Allen County, Indiana People

Lebanese-Syrians

Our community has a long tradition of welcoming new immigrant groups, providing the foundation on which they can build a...

Posted by The History Center on Monday, November 1, 2021

Monday, November 1, 2021 post by The History Center on Facebook:

Our community has a long tradition of welcoming new immigrant groups, providing the foundation on which they can build a new home. Some of the most influential groups are those who came from geographical locations under the rule of the Ottoman Empire or formerly under its rule. These groups include, but are not limited to, the Lebanese-Syrians, Romanians, Macedonians, and Greeks. While there are many differences in the origins of these immigrant groups, they have three things in common: they were Christians of various Eastern and Orthodox denominations, their homelands were all under the rule of Islamic Law in the Ottoman Empire, and the first wave of immigrant groups that came from that region primarily arrived during the decline and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries. #sociallyhistory

[ Not mentioned in the post but shown with the gold m&m stamps image text was the Maloley Brothers Fine Foods grocery stores one of many Lebanese-Syrian families that settled in Fort Wayne ]

The Largest Syrian Colony Outside of New York at We Do History digital collection by the Indiana Historical Society

By 1900 there were vibrant Arabic-speaking communities across Indiana, including in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and Michigan City. But Fort Wayne was special, at least according to its Syrian residents. Alixa Naff, who developed the Smithsonian Institution’s collection on Arab American history, wrote that Fort Wayne “was among the largest and most flourishing [Syrian] peddling settlements in the United States.”

The immigrants who settled in Fort Wayne, like other people from Greater Syria, which included modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, were part of a mass immigration of perhaps half a million people—one out of every five Syrians—from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Americas before 1920. The reason they arrived in Fort Wayne was because it was a quickly growing community that offered economic opportunity, especially for those going into the peddling business.

Click here to read the full article in PDF format

Posted May 26, 2023 on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.

Some of the best known family and business names in Fort Wayne – Azar, Bojrab, Bedree, Bonahoom and Tazian – belong to immigrants who made their way here from Syria. Some of those families have been part of the community since the early 1900s. Copied from Syrians a part of Fort Wayne history Linda Lipp llipp Jan 15, 2016 Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly.

May 17, 2023 Tweet by Edward Curtis @EdwardECurtisIV on Twitter:

New article in Traces, the magazine of @IndianaHistory, on the origins of the Syrian-Lebanese community in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

By 1900, hundreds of immigrants landed in this "peddling settlement," many from around Rashaya, Lebanon.

"The Largest Syrian Colony Outside of New York" Syrian-Lebanese Immigration to Fort Wayne by Edward E. Curtis IV in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History Spring 2023 Volume 35, Number 2

Happy Arab American Heritage Month! Most people know that Indiana’s 49th Governor Mitch Daniels served two terms in the...

Posted by Indiana Historical Bureau on Monday, April 8, 2024

Monday, April 8, 2024 post by the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

Happy Arab American Heritage Month! Most people know that Indiana’s 49th Governor Mitch Daniels served two terms in the state’s highest office from 2005-2013. Less people might know that the Daniels family has Syrian roots. The former governor’s grandfather Elias Daniels was a bookmaker who immigrated to the U.S. from Qalatiyah, Syria, in 1905. Elias Daniels first settled in Monessen, Pennsylvania, where he opened a pool hall that offered local factory workers the opportunity to “play the numbers,” a kind of informal lottery. In a 2011 speech to the Arab American Institute, Mitch Daniels joked: ““I’m sure, as a good Syrian, he ran a very honest numbers racket.”

After Elias married Afife in 1921, Mitchell Daniels Sr. was born in 1923. Mitchell attended college, served in WWII, and married Dorothy Wilkes in 1948. Mitch Daniels Jr. was born in 1949 and the family moved to Indianapolis in the 1950s.

Learn more about Mitch Daniels’ Syrian heritage and where his views have diverged from those of many Arab Americans via Arab Indianapolis: Mitch Daniels’ Syrian Roots “I’m sure, as a good Syrian, he ran a very honest numbers racket.”.

October 31, 2025 many comments to a mention of the Azar family on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook

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