alice Varjabedian had a grocery store at 9 Chestnut St. Miran Miranshian was a tailor, and George Booradian, Nishan Vizigian, and Kerop Chakemian went into shoe repair. My family, the Manooshians and Mirijanians went into dry-cleaning (Star Cleaners) as did the Chicknavorians (City Cleaners). More than a third (25, including my great-grandfather Martin Manooshian and great-great Uncle Philip) worked nearby at Parkhill Mill. The majority of these (presumably) recent arrivals lived in Ward 2. The 1924 poll tax documents at the Fitchburg Historical Society revealed that within a decade of the 1915 genocide, some 33 Armenian families comprising 77 individuals were paying taxes in Fitchburg. Joseph for those in Cleghorn) and got a job. What opportunities did the newly-arrived Armenians have here? Many Armenian arrivals immediately joined a church (St. However, enough Armenians came to our city to merit a chapter in Doris Kirkpatrick’s splendid and detailed “Around the World in Fitchburg” published in 1975 by the Fitchburg Historical Society. The majority of Armenians coming to New England settled in Watertown, Worcester, Lowell or Lawrence, drawn by the textile and shoe mills. (since burned in the 1990s, and rebuilt). The family settled in Cleghorn, overwhelmingly French-Canadian at that time, in a tenement at 178 Daniels St. My maternal grandparents, Martin Manooshian and Rose Boyajian Markarian Manooshian (she married twice after being widowed) escaped the massacres two decades earlier. My grandfather, Krikor Mirijanian was a child when he survived horrific violence and the deaths of many family members including his mother in his home village of Arapkir, near Harpoot. Monday April 24 is the 108th commemoration of the 1915 Armenian Genocide: “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”Īs the granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of survivors, my family and I are grateful that Fitchburg opened its arms to victims who fled Western Armenia (now Eastern Turkey) in 1915 as well as in the mid-1890s (“the Armenian Massacre”).
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