FRESNO: A HOME AWAY FROM HOME

by David Zenian


Back in 1876 when Alexander G. Bell was busy inventing the telephone, a young Armenian by the name of Mardiros (Yanukian) Normart had just returned back to the east coast from Fresno, a dusty western railroad town rich in farmlands, vast prairies and little else to keep him there.

Normart's sojourn was brief but his description of Fresno to friends and relatives in Philadelphia was powerful enough to help trigger a slow influx of Armenian settlers from the east coast of the United States and later from the Armenian territories of the old Ottoman Empire to Fresno and on to Los Angeles and the rest of California which now is home to the largest Armenian community outside the Republic of Armenia.

In Armenian, the words "nor"-"mart" mean new man - the name Mardiros Yanukian had given himself on arrival at Ellis Island a few years earlier.

Fresno was too small for him, but not for the Seropian brothers, Hagop and Garabed, who became the first permanent Armenian settlers of Fresno in 1881 at a time when the local population was not more than 1,000 people.

Like Normart, their initial journey to the New World had started in the early 1870's. They had emigrated to the United States with some returning Protestant missionaries, and settled in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Family circumstances forced Garabed to go back to Marzovan, his birthplace in the old Ottoman Empire to look after the family business following the death of his father, only to return to Worcester in 1880 to help his brother Hagop who had fallen ill and was suffering from a lung ailment.

Business was good, but the cold winters of Worcester were having an adverse effect on Hagop's health. His doctor advised him to move to a warmer climate - west to California.

Armed with letters of recommendation from the American Congregational Church, Hagop and Garabed arrived in Fresno in the autumn of 1881 "unfamiliar with the English language or American customs, strangers in a strange land."

Joined by their three younger brothers a year later, the Seropians began their upward climb, building a huge fruit packing enterprise, getting involved in their local community and playing a major role in the way business was conducted in the San Joaquin Valley.

Despite their early hardships, their up-beat letters to friends and relatives in the "Old Country" paved the way for the first group of 45 Armenian immigrants from Marzovan, including women and children, to settle in Fresno in 1883.

With their arrival, the Armenian community started taking shape around 1884. First was the establishment of the Armenian Presbyterian Church. It was in January of the same year that the first Armenian child - Jonathan Sinanian - was born in Fresno, and a year later, the Ararat Cemetery was built on land donated by a local non-Armenian church group.

The early Fresno Armenians had a place to worship and bury their dead. The Ararat cemetery still stands adjacent to an annex which was built later as the community grew.

For the Seropians, life in their adopted land started in rented premises where they opened their first Fresno store, selling stationary, candies, tobacco and Oriental rugs. Business was picking up when they lost it all in a fire.

But they started again, this time peddling fruits with a wagon on the streets of Fresno and gradually saving enough to open a grocery store, followed by another until moving into the packing business - mainly dried figs and raisins which they shipped outside California.

Business was booming, and soon the Seropian Brothers were "big names" in Fresno.

So when Southern Pacific Railroad raised its freight charges between Fresno and San Francisco, the Seropians stepped in by renting a team of 12 mules and two wagons to carry their produce.

The November 18, 1894 edition of the San Francisco Examiner described the Seropian endeavor as a "vigorous and practical protest against excessive railroad freight rates which bear heavily on farmers and businessmen."

In a front page editorial the same day under the headline "The Shippers' Revolt," the Examiner defended its own endorsement of the Seropians and their determination to confront the "monopolistic" Southern Pacific Railroad.

"There is a general expression of warm approval of the course taken by the Examiner in regard to the bold enterprise of Seropian Brothers, merchants of this city, in starting a wagon team loaded with freight for San Francisco as a defiance to the railroad monopoly," the newspaper said in an editorial.

News of the Seropian "experiment" traveled fast. From a large land owner in Mexico came a letter offering more mules to "race the train", and a rich businessman in San Francisco soon offered to invest in a second railway to break Southern Pacific's monopoly.

And thus, the alternative San Joaquin Railroad, or the Valley Railroad, reached Fresno in 1895, two years after the Seropians stood up and took action against an existing monopoly.

Nearly 69 years later, the mule episode became a television special called "Six Wagons to the Sea" - part of CBS's 1963 "Great Adventures" series.

But despite the Seropians' success, the Armenian population in Fresno remained small. A census taken in 1893 showed that there were only 360 Armenians in the County, mostly involved in either farming or related industries.

One reason for the slow growth was the early discrimination and the anti-Armenian bigotry against the new immigrants which was widely reported in newspapers across the United States.

In an editorial dated May 17, 1894, the Chicago Advance newspaper said:

"We have from the headquarters of the American Board a surprising story of discrimination against Armenian Christians in one of our Congregational Churches. The Armenians, it is reported, were compelled to sit in separate seats, and such as refused to do so, were ejected from the church."

While those responsible for the church incident were reprimanded, acts of discrimination continued for many years to come. Young Armenian boys were often called "Turk" and ridiculed by their peers in school.

But despite the hardships, the Armenian population of Fresno fought back with determination and hard work.

By the year 1900, Fresno County had a population of a little more than 9,000 composed of at least nine ethnic backgrounds, including 500 Armenians. They were by far not the majority but, nevertheless, the large amounts of capital brought to Fresno County by the Armenian immigrants often gave them an apparent edge over other ethnic groups.

The success stories attracted new immigrants. One after the other, churches were opened, newspapers were published, and community centers built - and the anti-Armenian prejudice escalated.

Earlier settlers in Fresno envied their success. They had to pay a higher price per acre than any other nationality - often from 20 to 200 percent more than the going rate.

Yet, as an ethnic group, which by 1908 numbered 3,000, the Armenians in Fresno County held 25,000 acres of land. Estimates of their vineyards were between 16,000 and 20,000 acres - roughly one-sixth of the acreage devoted to raisin grape production.

The Armenians of Fresno County, said a report by the Immigration Commission "... have made rapid progress in the accumulation of wealth ... (and) have usually succeeded better than any other race in accumulating property."

But agriculture was not their only occupation. Between 1901 and 1915, the number of non-agricultural Armenian establishments increased from 34 to 162, including 20 barber shops, 25 shoe repair shops, 15 tailors and 14 groceries.

By 1918, some 16 Armenian groups, including the AGBU which organized in Fresno in 1910, were already active within the community.

While fully established and active in every facet of Fresno community life, Armenians continued to face prejudice and discrimination for many years to come. Official records of the city of Fresno in 1911 show that there was nothing wrong in banning the sale of property to Armenians if people so wished.

One such document issued by the San Joaquin Abstract Company, while not naming the Armenians, clearly stipulates that "restrictions as provided in the deed from Delfina E. Cooper to John Miller, dated April 3, 1911 and recorded in Volume 478 of Deeds, on page 6" includes a provision "not to sell or lease the said property or any part thereof ... to any person born in the Turkish Empire nor any lineal descendant of such person."

This was the legal jargon used against the Armenians.

Over the years, Armenians were kept out of Fresno country clubs, college sororities and fraternities, sports groups and other local organizations. They were "discouraged" from seeking employment in the public sector.

A survey published by Richard Lapiere in 1930 reflected a clear bias against Fresno's Armenian population.

Basing his findings on interviews with a community-wide group of 610 non-Armenians, the survey found out that 536 of those who responded to the questionnaires said they would not marry Armenians, 334 said they would not hire Armenians, 379 said they would not accept Armenians as neighbors, 364 said they would not have their children play with Armenian children, and 298 said they were even against granting Armenians U.S. citizenship.

When asked to describe the principal characteristics of the Armenians, the majority said "dishonest". And why did the Armenians have these perceived characteristics? The majority's reply was just as stunning - hereditary.

By 1944 , there were no real attempts to even disguise the discrimination, and official deeds of residential property purchases did not shy away from legally prohibiting Armenians and other "undesirables" from residing in certain localities in Fresno to safeguard property values.

After describing a specific property as residential, a deed recorded "at the request of San Joaquin Abstract and Title Company at 44 minutes past 10 AM, Volume 2177 Official records, Page 1 et seq., May 18, 1944, Fresno County, California" included a clause which stipulated that:

"Neither said premises, nor any part thereof, shall be used in any manner whatsoever or occupied by any Negro, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Armenian, Asiatic or native of the Turkish Empire, or descendant of the above named persons, or anyone not of the white or Caucasian race, provided, however, that such a person may be employed by a resident upon said property as a servant for such resident."

But despite the racial discrimination, the Armenians were in Fresno to stay, and despite the hardships, continued to grow into a vibrant and active community.

The name Fresno became synonymous with Armenians and the city was often called "Little Armenia" where the noted author William Saroyan was born in 1908 and many of today's Armenian newspapers were published before moving on to Los Angeles.

But times have changed since Mardiros Normat's visit more than 120 years ago. Today, 30,000 Armenians live in Fresno County. Discrimination is gone, and dozens of Armenian institutions are busy keeping the old flame burning.