Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 10/Christopher Beller

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Christopher Beller
Born1894
Sparta, Greece
DiedUnknown (after 1939)
OccupationReal Estate Broker

Overview[edit | edit source]

An example of one of the Federal Writers' Project's books.

Christopher Beller was a real estate broker from Sparta, Greece, who lived in Miami in the 1900s.[1] He was interviewed by Mabel B. Francis on October 24, 1939 as part of the Federal Writer’s Project.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Early Life[edit | edit source]

Born in 1894 in Sparta, Greece, Christopher Beller grew up during the Age of Mass Migration of Europeans to the United States, a time characterized with the greatest amount of immigration to the country.[2] At 8 years old, he came to Chicago and lived with his uncle, working at his soda and confectionery shop after school. By the age of 14 he had stopped formal schooling, but he continued private study before attending the University of Missouri sometime around 1913 to take a two-year agricultural class.

Adulthood[edit | edit source]

Memorial commemorating the unit's World War I service in front of the North Carolina State Capitol

Beller worked at a farm in Wisconsin until 1918, when he served in France with the 322nd Infantry as part of the 81st division.[3] After the armistice of World War I, he wasn’t allowed to visit his family in Greece because the army captain “did not care” enough to organize the reunion.[4] He had not seen his parents since emigrating. Upon returning to the States, he moved around a lot because the combination of climate and the effects of gas inhalation during the war was damaging to his health.[5] He ended up back in Chicago working in the real estate business. However, it wasn’t long until the Wall Street Crash hit the city and the Mortgage Crisis happened, forcing him to move to Miami. He argued that its effects were worse in Chicago than in New York, where it originated.[6] He thought he’d have better luck as a real estate broker in Miami, but the monetary earnings were still insignificant because of the decline in housing. For at least three years, he studied law at night, on the path towards becoming qualified as a licensed taxation lawyer.[7] He lived alone and had no immediate family, yet he was very sociable; he “knew all of the 800 Greeks in Miami.”[8] He was adjutant of the Hellenic Club, secretary of the Order of AHEPA, and a member of the Greek Democratic Club.[9] He explained, “The Greek does not understand American ways and the American does not know the Greek…We love our country but we try to be good Americans.”[10] Beller both promoted Hellenistic ideals and supported Americanization in the new country. He was fluent in Greek, English, Latin, and French, and he advocated strongly for the Greek language to be learned in American public schools.[11]

Sociopolitical Issues that Impacted His Life[edit | edit source]

The Mortgage Crisis of the 1930s[edit | edit source]

Crowd gathering on Wall Street after the 1929 crash.

The 1930s was a homeowner’s time of hopelessness and fear as a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, when Americans lost most of their investments and income fell significantly.[12] People simply did not have the means to afford their homes. Many were scared to trust in the system itself again after it had wreaked so much havoc on their lives.[13] At one point, delinquent mortgages on owned houses located in cities was around fifty percent.[14] The government was forced to step in and save the economy from eventual disaster. Newly created agencies, such as the Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLB), the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC), and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), functioned separately, but with one goal: stabilization of the economy.[15] Most of these agencies were part of FDR’s New Deal; they sold loans, bought loans, and even provided insurance to those in need.[16] To illustrate the amount of need met, “In only three years the agency received applications from 40 percent of all residential mortgagors and wrote new loans on ten percent of the owner-occupied homes in the U.S.”[17] The long-term benefits of the impact of this sort of governmental interjection are widely debated, but involvement did alleviate some stress, according to a study in which it was shown that it was a “key part” of the 1940s housing boom.[18]

Greco-American Assimilation Following the Age of Migration[edit | edit source]

US President George W. Bush welcomes Archbishop Demetrios to the White House to celebrate Greek Independence Day and to recognize the contributions of Greek-Americans to American culture in March 2007

The Age of Migration was a significant time in Greek heritage, as some 421,000 Greeks immigrated to America from 1890 to 1921.[19] These immigrants were primarily young males in the agricultural industry searching for better opportunities than what they found in their homeland.[20] Upon arriving in America, most Greeks were treated harshly and given the stingiest of jobs.[21] “Every possible means was used to discredit the Greek immigrant. He was considered clanish, undemocratic, criminal, a troublesome individual.”[22] The padrone system was utilized in order to take advantage of the unassuming Greek population, promising “great” jobs and the prospect of sending money back home.[23] Because the Greeks were used by their employers as strikebreakers, Anti-Greek riots ensued, most prominently in the early 1900s.[24] “The kinds of harassment Greeks faced ranged from physical assaults and racial segregation to all manner of petty annoyances.”[25] Historians infer that Greek Americans were forced to protect themselves through the Americanization of Greek features like name choices and lifestyle.[26] “The sacrifices of Greek immigrants [as soldiers during World War I] helped somewhat to alleviate the hatred and prejudice against the Greek popu­lation in the United States,” however, discrimination was still an issue.[27] Greek Americans started organizations intended to peacefully integrate American and Greek ideals. The most influential were the American Hellenistic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) and the Greek American Progressive Association (GAPA). These groups differed in their views of the level of cultural assimilation to be achieved: the AHEPA promoted the integration of Greek ways into the American lifestyle, while the GAPA wanted to integrate American ways into a predominately Greek lifestyle.[28] Even though the Greek population was divided about the correct way to preserve its heritage, Greeks had a strong sense of community within their ethnicity and cooperatively helped each other learn the essential American ways.[29] Over time, the Greek immigrants learned the importance of both adapting to their environment and remembering their history, displayed in the evolving content of their school system. At first, communities started Greek schools in order to teach children their language, past, and religion, utilizing these establishments as “a mechanism in delaying or even thwarting assimilation.”[30] As time passed, the curriculum became centered on the balance between the cultural roots of their homeland and the practices of their new nation.[31]

Works Cited[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Interview, Francis, Mabel on Christopher Beller, October 24, 1939, Folder 1009, Federal Writing Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. 29.
  2. ↑ Sandra Sequiera, Nathan Nunn, and Nancy Qian, “Analyzing America’s Age of Mass Migration Highlights the Long-Term Benefits of Immigration,” USAPP - American Politics and Policy, June 21, 2017, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/06/21/analysing-americas-age-of-mass-migration-highlights-the-long-term-benefits-of-immigration/.
  3. ↑ Armed Forces Information School. The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States (Washington. D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), 539.
  4. ↑ Interview, Francis, Mabel on Christopher Beller, October 24, 1939, Folder 1009, Federal Writing Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. 32.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth Palermo, “What Is Mustard Gas?,” Live Science, August 28, 2013, https://www.livescience.com/39248-what-is-mustard-gas.html.
  6. ↑ Interview, Francis, Mabel on Christopher Beller, October 24, 1939, Folder 1009, Federal Writing Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. 32.
  7. ↑ Interview, Francis, Mabel on Christopher Beller, October 24, 1939, Folder 1009, Federal Writing Project Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. 39.
  8. ↑ Ibid.
  9. ↑ Ibid.
  10. ↑ Ibid. 39-40.
  11. ↑ Ibid. 40.
  12. ↑ Arthur M Schlesinger, The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933 (Houfton Mifflin Company, 1957), 159.
  13. ↑ Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation et al., “Fifth Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board,” Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, (Washington, D.C.: 1936), 3.
  14. ↑ Bridewell David A., The Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Its Agencies: A History of the Facts Surrounding the Passage of the Creating Legislation, the Establishment and Organization of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Bank System, the Savings and Loan System, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Printing Office, 1938), 172.
  15. ↑ David C. Wheelock, "The Federal Response to Home Mortgage Distress: Lessons from the Great Depression," The Federal Bank of Saint Louis Review 90, vol. 31, Part 1, (May/June 2008): 140-146, https://doi.org/10.20955/r.90.133-148.
  16. ↑ Ibid. 140.
  17. ↑ Kenneth Snowden, “The Anatomy of a Residential Mortgage Crisis: A Look back to the 1930s,” NBER Working Paper No.16244, (Cambridge, MA, July 2010): 21, http://www.nber.org/papers/w16244.pdf.
  18. ↑ Matthew Chambers, Don Schlagenhauf, and Carlos Garriga, “Did Housing Policies Cause the Postwar Boom in Homeownership?,” FRB of Saint Louis Working Papers 1, no. 2012–21A (July 18, 2012): 30.
  19. ↑ Nicholas Alexiou, “The History of Greek Immigration to America – Hellenic-American Project,” Hellenic American Project, 2021. . https://hapsoc.org/greeks-in-america/.
  20. ↑ Elliott Robert Barkan, A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America’s Multicultural Heritage (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999): 272.
  21. ↑ Georgakas, Dan, "The Greeks in America," Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, vol. 14, iss. 1, (1987): 34, http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/scholarly-journals/greeks-america/docview/61010219/se-2?accountid=14244
  22. ↑ Mitcho S. Pappas, “Greek Immigrant in the United States Since 1910.” (PhD diss., University of Montana, 1950), 62, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. EP40806.
  23. ↑ Rakashi Chand, “Immigrants Needing Protection from Themselves? The Padrone System in Boston’s North End,” The Beehive, February 10, 2016, https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2016/02/immigrants-needing-protection-from-themselves-the-padrone-system-in-bostons-north-end/.
  24. ↑ David J. Krajicek, “Justice Story: Fearmongering and Racism Drove Greek Immigrants from Nebraska,” New York Daily News, April 7, 2009, https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-justice-story-greeks-run-out-of-omaha-20190407-4m23kqwtsvgvfftkdfyzhur7tq-story.html.
  25. ↑ Georgakas, Dan, "The Greeks in America," Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, vol. 14, iss. 1, (1987): 45, http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/scholarly-journals/greeks-america/docview/61010219/se-2?accountid=14244.
  26. ↑ Georgakas, Dan, "The Greeks in America," Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, vol. 14, iss. 1 (1987): 46, https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/scholarly-journals/greeks-america/docview/61010219/se-2?accountid=14244.
  27. ↑ Mitcho S. Pappas, “Greek Immigrant in the United States Since 1910.” (PhD diss., University of Montana, 1950), 74, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. EP40806.
  28. ↑ Vlachos, Evangelos Constantine. “The Assimilation of Greeks in the United States: With Special Reference to the Greek Community in Anderson, Indiana.” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1964), 113-114, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. 6503528.
  29. ↑ Helen H. Balk, “Economic Contributions of the Greeks to the United States,” Economic Geography 19, no. 3 (July 1943): 270, https://doi.org/10.2307/141160.
  30. ↑ Theodore G. Zervas and Alex G. Papadopoulos, “Creating Greeks and Greek-Americans: Geographic and Educational Identity Constructions at the Socrates and Koraes Greek-American Schools,” European Education 52, no. 1 (November 11, 2019), https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2019.1682461.
  31. ↑ Ibid.

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Alexiou, Nicholas. “The History of Greek Immigration to America – Hellenic-American Project.” Hellenic American Project, 2021.

https://hapsoc.org/greeks-in-america/.

Armed Forces Information School, U.S. The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States. Washington,

D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950.

Balk, Helen H. “Economic Contributions of the Greeks to the United States.” Economic Geography 19, no. 3, July 1943: 270-275,

https://doi.org/10.2307/141160.

Barkan, Elliott R. A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America’s Multicultural Heritage. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press,

1999.

Bridewell, David A. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board and Its Agencies: A History of the Facts Surrounding the Passage of the

Creating Legislation, the Establishment and Organization of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Bank System, the Savings and Loan System, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Washington, D.C., 1938: 170-176.

Chambers, Matthew, Don Schlagenhauf, and Carlos Garriga. “Did Housing Policies Cause the Postwar Boom in Homeownership?” FRB of

Saint Louis Working Papers 1, no. 2012–21A, July 18, 2012: 30-31, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2112238.

Chand, Rakashi. “Immigrants Needing Protection from Themselves? The Padrone System in Boston’s North End.” The Beehive, February

10, 2016.
https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2016/02/immigrants-needing-protection-from-themselves-the-padrone-system-in-bostons-north-end/.

Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, Home Owners' Loan Corporation, United States. Federal Home Loan Bank Board, United

States. Federal Home Loan Bank Administration, and United States Federal Home Loan Bank System. “Fifth Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.” Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, 1936, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/titl/70::/item/23515?start_page=2.

Georgakas, Dan. "The Greeks in America." Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, vol. 14, iss. 1., 1987, 5-54,

http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/scholarly-journals/greeks-america/docview::/61010219/se-2?accountid=14244.

Krajicek, David J. “Justice Story: Fearmongering and Racism Drove Greek Immigrants from Nebraska.” New York Daily News, April 7,

2009, https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-justice-story-greeks-run-out-of-omaha-20190407-4m23kqwtsvgvfftkdfyzhur7tq-::story.html.

Palermo, Elizabeth. “What Is Mustard Gas?”, Live Science, August 28, 2013, https://www.livescience.com/39248-what-is-mustard-

gas.html.

Pappas, Mitcho S. “Greek Immigrant in the United States Since 1910.” PhD diss., University of Montana, 1950, 62-84. ProQuest ::Dissertations Publishing. EP40806.

Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933, Houfton Mifflin Company, 1957.

Sequiera, Sandra, Nathan Nunn, and Nancy Qian. “Analyzing America’s Age of Mass Migration Highlights the Long-Term Benefits of

Immigration.” USAPP - American Politics and Policy, June 21, 2017. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/06/21/analysing-::americas-age-of-mass-migration-highlights-the-long-term-benefits-of-immigration/.

Snowden, Kenneth. “The Anatomy of a Residential Mortgage Crisis: A Look Back to the 1930s.” NBER Working Paper No.16244,

Cambridge, MA, July 2010, http://www.nber.org/papers/w16244.pdf.

Vlachos, Evangelos Constantine. “The Assimilation of Greeks in the United States: With Special Reference to the Greek Community in

Anderson, Indiana.” PhD diss., Indiana University, 1964, 102-148. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. 6503528.

Wheelock, David C. "The Federal Response to Home Mortgage Distress: Lessons from the Great Depression," The Federal Bank of Saint

Louis Review, May/June 2008, vol. 31, part 1, 133-148. https://doi.org/10.20955/r.90.133-148.

Zervas, Theodore G., and Alex G. Papadopoulos. “Creating Greeks and Greek-Americans: Geographic and Educational Identity

Constructions at the Socrates and Koraes Greek-American Schools.” European Education 52, no. 1, November 11, 2019, 16–32.https://doi.org/10.1080/10564934.2019.1682461.
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