CHRISTOS ZIGOURAS & FAMILY

As told by Christos to Madelene Zigouras Babin circa 1965

Christos Zigouras was born in the County of Kozanis, town of Bouhorina, near Tsotili, in
Macedonia, Greece, on October 23, l880 (actually October 10 by the old, Julian calendar).

His parents were Stergios John Zigouras and Efrosini Antonopou los. Stergios was born and
raised in Bouhorina. Before he married, he took his one and only trip to Cassandra, Macedonia,
where he worked for a time as a mason. He returned to Bouhorina and married Efrosini from the
village of Vansko, located about six miles from Bouhorina.

Nine children were born to Stergios and Efrosini in this sequence:

Michael - 1876
Thomas - 1878
Christos - 1880
A son that died at age 2
Agni - 1886
Gregory - 1893 (He became a priest; we met him and his family in Saloniki, October 1973)
Panayo - 1899 (Madelene and Bob visited her at her home in Korifi in May 1979)
Two girls who died at ages 6 months and 1 1/2 years. (Also one miscarriage)

Christos lived in Bouhorina until age 16 and a half. He attended school for about three years,
about five months each year from November to March . During April through October he helped
his father tend sheep and with the farming. His father had a 16-acre farm. He raised wheat, rye,
barley, beans, vegetables, grape vines, etc. He made all his own wine. He had two bulls to plow
the fields. He had a horse for transportation and a cow to provide milk. He made his living by
selling produce and other farm products at the Saturday bazaar in Tsotili, as well as to the local
people in Bouhorina. He also had 50 to 100 sheep and made clothing for his family from the
sheep's wool, selling the extra wool. The sheep also provided milk, as did the 20 goats he had.
The kids from the goats were sold as were only the male lambs.

Three married Zigouras brothers - Athanasios, Stergios and Nicholas - all lived in the same
house with their families. Three sisters - Eleni, Fotini, and Anastasia - all married. Eleni and
Anastasia lived in Bouhorina; Fotini lived in Korifi (the village where we met Aunt Panayo in
1979).

The Zigouras brothers and their families, all living under one roof, totaled 20 persons (parents
and children). The house had three rooms upstairs and one room downstairs. They slept on mat
tresses on the floor. Christos lived under these conditions until age twelve and one-half in 1892.
In 1892 the mother of the Zigouras brothers died, and the brothers split up on April 23, 1893.
Each the three Zigouras brothers moved with his family into his own home. (The sons had
waited for their mother to pass on before splitting up.) They split up the acreage and divided
everything evenly. They drew lots as to who got which acreage. The original house which they
had all lived in together with their mother fell to Athanasios (Costas Zigouras's father). Stergios
and Nicholas moved their families and belongings into a duplex house that had been built two
years earlier. A first cousin to Christos, Panayotis Zigouras, told Nicholas that Stergios and
Athanasios planned to live together again. This caused a rift among the Zigouras brothers, and
they drew lots again. This time the old house fell to Nicholas, and Athanasios and Stergios
moved into the new duplex. It was rumored that Panayotis had made the above accusation just to
cause trouble.

Father Athanasios (a Greek Orthodox priest) and Stergios were very close. They would see
each other every morning before starting the day. Nicholas was not as close to them. Father
Athanasios was father to Costas Zigouras, cousin to Christos Zigouras.

At age 12 or 13 Christos stopped attending school. He helped his father Stergios on the farm. In
1896, at age 16, Christos went to Mt. Athos and lived there until 1903. He learned the carpenter's
trade there at the Monastery. His food and shelter and 100 paradis (about one cent) a week were
his pay at the beginning. By the time he left the Monastery in 1903 he was earning 12 grossia a
week. His clothing was sent to him from home.

In 1903 Christos got a malaria type of illness, with a fever and chills off and on. In November
1903 he returned to Bouhorina to recuperate. He also had a hernia, and the doctors could not tell
what was ailing him. His grandmother came to stay with the family to help his mother with the
silkworms that they had acquired during the previous two years. His grandmother noticed that
every 7 or 8 days - every quarter moon - Christos' hernia gave him unbearable pain; in between
he was all right.. She determined that the pain was in his kidneys. She told Christos' mother to
pick some wild grass (kopsabotano) from the mountains, dry it, grind it into flour, add honey to
it, and give it to Christos. She did so, and the pain immediately disappeared. Christos fell asleep
and awoke feeling well. For the rest of his life Christos kept this medication around and used it
when necessary.

Christos stayed in Bouhorina to help his father on the farm. On January 16, 1905, Christos
married Victoria Karamitopolou from Omali, a village about six miles from Bouhorina. It was a
match marriage, the preliminaries of which had been conducted according to tradition.
Someone had also told Christos about Victoria. Christos' father and his Uncle Nicholas had
seen her in Omali, and they liked what they saw. On November 2, 1904 Christos, his mother,
Aunt Anastasia, and Father Athanasios went to see Victoria at her aunt's house. Victoria was sent
to fetch water from the well, while Christos and Father Athanasios watched her from a window.
When Christos' mother and his aunt went outside and spoke to Victoria, Victoria kissed Christos'
mother's hand, not realizing she was her future mother-in-law. It was the custom for young ladies
greeting older women to kiss their hand. All decided they liked Victoria and went to visit
Victoria's home. Victoria was brought in to meet the visitors and it was decided there and then
that Christos and Victoria should marry. Christos was given the customary pair of socks with
basil.

On November 11, l904, an engagement party was held. Luncheon was served, which included
rice soup, lamb with vegetables, cheeses, olives, pickles, fruits, and sweets. There were 20 guests
from Bouhorina for the luncheon with Victoria's father. Victoria was upstairs, out of sight. Her
relatives just visited; they did not sit down for lunch, since that was the custom. Before lunch,
Victoria came downstairs and met with her future husband and in-laws. Then she went upstairs
with her girlfriends. After lunch, with Victoria still upstairs, the guests sang songs. When it was
time for the guests to leave, and Victoria came downstairs to bid them goodbye, she was given an
engagement ring by Christos' father.

January 16, 1905 was their wedding day. Christos went to see Victoria only once between the
engagement and the wedding. Victoria's brother got married on December 12, and Christos went
to the wedding. He stayed there from Wednesday through Sunday. Winter set in, and Christos
could not travel to see Victoria. There was a large lake that had to be crossed in the winter; in the
summer it was dry. The whole village attended the wedding. There was four feet of snow on the
ground. That day a normal one-hour trip from Christos house to Victoria's in Omali took four
hours. Christos and 40 relatives went to bring Victoria to Bouhorina for the wedding. From
Omali only Victoria's brother Michael and a first cousin went to the wedding in Bouhorina. The
rest of the family had a wedding reception in Omali, Victoria's village, without the bride and
groom. Again, that was the custom. On Monday morning Victoria's mother made pancakes
(langitis) and sweets, and the bride's parents and relatives visited he newlyweds for lunch.

In May 1905 Christos went to Constantinople and worked as a carpenter for two and a half
years, leaving Victoria in Bouhorina. Their first son, Nicholas, was born in November 1905.
Christos returned to Bouhorina in November 1907, and for the next year and a half he helped his
father with the farm work. His father was ill at this time and he took care of the farm for him. In
September 1908, James (nee Demetrius), their second son, was born. (James died in Tucson,
Arizona, USA, on March 26, 1994.)

Christos left on his first trip for America from the Port of Piraeus, Greece, on April 25, l909.
He arrived at Ellis Island in May 1909. He went to Manchester, New Hampshire, and learned
shoemaking at the L. McElwain Shoe Factory. He stayed there for nine months, living with
roommates in an apartment on Auburn Street. In February 1910 he went to Brockton,
Massachusetts, and started working for the M. Packard Shoe Co. He lived with room mates in an
apartment on Bay Street. He worked with Packard for four and a half years and returned to
Greece at the end of August 1913. On September 28, 1913, he arrived in Bouhorina. Again, he
helped his father with the farm until January 25, 1916, when he left Bouhorina for his second and
final trip to America.

His ship was quarantined in Naples for fifteen days because of illness on board. He arrived in
New York the end of March 1916.

For about a year Christos worked at the Derrifield Shoe Factory in Manchester, N.H., making
shoes for the Army. Then he went to Brockton, Mass., and worked for the George Snow Co. until
November 11, 1918, again making Army shoes. After that job was over he couldn't find work, so
he and his first cousin Costas Zigouras bought a farm at 8 Drake Street, Brockton, Mass. The
farm was not successful, so in 1920 Christos found work as a carpenter in Brockton. He sent for
his wife and two sons, Nicholas and James, in Greece. They arrived at Ellis Island, New York, in
April 1920.

In March 1921 their daughter, Madelene (nee Magdalene, later Mrs. Robert Babin) was born.
On his last visit to Madelene in 1966 in her home in Gardena, California, Uncle Costas told
Madelene that he had acted as mid-wife and delivered her before the doctor arrived at the Drake
Street house.

In November 1922 Christos bought the house at 348 North Pearl Street, Brockton, Mass., on
about a one-acre lot about three miles from the center of town, and moved in on December 6,
l922. This house was on adjacent property to the Drake Street house in which his cousin Costas
lived with his family. The house Christos bought was one-story with one bedroom, kitchen, a
walk-in pantry area, a one-room dining and living room area, and a porch across the front of he
house. By himself Chris built a second story with four bedrooms and added a first-floor sun
parlor off the kitchen.
In this house their daughter Daisy (nee Aspasia, later Mrs. James Demetry) was born on
February 2, 1926.

From 1922 until 1927 Christos worked as a carpenter in Brockton. In September 1927 he had
major surgery on his intestines and could not go back to carpentering. He did nothing for one
year while he recuperated from surgery. In May 1929 he started a chicken business by buying
200 baby chicks and installing an incubator in the basement the first year. He later housed the
incubators in small chicken coops on the property and built a large, two-story, four-room chicken
house. He sold chickens and eggs both wholesale and retail to customers who came to his
"farm," as it was called, to buy fresh chickens and eggs. He also had an enormous vegetable
garden, which provided the best produce for his family. He and Victoria worked hard and
provided a comfortable living for the family. In 1949 he retired after 20 years in the chicken
business.

In 1951 he had cataract surgery on both eyes, as well as being hospitalized with enteritis. The
eye surgery left him blind on one eye, but the other eye had correctable vision with a thick
eyeglass. In 1952 he broke his foot. In 1957 he and Victoria sold the farm and moved into an
apartment on the first floor of his son Nicholas's house on Pleasant Street in Brockton.

In 1960 Christos and Victoria moved to Canoga Park, California, to live with their daughter
Madelene and her family. Also living in Canoga Park at that time was his cousin Costas
Zigouras. Both men were born in Bouhorina, Greece, lived together in Brockton, Mass., and
became neighbors in Canoga Park, California. In l96l Christos was hospitalized twice; in March
with uremic poisoning and in May with a gall bladder attack. In 1962 Christos and Victoria
moved to Gardena, California, with their daughter Madelene's family.
In October 1966 Victoria was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. After two weeks of
recovery, she was due to be released. The morning of her release she suffered a massive cerebral
hemorrhage and went into a coma from which she did not recover. After three days she
succumbed at age 80 on October 22.

In September 1967 Christos moved to Rancho Palos Verdes, California, with his daughter
Madelene's family. He spent his days reading his Greek daily newspaper, watching TV, and
reclining most of the time, due to the small stroke he suffered in l955. It affected his balance and
left him with constant dizziness when he was on his feet.

In August 1968 he suffered with congestive heart failure and was hospitalized for about two
weeks. He developed pneumonia and soon recovered from it. But his heart just stopped beating
on August l2, around 10:00 a.m., while he was being bathed by a nurse at the hospital. He was 88
years old.

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Robert S. Babin /var/www/apps/scribd/scribd/tmp/scratch3/9116339.doc

23 September 1994