Four hundred years ago, my ninth great grandfather Thomas Blossom came to America with his family seeking religious liberty. One hundred years ago, my maternal grandfather Harold Dickinson came to America with his family seeking economic opportunities. Others had ancestors coming to America seeking security from persecution and other forms of violence. America continues to be the hope for those wanting a better life. While the Statue of Liberty stands in New York harbor, the promise of the “New Colossus” beckons to those “without a home, but not without a star” coming to America by boat on the sandy beaches of Florida, by foot across the scorching deserts of the southwest, and by sea to the shores of California. All of us share immigrant stories.
In the late 19th century, industrialization in Indianapolis created a need for laborers. Like earlier times with the building of the National Road and canals, European workers were recruited most notably by National Malleable Castings Co. located in Haughville. Slovenian-born George Lambert, an agent for the company, enlisted Slovenes from the Austro-Hungarian empire, and paid their passage to the United States in exchange for a set term of employment. Other Slovenian arrivals found work at meatpacker Kingan & Co. and at chain conveyor manufacturer Link-Belt Co. and later operating retail businesses serving their community. Holy Trinity Catholic Church was formed as a Slovenian national parish in 1906 and the Slovenian National Home, a social center, was established in 1918.
One of the first Italians in Indianapolis was Angelo Rosasco from the Genoa area who came to the city in 1874 and established a fruit business. Other Italians followed, including Sicilian Frank Mascari, who earned a living as fruit peddlers, and by 1910 33 of the city’s 54 fruit and vegetable dealers were Italian. Italians numbered 300 men, women, and children in Indianapolis in 1892, contributing to the city as stonemasons, musicians, and artists. Their numbers would soon increase as poverty and limited opportunities in rural areas of their homeland compelled other Italians to emigrate to America in the hope of improving their economic condition. Most intended to return to their villages once their fortunes were made, and many did so only later to make the crossing once again. To meet the religious needs of the city’s Italian community, Holy Rosary Catholic Church was founded in 1909.
Economic deprivation in the Peloponnesus region of Greece prompted Greeks to come to America in the 1890s. Peter Floros of Sparta arrived in Indianapolis in 1893 and established a candy shop at 46 W. Washington St.; a year later, Athenian Pantelis Cafouros arrived in the city, worked as a waiter and eventually opened The Devil’s Café, 108 W. Maryland St. Other Greeks operated shoe-shine stands, theaters, taverns, and groceries; in 1910 the community incorporated Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. From 1900 to 2020, the census shows the Greek population in Indianapolis growing from 82 persons to over 2,500 persons.
After centuries of suffering under the oppressive yoke of the Ottoman Turks, by 1900 the Slavic people of the Balkans gradually were gaining their freedom and establishing independent states of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. John Peterson (Jan Perich) arrived in Indianapolis from Serbia in May 1906 to find work and retired after 40 years at Kingan & Co. He was later joined by Marko Milatovich who operated the Belmont Grill, 1406 S. Belmont Ave. Although the Serbs had gained their independence, large swaths of Macedonia remained under the despotic sway of the Ottomans who savagely suppressed a nationalist insurrection in 1903 prompting numbers of single men to emigrate to America. In Indianapolis, the Macedonian immigrants settled on the near west side of the city and found work at Kingan & Co, in the railyards, and at National Malleable Castings. Some brought wives with them and opened restaurants, bakeries, and markets along West Washington St. In 1915 approximately 1,000 Macedonians were living in the city and St. Stephen Bulgarian Orthodox Church was organized to minister to the community. Roman Romanoff arrived in 1906 and later operated a Coffee House at 546 W. Washington St that was a popular gathering place. In 1927 the Macedonian Tribune, a newspaper serving all Macedonian immigrants in America, was founded at 20 S. West St with Boris Zografov as its first editor.
While an independent nation of Poland ceased to exist at the end of the eighteenth century following its partition between Prussia, Austria, and Russia, Polish speaking individuals had immigrated from German Pomerania to Indianapolis by 1875 and were active in organizing Sacred Heart Catholic Church. One of the Poles to come to Indianapolis in the early twentieth century was Alex Joseph Tuschinsky who came to the city in 1909. Born in the village of Gollaschutz (Golańcz) in East Prussia, Tuschinsky was a trained gardener and in 1917 established Hillsdale Landscape & Nursery Co. in northeast Marion County south of Castleton that became noted for its annual Rose Festival.
In some cases, the housing available to immigrant men was crowded and unsanitary. Often, they were exploited by their own countrymen who contracted their labor out to local factories and collected the wages. The Indianapolis board of health policed these circumstances with the view of improving the health conditions. In 1911, the Immigrants Aid Association established the Foreigners’ House at 617 W. Pearl St. The house was designed to meet immigrants’ needs with reading rooms, shower and tub baths, toilet facilities, and other conveniences. Evening classes in English were also offered.
The number of foreign-born living in Indianapolis in the 1920s was only about five per cent of the city’s population. Those from southern and eastern Europe mostly lived along West Washington St. and in Haughville. They were hardworking, colorful people, rearing families, and worshiping as their hearts dictated, but the times were not tranquil. As in the pre-Civil War era, strong nativist, anti-foreign movements were sweeping the land. The Ku Klux Klan, hiding behind masks, marched the city streets spewing anti-foreign, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jewish epithets. While there was a violent cross burning in 1923 at Miley Ave. and Vermont St. in Stringtown, most of the hatred was in the form of intimidation. By the end of the decade, most overt forms of bigotry had ended, but until the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Equal Opportunity Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, religion and national origin was used to marginalize some Indianapolis citizens.
