California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Theses Digitization Project John M. Pfau Library 2003 American Gypsies: Immigration, migration, settlement Katherine Bernice Stephens Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stephens, Katherine Bernice, "American Gypsies: Immigration, migration, settlement" (2003). Theses Digitization Project. 2354. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2354 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the John M. Pfau Library at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses Digitization Project by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AMERICAN GYPSIES: IMMIGRATION, MIGRATION, SETTLEMENT A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies: American Ethnic Studies by Katherine Bernice Stephens June 2003 AMERICAN GYPSIES: IMMIGRATION, MIGRATION, SETTLEMENT A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Katherine Bernice Stephens June 2003 Approved by: mes Pierson, Chair, Anthropology Date Kathleen Nadeau, Anthropology Copyright 2003 Katherine Bernice Stephens ABSTRACT There is little information about Gypsies in the context: of American history. This thesis covers a small portion! of their story. Gypsies immigrated to America from many different countries. Their early experiences in the United States are as varied as those of other immigrants- but are rarely told. Gypsy history is usually oral rather than written and is passed down through the generations. There is no documentation to back up these, stories that are seldom told to non-Gypsies. It is the task of historians and anthropologists to uncover these stories. Genealogical and cemetery studies are among the areas rarely discussed by writers. Genealogy covers related families, how leaders gain their role, where and when Gypsies migrated, and where they settled. Cemetery studies will discuss how they honor their loved ones, as well as their religious beliefs, talents, interests, and occupations. The local cemetery is frequently the only evidence' of a Gypsy population in a community. I Gypsies are a proud but silent people. They deal with the non-;Gypsy only on the level of earning a living. They iii are separatists--they do not generally associate with the non-Gypsy on a social level. This thesis is just a small portion of what could be discovered about Gypsies in American history. Their i immigration to America needs to be as well-documented as the immigration of other ethnic groups has been. Their early experiences in America need to be more fully explored. I iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank first of all my husband, Merton Stephens, who had to put up with the strange hours I have kept between school and work since 1995. I thank both my husband and my daughter Wendy for tramping through cemeteries with me to gather information from Gypsy headstones. I wish to thank Dr. Barbara Hall and Dr. Janice Binam of Riverside Community College, Riverside, California, for being my inspiration to study anthropology in the first place. Many thanks go to all the anthropology professors at California State University, San Bernardino, for their belief in my ability to achieve this level of education. I am especially grateful to Dr. James Pierson and Dr. Kathleen'Nadeau of the Anthropology Department and Dr. Elliot Barkan of the History Department for being the advisors■for my Interdisciplinary Studies Master of Arts program. They inspired me, guided me, and most of all, supported my efforts. Thanks also go to Kristina Lindgren, a fellow i anthropology student. She worked as an archivist at the San v Bernardino County Archives while I was looking for local information on Gypsies. Kristina brought to my attention the business license books for the city of San Bernardino which included licenses for palm readers, clairvoyants, and other fortuneteller-type occupations, which in turn-led me to other sources to back up that information. I also wish to thank William Swafford, local historian for the Riverside Public Library, for locating in the archives the I business license books for early Riverside. I also want to thank Bonnie McJennett, fellow M. A. student, for reading my thesis for content, grammar, and punctuation, and for providing formatting tips that she had already encountered on her own thesis. i I vi In Memory: "Bud" Dellas D. McLeland 1917-1992 Louise K. (Cobb) McLeland 1922-1997 They always believed in me TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.................................................. i ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................... ............... v CHAPTER ONE: IMMIGRATION Introduction ....................................... 1 1 Discovering Gypsies................................. 1 Immigration.......................................... 2 Migration and Settlement .......................... 3 Education............................................ 3 Cemetery Studies ................................... 5 Gypsy Genealogy..................................... 6 Purpose of Thesis................................... 9 CHAPTER TWO: GYPSY IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1850 ............. 12 CHAPTER THREE: GYPSY IMMIGRATION 1850-1879............. 27 CHAPTER FOUR: GYPSY IMMIGRATION 1880-1930 ............. 3 5 CHAPTER FIVE: MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT................. 44 CHAPTER SIX: SCHOOLS AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING........... 64 Gypsy Approved Programs............................ 67 Gypsy Initiated Programs .... .................. 72 Texas Test Program................... '........... 77 CHAPTER SEVEN: GYPSY CEMETERY STUDIES .................. 80 i Gypsy Funerals . ........... ■....................... 81 vii i Gypsy Mortuaries and Cemeteries.................... 88 Gypsy Headstones ................................... 90 Gypsy Cemeteries ................................... 91 i 1 Wyoming Cemetery............................... 91 i Rose Hill Cemetery............................ 92 i Calvary Cemetery. -■............................ 92 Inglewood Park Cemetery ...................... 94 i CHAPTER EIGHT: GYPSY GENEALOGY. ,........... ............. 103 Bimbo Family ................................ 104 Kaslov Family....................................... 106 Nicholas Family..................................... 108 i i Small Family....................................... 110 CHAPTER NINE: ADAMS FAMILY............................... 114 I CHAPTER TEN: STANLEY FAMILY . ......................... 130 Stahley Family Burials ............................ 135 Harriet Stanley's Epitaph .................... 136 1 Owen Stanley's Epitaph........................ 137 Burials in Other States............................ 139 CHAPTER ELEVEN: CONCLUSION. '...................... 142 APPENDIX;A: CALVARY CEMETERY............................ 148 APPENDIX'B: INGLEWOOD PARK CEMETERY.................... 154 I viii APPENDIX C: FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY.......................... 160 REFERENCES................................................ 162 ix CHAPTER ONE IMMIGRATION Introduction This chapter will not be a discussion of the sources I found about Gypsy culture and history, but about what I did not find. Those topics became my focal research, particularly immigration, cemetery studies, and genealogy. Where and how Gypsies settled in a region implies a change in lifestyle, including education, occupation, legal status, and formation of self-help organizations. ; Discovering Gypsies When I began my research on Gypsies a few years ago, I had no concept of who Gypsies were, no information on their culture, ^and no knowledge of their arrival in the United I States. After collecting information from books, journals, newspapers, and other sources, I discovered that some topics, such as Gypsy history (mostly European) and cultural beliefs and practices have been throughly covered by even the earliest authors: Charles Leland and Vernon Morwood in the 1880s; George Borrows in the 1920s; and Konrad Bercovici and Walter Starkie in the 1930s. More 1 recent authors have also covered these topics in greater depth: Marlene Sway, Rena Gropper, David Nemeth, Anne Sutherland, Isabel Fonseca, Elwood Trigg, Carol Miller, David Crowe, Rubert Croft-Cooke, Ian Hancock, Matt Salo, Shiela Salo, and a host of others. Immigration Only a few authors have written about Gypsy immigration to the United States. Andrew Marchbin wrote his doctoral; dissertation on this topic in 1939, and Matt Salo and Shiela Salo, in 1986, published an article on the topic in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Rena Gropper (1975: . 21-26) relates the story of how the BIMBULESTI (a. k. a. BIMBO) family left Russia for South America, Mexico, and then ultimately to the United States to settle in New York. David Nemeth (2002: 81-82) related the immigration path of the Russian-Greek NICHOLAS, family via Brazil, Panama, and Mexico, before settling primarily in California. Other authors touched on immigration for particular families but did not go into any great detail. I i 2 Migration and Settlement Until the Great Depression of the 1930s many Gypsies traveled throughout the year, weather permitting. A large number o,f Gypsies left the United States just prior to and during the Depression in order to survive. Those that stayed in the United States found it increasingly