SCHOLAR TRACES LOST TURKISH COMMUNITY
By Alan Burke
Mineral Wells Index, TX
THE SALEM NEWS (SALEM, Mass.)
May 15 2007
PEABODY, Mass. – Isil Acehan is a ghost hunter, on the trail of an
all but invisible community, people who lived in Peabody for decades,
who made Walnut Street a noisy, vibrant cultural hub, who worked by
day in the tanneries and helped build the world’s leather capital.
Then – poof – they disappeared without a trace.
Acehan, a 28-year-old doctoral candidate in American history from
Turkey, estimates that as many as 2,200 Turks came here, largely at
the turn of the last century, often staying for 25 to 30 years. They
opened shops, coffeehouses and a club.
Often, despite animosities, they found common ground with
Turkish-speaking Greeks, Armenians and Jews. But while those other
groups stayed and prospered – joining those from Poland, Ireland,
Italy, Scandinavia and Portugal – nearly all the Turks eventually
returned to eastern Turkey.
A visiting fellow at Harvard who is studying the contribution of
Turkish workers to the North Shore’s leather industry, Acehan is
here from the most westernized of Muslim countries on a Fulbright
Scholarship. And she’s enjoyed her time in America so much that she
laments going home "too soon."
Her master’s thesis at Bilkent University in Ankara also concerned
Turks in Peabody’s tanneries. She researched it long distance,
sending for documents, books and papers. Now, she has come to find
people who remember when Turks lived in Peabody.
"They had their own group," Acehan said in fluent English. "They spoke
Turkish. They didn’t get married. They just worked in the tanneries
or drank in the coffee shops."
Some of their salaries were sent home to wives and parents. Unlike
other groups, the Turkish men came alone and never sent for their
families.
"Turkish men wouldn’t bring their women to an unknown land," Acehan
said.
With their strange customs, they became figures of menace to some
locals.
"When I was a kid growing up (70 years ago), you weren’t allowed to
go on Walnut Street because of the fact there was this element —
because of the Turks and Greeks," said Barbara Doucette of the Peabody
Historical Society. "They fought like cats and dogs."
‘Ali Hassans’
The worst fears were often unfounded. Bill Power of the Historical
Commission cites Frank Ahmed’s book "The Turks in America," which
notes that Turks in Peabody were bound by their religious traditions
to treat women respectfully. Ahmed’s father, Yakub, was one of them.
"I think there was prejudice," Acehan said. "People didn’t know who
these people were."
The newcomers were known as "Ali Hassans," the Turkish version of
John Smith.
Poring over back issues of The Salem Evening News, Acehan has found
frequent references to Turks "in the police doings – fighting,
assault." Mostly against each other.
A notorious case involved a Turk accused of killing a Greek.
Eventually he was released.
"I think he was not guilty," Acehan said.
The Turks came to Peabody after hearing encouraging tales from
neighboring Armenians returning from America, Acehan believes. They
were helped by Protestant missionaries in the city of Harput. Times
were tough in Turkey. The Ottoman Empire was beginning to crumble.
"They were peasants back in Turkey. They didn’t have enough," she said.
In Peabody, with no English, they were assigned tannery jobs
requiring little communication – the toughest work in a very tough
business. Eventually, she said, they became strong union advocates.
Most of the Turks retained their Muslim faith.
"They didn’t build any mosque," Acehan said. "It is said they were
praying in Emerson Park. An educated person was leading them."
Fighting for America
George Ahmed, 77, of Salem (Frank’s brother) told Acehan of his father,
Yakub, one of the few Turks who made America his permanent home. He
was among more than a dozen who volunteered to fight with the U.S. Army
in World War I, siding with a country at war with Turkey. Acehan said
that some, eventually returning home, threw their documents away lest
their service be discovered.
Staying on in America, Yakub married a local woman of French-Canadian
descent. Neither changed religion, Ahmed said. Today they are buried
in Cedar Grove Cemetery beneath an enormous, polished stone with a
cross on one side and an Islamic crescent on the other.
With no money and no family, Acehan said, many Turks at Cedar Grove
are in unmarked graves.
Yakub came to America when he was 15, his son said, working in the
A.C. Lawrence beam house, scraping flesh and hair from animal hides
in heat that soared well above 100 degrees each summer.
Eventually, Yakub built his own business, owning 22 houses in Salem.
"I once asked him if he ever wanted to go back to Turkey," George
said. "He said, ‘I came here as a poor boy. I left Turkey with no food
in my stomach. … This country has been good to me. It has given me
a living. This is my country."
Most of the Turks, however, were gone by the mid-1930s, George said.
Annual Turkish picnics were discontinued about that time. Peabody Mayor
Mike Bonfanti remembers when he was a boy, more than a decade later,
passing an old, bald man. "Big," he gestures. And he lowers his voice
describing what he was told, "That’s one of the last of the Turks."
Acehan recently located the daughter of a Peabody Turk married to
a woman of Irish descent — the union came in the aftermath of her
birth and a paternity suit. Eileen Masiello lives in California. She
remembers any number of doting Turkish uncles. Even so, she could
barely speak with her father, whose English was halting. She never
learned much about him or his origins.
After so many decades, she was delighted to learn that someone was
finally recording this unique and forgotten chapter in Peabody’s past –
in her past. She asked to be informed of anything that is uncovered.
And then she wept.
Anyone with information on this topic can reach Isil Acehan
at [email protected] or through the George Peabody House,
978-531-0355.
http://www.mineralwellsindex. com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_134234538.html