I have reproduced a history of the Armenian community of Worcester, MA as narrated by the late James H. Tashjian in his booklet titled “A Bicentennial History of the Armenian Community of Massachusetts”, a Publication of the Armenian Bicentennial Committee of Massachusetts, 1976. A copy of the book was personalized to me by my high school classmate Ohan Armenian who did his graduate studies in the Tufts University and lived in Boston for a number of years before moving to Los Angeles. Vahe H. Apelian
“The Armenian discovery of Worcester, dating back to 1860, was occasioned by at least seven different factors.
The first of these was that Worcester was admirably situated along the main trunk railroad which ran from the port of New York to Boston, with Worcester an important way station. The city was “easy acess” for immigrants, a comfortable five hour or so ‘no transfer” ride from New York.
The second was that up to the turn of the century, when New England began do decline as the most important industrialized region of the nation. Worcester was no only the most heavily industrialized city in the country but its prospering mills were turning out a great variety of products. The city experienced a continuing voracity for fresh (and) cheap unskilled and skilled labor, and the Armenians were willing to work at anything.
Third, the salaries paid by Worcester mills were higher than in other areas of the country.
And a fourth was that the Armenians coming into New York regarded Worcester as America. “When one speaks of America”, wrote an Armenian newspaperman in 1891, “one speaks of Worcester”. The Armenians simply followed one another to the city, where they were to get their feet wet in the American waters.
A fifth arose from the above. The Armenian immigrants were assured housing and jobs through the presence of compatriots in the city. There was a “grapevine” among the Armenians which quickly provided lodging and work for a newcomer.
The sixth was that Worcester had had considerable experience with migrant workers dating back perhaps to 1840’s. In contrast to Boston’s “dour and restrictive reception of foreigners,” Worcester had already become quite accustomed to the presence of the “strange people” who indeed produced the wealth of the city, the Worcester government and the top brass of the factories husbanded the workers so as not to lose their labor to other cities.
And finally, there was the fine public transportation (trolley) system which th4e city early boasted. Workers could in fact reside in areas somewhat distant from their factories, in fairly decent wards. What is more, this public mobility served a radius of twenty miles and thirty-five towns. One could get out “to the country” in no time for a nickel, or see fellow Armenians in Millbury or Oxford over a Sunday.
The founding of the Worcester colony is usually traced back to a certain Garo (Garabed) or Charles, his family name is lost) who came to Worcester in 1867 as the houseservant of missionary George C. Knapp, who had served in innermost Armenia.
The story goes that Garo was performing his duties for 75 cents per month when an Irish laundress told him that he could earn 8 dollars per week in the Worcester factories. Gary left Knapp and went to work at the Washburn and Moer Wire Mill, which was to become the principal place of employment for Armenians who were to follow Garo to the city.
Now, this Garo was obviously a Protestant – he worked for a Cong rationalist missionary and apparently sent word to his people back home that he was working at a munificent salary at the “The Wire Mill”. The response was slow in coming but come it did! Thus, the very first arrivals after Garo were Protestant Armenians.
In 1875 Hovannes Yazijian got to Worcester. His wife Sara soon joined her husband,who was then a hand at “The Wire Mill”. In a 1933 interview, Mrs. Vazijian recalled “when I arrived in Worcester, there were about a dozen Armenians there. I was the first Armenian woman to settle there. All the Armenians were accustomed to gather nightly in our house (on Laurel Street) for long discussions. …In the following years the number of Armenians, both Apostolic and Evangelical, grew. I was joined by other women – Mrs. Tophanelian, Mrs. Toomajian, Mrs. Borakian, Mrs. Erestsian and Mrs. Kazanjian We always met. There was no difficulty in finding jobs in Worcester. The Wire Mill saw that the Armenians were good workers. Each man averaged 8 dollars per week, at that time considered a most satisfactory salary….”
Others followed – Hovannes Potigian, Melcon Markarian who said that when he reached Worcester, he found ten Armenians there. The Seropian brothers joined the little community in 1889, then Tovmas Nishanian and his brother Onnig arrived and Tovmas became the first Armeina of Worcester to marry an “odar” (non-Armenian) and the child of his union – alas, his (or her) given name has been lost – became the first Armenian infant born in Worcester.
Meanwhile, in 1878, a signal thing had happened – Aaron Yenovkian had beome the first native of the city of Kharpert in Armenia to set eyes on Worcester. Two decades later his “Kharpertsi” compatriots were to become so numerous in Worcester that he city which had become synonymous among Armenians as “America”, enjoyed still another sobriquet - “Little Kharpert”.
In 1887, 300 Armenians were reported to be living in Worcester. This massive bachelor representation in the community were living in rented homes which resembled communes. It was not uncommon to have as many as 12 living in a single room These households were efficiently organized, and each occupant not only paid an equal rent for his lodging but performed certain housekeeping chores.
Now, consisting mostly of members of the Apostolic faith, the community started conversations on how best to introduce the sinews of community existence and activity to the colony. Mikael Tophanelian’s arrival in the city accelerated the process of gathering the scattered Armenians among themselves. He had already participated in the organizing of the “communities” in New York and Providence, and he early started propounding the establishment of an Apostolic church in Worcester. But the community was small and although individual earnings were comparatively large, the immigrant workers were monthly sending sums back home to assist their families.
But Tophanelian argued that the founding of such a church in Worcester would be of benefit to all Armenians in New England. He took to traveling throughout the region, visiting tiny Armenian colonies in other cities and villages, soliciting money from these compatriots for a “New England Church”. And they gave.
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| St Savior's Armenian Apostolic Church |
The genesis of that effort which was eventually to result in the opening of St. Savior’s Armenian Apostolic Church, dates back however to 1882. In that year, a group of migrants from the village Huseynik, near Kharpert, founded an organization, the first formal society in Worcester, calling itself the “Illuminatorian Education Union of Huseynik”, one purpose of which was to encourage the building of an Armenian Church in the city. This effort was further buttressed by the emergence of the famed “Haigagan Gadjar” – “Armenian Club” – in 1888, which too warmly espoused the church cause.
In 1890, the die was cast. By that time the community had practically taken over the Laurel – Chandler – Wellington Street area and, through some now mysterious dealings on the part of an architect known as “Mr. Haskell”, a suitable lot was found for church building flush on Laurel Hill.
Members of the community took part in the actual construction of the Church. Finally, on Armenian Christmas Day, January 6, 1891, the Armenians of Worcester consecrated their St. Savior (Սուրբ Փրկիչ) Armenian Apostolic Church, with the Very Reverend Hovsep Sarajian, who had been sent by the great Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Megerditch Khrimian Hairik, to serve as pastor of and consecrator of the first Armenian Church, the first branch of the earliest Christian Church in history to be built anywhere in the New World, officiating. The historic structure was lately sold, and the parishioner snow occupy another structure.
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The Protestant community had been no less active in terms of its own needs.
IN 1881, that group had started holing prayer meetings in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Yazijian (Mr. Yazijian appears to have been a lay leader of the Congregation Faith).
Mr. Moer, a co-owner of The Wire Mill and himself a devout Protestant, interceded (1892) with a Rev Sleeper to allow Armenians to use the facilities of the latter’s church for services. On January 1, 1892, Worcester’s Evangelical Armenians officially established their own Church of Holy Martyrs (Հայ Մարտիրոսաց Եկեղեցի) but the edifice was not to be consecrated until January 14, 1901. It is still in use.
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| The Armenian (Evangelical) Church of the Martyrs. |
Note:
(to be continued)
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