Uprooted from their homes and having little money and few language skills, Greeks came to Fort Worth and built happy lives.
A big part of their existence was St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church on the north side.
Marina Katzianis, whose family came from Argos, Greece, said St. Demetrios has been an anchor for many families.
“My parents were married there,” Katzianis said. “I was married there. I was baptized there. My babies were baptized there. All of our ancestors came to a new country with no job, no education and were able to get money and build a church for the future. So I love St. Demetrios.”
Such stories were told over and over this month as the church celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The oldest Greek Orthodox church in Texas and the southwest has been a haven for more than a century for immigrants from Greece and Asia Minor. These immigrants escaped political persecution to seek economic opportunity, said the Rev. Michael Stearns, 40, pastor of St. Demetrios for the last eight years.
“Most of the original immigrants of our parish were expelled from Asia Minor,” Stearns said. “The Turks were trying to remove all the Greeks from Asia Minor.”
After arriving here many of the immigrants worked in the Swift and Armour meatpacking plants in the Stockyards.
Some started restaurants or other businesses. Many remained in their previous occupations of farming; some on the fertile banks of the Trinity River.
Most hoped to make money and return to their homelands, Stearns said. But economic and political conditions remained dismal there.
“Once they decided to stay, they realized they needed a church, because church was not only the center of their religious life; it was the center of their cultural and social life as well,” Stearns said.
Members first met downtown in a building that no longer exists, Stearns explained.
The first church building, at Northwest 21st Street and Ross Avenue, was completed in 1917. The congregation formally opened its new sanctuary at Jacksboro Highway and Northwest 21st Street in 2002.
One of the mainstays of the church is its annual Greek Food Festival which just completed its 43rd year. Besides serving homemade Greek delicacies, the festival now features costumed dancers, Greek music and other cultural elements.
A centennial history book about St. Demetrios tells dramatic stories of some parishioners.
Kiki Caglage, 88, was in her mother’s womb when her family barely escaped Turkish troops who invaded the area around Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey, in 1922.
“My grandmother Jasemine Haratsis was pregnant with my mother when they managed to get on a Greek fishing boat and escape to the island of Chios,” said Kiki Caglage’s son, Costa Caglage.
“A family took them in, and they lived in a stable, where my mother was born.”
Costa Caglage’s grandfather George Haratsis was captured while battling with Turkish troops and was forced into hard labor and died in prison, Costa Caglage said.
Kiki Caglage lived in Chios until she was a teenager before migrating to Fort Worth with her family. She and her late husband George Caglage, and her children were all members of St. Demetrios.
“Our people came to a strange land,” Costa Caglage said. “They adapted. They held on to their religion.”
Brothers Gus and Peter Katzianis, also members of St. Demetrios, have a more recent tale of Greek-Turkish conflict.
They came to the United States after fighting in the Greek-Turkish war in Cyprus in 1974.
They and their families were forced from their 200-acre farm in the Turkish part of a divided Cyprus.
“Peter and I were born in a little village in Cyprus, which was 50 percent Greek and 50 percent Turkish,” Gus Katzianis said. “Our Greeks had a church not far from the mosque. We were all neighbors and friends.”
All that changed as Turkish leaders sought to establish an independent Turkish-controlled part of Cyprus.
After the war, the brothers joined their family in a refugee camp.
Then they came to the United States and worked in several businesses before opening the old Parthenon Restaurant on Henderson Street. They now operate the Two Brothers Bistro at Beach Street and Basswood Boulevard.
Gus Katzianis visited his former home in what is now the Turkish section of Cyprus in 2007. “It was devastating, very sad…Our home was demolished. Our church was being used as a stable. Crosses in the cemetery were broken.”
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