Born in Malatya, Turkey to Sarkis and Varter Rose Stepanian Sookiasian, he had one sister Makarid. Much of his early life is unknown, but a document from 1914 gives a basic outline of his life. It gives 1888 as his year of birth but other records use 1886, which causes uncertainties in the exact timeline but can at least serve as a general guide.
He passed on stories of seeing Armenians of his village killed, including pregnant women having their stomachs torn open, which might have occurred during the Hamidian Massacres of 1894-1895. I believe he said his father was killed during these events, so the father's death date on findagrave is being tentatively listed as 1895 but it will probably never be known for sure. Family legend had it that in order to escape the killings, Stephen was sent abroad by his family to study in Venice with Armenian Catholic monks. If true, this points to Moorat-Raphael College where Armenian students from all over the world went to study with the Mekhitarist Order of monks. According to the 1914 document, Stephen left home at age 6, which indeed would have been about 1894. The document says that Stephen had 5 years of private school education and 1 year of public school education, and that he left school at age 14. Using the 1888 birth year timeline, he would have left school in 1902, which matches because he arrived in the United States in November 1902. He sailed on the S. S. Vancouver from Genoa, Italy and landed at Boston, Massachusetts, from which he joined his paternal uncle in Philadelphia. He is listed on the manifest with the Italianized first name Stefano, and sailed with fellow Armenian "Stefano" Stephen Sachaklian, also from Malatya. They were both listed as age 16. The one year of public school was most likely a year of school after arriving in Philadelphia.
The 1914 document says "parentals at 16 years" are deceased, likely meaning they had both died by this time around 1903-4. We know his father probably died when Stephen was about age six and perhaps his mother had already died by that time as well. Perhaps if his mother was still alive he would have stayed in Malatya, but as an orphan he had no such immediate tie and so it was easier to send him out of the country to safety. There is indication that there were other Armenian children who were sent to Italy to be protected, and possibly he went with such a group, perhaps Stephen Sachaklian being another one of them.
What he did in his early years in the United States is not known, but it is believed he lived with his uncle Harry and extended family though he does not seem to appear in the 1910 census. In February 1914 at age 24 or 26 he was convicted of manslaughter. According to Stephen he was attacked one night and was knocked out during the scuffle, and when he regained consciousness one of his attackers was dead. Stephen was sentenced to 5-7 years at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, where he went by the alias Steven Manning. He was transferred by court order to Farview Institution in Wayne County, Pennsylvania from February 1916 to February 1918, and then returned to Eastern State until he was paroled at the minimum end of his sentence on March 20, 1919. That August he filed a petition to become a US citizen. His naturalization paperwork says he married Nellie Flysher in Philadelphia on June 10, 1920, but so far no record of that has been found and some have speculated it was a common-law marriage. They had a daughter in April 1921, followed by two sons. They later moved from Philadelphia to the suburb of Prospect Park in Delaware County. Near the end of his life in 1957, Stephen received a letter from his long-lost sister Makarid. She had been lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 but had survived and was living in Ain al-Arab, Syria. She reached out to a refugee organization with the names of her extended family, which they forwarded to Stephen. He and his sister exchanged letters for the next year until Stephen's death at the end of 1958, so we don't know when she died. Stephen's wife Nellie died earlier that same year.
He passed on stories of seeing Armenians of his village killed, including pregnant women having their stomachs torn open, which might have occurred during the Hamidian Massacres of 1894-1895. I believe he said his father was killed during these events, so the father's death date on findagrave is being tentatively listed as 1895 but it will probably never be known for sure. Family legend had it that in order to escape the killings, Stephen was sent abroad by his family to study in Venice with Armenian Catholic monks. If true, this points to Moorat-Raphael College where Armenian students from all over the world went to study with the Mekhitarist Order of monks. According to the 1914 document, Stephen left home at age 6, which indeed would have been about 1894. The document says that Stephen had 5 years of private school education and 1 year of public school education, and that he left school at age 14. Using the 1888 birth year timeline, he would have left school in 1902, which matches because he arrived in the United States in November 1902. He sailed on the S. S. Vancouver from Genoa, Italy and landed at Boston, Massachusetts, from which he joined his paternal uncle in Philadelphia. He is listed on the manifest with the Italianized first name Stefano, and sailed with fellow Armenian "Stefano" Stephen Sachaklian, also from Malatya. They were both listed as age 16. The one year of public school was most likely a year of school after arriving in Philadelphia.
The 1914 document says "parentals at 16 years" are deceased, likely meaning they had both died by this time around 1903-4. We know his father probably died when Stephen was about age six and perhaps his mother had already died by that time as well. Perhaps if his mother was still alive he would have stayed in Malatya, but as an orphan he had no such immediate tie and so it was easier to send him out of the country to safety. There is indication that there were other Armenian children who were sent to Italy to be protected, and possibly he went with such a group, perhaps Stephen Sachaklian being another one of them.
What he did in his early years in the United States is not known, but it is believed he lived with his uncle Harry and extended family though he does not seem to appear in the 1910 census. In February 1914 at age 24 or 26 he was convicted of manslaughter. According to Stephen he was attacked one night and was knocked out during the scuffle, and when he regained consciousness one of his attackers was dead. Stephen was sentenced to 5-7 years at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, where he went by the alias Steven Manning. He was transferred by court order to Farview Institution in Wayne County, Pennsylvania from February 1916 to February 1918, and then returned to Eastern State until he was paroled at the minimum end of his sentence on March 20, 1919. That August he filed a petition to become a US citizen. His naturalization paperwork says he married Nellie Flysher in Philadelphia on June 10, 1920, but so far no record of that has been found and some have speculated it was a common-law marriage. They had a daughter in April 1921, followed by two sons. They later moved from Philadelphia to the suburb of Prospect Park in Delaware County. Near the end of his life in 1957, Stephen received a letter from his long-lost sister Makarid. She had been lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 but had survived and was living in Ain al-Arab, Syria. She reached out to a refugee organization with the names of her extended family, which they forwarded to Stephen. He and his sister exchanged letters for the next year until Stephen's death at the end of 1958, so we don't know when she died. Stephen's wife Nellie died earlier that same year.
Born in Malatya, Turkey to Sarkis and Varter Rose Stepanian Sookiasian, he had one sister Makarid. Much of his early life is unknown, but a document from 1914 gives a basic outline of his life. It gives 1888 as his year of birth but other records use 1886, which causes uncertainties in the exact timeline but can at least serve as a general guide.
He passed on stories of seeing Armenians of his village killed, including pregnant women having their stomachs torn open, which might have occurred during the Hamidian Massacres of 1894-1895. I believe he said his father was killed during these events, so the father's death date on findagrave is being tentatively listed as 1895 but it will probably never be known for sure. Family legend had it that in order to escape the killings, Stephen was sent abroad by his family to study in Venice with Armenian Catholic monks. If true, this points to Moorat-Raphael College where Armenian students from all over the world went to study with the Mekhitarist Order of monks. According to the 1914 document, Stephen left home at age 6, which indeed would have been about 1894. The document says that Stephen had 5 years of private school education and 1 year of public school education, and that he left school at age 14. Using the 1888 birth year timeline, he would have left school in 1902, which matches because he arrived in the United States in November 1902. He sailed on the S. S. Vancouver from Genoa, Italy and landed at Boston, Massachusetts, from which he joined his paternal uncle in Philadelphia. He is listed on the manifest with the Italianized first name Stefano, and sailed with fellow Armenian "Stefano" Stephen Sachaklian, also from Malatya. They were both listed as age 16. The one year of public school was most likely a year of school after arriving in Philadelphia.
The 1914 document says "parentals at 16 years" are deceased, likely meaning they had both died by this time around 1903-4. We know his father probably died when Stephen was about age six and perhaps his mother had already died by that time as well. Perhaps if his mother was still alive he would have stayed in Malatya, but as an orphan he had no such immediate tie and so it was easier to send him out of the country to safety. There is indication that there were other Armenian children who were sent to Italy to be protected, and possibly he went with such a group, perhaps Stephen Sachaklian being another one of them.
What he did in his early years in the United States is not known, but it is believed he lived with his uncle Harry and extended family though he does not seem to appear in the 1910 census. In February 1914 at age 24 or 26 he was convicted of manslaughter. According to Stephen he was attacked one night and was knocked out during the scuffle, and when he regained consciousness one of his attackers was dead. Stephen was sentenced to 5-7 years at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, where he went by the alias Steven Manning. He was transferred by court order to Farview Institution in Wayne County, Pennsylvania from February 1916 to February 1918, and then returned to Eastern State until he was paroled at the minimum end of his sentence on March 20, 1919. That August he filed a petition to become a US citizen. His naturalization paperwork says he married Nellie Flysher in Philadelphia on June 10, 1920, but so far no record of that has been found and some have speculated it was a common-law marriage. They had a daughter in April 1921, followed by two sons. They later moved from Philadelphia to the suburb of Prospect Park in Delaware County. Near the end of his life in 1957, Stephen received a letter from his long-lost sister Makarid. She had been lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 but had survived and was living in Ain al-Arab, Syria. She reached out to a refugee organization with the names of her extended family, which they forwarded to Stephen. He and his sister exchanged letters for the next year until Stephen's death at the end of 1958, so we don't know when she died. Stephen's wife Nellie died earlier that same year.
He passed on stories of seeing Armenians of his village killed, including pregnant women having their stomachs torn open, which might have occurred during the Hamidian Massacres of 1894-1895. I believe he said his father was killed during these events, so the father's death date on findagrave is being tentatively listed as 1895 but it will probably never be known for sure. Family legend had it that in order to escape the killings, Stephen was sent abroad by his family to study in Venice with Armenian Catholic monks. If true, this points to Moorat-Raphael College where Armenian students from all over the world went to study with the Mekhitarist Order of monks. According to the 1914 document, Stephen left home at age 6, which indeed would have been about 1894. The document says that Stephen had 5 years of private school education and 1 year of public school education, and that he left school at age 14. Using the 1888 birth year timeline, he would have left school in 1902, which matches because he arrived in the United States in November 1902. He sailed on the S. S. Vancouver from Genoa, Italy and landed at Boston, Massachusetts, from which he joined his paternal uncle in Philadelphia. He is listed on the manifest with the Italianized first name Stefano, and sailed with fellow Armenian "Stefano" Stephen Sachaklian, also from Malatya. They were both listed as age 16. The one year of public school was most likely a year of school after arriving in Philadelphia.
The 1914 document says "parentals at 16 years" are deceased, likely meaning they had both died by this time around 1903-4. We know his father probably died when Stephen was about age six and perhaps his mother had already died by that time as well. Perhaps if his mother was still alive he would have stayed in Malatya, but as an orphan he had no such immediate tie and so it was easier to send him out of the country to safety. There is indication that there were other Armenian children who were sent to Italy to be protected, and possibly he went with such a group, perhaps Stephen Sachaklian being another one of them.
What he did in his early years in the United States is not known, but it is believed he lived with his uncle Harry and extended family though he does not seem to appear in the 1910 census. In February 1914 at age 24 or 26 he was convicted of manslaughter. According to Stephen he was attacked one night and was knocked out during the scuffle, and when he regained consciousness one of his attackers was dead. Stephen was sentenced to 5-7 years at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, where he went by the alias Steven Manning. He was transferred by court order to Farview Institution in Wayne County, Pennsylvania from February 1916 to February 1918, and then returned to Eastern State until he was paroled at the minimum end of his sentence on March 20, 1919. That August he filed a petition to become a US citizen. His naturalization paperwork says he married Nellie Flysher in Philadelphia on June 10, 1920, but so far no record of that has been found and some have speculated it was a common-law marriage. They had a daughter in April 1921, followed by two sons. They later moved from Philadelphia to the suburb of Prospect Park in Delaware County. Near the end of his life in 1957, Stephen received a letter from his long-lost sister Makarid. She had been lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 but had survived and was living in Ain al-Arab, Syria. She reached out to a refugee organization with the names of her extended family, which they forwarded to Stephen. He and his sister exchanged letters for the next year until Stephen's death at the end of 1958, so we don't know when she died. Stephen's wife Nellie died earlier that same year.
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