Copyright 2014 Ann Flesor Beck
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Copyright 2014 Ann Flesor Beck GREEK IMMIGRATION TO, AND SETTLEMENT IN, CENTRAL ILLINOIS, 1880-1930 BY ANN FLESOR BECK DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor James D. Anderson, Chair Associate Professor Christopher Span Associate Professor Yoon Pak Professor Terry A. Barnhart, Eastern Illinois University Abstract This dissertation is a micro-history of Greeks immigrants to central Illinois between 1880 and 1930. The study focuses specifically on those Greek immigrants who were involved in the confectionery trade, opening candy stores (often accompanied by soda fountains and restaurants) in the small towns and cities of rural Illinois. The study draws upon, as its primary case study, the life and experiences of my own grandfather, Constantin “Gus” Flesor, a Greek immigrant who settled in Tuscola, Illinois in 1901 and owned a candy store/soda fountain business there for 75 years. In all, this dissertation tells the stories of more than 160 such Greek immigrant confectioners in more than forty towns and cities in central Illinois. Examples from the lives of my grandfather and these other first-generation Greek immigrants are interwoven throughout the dissertation to illustrate particular experiences. The dissertation begins with a discussion of migration theory, which seeks to locate the first-generation Greek immigrant experience in rural areas within the larger theoretical debate that has primarily focused on the urban immigrant experience. Chapter Two provides a geographical and historical background by briefly reviewing relevant features of Greek geography, particularly that of the Peloponnese region from where most of the immigrants in this study originated. This chapter also contains a short history of Greece that helps to frame the important question of Greek heritage and identity. Chapter Three presents an overview of first-generation Greek immigration to America, focusing particularly on immigration to Chicago and St. Louis, the primary cities that served as transit points for Greeks coming to central Illinois. Chapter Four explores education and the Greek immigrant, and specifically how Greek immigrants learned the ii confectionery business. Chapter Five addresses the question of Greek identity, anti- immigrant hostility during this period, especially the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and how Greek immigrants in these small towns responded to this prejudice and bigotry. Finally, Chapter Six looks at the lives and businesses of the individual Greek immigrants to central Illinois. In my conclusion I address the questions raised by this study and possible avenues for further research. iii Acknowledgements The idea for this dissertation evolved after my sister, Devon, and I reopened Flesor’s Candy Kitchen at the corner of Main and Sale streets in Tuscola, Illinois in 2004. It had been closed for more than thirty years, since the mid-1970s, and its revival offered customers who began to come in an opportunity to share stories of the Greek candy stores that they had known as children in their small hometowns in central Illinois. It was soon evident that my grandfather’s store was only one of perhaps dozens of Greek confectioneries in the region and that there was a story here that needed to be told. As a result, the ongoing support from our customers for this project has been most gratifying. I am indebted to my sister, Devon, for allowing me time off from the store to conduct the research and write “our story.” My brother, Scott, has been an integral part of our business and his wisdom is always helpful. This research could not have been conducted without the wise counsel and provocative questions posed by my advisor, Dr. James D. Anderson. I also wish to thank my committee: Dr. Christopher Span, Dr. Yoon Pak, and Dr. Terry Barnhart for their insightful observations. I am also deeply appreciative of the librarians and archivists in all of the towns visited during this research. They are rare gems in the prairie. My husband, Roger Beck, has provided consistent support for this project and I am deeply grateful for his suggestions and enthusiasm. I am also thankful for my friend, Dr. Cynthia Shahen and her many years of encouragement. The members of the Eastern Illinois History Department have contributed freely of their time, expertise, encouragement, and books from their shelves. Dr. Sharon Kazee, who only relatively iv recently received her Ph.D., provided much appreciated enthusiasm and inspiration as I neared the end of my project. Most importantly, I am thankful for the stories shared by the Greek community in central Illinois. Deeply humbled by the experiences of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, I have been proud to share our heritage. My grandfather and my parents taught me how to work “on the corner,” and develop a successful business. They are missed. To my grandfather, Gus Flesor, thank you for your continuing spirit that lives on at Flesor’s Candy Kitchen. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: ……………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 1: United States Immigration History and Theory ………………………11 CHAPTER 2: Greek Geography and History ………………………………………...66 CHAPTER 3: Greek Life in America: The First Generation ………………………...104 CHAPTER 4: Education and the Greek Immigrant …………………………….........170 CHAPTER 5: Greek Identity, the KKK, and Resistance to Anti-immigrant Prejudice …………………………………………………...................216 CHAPTER 6: Greek Immigrants and Confectioneries in Central Illinois …………...268 CONCLUSION: ……………………………………………………………………....400 MAP: Locations of Greek Confectioneries in Central Illinois, 1880-1930 …………..409 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..410 vi INTRODUCTION In 1957, Tuscola, Illinois celebrated its “First 100 Years” by posing the question, “Why Tuscola?”1 In answering that query, the writer suggested that as American territory expanded westward, Douglas County, Illinois, had been initially passed by because the “treeless prairie and marsh land was thought not fit for man or beast.”2 It was the railroad, that new navigable manmade highway, which had been chartered in 1853 and eventually extended through Tuscola in 1873, which really put the town upon the map.3 The centennial celebratory renderings included the names and occupations of early settlers, mostly English surnames, the “struggle” by Irish settlers in 1875 to establish the Catholic Church, and the overall general sense that Tuscola’s establishment had been a good and righteous effort without turmoil or discord. Businesses had developed and flourished, the railroads serviced the agricultural and industrial growth of the county, and the population grew accordingly. In 1859 Tuscola became the county seat for Douglas County.4 In his famous 1951 study of immigrants, Oscar Handlin observed “immigrants were American history.”5 Yet, Tuscola’s immigrant population, some of the millions who left their families and traveled across the globe to new homes in large cities or small rural communities, received only passing notice in the centennial celebration materials. There was one quick mention of my Greek grandfather, Constantin “Gus” Flesor, observing that 1 “Why Tuscola?”, Tuscola Journal, August 15, 1957, p.1. 2 Ibid. 3 “Railroad Gives Tuscola Lead,” Tuscola Journal, August 15, 1957, p. 1. 4 “Why Tuscola?”, Tuscola Journal, Thursday, August 15, 1957, p. 1. See also, John W. King, ed., History of Douglas County, Illinois (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, 1910): 634. 5 Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 3. Emphasis in original. 1 he had the longest continuous operation of a business by one man in any business in Tuscola.6 The newspaper also noted that “Mr. Flesor was born near Tripoli, Greece, in 1886 and came to America in 1901. He began work in a confectionery in the same building where the business is now located the same year. In 1904 he bought the business and has operated it ever since.” The Candy Kitchen, the reporter observed, “is a prominent landmark in the community.”7 The reporter made no mention of the overt resistance to my grandfather’s business establishment by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s. He also failed to report that my grandfather and his family and the families of his two brothers were the only southern European immigrants to settle in Tuscola. There was also no mention of the few African-American families who lived in town or of the locals’ resistance to the Irish Catholics. Tuscola’s minority immigrants were not considered when trying to answer the question of “Why Tuscola?” for the centennial celebration, nor was ethnic conflict recognized as part of Tuscola’s story. My sister and I now own and operate Flesor’s Candy Kitchen in Tuscola, Illinois. My grandfather’s business was in operation until the late 1970’s when my father Paul, 6 “Why Tuscola?”, Tuscola Journal, August 15, 1957, p. 16. 7 “Candy Kitchen Oldest Business,” Tuscola Journal, August 15, 1957, p. 16. Gus was born in 1879, not 1886. Family tradition holds that his Greek name was “Flesouras,” and that this was changed to Flesor when he passed through Ellis Island. As I will discuss later, grandfather Flesor came from the village of Pigadakia, in the Peloponnese region of Greece, south of Tripoli. Between 1895 and 1920 there were several immigrants with variations on the spelling