The Assyrians:
Settlers from the Near East

By:Sarah Sergis Jackson and Victoria Yonan Nevils

Source: Streams in a thirsty land (A history of the Turlock Region)
By: Helen Alman Hohenthal and others
John Edwards Caswell, Editor
Original Drawings by Viola Siebe Sonntag

Copyright by the City of Turlock, 1972
ISBN 0-9600622-1
LC Card No. 72-91045

The Assyrians were a minority long before coming to the United States. Without a country of their own, they have been a linguistic, political, religious, as well as an ethnic minority in the Moslem countries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. British diplomat Lord Curzon said that although they are a people small in number, "... with respect to race, history, religion, and sufferings [the Assyrians] excited greater interest in the world than any other community."(1)

Since Assyrians who migrate to the United States are considered to be of the nationality of their birthplace, seldom if ever are they listed among those making up the mass migrations to this country. Yet thousands have found haven in the United States after fleeing Moslem persecution and massacre. Perhaps no other people have found so welcome the proffer of the Statue of Liberty: "Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me." Nor have any others looked more yearningly to the United States as the promised land. Like the Pilgrims, the Assyrians were seekina religious and political freedom.

Assyrians claim to be the direct descendants of the ancient Assyrians mentioned in Genesis 2:14, who are known in history as early as 2000 B.C. According to Fred Tamimi, Turlock Assyrian scholar, "No nation, ancient or modern, can trace its antiquity farther into the past than that of Assyria. Her recorded history can clearly be read upon her tablets milleniums before Christ, and her language [traced] to that of Adam and Eve.(2) The Assyrians have been called "the Romans of Asia." Like the Romans they were great conquerors. They won their victories by superb organization, weapons, and equipment.(3)

When Nineveh, capital of Assyria, was destroyed in 612 B.C., the remnant of the Empire was called Urhai and later Edessa. Many Assyrians fled to the secluded mountains of Kurdistan; some settled in Urmia in northwestern Persia, and others scattered throughout Asia Minor.(4)

Assyrians believe that the Magi who brought their gifts to the infant Jesus were Assyrians from Urhai. Eusebius tells of correspondence between Ogar, kind of Urhai, and Jesus, who sent a disciple to visit Ogar. From this visit, according to tradition, the Church of the East arose. This church followed St. Nestorius in rejecting the decrees of the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., hence it is commonly called Nestorian. It is represented by the St. Thomas Christians of South India. Nestorians were found in China in the seventh and eighth centuries. About 1550 A.D., a controversy resulted in a number of Assyrians becoming Roman Catholics, and these have been called Chaldeans.(5)

As the law of the Koran, the Moslem scriptures, is religious as well as civil, it could not be applied integrally to Christians, so non-Moslem communities were ruled through their religious hierarchies. Thus their church had a twofold importance to the Assyrians.(6)

With the coming of American, English, and Russian missionaries in the nineteenth century, the Assyrians became more aware of their national identity, thereby irritating the Moslems. As the missionaries hoped to revitalize the Church of the East and draw evangelists from it to carry Christianity to the rest of Asia, Moslem distrust grew.(7) There was perhaps no other mission field where so many rival Christian groups were found as in Urmia.(8) While the missionaries were allowed to establish schools and hospitals, mistreatment of the Christians was primarily staved off by the presence of Russian troops.

Increasingly, Assyrians sought to escape. Graduates of Urmia College and others went to America and England, hoping to earn money and eventually send for their families. Many men went to Russia to learn trades.

When Turkey attacked Russia during World War I, the Russians pulled out of Persia. Turks and Kurds swooped down and joined the Persians in plundering and massacring the Christians. Thousands fled to Russia. The American Presbyterian missionaries took as many as they could into their compound, but starvation and disease exacted a heavy toll. For several years the Christians withstood the atrocities, which were climaxed by the assassination of the Assyrian Patriarch, Mar Shimun. Assyrians and Armenians tried to stop the Turkish advance. The Turks surrounded Urmia on three sides and attacked it fourteen times. Finally on 31 July 1918 the Assyrians decided to evacuate Urmia and try to reach the British Army in the south. Over 50,000 men, women and children started out, accompanied by the American Presbyterian missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. William Shedd. After a month in which the refugees were looted, raped and murdered by Persians and Turks, the remnant reached safety at the British base in Hamadan, whence they were later moved to Iraq. Most of the Christians who did not leave Urmia were killed.(9)

Following World War I, many of the refugees stayed in Iraq. Some found their way back to Urmia; those who were able migrated to the United States and to other non-Moslem areas. Presently more Assyrians are coming to the United States from Iraq than from anywhere eise. In Iran, however, Assyrians now have political representation, are not religiously persecuted, and are as successful as any other citizens.

The Assyrian Colony At Turlock:

As long ago as 1867 an Assyrian came to California from Persia. For this feat, plus the fact he had visited Jerusalem, he was dubbed "maikdusee" (pilgrim) upon his return to the old country. But not until early in the twentieth century did Assyrians come to California to stay. A few came to San Francisco from eastern United States cities in answer to the call for workers following the 1906 earthquake and fire.

In 1911 Dr. Isaac Adams and a group of about forty-five arrived in Delhi, seeking a rural area which might be similar in climate and crops to their native Persia. They came by way of Canada and eastern and Midwestern United States. Having reached these areas, they were still looking for something more like the old country. The sophisticated atmosphere of populous cities was in extreme contrast to their agricultural background, and the land and climate in Canada had not measured up to their expectations.

Paul Shimmon, author of Massacres of Assyrian Christians, thus describes Urmia in 'the province of Azerbaijan, from which these Assyrians came:(10)
The plain of Urmia has a charm for all travellers. In the Spring and Summer it is a veritable paradise: its running waters, its gardens, its vineyards, orchards, melon fields, its tobacco plantations and rice fields give a variety of color and a beauty of scene seldom met with in the East.

The role of pioneer suited Dr. Isaac Adams extremely well: a Christian living in Moslem Persia, orphaned at the age of six by the Russian banishment of his father to Siberia, having lived in an orphanage supported by the Barclay bankers of England, educated in an American missionary college, imprisoned in an underground dungeon complete with Turkish cruelty, he was most anxious to seek a new life in a new country.

As a boy in Deacon Knanishoo's orphanage in Urmia, Isaac Adams listened attentively to talk about America where people were free to have whatever religion they wished, to make of themselves whatever their potential made possible. Stirred by the example of missionaries. he resolved to become one. At the age of seventeen he was willing to face the hazards of a trip halfway around the world to study for the ministry. With practically no resources but faith that a better life was to be had, he migrated to the United States. In the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, other young Assyrian men also braved the uncertainties of life in a new world to come to America to get an education or work, or both, and eventually to send for their families. Adams' ambition was to return and help the people of his nationality to come to America.

As early as 1902 he wrote to Sacramento for homesteading information. The answer was that there were no longer lands sufficient in size and fertility for a settlement. Undismayed, he contacted Canadian immigration officials and was told such a settlement would be welcome in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The same year Dr. Adams brought a group of Assyrians to Canada. The settlement succeeded, and in 1906 he went back to Persia to bring another contingent; but travel mixups delayed the small band in England where whatever little money they had was used up, and it was necessary to go into debt to complete the trip to Canada. Such unfortunate beginnings rather blighted the second settlement. so Dr. Adams again thought of taking some of his people to the United States where he had become a citizen while a student.

In 1910 Dr. Adams, accompanied by a few of the Canadian settlers, went to Chicago. There he saw the colonizing agent of the Santa Fe Railroad who recommended the San Joaquin Valley for a settlement. Recruiting more Assyrians from Chicago and points east. the prospective settlers at the agent's suggestion came to San Francisco to contact a Mr. Wilson who owned a large tract of land in Delhi. They were persuaded to settle there, the claim being made that the land was as good as that around Turlock. According to Mrs. Mary Benjamin, a niece of Dr. Adams, he was shown pictures of acreages in Fresno and Turlock which purported to be the Delhi land. What they were not told was that the land was very sandy, and since Delhi was then outside the irrigation district, they would have no water for their crops.(11)

All the section south of Delhi as far as the Merced River on the west side of present Highway 99 was bought by the Assyrians for $100 an acre. The unimproved land did not lessen the joy of these early settlers, for the climate and fresh air, which were free from the soot and dirt of cities, were just what they had been seeking.

Only one of these early settlers, Sargis Hoobyar, had brought his family. The rest had come to make ready land and homes before sending for their families. Annually during this period in California history, sandstorms struck the valley in the spring and fall, lasting for at least three days. As these settlers were preparing their land for planting, one of the storms came on. For three days they were almost unable to see one another; each had to stay in his shack or tent. They couldn't move out of shelter for fear of choking in the sand swirling around their property. When the storm was over, the settlers decided their former homes were safer, all left with the exception of the Hoobyar family, which had no money to go anywhere else. Coincidentally there was also living in Delhi at this time George Andrews, a Syrian, with his family. Members of the Andrews family are still living on the east side of Delhi.

Dr. Adams purchased a ranch south of the Turlock overpass. on the west side of Hihway 99.(12) Mrs. Adams was still living on this property in 1971, and her son Albert, with his family, had a home adjacent. Quoting Dr. Adams, who was interviewed by Helen Hohenthal in 1930:

"Turlock was our shopping town. One day while driving into town, I stopped to talk to Mr. Boden who was picking apricots. I had just sold my homestead in North Battleford to the Canadian Government and I asked Mr. Boden how much he wanted for his 23 acres. He said $8,000. I offered $7,000 and bought the place located 1-1/2 miles from Turlock on South Highway".

Among others who had come out with me was Sargis Hoobyar. Hoobyar used to go to school with me in Persia. I met him again in Chicago. I sent letters to Assyrians in eastern U.S. cities and back to Persia to induce others to come here. I also enclosed literature from the Chamber of Commerce for those who read English. At our school English was one of the subjects.

The products of the valley were the same as in Persia so my people knew the grape, melon, and orchard fruit crops. The climate is similar. Of those who came later many came by way of India, China, and Japan. Some were war refugees and didn't have much money. Many worked in cities until they made enough money to buy land. They were very good as plasterers, bricklayers, carpenters, etc. These later colonists bought land at peak prices, paying about a quarter down. Crops were bringing high prices, too, but two years later the prices dropped and the people had no money with which to pay for their land. Some lost it and some are very heavily mortgaged. I helped some of them to pick out their places, for example, the Koshaba Shimmon place from the Merritts. Shimmon, who had been a Persian rug dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, paid out on his place, then heavily mortgaged it to buy land for his son.

Because the Assyrians had no homeland even in Persia, they will make good homes and good citizens here. Some have already left, but counting children there are about 500 in the district today. With the present low prices for crops, I do not encourage more to come .... A few years ago I received $2,300 for my apricot crop; last year the same size crop, only $125. I have a 40-acre place near Livingston for which I paid $28,000. There is a mortgage of $6,000 on it. I offered the woman who holds the mortgage the place for cancellation of mortgage and interest. She refused because she said the place wasn't making the taxes now.

When Lady Surma (sister of Patriarch Mar Shimtin) was here in 1926, she was well pleased with my idea of getting Assyrians onto farms. Since then, wherever she goes, she advertises this colony. I started the small Evangelical Assyrian Church. I thought it would be well for all the Assyrians (Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc.) to stay together. Then some decided to have a separate Presbyterian Church so the large new one was constructed (St. John's Assyrian Presbyterian Church, Palm and Minaret Streets). The old church is clear of all indebtedness. Rev. Eshoo conducts the services. He was a very prominent preacher in Canada. The Assyrians have nice homes. They put in trees, flowers, etc., right away. That is because this is really the only homeland they have.

George Peters, now retired and living in Modesto, was the first Assyrian settler in the city of Turlock. Peters had attended Augustana College, a Swedish Lutheran school in Rock Island, Illinois. In Los Angeles he met Dr. Nelander, one of the organizers of the Berea Lutheran Church in Hilmar, who told him about Turlock. Coming to Turlock in 1911, Peters' first rooming quarters were at Mrs. William Fulkerth's home on Center and Mitchell Streets. His rent was $1.25 weekly. Mrs. Fulkerth, or "Aunt Abby" as she was known, informed him she had bought the property on both sides of Center Street from Olive Street to Geer Road for one mule!

In 1912 Joseph Adams and Odishoo Backus with their families arrived in Turlock from Canada, one the brother, the other the cousin of Dr. Adams. Land had already been purchased for Adams, but Backus shopped around for a while before purchasing acreage on F Street in partnership with Abel Tamraz, his brother-in-law, and George Peters. Each paid Andrew Johnson $450 for his share. The three opened up the present Eighth and Ninth Streets by digging up the peach trees on their land and making dirt roads. Peters also helped Johnson open up Fifth Street.

In 1917 Peters sold his share, and with Dr. Adams and George Inweeya as partners bought twenty acres from Fred Geer on the corner of Fifth and F Streets at a cost of $9,500. In 1918 the property was divided among the partners. Peters developed his section by putting in grapes and apricots. At that time F Street was a narrow dirt road. Joe Claes, a neighbor, and Peters improved the road, each donating forty feet for its widening before turning it over to the county. Peters had three wells dug on his property and built four homes.

In 1917 Peters, Inweeya, and Dr. Adams rented land from the vicinity of Arcade (Colorado) to Berkeley Road and from East Avenue to Canal Drive for $35 an acre from Horace Crane. Turlock High School and a residential area are now on the land. The partners planted Egyptian corn, spending over $3,000 and killing countless gophers, squirrels, birds, and jack rabbits to protect the crop. At the time Egyptian corn was bringing in a good price and grew even in isolated places without irrigation. But the partners took in only $450 income, for wild animals and a sandstorm took a heavy toll.

"Losing his shirt" made it necessary for Peters to go to work in San Francisco to replenish his purse. When finances ran low, other Assyrian men would do likewise, working for a while to make money, then returning to their land in Turlock; or they would work in San Francisco, commuting to Turlock on weekends until their farms were paid for and bringing in income.

Finally in desperation, because the Delhi soil was bad, snakes, squirrels, jack rabbits, and gophers ravaged the land, and water was difficult to obtain, Sargis Hoobyar left Delhi in 1915. He bought ten acres of land from David Brier's heirs, and later six acres from Homer Brier, with a small down payment. There were already peaches and grapes on the place, located between Linwood and East Avenues, a mile southeast of Turlock on Quincy Road.

Other Assyrians from the East who had moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles bought unimproved land from the Brier brothers near Hoobyar, paying $150 an acre, expecting the land to produce grapes, peaches, melons, alfalfa, and sweet potatoes. Bad soil and sand storms making their ventures unsuccessful, they abandoned their farms; but Hoobyar stayed into the 1960s.

In 1921 Odishoo Backus bought ten acres on Alpha Street east of Berkeley Road, adding more acres gradually. On his original unimproved land he planted melons, grapes, alfalfa, and kept a few cows. In 1971 Backus was still living in the same location; some of his children in their separate homes also resided in this section.

Likewise in 1921 the Elia Malick family came from Los Angeles to Madera, where they first purchased land. Mrs. Malick knew there were more Assyrians in Turlock, so she urged her husband to continue on to Turlock. They were about to buy a home in Turlock when Dr. Adams pointed out to them the wisdom of buying a farm and a home on Fifth Street which were available for the same price. Mr. Malick, an expert plasterer, worked at his trade in San Francisco and his wife managed the farm. The Elisha Khamis family bought the adjacent farm to the east, and the Abraham Jacobs family the farm across the road. Soon Mrs. Malick was thoroughly enjoying the neighborhood, to which were added the Lazar Benjamins, the Ablahat Kishtoos, the John Georges, the Avraham Nweas and others. When her brother, Walter Malick, moved to the farm on her west, Mrs. Malick felt almost as if she were in Urmia. but without the drawbacks of living in a Moslem country and with conveniences which she would never have thought of in Persia.

The first to venture out toward Denair were the Daniel Lazars, who arrived in Turlock via Canada in 1917. They established a charming home and grew apricots and grapes for drying. It would seem that their son Harvey, owner of Lazar Fruit Company, comes naturally by his interest in dried fruit.

The Lazars always had many visitors because Daniel was a great wit and because they had made their surroundings so reminiscent of the old country. Visiting among one another in the early days was the prime means of sociability for the Assyrians, who had not yet mingled very much with their American neighbors nor involved themselves in the affairs of the community. They loved to entertain each other. No matter when company dropped in, and it was usually unannounced because telephones were not in much use, the lady of the house somehow managed to lay out a spread of food: melons, grapes, and orchard fruits in season; nuts and raisins, and a flaky non-sweet pastry called kada. The piece de resistatice was always Samovar tea, served in small, delicate glasses with fine china saucers. The tea is sweetened by placing a small lump of sugar in the mouth. This is drinking tea dishlama. It is permissible to cool the tea in the saucer or even drink it from the saucer. Not the least of the conversation had to do' with expressions of gratitude for their good fortune at being in America, especially in a rural area so like the old country, yet enjoying freedom and protection and sharing in equal opportunities.

For the Khoshaba Shimmon family it was like the end of an odyssey in 1921, once more to have their own home and land. Before settling on Wolfe Road, they lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and before that for five years, 1913-18, persecutions and war kept the father and his family apart. Little did the father know what was in store when he left Urmia in 1913 to come on business to the United States. Then World War I broke out and he was distraught by the reports that the Turks had attacked the Assyrians. He wanted to return immediately, but on second thought and on the advice of others, he realized he could accomplish more by eliciting help from this end. Besides he didn't know where to find his family.

Mr. Shimmon had left his banking and importing business in charge of his seventeen-year-old son, Yoaw. Now it became necessary for Yoaw to take charge of his mother, sister, and two brothers and flee for safety. Somehow they managed to get to Tiflis. There followed three and a half years of travail in which almost daily attemps were made to obtain passage for the United States. Wartime conditions, the Bolshevik Revolution, lack of transportation-all conspired against them. These were years of torturing suspense for the father: time after time money was sent, arrangements begun, careful plans laid, only to fail of fulfillment.

Because Yoaw could speak Russian, several other refugee families attached themselves to him. Finally in March 1918 they were able to leave Tiflis by way of Batum, for that was the only way to avoid the Moslems who were killing Christians. In Yoaw's own words:

After many disappointments and long waiting we heard of a freight boat, the last that would leave. We could buy no tickets without passes; they would shoot one on the road if he had no pass. We would stand in line from dawn to 9:00 o'clock, then be sent to another part of the city, very far, and be told no more passes would be given that day. We must buy new passes in every city and pay what was demanded. The Bolsheviks were very lawless. We often found roads blocked and eight generals had just been shot in one place. But we all looked poor and forlorn in our old garments and they paid little attention to us.

Once on board the freight steamer, the refugees found only room to crowd on the deck, in spite of rain and cold. Then onto a cattle car, secured at great cost, foully dirty, with standing room only. Finally Vladivostock was reached, nearly three months after leaving Tiflis. The last papers, including border passports, were obtained and visas from the American Consul. On to Japan. Again no transportation. It took one week to obtain passage on a ship. Finally the boat moved-they were leaving Russia at last. At 9:00 the next morning the boat docked in Yokohama, but it was another couple of weeks before passage could be had on a Dutch liner for a nineteen-day trip to San Francisco.(13)

The daughter of the family, Mary Shimmon, became the valedictorian of the 1927 graduating class of Turlock High School.

She worked her way through law school and in 1939 was a Stanislaus County Deputy District Attorney.

She later became counsel for the California State Department of Employment.

Dr. John Sergis took up farming in Keyes, six miles northwest of Turlock, because failing eyesight made it necessary for him to give up the practice of dentistry. He purchased forty-three acres of good land from the Olivas brothers for $20,000 in 1923, built a comfortably large home, and moved his family there from San Francisco in 1925. The home was the first in the area to have a tiled bathroom, and for several years strangers would drop in and ask to see the bathroom. Twenty acres were already in grapes; peaches, apricots, and additional grapes were put in and some land left open for planting melons and beans. When the plants and vines were mature, the yields were exceptionally good: 25 tons of watermelons, 20 tons of apricots, and 16 tons of grapes to the acre.

His "American" neighbors looked rather askance at a "foreign" dentist trying to farm. But being a professional man, he applied professional techniques to his new vocation, and before long his neighbors began imitating him. Whereas they had tended to be rather sloppy in their surroundings, seeing in Dr. Sergis' example that one didn't have to be messy just because he was a farmer, they also started taking pride in the appearances of their farms, homes, and yards.

Prior to coming to San Francisco, Dr. Sergis was a dentist in the British Army stationed in Qasvin, Persia. When the Army started to leave Persia, Dr. Sergis consulted with the commander of the force, General Lord Ironside, as to which country would be best for him to take up residence in-England or the United States. He was an American citizen; but if he went to England, he could be retired by the Army. General fronside's unequivocal answer was the United States, inasmuch as he predicted there would be another war in Europe within twenty years.

Two brothers-in-law of Dr. Sergis, with their families, moved from New York to equally good land nearby. One of them, Paul Shimmon, in the early '30s served as Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Modesto.

The family of Supervisor Joash Paul were also early settlers in Keyes, and his father, Philip, was an outstanding worker and farmer. Being of a more speculative turn than Dr. Sergis, Mr. Paul increased his landholdings in the area. The two men admired each other very much and helped each other in many ways.

Other Assyrians who could afford to pay a little more for the land also bought in Keyes. They came from various parts of the United States, having heard about the area from their relatives or friends and about the pleasant country living.

Another source of information which attracted these people was the Assyrian Star, a bimonthly magazine published in Chicago. Various persons from Turlock and Keyes were asked to supply information about life on the farm, the weather, the sociability, the crops, and other data that could be used by people contemplating a move to the area.

The first Assyrian to go into business in Turlock was Bob Abraham, who opened a hot dog and hamburger stand on Main Street and the Highway in the early twenties. He was immediately successful, and by the third year he had such a thriving business that the Chief of Police told him he had to move the stand elsewhere because other businesses were complaining of the traffic. So he purchased a lot from Henry Bowers and constructed a building for a restaurant which became even more popular than the stand.

The Assyrians with their penchant for nicknames began calling him Bob Hamburger, and some even Bob Lunch. To this day, even though Mr. Abraham is currently in the real estate business, he is still affectionately known as Bob Hamburger, with some people perhaps unaware that his surname is other than Hamburger.

These are only a few of the early settlers that space permits mentioning. Each decade sees more people of Assyrian descent moving to Stanislaus County, just as people of other ethnic origins are doing. Perhaps proportionately more Assyrians know about and move to the area than other minorities. A fairly large percentage of those in the United States have come to Turlock to live or visit, or have relatives and friends living here who urgeithem to come and see for themselves what a good place it is.

Currently the people of Assyrian descent moving bere are those who have achieved success in other parts of the United States and who can afford to retire in California. The area has been pleasing to the Assyrians: they have found some measure of similarity to their native country; they have been able to live in the rather unhurried and simple atmosphere they knew in the old country when the Kurds, Persians, and Turks weren't taking potshots at them or trying to relieve them of their possessions.

If there was criticism in the first years of the local settlement that the Assyrians were clannish, it may be said that it is only natural that people who had been persecuted, driven out of their native land, and who had a whole new language to master, would find pleasure and benefit in contacts with their own kind. But considering the very different background of these people in comparison with life and society in America, it can be said the Assyrians were quick to learn, quick to be respectful of the iaws and customs of their adopted country, and were assimilated rather successfully in a fairly short time.

Perhaps one casualty in the eagerness of Assyrians to become Americanized has been the decline in use of their own language. Having common sense enough to realize that they could never succeed or be able to compete in their adopted country without mastering the language, Assyrians concentrated on learning English to the exclusion of use of their own language. While many can still understand Assyrian, the new generation coming up is not learning it, for in many cases only one parent is Assyrian; or if both are, they don't know the language sufficiently to pass it on to their children. A few years ago, an attempt was made to revive learning of Assyrian by giving instruction, but insufficient response indicated there was not enough interest.

Assyrians are a convivial people-they like their native music, dances, and food. They are proud of all three of them and like very much to introduce them to other people and observe the enjoyment felt by noii-Assyriaiis for things Assyrian. A very close-knit people because they have been minorities in non-Christian countries for so long, they have had to look to each other for security. They have learned to become self-sufficient because help has not been forthcoming to them from the governments, the educational systems, or the religious organizations where they have resided.

An example of the cohesiveness of the Assyrians is in the respect and affection given one by another: a younger person calls an older one uncle or aunt or teacher; a person of the same age or younger, brother or sister. Such practice cannot but promote unity, respect, affection, and loyalty. The tie of nationality is almost one of relationship; in fact, if they dig deep enough, two Assyrians will nearly always find they are related. For them relationship is not merely being first cousins: you are considered quite closely related if your great-great-great grandfathers were brothers.

Parents adore their children and will go to any sacrifice to help the child to find himself, to learn and to train for a life endeavor in which he can succeed. And his parents relish his success, readily exhibiting their admiration and satisfaction in him. An offspring rarely will let his parents down-they expect good behavior from him, and he tries very hard not to disappoint them.

The Assyrians have added four to Turlock's many churches. In the beginning, regardless of religious denominations, they attended the Assyrian Evangelical Church established in 1924. The building was located on Minaret and Crane Streets. Its first minister was Reverend David Joseph. In 1925 he was succeeded by Reverend Eshai Eshoo. Needing a larger building, a new church was built on the corner of Palm and Washington Streets in 1950. Reverend Abraham B. Badal has been serving the congregation since 1940.

As more Assyrians moved to Turlock, the predominant denomination, Presbyterian, decided to have its own church. Dr. Elisha David, a young minister called by the Presbyterians, spearheaded the drive to build the church. With the help of the Presbyterian Board of National Missions, fund-raising activities and labor contributed by the Assyrians, the church was completed and dedicated in 1927. Dr. David served the church until 1956, when it was reorganized under its present name, St. John's Assyrian Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of South Palm and Minaret Streets. Incidentally, Dr. David's daughter and her husband are missionaries serving in Iran.

The number of members of the ancient Church of the East was also growing so they decided to start a church. At first services were held in temporary quarters belonging to the Episcopal Church located above the Montgomery Ward store on Thor and East Main Streets. The Mar Addai Church of the East was built on Canal and Olive Streets in 1948 and was consecrated by the Patriarch Mar Shimun XXIII in January 1950. Reverend Mano Oshana is the minister in 1971. In 1960 St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, Chaldean Rite, was started at 2901 Berkeley. Some Assyrian families, however, remained behind in the Sacred Heart Parish.

The Assyrians in Turlock have an Assyrian-American Civic Club which meets regularly at the Assyrian-American Hall. Nicholas Paul, uncle of Supervisor Joash Paul, has been a very popular master of ceremonies at the Club's meetings. In addition to its monthly meetings, the club sponsors special dinners and arranges social affairs. There is an Assyrian-American organization in every city or town in the United States where a large group of Assyrians reside. Each year a national convention is held in which Assyrians from the various Assyrian-American Clubs all over the United States meet. The main purpose of these organizations is social; no political implications are involved. Emphasis is placed on what can be contributed not only to Assyrian culture but to American as well.(15)

Some of the important affairs held in the Assyrian-American Hall are weddings, which usually have upward of three or four hundred guests. Usually Assyrian weddings are hosted and put on by the groom's family. A sit-down dinner is given, with all the people waiting until the arrival of the wedding party. As soon as the bride enters, musicians are waiting at the door and the music starts. Relatives of the groom lead the wedding party through the hall with dancing until the wedding party reaches its tables. Music is played throughout the meal; and as the dinner draws to a close, subkhta is collected from the guests. This is money given as the wedding gift to help start the couple's new life together.

Music and dancing follow until the late hours. Both Assyrian and American music is played, usually by separate bands, and Assyrian and American dancing is alternated. However, it seems that many of the non-Assyrian guests enjoy the Assyrian dancing the most. The non-Assyrians, as well as the Assyrians, take great delight in the native foods served: dolma (stuffed grape leaves), baked rice, lamb Khurush, or lulu kabob (ground barbecued lamb). Other tasty Assyrian dishes are kifty (meatballs), booshala (yogurt with vegetables), and hareesa (chicken and wheat cooked slowly for approximately eight hours and then beaten).

New American customs, new American names, and intermarriages-this is today's Assyrian-American in Turlock. And yet, through all these changes have come great rewards: freedom of religion, safety of home, and a wonderful new way of life. But one similarity remains. The ancient Assyrians lived close to the Garden of Eden; today's Assyrians who are American live in a new Garden of Eden-the United States of America."(16)

Indications are that the Assyrians have achieved what they were looking for in migrating to the United States: opportunity to develop their individual potential. Nothing really stands in the way of their doing so, unless it is whatever hampers anyone in this country, be he of longtime native stock or of recent ethnic origin. In other words, no special prejudices are exercised against the Assyrians. Assyrians are participating in almost every kind of endeavor; if they have the capability to accomplish, they are not denied the opportunity to do so because of their ethnic origin. Assyrians are engaged in almost every vocation: teacher, preacher, legislator, judge, lawyer, doctor, dentist, builder, salesman, journalist, plumber, carpenter, baker, merchant, candlestick maker, policeman, fireman, nurse, and many, many others. In honorably achieving their individual goals, they have contributed much to the community and the nation.

References:

Chapter XII - The Assyrins: Settlers from the Near East

I. John Joseph, The Nestorians and their Muslim Neighbors (1961), P. 168. Henceforth cited as Joseph, Nestorians.
2. Fred Tamimi in the Turlock Daily Journal, 28 August 1968.
3. World Book Encyclopedia, s.v. "Assyria. "
4. Kurdistan is the mountainous area west and south of Lake Urmia. It is inhabited by the warlike Kurdish tribesmen and since World War I has been divided between Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
5. Victoria Yonan, "A History of the Assyrian People in the Turlock Community" (Graduate paper, Division of Social Sciences, SSC, 1962; 71 pp.), pp. 14-22, citing transcript of a 1952 radio broadcast by His Holiness, Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun Y-Xlll.
6. W. A. Wigram, 7he Assyrians and their Neighbours (London, 1929), p. 6.
7. Mary Lewis Shedd, The Measure of a Man (1922), p. 31.
8. Joseph, Nestorians, p. 123.
9. Shedd, Measure of a Man, pp. 170, 27 1 ff.
10. Renamed "Rezaiyeh" for Reza Shah, ruler of Iran, 192541.
11. Dr. Isaac Adams, Interviewed by Helen Hohenthal, 1930.
12. Yonan, "Assyrian People," pp. 39-40.
13. Jessie C. Glasier, "Down a Trail of Torture from Persia to Cleveland," Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday Magazine Section, 3 November 1918. Also Mrs. Lillian Shimmon Spielman, interviewed by Sarah S. Jackson, October 1971.
14. Yonan, "Assyrian People," pp. SS-56.
15. lbid, pp. 34-35.
16. Ibid., p. 69.