"My Country 'tis of Thee"

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 38, 1970, No. 2

"My Country 'tis of Thee"

THE ENTRANCE of the United States into the second world war revealed no greater patriots than the naturalized American citizens of Greek birth. They followed the newspapers and radio broadcasts with the same intensity that their fathers, sitting in old country coffeehouses, discussed, debated, and fought over Greek crises. These newer American citizens were still vitally interested in Greece and her fate, but now American affairs took precedence. Many of their sons were in the United States forces. Four hundred and forty were from the Salt Lake congregation and 125 from the Carbon County congregation. Twenty did not return. A Memorial Hall was erected to honor them adjoining the Holy Trinity Church in Salt Lake City. This church, located on Second West and Third South, had been consecrated on August 25, 1925.

At the same time American-born men of Greek parentage were taking the vows of the Greek Orthodox priesthood. This had a strong impact on the Greek church. Sunday schools began to be taught in English, a necessity, since Greek was not being used as the principle language in the homes of the immigrants' children. Also many of the children had married people of other faiths. Contrary to the immigrants' efforts, the inevitable was happening.

There are not enough Greek priests in America, but the Orthodox church is strong. The Philoptochos (Friend of the Poor), the women's church organization, performs a vital role in all church affairs. On December 21, 1968, a Greek church, The Transfiguration, was consecrated in Ogden, and in August 1969, another, Prophet Elias, in Holladay held ground-breaking ceremonies. Children and grandchildren of the first Greeks have built on the sturdy foundations laid by the immigrants.

After the war thousands of Greeks, who had come to America in the first days of the century, went back to visit their native land. They built churches and schoolhouses; brought water lines to replace village wells; and gave dowries, farm animals, tractors, automobiles, and millions of dollars to help the country recover from the devastation of war. They brought, too, a new generation of Greeks to the United States.

The American government allowed great numbers of immigrants entrance to aid in alleviating Greece's destitution. These newer immigrants have shown the same industriousness as that of their predecessors.

They have come from the same poverty. When the United States in 1921 placed a quota of one hundred Greeks per year, money sent to Greece declined. The Depression brought it to a trickle. By 1939 the average income per person in Greece was $75.00 a year. Indirect taxes on necessities brought the actual figure even lower.

The Greece the first immigrants left seventy years ago has made advances. The new Greek immigrants have a higher degree of literacy. Education is compulsory. Roads have made villages accessible. Both of these factors have lessened the isolation of provinces from each other.

The new immigrants are not eager to join organizations representing the provinces, nor are they joining the large general lodges. They see no need for them. They have not had the experiences of prejudice that turned the first Greeks inward. To them the church is the binding force of ethnic life. Nor do they think it necessary to shorten their names for convenience as the first Greeks were often ordered to do by judges granting them citizenship. Much has happened since those first days of abusive newspaper reporting and real-estate clauses prohibiting Greeks from living in certain areas.

The America the new immigrants have come to has vastly changed. It has found that assimilation comes with time and varying degrees for different cultures. There were no outcries when the immigration doors were opened to the Greeks after the second world war. Greece had amazed the world when Mussolini's mechanized army landed on the western shores of Greece. The Greeks painted the word "Ohi" (No) in great letters on her mountains, and poorly equipped and fed, they drove the Italians back to the sea. Their heroism against the Nazi invaders further won the admiration of the world. At the end of the war, America invited Greek immigrants to become its citizens and gave great economic aid to Greece.

Karl V. King, son of Sam King (the attorney for early Greeks), lobbied successfully to bring sheepherders from the Pyranees, northern Italy, and Greece. Many young Greeks came to Utah under this enabling legislation. Pictures of Mr. King, sent back to identify him when he traveled into the mountains of Central Greece for the Roumeliot sheepherders, were displayed in coffeehouses and cafes. He was recognized and welcomed everywhere from towns to remote villages.

The end of seventy years in the new country shows that the initial contribution of the Greeks to the building of roads, railroads, and bridges, and the mining of coal and metals was followed by a significant entrance into business. The importance of education to the immigrants sent a large number of their children to college. The Salt Lake church has a greater number of college graduates in its congregation than any other Greek church in the United States. Among Utah Greeks and their children are members of every profession, in all levels of teaching, and, especially, in business. Two companies, the Ajax Company of Salt Lake City and the Carbon Fuel Company of Helper, sell their products throughout the world.

The Greek Towns are gone. Greek schools are still held but with diminished enrollment. Few sheepmen's sons have chosen to carry on their fathers' lonely, vigorous life. The coffeehouses have closed; there are not enough old men to support them. Old-country customs of mourning have fallen away; the mirologia have not been sung since before the second world war; memorial wheat is no longer elaborately decorated, but enclosed in small, stapled plastic bags. Icons and vigil lights remain.

Children of immigrant Greeks look back on their parents with the maturity of time and respect them for their triumphs. They infused new blood into America and with that of other immigrant groups helped it retain its vitality. America has well repaid them with opportunities found nowhere else in the world.

HELEN ZEESE PAPANIKOLAS

The daughter of a Greek immigrant family, Mrs. Helen Zeese Papanikolas has been prepared by birth and experience to write The Greek Immigrants of Utah. She was born in the little town of Cameron, Carbon C oun ty — spending her young life and first schooling years there in intimate contact with the first and second generation Greeks of the area.

Moving with her parents to Salt Lake City, she took her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Utah. She married Nick Papanikolas of the firm of Cannon-Papanikolas, and with him has raised a son and daughter, both of whom, like their mother, have been interested in writing.

Mrs. Papanikolas has been closely involved in church and civic affairs, playing an active role in the Greek Orthodox church. She has worked for the placement and care of unfortunate children in her role as a board member of the Children's Service Society.

The Utah State Historical Society has enjoyed a long and pleasant association with Mrs. Papanikolas. She has served on the Utah Historical Quarterly Advisory Board of Editors since its inception where she has rendered varied and valued services. She has done research in the Society's library and called many valuable manuscripts and other research material to the attention of the librarian. She is a past contributor to the Historical Quarterly upon whose pages her writing first appeared in 1954. She has also written for other publications including The Western Humanities Review. She is the author of a section on Greek folklore which will appear in a book on Utah Folklore presently being published by the University of Utah Press.

In this issue of the Quarterly, Mrs. Papanikolas's happy facility for lucid and graceful expression, her intimate knowledge of the Greeks, and her valuable photographic collection come together in a most worthy contribution to the social history of the Intermountain West.

CHARLES S. PETERSON

Editor

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