Minnesota
by Lisa Boghosian Papas
Between 1890 and 1930, the message across the nation was clear-men were needed in the Dakotas.
Construction for the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and the Soo Line Railroads had begun and laborers were needed to lay track and roadbeds, as well as build bridges, sidings and depot facilities.
The challenge of finding so many men of working age in that area was daunting. Fortunately for the railroad companies, their need for labor coincided with one of the largest inflows of immigrants to hit the United States. The massive pool of unattached labor was quickly put to use.
Hiring labor contractors to supply a specified number of workers each season, the job of recruiting, supervising and compensating thousands of temporary men was solved. The contractors, who had full-time and part-time hiring agents familiar with the immigration of specific nationality groups, would send the agents out to round up their fellow countrymen from cities throughout America including Chicago, Duluth, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City. Greek agents would gather fellow workers, and then send them to North Dakota with interpreters to act as timekeepers and men to serve as foremen or labor leaders. Italians, Japanese, Hungarians and Armenians did the same.
For this, the labor agent frequently received a daily commission out of the worker's wages earned- often five to ten cents a day. Sometimes, the contractor would get a lump sum- four to five dollars a season instead. A translator's fee, room, board, and supplies were usually a part of the basic labor-agent-employee contract.
In response, North Dakota's railroads attracted thousands of men- strong, willing and eager to work. The majority of them came as "extra gang" workers from April to November. Some came on a permanent basis and stayed in the bunk cars, 12 to 15 in a car, at the major railroad centers working in the roadhouses and shops during the winter.
Among these early immigrants were the Armenians who arrived from Chicago, St. Paul and other Midwestern cities to work in North Dakota. Most were recorded as having started as seasonal "extra-gang" workers, while a few became permanent railroad employees. Because Armenians were recorded sporadically, the census often ignored tallying the numbers who actually made their way through the Dakotas. Many times, the Armenians were placed in the Turkish category since the immigrants themselves often declared the country as their place of origin. Others were included with Bulgaria and Armenia depending on the way they completed their papers.
Melkon Abrahamian was one of them. Born on May 2, 1892 to Abraham and Myrum Abrahamian in the village of Gondovar, located outside of the city of Van, Melkon left home when the Ottoman Empire began drafting men into the military. It is unclear as to his passage, but years later his son, Tom Abrahamian recalls his father relating his journey to America by way of Kiev, Russia, Salonika, Greece, Marseilles, France, and Liverpool, England.
Though his papers indicate that he arrived in the States on Jan. 15, 1910, and there is evidence that he had some construction business in Hopewell, Virginia and worked in St. Louis, Missouri in a steel mill, Melkon's whereabouts can not be confirmed until he registered as a laborer in North Dakota for the Northern Pacific Railroad on Valentine's Day, 1918.
Working as a section hand for the railroad maintenance department, Melkon quickly became acquainted with three other Armenian laborers-Anton Melikian, Garabed Tarpinian, and Vahan Kourajian. Together, they worked 10-hour shifts on the tracks-starting from eight in the morning until six at night. Pay was little, working conditions were rough, and the men had to remain alert at all times to avoid injury and accidents. In a copy of a 1935 wage report, Melkon's yearly salary indicated he earned $1,382.14 in total that year. Amongst the records he left behind were three safety awards from Northern Pacific honoring him for avoiding and preventing dangerous railroad accidents while on duty.
During the 30 years that Melkon was with the Northern Pacific, he, Melikian, Tarpinian and Kourajian remained close-- raising their families within one square city block from each other in Jamestown, North Dakota. In fact, it was thanks to Melikian that Melkon met his future wife. Learning about a large population of Armenian immigrants in Havana, Cuba, many of whom were single Armenian ladies, Melikian's sister informed Melkon about a woman she knew by the name of Khachkhatoon Bargamian who had escaped the Genocide and was detained from entering the States by immigration quotas.
After corresponding with Khachkhatoon through letters, Melkon went to Havana to meet her in 1925. It was rumored that if he liked her, he would marry her, and if he didn't he would return to Turkey. The story goes that he liked her, and a minister, named Ignasius Antonian, married the couple a few days later.
Following their marriage, Melkon and Khachkhatoon returned to JamesÂtown through Key West, Florida and then took the railroad back to North Dakota. Promptly, they started a family and their first son was born on Sept. 24, 1926. Unfortunately, due to complications at birth, the small boy passed away two days later. Following that, their first daughter, Viola, was born and in 1929, their son, Thomas. After him they had six more girls.
Melkon continued to work for the Northern Pacific until he passed away from Tuberculosis in 1947. Khachkhatoon remained in North Dakota until 1973 at which time she moved to Seattle, Washington with three of her daughters. In 1983, she died from complications due to congestive heart failure.
Traces of the Abrahamian family now can be found in the Pacific Northwest, North Dakota and Minneapolis, Minnesota where Tom, his wife, Virginia, and their two children, Todd and Lisa Marie live. Right after graduating from the University of North Dakota, Tom moved to Minneapolis where he has been working in the field of accounting since he arrived.
Today, Tom and Todd have diligently recorded what they know about Melkon's life before and during Jamestown. But many questions still remain unanswered. "Dad was an easy going man, but also a hard worker," says Tom. "We were nine in a three bedroom converted school house -- bathing in a galvanized steel tub." Chances are he never would have guessed what a part of history he had become.
Neither would Mirijan Baboughlian, later known as Mike Bobgan. Believed to have originated from Khorokhan, a province of Sivas, Mike, born in 1892, immigrated to the States by himself around 1914. Ironically, having left to escape war, Mike was later drafted into the U.S. Army where he served one year of duty until March, 1919. Though little is known about him because he was a very private man, his son, Harold, retains proof that he was one of four Armenian bridge gang workers in Big Stone City, South Dakota. After arriving in New York, he went to Chicago and then to South Dakota where he hooked up with Maksut Carageusian, Hochar Topalian, and another Armenian man whose identity is still unknown today.
Later records have Mike working on the railways in North Dakota, prior to his move to Minneapolis where he worked as an assistant on a coal delivery truck during the winter months and was a popcorn vendor during the summers. With five children, four of whom are living today, including Nick in Iowa, Martin in California and Harold and Agnes in Minneapolis, Mike did what he had to do to support his family of seven. Howard, the fifth of the Bobgan children, passed away close to 10 years ago. At the age of 86, Mike died in the State of Virginia.
In the 1920s, railroad activity was North Dakota's largest industry, only second to agriculture. That same decade, the U.S. census listed 75 Armenian born residents in the State of North Dakota. Two decades later, that number dropped to only 40 Armenians. While many of the laborers stayed on as full time rail employees, others left to different States in the country, including Minnesota. For those who stayed in the state, it soon became possible through homestead provisions to obtain free land from the U.S. Government. Tract books from the Federal Land Office indicate that thousands of railroad men did file for land in the Dakotas including the Armenians.
Today, of the thousands of railroad workers who came to the Dakotas to fulfill their dream, it is estimated that maybe a dozen families remain who can trace their ancestry to these pioneer Armenian settlers of the plain states-most left many years ago.
