DISPLAY COPY
THE TEXIANS AND THE TEXANS
THE
SYRIAN
AND
LEBANESE
TEXANS
LIBRARY
INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
AT SAN ANTONIO
INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
THE TEXIANS AND TEXANS
A pamphlet series dealing with the many kinds of people who
have contributed to the history and heritage of Texas. Now in
print: The Indian Texans, The German Texans, The Norwegian
Texans, The Mexican Texans (in English), Los Mexicano Texanos
(in Spanish), The Spanish Texans, The Polish Texans, The Czech
Texans, The French Texans, The Italian Texans, The Greek
Texans, The Jewish Texans, The Syrian and Lebanese Texans,
The Belgian Texans, the Afro-American Texans, The Anglo­American
Texans, The Swiss Texans and The Chinese Texans.
The Syrian and Lebanese Texans
Principal Researcher: James Patrick McGuire.
© 1974: The University of Texas at San Antonio
The Institute of Texan Cultures.
Second Printing
Cover illustrations: Saadi Ferris. Courtesy of Mrs. V. Davis
The Fadal Drug Store, Waco. Courtesy of the Fadal Family
San Antonio Biblical Play. Courtesy of the Semaan Family
This publication made possible, in part, by a grant from the Houston
Endowment, Inc.
INTRODUCTION
Significant numbers of Arabic-speaking
immigrants from Syria and Lebanon be­gan
arriving in Texas after 1880. The
first were mainly Christians-Syrian Or­thodox,
Eastern Rite Catholics called Ma­ronites,
Greek Catholics called Melkites,
and a few Protestants. Few Moslems im­migrated
prior to 1945, although hun­dreds
came later as a result of conflict in
the Middle East.
At the turn of the century, America
had a magnetic appeal for the youth of
Syria and Lebanon. Overpopulation, eco­nomic
stagnation, and religious, political
and social discrimination by the Otto­mans
caused hundreds, then thousands,
to leave their homeland. Over nine thou­sand
entered the United States in 1914, a
peak year.
Called "Syrians" until the emergence
of Lebanon as a separate nation in 1919,
they came from the Ottoman Empire's
provinces of Greater Syria and Mount
Lebanon. Descended from the ancient
Phoenicians, these eastern Mediterranean
people had been ruled and influenced by
numerous conquerors in their long his­tory.
The modern Syrian and Lebanese
immigrant felt pride in his ancient Chris­tianity,
maintained through centuries of
alien rule and discrimination. Pride was
also derived from his contributions to
civilization-the Phoenician alphabet
and the Arabic transm.ission of Roman
and Greek philosophy and science through
the Dark Ages.
Immigration from these two countries
accelerated until the outbreak of World
VIEW OF BEIRUT
War 1. The 1920 census revealed that
there were approximately 3,400 persons
of Syrian and Lebanese origins in Texas.
Restrictive immigration quotas, especially
after 1924, severely limited the influx.
The development of Syrian and Lebanese
communities in Texas thereafter relied
on internal growth, immigration from
other states, and a trickle who were ad­mitted
to the United States annually. To­day,
there are an estimated 10,000 to
15,000 Syrian and Lebanese Texans.
After 1880 these people evolved from a
few scattered itinerant peddlers of no­tions,
laces, clothing, and religious items
Le Tour de Mond
from the Holy Land into a significant,
successful, and integrated segment of
Texan society. With his kesker (pack),
the Syrian peddler travelled alone or in
small groups to farms, lumber camps,
and oil fields, beginning the journey from
poverty to security. During this odyssey
he braved bad weather, long distances,
and occasional bandits. He also learned
English, and received his naturalization
papers along the way. New brides, or
established families, were brought over
as the dream of returning home after a
few prosperous years in America van­ished.
Characterized as clannish, patriotlc,
highly individualistic, and adaptable, the
Syrians and Lebanese struggled to im­prove
their economic situation. They
turned to social and cultural organiza­tions
in the form of clubs, benevolent
societies, and churches. Syrian neighbor­hoods
settled by the immigrant genera­tion
soon faded as their children scattered
to all sections of the cities. But through
clubs and churches, they have success­fully
maintained family ties and ethnic
heritage.
THE FORERUNNERS
1856
The first Arabic-speaking people appeared
in Texas just before the Civil War, when
the United States Army attempted to de­velop
camel transportation between Camp
Verde, Texas, and San Diego, California.
The camel tenders were mostly Arabs,
Greeks, and Turks, who amazed T exans
with their unusual costumes and unpro­nounceable
names. Perhaps the best re­membered
of these was Hadji Ali, a
Syrian native called "Hi Jolly" by his
contemporaries. Born about 1828 to an
Orthodox family, he was raised as a
Moslem. Hi Jolly landed at Indianola in
1856 with thirty-three camels. They went
to California with a government caravan
the following year. Hi Jolly lived "out
west" until his death in 1902. One of his
Syrian compatriots, Elias, eventually set­tled
in Sonora, Mexico. Elias's son, Plu­tarco
Elias Calles, became president of
Mexico in 1928.
Other Arabs arrived at Houston in 1858
2
THE JOSEPH ARBEELY FAMILY
with a shipload of camels imported by an
English lady, Mrs. Watson. For a year
they periodically visited Houston from
their nearby ranch. Little else is known
about Arabic-speaking visitors to Texas
before 1870. Texas's first Syrian family
was that of Professor Joseph Arbeely from
Damascus. The well-educated Dr. Arbeely
had been the headmaster of several
schools and had served as president of the
The Survey July, 1911
Patriarchal Syrian Orthodox College in
Damascus. He had taught Arabic to
American missionaries in Syria, and had
assisted in translating the Arabic Bible.
With his wife, his six sons, and a niece,
he came to America in 1878. The family
visited Texas. Two of the sons-Dr.
Abraham J. A. Arbeely, a physician, and
Khaleel, a pharmacist-remained in Aus­tin
until 1881.
THE JOSEPHS OF
AUSTIN
1881
About 1881, Cater Joseph Cater, a teacher
in the Presbyterian school at Roumie,
Lebanon, began sending his children to
America to escape Turkish rule. Eventu­ally,
eight sons and a daughter settled in
Austin, where they changed the family
name to Joseph, and produced a clan of
capable businessmen and women.
The eldest son, Cater, came to Texas
via N ew York at fourteen. His passage
from New York to Galveston was financed
by a New York newspaper publisher of
Lebanese extraction, who gave the boy
two hundred dollars in "silver" jewelry to
peddle. The sea air discolored the jewelry,
but the boy worked conscientiously to pay
back the publisher. Eventually, he opened
a confectionary on Austin's Congress
Avenue, then returned to Lebanon to get
married. He and his wife raised eight
sons and two daughters.
His brothers Isaac and Joe came in
1891. They, too, survived as peddlers at
first, carrying big black satchels to near­by
farmhouses. Isaac, with an ear for
languages, learned both English and
German while talking with his customers.
By the mid 'nineties he had saved enough
to open a produce outlet on lower Con­gress
Avenue. This store was later moved
to East Sixth Street, where the business
was continued in partnership with his
brothers Cater, Shikery, and Nahoum. In
1901, Isaac brought his wife to Texas.
This couple raised seven daughters and a
son. THE CATER JOSEPH FAMILY Courtesy of Eddie Joseph
3
4
The other Joseph men-John, Alex,
Fred, and William-all followed the
same pattern of peddling, then establish­ing
businesses in Austin. Fred, the last to
arrive, opened a store at Manor in 1911,
and remained there until 1930, when he,
too, came to Austin. Succeeding genera­tions
also have made their mark on com­munity
life. Cater's son, Eddie, owned a
chain of theaters, while Isaac's daughters
-Hannah, Mary, and Margaret-were
instrumental in founding the Southern
Federation of Syrian Lebanese American
Clubs in 1931.
M 0 N SOU R J. BAS H A R A
1889
In the prosperous years before the Great
Depression, Monsour J. Bashara was
known as the world's richest Lebanese.
He had arrived in N ew York as a seven­teen-
year-old immigrant from Broumana
in 1888. A year later, he was the first of
his nationality to settle in Waco, Texas.
He entered the dry goods business, and
in 1900, married Olga Eunice, daughter
of another Lebanese immigrant.
Bashara left Waco to open a store in the
oil boomtown of Beaumont. For the next
ten years, he moved his dry goods em­porium
from one location to another in
southeast Texas and Louisiana. In time,
he was joined by three nephews-sons of
his brother Farris-to whom he taught
the rudiments of merchandising and oil
leasing. Eventually, two of them, Sam
and Joe, became well-known Houston oil­men
and realtors while a third, George,
MONSOUR J. BASHARA
Courtesy of George F. Bashara
established a highly successful contract­ing
business at Waco.
M. J. Bashara moved to Wichita Falls
before World War I and made a fortune
buying land from d.rought-ruined farm­ers,
then letting it out for oil lease. In
1918, he helped establish the American
Refining Corporation, which soon had
fifty wells in production and a refinery
with a daily capacity of five thousand
barrels. He was also half owner of the
Bashara Building, which housed the
American National Bank of Wichita
Falls. The 1929 stock market crash
brought an end to Bashara's fortune. He
died in the mid-1930's a bright example
of how opportunity could open to a man
with perseverance.
HOUSTON'S UNITED
JAMAIL CLUB
1890
Texas's largest Lebanese clan are the
J amails of Houston. Their club is the
largest in the Southern Federation of
Syrian Lebanese American Clubs. Ac­cording
to tradition, five J amail brothers
and some cousins immigrated from a
small village near Beirut in 1890. Some
brought their wives and children, others
did not. In Houston, they took advantage
of their agricultural background by
entering the produce business. In 1895,
the brothers went back to Lebanon but
the children settled in Texas. The descen­dants
now constitute a clan of more than
five hundred. Since the 1920's the United
Jamail Club has held an annual reunion
at Easter time.
Dahr N egem J am ail, o~e of the first­comers,
left his wife in Lebanon and
worked his way aboard ship to Texas. He
returned to his native land in 1895, came
again to Texas in the years 1898 to 1902,
and later died in Lebanon. His son, N. D.
"Jim" Jamail, is a well-known Houston
grocer, who first arrived in 1904. He
opened a stand in the old produce market,
and in the 1920's and mid-thirties was
supplying major restaurants and hotels.
Today, the Jamail Brothers Food Market,
established with his brothers Joseph and
Assad Dahr, is still operated by the
family.
Other members of this clan include
Abe Jamail, Houston's most decorated
World War II hero and one of thirty in
his family to have served in that conflict;
THE JAMAIL PICNIC, 1933
Joe Jamail, Jr., one of the nation's leading
attorneys specializing in personal injury
suits; Mike Jamail, who led the first
Armistice parade at Houston in 1918 and
continued the tradition for many years;
and John Jamail, one of Houston's biggest
property owners.
ABRAHAM KAZEN. SR.
1890
One of the most distinguished Lebanese
Texan families in legal, public service,
and business fields is that founded by
Abraham Kazen, Sr. of Laredo. Born at
K'nat, Lebanon about 1868, the elder
Kazen came to the United States in the
late 1880's with his brothers, Anthony
and Joe. These young men peddled dry
goods in the countryside between San
Antonio and Laredo. By 1890, they had
established residence in the border city
and were operating up and down the Rio
Grande.
Soon after obtaining his American
citizenship, Abraham Kazen, returned to
Lebanon, married Anne Reston in 1902,
and brought her to his new home1and.
They raised a family of four sons and a
daughter. From 1912 to 1914, he operated
a store in San Marcos, and then another
in Benavides. Laredo, however, remained
the center of the Kazen family activities.
In addition to his merchandising, the
elder Kazen supported his growing
family through such odd jobs as special
duty policeman and interpreter for the
Immigration Service. He remained a
staunch Democrat until his death at
ninety-seven, and instilled a sense of pub­lic
responsibility in each of. his children.
All his sons became lawyers.
The achievements of Abraham Kazen's
descendants would distinguish them any­where.
Charles served as an army captain
in World War II, and was appointed the
first Allied judge in Naples after its cap­ture.
He was elected clerk of Webb Coun­ty
in 1946 and served until his appoint-
Courtesy of Negem D. Jamail
ment as customs collector by President
Kennedy. He held this post until his re­tirement
in 1970. Philip Kazen was dis­trict
attorney at Laredo from 1938 to
1942, then served in various govern­mental
capacities during World War II.
He has been active in many programs for
civic betterment and has been decorated
by several foreign governments for his
goodwill efforts.
E. James Kazen was appointed district
attorney when his brother resigned the
office in 1942. He served until becoming
district judge in 1958. Judge Kazen's five
children include three lawyers and two
teachers. The youngest Kazen brother is
Abraham, Jr., familiarly known as
"Chick." After World War II service he
returned to Laredo and was elected to the
state legislature, where he remained in
the House and the Senate until sent to
Congress in 1967. He is the first Texan of
Lebanese ancestry to reach this high
office. Carmen Kazen Ferris, only daugh-
5
THE ABRAHAM KAZEN FAMILY Courtesy of Carmen K. Ferris
6
ter of Abraham and Anne Kazen, was a
home economics teacher in the public
schools for nearly thirty years and then
a Texas Education Agency official prior
to her death in 1970.
THE SEMAAN FAMILY
1895
The Southwest's oldest store specializing
in oriental rugs, linens, and art objects
was established at San Antonio in 1895
by Ameen Serna an and his brother-in­law,
Elias Farris. Semaan was born in
1876 in Syria and was educated at the
American University at Beirut. He immi­grated
to America in 1893, and a half
dozen years later, opened the store in
partnership with Farris. The business
prospered and branch outlets were ac­quired
in Houston, Beaumont, and
Mineral Wells, as well as in Arkansas,
Missouri, Colorado, and Michigan. With­in
a few years Ameen brought his entire
family-parents and six brothers and
sisters-to San Antonio.
When Ameen Semaan died in 1920,
his sister, Freda, and her husband, Elias
Farris, assumed responsibility for the edu­cation
of his children. Two of the boys
became well-known San Antonio lawyers.
Anees A. Semaan, born in 1907, received
his bachelor's degree from The University
of Texas at Austin in 1929. Returning to
San Antonio, he entered the family busi­ness
and became a widely consulted au­thority
on oriental carpets. During World
War II he was a captain in military in­telligence
and wrote a manual on the
use of foreign maps. After the war he
changed careers. He enrolled in the law
school at St. Mary's University, from
which he received a degree in 1951.
For the next few years he practiced
both civil and criminal law with his
brother, Fred, one of San Antonio's most
effective trial lawyers. Although handi­capped
by approaching blindness, A. A.'s
thorough preparation gained him wide
respect. In 1965-66, he was chairman of
the State Bar of Texas Section on Crimi­nal
Law. In 1961, he was elected justice
of the peace, a position he held until
1967, when Governor John Connally ap­pointed
him judge of the 175th District
Court. It was his last public office; he
died in 1970.
GEORGE NAMI
1897
George Nami established a pioneer South
Texas mercantile enterprise and raised
two sons who became prominent in
American Legion affairs. Born at Bech­mezine,
Lebanon, in 1869, he was mar­ried
to Sarah Mafrige in 1891. They had
three children in Lebanon-Sam, Her­man,
and Adele-before Nami immi­grated
to America in 1896. Originally
bound for Toledo, Ohio, he was persuaded
enroute to come to Austin, Texas. There,
he peddled dry goods afoot until he could
afford to buy a hack and team.
In 1897, he moved to Cuero and opened
the George Nami Dry Goods and Grocery,
which he operated until his death in
1956. His wife and sons came from Leb­anon
in 1902, and his daughter followed
six years later. Four more children were
. '
·1 . L :.--
THE NAMI STORE AT CUERO
born to the Namis in Texas. The house­hold
became a center of Lebanese culture
in the area. The Orthodox priest visited
annually to baptize, perform marriage
ceremonies, and hold services in their
living room.
George Nami's son, Herman, attended
The University of Texas School of Law,
graduating in 1917. He was then com­missioned
an officer in the United States
Army and was shipped to France with
the American Expeditionary Force. On
his return from W orId War I he began
practicing law at Cuero. In 1927, he
transferred his practice to San Antonio.
He served as fourth president of the
. ,,1., .
Courtesy of lulia N. Sneed
Southern Federation of Syrian Lebanese
American Clubs from 1937 to 1939. Ten
years later he was elected departmental
commander of the American Legion in
Texas. Herman Nami died at San Antonio
in 1957.
A brother, Jimmie, was a San Antonio
businessman who once served as a state
vice president of the Southern Federa­tion;
and another brother, William, was
departmental commander of the Ameri­can
Legion in 1967-68. William also
served on the Cuero City Commission
from 1956 to 1958, and was mayor from
1963 to 1967. Julia, their sister, was long
a San Antonio school teacher.
7
8
8"\,,' , , ...... " .
, ...
THE AZAR-SOLOMON OFFICES AT SAN ANTONIO
THE AZARS OF EL PASO
AND SAN ANTONIO
1900
For fifty-five years the Azar family of El
Paso and San Antonio has been active in
the Texas pecan shelling industry. Some­time
before 1900 two brothers, Elias and
Shibley Azar, came from Lebanon to visit
a sister living in Canada. The brothers
then ventured to El Paso, where they
esta blished a confectionary in the old
Sheldon Hotel. By 1919, they were in the
pecan shelling business in addition to
candy making.
Other members of the family soon
appeared: their brother and sister, George
and Sophie, and an uncle, Richard
Solomon. In 1926, Solomon and his niece,
Courtesy of Sophie Azar
Sophie Azar, opened their own company
in El Paso. Four years.later Elias moved
to Los Angeles; and George, Sophie, and
their Uncle Richard moved to San An­tonio.
Only Shibley remained in El Paso.
With his three sons as partners, he built
a multi-million dollar business with over
two hundred employees. At his death in
1964, his sons continued the enterprise as
the Azar Nut Company.
At San Antonio the Azar and Solomon
Pecan Shelling Company began in small,
rented quarters on West Commerce
Street. At first, shelling by hand yielded
only seven or eight pounds per worker
per day, but George helped invent ma­chinery
that raised the daily output to
at least 250 pounds. Today, theirs is one
of two r emammg pecan shelling estab­lishments
in San Antonio. It is tun by
Sophie and her nephew, Richard Azar.
ELIAS J. ANTONE
1907
Elias Antone was an early-day Port
Arthur businessman whose three sons
have made their own estimable contribu­tion
to Lebanese Texan culture. Elias
was a lumber importer in Tripoli, Leb­anon,
before coming to N ew York in
1892. There, he operated a wholesale
house until 1907, when he moved to
Columbus, Texas. His stay in Columbus
was interrupted when he voted against
a candidate for sheriff who then threat­ened
to shoot him on sight. According to
family tradition, he departed Columbus,
took up residence at Jennings, Louisiana,
and thereafter left the voting to others.
Meanwhile, Antone had married
J amilie Amuny, the daughter of a Port
ELIAS J . ANTONE Courtesy of lalal Antone
Arthur businessman. They had three sons
-Kamal, J alaI, and Jamal-all named
for Turkish generals sympathetic to the
Christian minority in the old country.
Only the intervention of the sons pre­vented
their sister from likewise being
named for a military figure. In 1913,
Elias Antone moved his family back to
Port Arthur, where he operated a dry
goods store until his death in 1959. His
son, Jamal, is still an active businessman
in the coastal city.
Another son, J alaI, moved to Houston
in 1935, and founded a well-known im­port
food store specializing in Middle
Eastern, Greek, and Asian foods. In one
area of the building he operated a cele­brated
sandwich shop which was patron­ized
at noon each day by busy Houston
businessmen. A civic, charity, and cul­tural
leader, Jalal Antone was a bene­factor
of St. George's Orthodox Church.
He died in 1974.
The third son of Elias Antone is Kamal
E. Antone, known far and wide as "Mr.
Federation," a name he earned as a
founder and longtime guiding spirit of
the Southern Federation of Syrian Leb­anese
American Clubs. Born in Louisiana
and raised in Port Arthur, he attended
Lamar Tech in Beaumont while working
in his father's store. He subsequently
entered law school in Houston and re­ceived
a degree, but never practiced. In­stead,
he became a successful realtor. He
was president of the Houston Board of
Realtors in 1959-60, and president of the
Texas Association of Realtors in 1970.
But Kamal Antone is perhaps best
known for his work in the Southern Fed­eration.
After helping found the organi­zation
in 1931-32, he became a two-term
president in 1948-49. For eleven years he
was chairman of the board of directors.
He is also editor of The Official Bulletin.
Antone's stature among his compatriots
may be judged by the fact that a Syrian
lady applying for American citizenship
once gave his name as the first president
of the United States.
ESAU MALOOLY
1907
Among the first Lebanese immigrants to
EI Paso were members ·of the Malooly
family from Rachaya, Lebanon. Esau
Malooly was an educated man, fluent in
five languages. As a twenty-two year old
schoolteacher, he decided to immigrate
to Brazil in 1907. Aboard ship, he was
persuaded to join friends going to EI Paso.
ESAU MALOOLY Courtesy of Esau Malooly
Once in Texas, he peddled notions, then
began repairing sewing machines for a
living. Next he established an oriental
rug and tapestry import business, which
he operated until 1918. During World
War I he utilized his language skills as
a translator for Immigration Bureau of­ficials
at EI Paso. When hostilities ended
he visited Lebanon, returning shortly
with a bride. He now established a note
and mortgage company. When the De­pression
arrived, he found himself the
owner of much real estate. He was able
to assist his sons in starting furniture
stores in EI Paso. In 1946, he gave land
for expansion of the College of Mines,
which evolved into The University of
Texas at EI Paso. Esau Malooly died in
1969 at eighty-six after a long and suc­cessful
career as realtor, investor, and
civic leader.
SYRIAN ORTHODOXY
IN TEXAS
1907
To the Syrian Orthodox immigrant, his
religious affiliation has been more im­portant
than his former nationality in the
Middle East. His Christian identity has
been maintained since the seventh cen­tury
A.D. despite Moslem rule and oc­casional
persecutions. Those who worship
in the Orthodox faith owe allegiance to
the Patriarch of Antioch, who resides in
Damascus. Missionary priests began
arriving before the turn of the twentieth
century. To the newly settled families,
the church and its clubs offered a place
not only for religious services, but for
9
10
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH AT BEAUMONT
social and community needs. Otherwise,
the more isolated Orthodox families
started attending Episcopal, Methodist, or
other Protestant churches.
In Beaumont, El Paso, Austin, and
Houston, Syrian Orthodox parishes were
established after 1900, with priests from
the old country, and familiar rites in
their native Arabic. Then, the immi­grants
not only began to sink roots in
Texas soil but to modify somewhat their
ancestral religion into a more suitable
Courtesy of Catherine Harris
contemporary mold. To the casual ob­server
entering an early Orthodox church,
the spectacle was awesome. Icons of the
saints, elaborate clerical robes of gold,
richly gilded altar vessels, and the ancient
liturgy made a vivid impression. For
hours the voices of the priests, cantors,
and laymen could be heard chanting the
nasal Arabic rituals through the heavy
smoke of incense. But by World War II,
English was slowly replacing Arabic in
the liturgy. Choirs, organs, pews, Sunday
schools, altar societies, and other Ameri­can
innovations had been introduced with
the blessing of the clergy.
When Galveston's SS. Constantine and
Helen Orthodox Church was built in 1895
by Serbian and Greek immigrants, a few
Syrians were present. By 1898, a Syrian
Orthodox society had been formed in
Beaumont and nine years later St.
Michael's Church, established in a simple
frame building, became Texas's second
Orthodox church and the first Syrian
church. Rebuilt after the 1919 storm, and
again after a disastrous fire in 1953, it
continues the missionary tradition begun
when its early pastors journeyed forth to
keep alive the Orthodoxy of Texas's scat­tered
Syrian pioneers.
, By 1932, Austin's Orthodox immi­grants
had already spent a decade con­ducting
periodic services in members'
homes and in rented halls whenever a
traveling priest arrived. In that year, St.
Elias Orthodox Church was begun, utiliz­ing
conventional Middle Eastern archi­tecture.
Finished in 1934, it serves a wide
Central Texas area. Its only full-time
priest, the Rev. James Rottle from Tripoli,
has served since 1943. For a generation,
the parish has held a Lebanese Food
Festival, much to the delight of Austin­ites.
Houston's Orthodox community had
been visited for over a decade by priests
from Beaumont before the first St.
George's Church building was purchased
in 1936 from a departing Methodist con­gregation.
During the 1920's a Syrian
Ladies Aid Society had started fund
raising by giving Arabic dinners, a tra­dition
that continues in semi-annual food
festivals. Located on Houston's near north
side, the frame structure served the grow­ing
parish until a new brick church was
completed in another part of the city in
the 1960's. The present church is dis­tinguished
by its modern architecture,
its onyx windows, and its magnificent
icon-covered screen before the sanctuary.
EI Paso's St. George Orthodox Church
began with the arrival of large numbers
of Lebanese settlers after World War I.
Served only by visiting priests at first, a
meeting house was bought in 1948 and a
new church built in 1952. Father Nicho­las
Husson served the parish of EI Paso
CONSTANTINE HADDAD AND NEPHEWS
and Juarez, Mexico, from 1950 until his
death in 1967. Today, the Orthodox heri­tage
of the state's Lebanese and Syrian
immigrants is firmly based in four Texas
cities.
THE HADDAD BROTHERS
1908
Three Haddad brothers-William, Con­stantine,
and Joseph-established Tyler'S
Mecca Cafe shortly after their arrival
from Beirut, Lebanon in 1908. Together,
they ran it for over thirty years. During
the East Texas oil boom, the Mecca was
a gathering place for hoards of specula­tors,
geologists, and la~d m~m. The Had­dads
later acquired real estate and oil
Courtesy of Edward W. Schaded
interests and became civic leaders in their
adopted hometown. They helped charter
the local Cedars of Lebanon Club, one of
the region'S oldest and strongest Lebanese
organizations. Their six sisters also settled
in Texas.
Until his death in 1939, William "Bill"
Haddad was widely known as a restau­rateur
and strong supporter of civic,
church, and sports activities. As Tyler'S
"Mr. Baseball," he was an expert who
attended all the local games. His brother,
Joseph, became a prominent real estate
broker and insurance man after 1940. He
was also a bank director and board mem­ber
of Tyler's Lone Star Steel Corpora­tion.
,
Constantine Haddad, the last surviving
brother, used resources acquired in com­mercial
property and oil investments to
benefit Tyler's Catholic schools and hos­pitals.
Haddad Hall at the Mother
Frances Hospital was named in his honor.
The Haddad Hospital in JaIl EI Dib,
Lebanon, founded by a relative, also
benefitted from his philanthropy. When
he died in 1961, part of his estate was left
to the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, to be
used for Tyler's parish needs.
LEON CURRY
1909
Born at Saghbine, Lebanon, in 1870, Leon
Curry immigrated first to South America
in 1890, and later to Mexico. He came to
San Antonio in 1909, as a consequence
of the Mexican Revolution, and opened a
dry goods store. He raised a large family,
wrote articles for New York's EI Hoda,
II
THE LEON CURRY FAMILY Courtesy of Mrs. Ralph Karam
12
and acted as unofficial scribe for San An­tonio's
Lebanese colony. He died in 1941,
survived by two sons who have led inter­esting
and useful lives of their own.
Joseph Curry became an inventor and
manufacturer of machinery used in pro­cessing
Mexican food. Another son, Judge
Peter Michael Curry, graduated from
The University of Texas School of Law
shortly before entering World War II
service. He rose to the rank of major
while stationed in the European and
North African theaters. Back in San An­tonio,
he practiced both civil and crimi­nal
law until being appointed as 166th
District Judge in 1963. He has been twice
reelected to that position and became pre­siding
judge of the Fourth Administra­tive
Judicial District on the retirement of
Judge Solomon Casseb, Jr. in 1968. Judge
Curry became one of three Lebanese
Texan judges serving in San Antonio dur­ing
the later 1960s.
ZACHARY MAFRIGE
1911
Zachary Mafrige was one of nineteen
youths who departed Lebanon aboard a
Spanish ship bound for Havana in 1886.
He was then twenty years old. Yellow
fever broke out during the voyage and
killed half the group; the survivors were
left in Cuba to recuperate. Zachary then
made his way to New York, and from
there peddled jewelry to St. Louis, Fort
Smith, and San Francisco. From 1886
until 1911, he stayed in Seattle, where he
operated a dry goods business. The 1907
panic wiped him out, but he had re-
./ ""c:.:.
;. -." " ......
~ ..?"
.' .. .. . -.
ZACHARY AND STEVENS MAFRIGR
covered to some extent by 1910, when he
sent his wife and two children to Cuero,
Texas, where his relatives, the Namis
lived.
The following year he joined them, and
briefly operated the N avidad Hotel. In
1912, he opened a small dry goods store,
the Z. A. Mafrige General Store, and
then a confectionary. In 1918 his son,
Stevens, took over the dry goods business,
and three years later, Mafrige opened a
'"
-,
-~,~
':. --
....~ .. ...
Courtesy of Stevens Mafrige
wholesale dry goods establishment with
government surplus material for starting
stock. The family stayed in Cuero until
1927, when they moved to Houston,
though they continued operating the
Cuero store until 1931. Zachary died at
Houston in 1946, but his son remained in
the business until 1951, when he became
a realtor.
Stevens Mafrige and his wife, Marie,
became well known for their contribu-tions,
both in the St. George's Antiochian
Orthodox Church and the Southern Fed­eration
of Syrian Lebanese American
Clubs. Their gifts to St. George's made
possible the construction of the Mafrige
Memorial Auditorium in memory of his
parents and sister. The auditorium was
completed in 1959, and served as the
chapel for the congregation until the new
sanctuary could be built. Stevens and
Marie Mafrige had been supporters of
the Southern Federation since its incep­tion.
In 1964, they established an annual
scholarship fund for the organization.
When Mrs. Mafrige died in 1970, the
fund was named in her memory.
NAHIM ABRAHAM
1913
Nahim Abraham, merchant and CIVIC
leader of Canadian, Texas, was born at
Kafracab, in 1885. At seventeen he began
carrying a peddler's suitcase from the
Rockies to the Texas Panhandle. In the
next decade he made several trips back
to Lebanon and, on one occasion, visited
Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the intention of
settling in South America. However, Tex­as
attracted him more. On a last trip to
his native Kafracab, Nahim married Alia
Malouf, the daughter of a local doctor.
Two sons were born before he returned to
the United States in 1912. A year later,
he established permanent roots in Cana­dian,
where he was soon joined by his
wife and two sons. Two other sons were
born to the couple in Texas.
Nahim and Alia Abraham opened a
department store which they called "The
13
Fair." They ran it until their retirement
in 1949, when son Tom took over. An­other
son, Naceeb, owned an office supply
firm in Amarillo. The Edward Abraham
Memorial Home in Canadian honors the
memory of a third son, who died in 1961.
The youngest child is Malouf Abraham,
nicknamed "Oofie" by his schoolmates.
Graduated from high school at fourteen,
he attended Texas Tech University, then
THE ABRAHAM STORE AT CANADIAN
returned to Canadian, where he entered
the real estate and oil and gas leasing
business. From 1967 to 1971, he served as
a Republican member of the Texas House
of Representatives. "Oofie" Abraham has
also been a director of the West Texas
Chamber of Commerce and a member of
numerous petroleum associations. One of
his sons, Malouf, Jr., is presently a doctor
in Canadian.
Courtesy of Malouf Abraham
JOHN S. MALOUF
1913
When John S. Malouf and five members
of his family arrived at Ellis Island, New
York, in 1912, he could thank fate for
intervening to save his life. His sister,
Helen, had telephoned him in London,
asking that he await her arrival there so
she could join them on the trip to Ameri­ca.
This caused the family to miss its
scheduled voyage on the Titantic.
Malouf began his new life as a peddler
on the streets of Salt Lake City. His wife
and three children stayed in their native
Kafracab, Lebanon, hoping to join him in
a year or so. About 1913, Malouf drifted
to the Texas Panhandle town of Canadian,
where his relatives, the Abrahams, lived.
With two or three suitcases in hand, he
sold enough piece goods and trim to be
able to send for his wife and children.
However, the British blockade of the
Lebanese coast prevented communication
with his family until the end of World
War 1. Meanwhile, he and Joe Schaded
ran a dry goods store at Dalhart. In 1920,
Malouf went to Lebanon, was reunited
with his family, and returned to Texas
in 1922. He opened a dry goods store at
Rotan. Retiring in 1944, he died three
~~l~ff~Dill~. ,
John Malouf saw that his children had
college educations. In 1941, three Malouf
sons opened a ladies' dress shop in Dallas.
Eventually, they began manufacturing
dresses. Business prospered until the
Malouf Company had six plants in
Northeast Texas cities. Today, Eblen
Malouf is chairman of the board, while
JOHN S. MALOUF Courtesy of Mrs. John S. Malouf
his son, Ronnie, is charged with day-to­day
operation.
The Maloufs of Dallas are part of the
larger Malouf clan which includes the
Salems of Sudan, the Abrahams of Cana­dian,
the Schadeds of Tyler, and various
Malouf families in Lubbock and Post.
FRED KADANE
1914
In his lifetime Fred Kadane entered
several diverse businesses and made
money in each one. He started as a ped­dler,
later opened a dry goods store, then
became a wholesaler of poultry and eggs,
butter and cheese. Next he joined his
brother, George, in oil exploration, and
finally he became a manufacturer of
men's trousers. His was a well-known and
respected name at his death in 1962.
Kadane was born in the Lebanese
mountain village of Baskinta in 1883, and
came to America as a small boy with his
mother and young brother, Charles. In
New York City he obtained his first job
in a shoelace factory, where he earned a
dollar fifty per week. Soon he was ped­dling
collar buttons and newspapers on
lower Broadway to help his mother. In
time they were joined by Kadane's older
brother and sister. The family tried
manufacturing novelties in their apart­ment;
but in 1896, they came to Denison,
Texas, then a raw railroad town.
For three years they peddled notions
afoot and from a wagon. George eventu­ally
became an oilman and Fred opened
a dry goods store in Denison. He also
became a successful dealer in poultry and
15
16
eggs. In 1910, he moved to Dallas and
expanded into the butter and cheese busi­ness.
Later, he established the Texas Mar­garine
Company and pioneered the
manufacture of vegetable margarine and
salad dressing.
As early as 1914, Fred Kadane became
involved with his brother, George, in oil
exploration and drilling in Oklahoma and
Texas. Their Western Drilling Company
sank thirteen wells in the Burkburnett
oilfield. In 1937, there were further
Kadane family discoveries in the KMA
field near Wichita Falls. Between 1939
and 1943, Fred owned a factory that pro­duced
more than a million pairs of trou­sers
for the United States government at
the outset of World War II. After selling
this enterprise in 1943, he founded the
Southwest Margarine Company, which
marketed the Admiration and Sun Valley
brands. Fred Kadane died in 196Z. A son,
Sheffield, was recently a two-term mem­ber
of the Dallas City Council.
CECIL LOTIEF
1919
Cecil Lotief was the first Texas legislator
of Lebanese ancestry and a man much
beloved for his work in the Southern
Federation of Syrian Lebanese American
Clubs. Born at Jouret EI Termos, Leb­anon,
in 1888, he immigrated to the
United States at seventeen. Landing at
Galveston in 1904, he settled in Tyler and
began peddling merchandise to isolated
homes and lumber camps in the Piney
Woods. The following year, he opened a
confectionary in Tyler, which he operated CECIL LOTIEF Courtesy of the Rev. Cecil Lotief, Jr.
,,#
MANSOUR FARAH
until 1909, when he bought a store III
Oklahoma.
Ten years later, Lotief was back in
Texas, where for forty-two years he ran
dry goods stores in Cisco, Cross Plains,
Eastland, and Rotan. He was married to
Margaret Joseph in Shreveport, Louisi­ana.
His three children were born in
Cross Plains, and most of his life was
spent in small towns surrounding Abi­lene,
Texas. In the 1920's he became ac­tive
in Democratic politics. He served in
the legislature from 1933 to 1937 as a
representative from Callahan County,
was a delegate to the National Demo­cratic
Convention in 1944, and was mayor
of Rotan from 1954 to 1956. Lotief died
in 1971.
~ ,~ ~ ,~
, ,
Antone, William Farah, Industrialist
MANSOUR FARAH
1920
In 1920, Mansour Farah of El Paso rented
a 25' x 50' room and began producing
work shirts and pants. Today, the Farah
Manufacturing Company operates fac­tories
in El Paso, San Antonio, and Vic­toria.
Mansour Farah, born at Baskinta, Leb­anon
in 1885, came to Canada with his
parents as a child. In 1905, young Farah
and his brother, Andrew, established a
dry goods and feed store at Las Cruces,
New Mexico. There he married Hana
Abihider and had two sons, James and
Willie. In 1920, he visited New York City
to study shirt design and production
methods, then moved to El Paso to open
his own business. From a small rented
room and a handful of employees, Man­sour
Farah slowly built the company.
During the 1930's it was moved to
larger quarters and continued producing
work shirts and denim pants. Farah him­self
served as designer, cutter, salesman,
and janitor. Three years before his death
in 1937, the company began manufactur­ing
khaki shirts and trousers. James Farah
took charge and obtained record produc­tion
of military clothing during the war.
J ames worked long hours to keep the aged
machinery in repair, while his mother
supervised the sewing rooms. Willie
Farah became a combat pilot in the
European theater.
Following the war, the company looked
increasingly to national trends and mar­kets.
During the 1950's and 1960's, it ex­panded
into the dress trousers field, in­creased
production facilities in El Paso,
and opened new plants elsewhere. When
J ames Farah died in 1964, his brother
assumed direction of the business. In
1967, the Farah Company became a pub­lic
corporation. Both Mansour Farah's
enterprise and his family have con­tributed
generously to El Paso's civic and
charitable drives, to hospital and nursing
home construction, and to scholarships in
science and engineering at The Univer­sity
of Texas at El Paso.
THE VERY REV.
NICHOLAS NAHAS
1920
As a pioneer Syrian Orthodox missionary
in Texas and the Southwest, Father
17
THE VERY REV. NICHOLAS NAHAS Courtesy of Mrs. Nicholas A. Nahas
18
Nicholas Nahas came to Beaumont in
1920 to rebuild the storm-destroyed St.
Michael's Church. For the next fifteen
years he ministered to Texas's oldest
Syrian Orthodox parish and to Orthodox
people scattered from EI Paso to Western
Louisiana. Upon call, Father Nahas
would pack his vestments and sacra­mental
vessels into an old satchel and
catch the next train from Beaumont. His
aim was to keep alive the Orthodoxy of
his fellow immigrants until they were
able to organize and build churches for
themselves.
Nicholas Nahas was born into a mer­chant
family in the port city of Tripoli,
Lebanon in 1888. His first trip to New
York, in 1904, ended two years later
when he returned to Tripoli to care for
his aged parents. He became a school
teacher and, in 1909, was married to
Anna Suratie. In 1912, the young couple
came to America with their son, Jack.
While studying for the priesthood in New
York, Nicholas also taught in the Arabic
School and was assistant editor of The
Mirror of the W est, an Arabic newspaper.
He was ordained in 1916.
As a priest of the Syrian Orthodox
diocese in North America, Father Nahas
served parishes in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and New York before accepting Texas's
first parish at Beaumont. In Beaumont,
he rebuilt the church, started an Arabic
school, and began traveling throughout
the state to minister to the faithful. In
addition, he introduced English into the
liturgy in an effort to attract American­born
Lebanese who did not know Arabic.
In 1923, he compiled an early history of
the Orthodox Church in America, and a
year later he and his wife, Anna, trans­lated
the basic rituals into English. After
1935, Father Nahas served the Beaumont
parish only occasionally. Until his death
and burial at Beaumont in 1964, he was
a missionary throughout the Midwest,
Canada, Mexico, and Central America.
SOLOMON CASSEB. SR.
1923
Solomon Casseb, Sr. established San An­tonio's
first supermarket and became one
of the city's leading realtors before his
death in 1958. Married to the daughter of
an Italian produce merchant, he also
raised five sons and two daughters who
continue a family tradition of public
servIce.
Casseb was born at Beirut, Lebanon, in
1885. His father, a policeman, was killed
in a mountain snowslide while on patrol,
and young Solomon was raised by his
widowed mother. At sixteen he went to
live with his uncle, Elias Abdo, at
Kenedy, Texas. After working a year, he
arrived in San Antonio, where he at­tended
night school and peddled fruit on
the streets until he entered the produce
business with Arredo Fahro. In time, he
sent for his mother and brother, George.
Later, he and his brother formed their
own produce establishment, which they
operated until George joined the army
during World War 1. They sold out in
1918, and Solomon became a real estate
investor. In 1921, he bought property on
Alamo Plaza, which he renovated two ANNIE SWIA CASSEB AND SONS Courtesy of Florence Casseb
19
20
years later into San Antonio's first super­market.
In the 1930's he entered the real
estate business exclusively.
Two of Solomon Casseb's sons, George
and Joe, became bankers and two others,
Paul and Solomon, Jr., established law
practices. Solomon, Jr. graduated from
The University of Texas School of Law
and was admitted to the bar in 1938. On
the eve of World War II he was elected
vice president of the Southern Federation
of Syrian Lebanese American Clubs.
During the war, he served in the Army
Air Corps in the South Pacific, attaining
the rank of major. After the war he re­sumed
his law practice until 1960, when
he was appointed to fill an unexpired
term as judge of the Fifty-Seventh Dis­trict
Court. Elected twice afterwards, he
was named presiding judge of the Fourth
Administrative Judicial District. He re­turned
to private practice in 1969, and in
1971, became a Fellow of the Interna­tional
Academy of Trial Lawyers.
DR. SOLOMON DAVID
1923
For many years, Dr. Solomon David has
been one of Texas's most respected ortho­pedic
surgeons. Born at Rachaya, Leb­anon,
in 1888, he was educated at the
Irish Presbyterian School in Damascus.
He began teaching school, but his family's
close ties with Protestant missionaries had
both political and interdenominational
repercussions. David decided, in 1908, to
come to the N ew World.
In America, he sold linens for awhile,
then went to St. Paul, Minnesota, to con-
DR. & MRS. SOLOMON DAVID
Courtesy of Dr. Solomon David
tinue his education. After a year of pre­paratory
work, he entered Macalester
College, from which he graduated in
1912. He enrolled in the University of
Minnesota Medical College, finished his
course work four years later, then joined
the United States Army Medical Corps
in 1917 as a first lieutenant. David was
assigned as regimental surgeon of the
Eighty-Second Field Artillery at Ft. Bliss,
Texas, and participated in General Per­shing's
expedition against Pancno Villa
in Mexico. Discharged as a captain in
1920, he went to Houston as an employee
of the United States Public Health Serv­ice
for two years. He spent another year
in Boston, continuing his medical studies,
then returned to Houston in 1923 to open
his own orthopedic surgery clinic.
David became a leading specialist in
bone and joint surgery and, for a time,
was chief orthopedic surgeon at the
Methodist Hospital. He has written
articles on his specialty for leading medi­cal
journals and has served as president
of the Texas Orthopedic Society. As a
further contribution to the medical pro­fession,
he donated the David Orthopedic
Library to the Fondren Orthopedic Center
of the Methodist Hospital at Houston's
famed Medical Center. The library, given
in memory of his wife, Victoria, is sup­ported
by the David Foundation.
M. K. HAGEl SR.
1923
M. K. Hage, Sr. became a prominent Cen­tral
Texas name because of the variety
stores he operated in Austin, Taylor, and
San Marcos. As a young man in Lebanon,
his father had taught him the stone­mason's
trade. At twenty-three Hage took
a mallet and chisel, selected a large stone
near the village fountain at Roumie and
thereon carved an inscription: "In April,
1912, M. K. Hage left his country." With
money borrowed from his father, he be­gan
his journey to Wheeling, West Vir­ginia,
where a brother, John K., lived.
After long, hard hours working in the
coal mines and steel mills around Wheel­ing
to repay his father, M. K. moved on
to Texas, where he became a peddler at
Manor, a small cotton farming com­munity
fifteen miles east of Austin. Ger­man
and Swedish families had already
broken the rich, blackland soil, but there
were few nearby stores where they could
get food and supplies. Another Hage
brother, Assad, had capitalized on this
situation by opening a store prior to
M. K.'s arrival. After a decade of work­ing
for his brother, M. K. moved to Aus­tin
to enter business for himself.
Within a year, he had opened his first
variety store; others followed. In the early
1930's he helped organize the St. Elias
Orthodox Church. Near the end of his life
he entered the building and construction
business in Austin, and had achieved
notable success before his death in 1966.
His son, M. K. Hage, Jr., continued his
father's enterprise after a sixteen-year
teaching and school administration ca-
M. K. HAGE, SR. Courtesy of M. K. Hage, Jr.
reer. Elected to the board of the Austin
Independent School District in 1964, he
currently serves as chairman.
NEWMAN McKOOL
1924
Newman and Lola McKool left three of
their children in Lebanon when they
came to America. About 1893, they and
their six-year old son, Charles, immi­grated
to Waco, and began peddling
household goods. "Buy, please" and
"Thank you" were among the first Eng­lish
words they learned to speak as they
sold socks, buttons, needles, and similar
articles.
. I
When Charles was eighteen, he re-turned
to Lebanon and got married dur­ing
a six-month stay. Back in America,
he opened a grocery store in Shreveport,
Louisiana; however, his travels were not
over. The McKool family moved to New
York state for six months and then, in
1917, to Mexico City, where Charles
managed an uncle's shoe factory and dry
goods store. The family sta:yed in Mexico
for seven years before returning to the
United States to settle at Dallas. There,
Charles McKool was active in the restau­rant
business until his death in 1947.
One of his six children, Mike, became
a successful attorney following gradua­tion
from Southern Methodist University
Law School. In World War II, he was a
tail gunner of a B-24 bomber. Shot down
over Yugoslavia, he was later rescued by
the Chetnik partisans. After the war he
entered politics in Dallas County and
served from 1969 to 1973 in the Texas
MR. & MRS. CHARLES MCKOOL
Courtesy of Patricia McKool
Senate, where he set a new filibuster
record of forty-two hours, thirty-three
minutes while trying to add more budget
money for mental health and mental re­tardation
programs in Texas.
ST. GEORGE MARONITE
CHURCH OF SAN
ANTONIO
1925
The Maronites, an Eastern Rite of the
Catholic Church, are found throughout
Texas, but only in San Antonio's St.
George Maronite parish has a church
been built to perpetuate this ancient
ritual. In other cities the Maronites have
been assimilated into Roman Catholic
21
ST. GEORGE MARONlTE CHURCH
22
~
ITC Collection
parishes. In San Antonio, Maronites, who
comprise eighty percent of the Lebanese
colony, formed their own parish in 1925.
Today, it is part of the Maronite Exar­chate
of North America, ruled, since
1967, by a bishop representing the Patri­arch
of Antioch in Lebanon. The Maro­nite
mass in Texas is conducted in Arabic
with phrases in English and in Aramaic,
the language of Christ. The liturgy is that
of St. James the Apostle, and the music
reflects the use of Arabic hymns and
modes.
Lebanese Maronites began settling at
San Antonio in the early 1880's, although
the church was not established until 1925.
A large initial contribution by Annie
Casseb and assistance from others in the
Lebanese community enabled the Maro­nites
to acquire a small frame duplex on
San Antonio's near west side, where most
of the immigrants lived. The first priest,
the Rev. George Aziz, lived upstairs and
offered mass on the first floor. A new brick
church was completed in 1932, during
the pastorate of the Rev. Elias Najem. In
1952, the Mediterranean-style church
was moved brick-by-brick to a new site
because of freeway construction. By that
time, the Lebanese neighborhood was dis­integrating,
as the second and third gene­rations
moved to newer areas of the city.
St. George's continues, however, to be the
center for San Antonio's Lebanese com­munity.
Its priests, usually from Leb­anon,
have provided religious rites not
only for San Antonio's Maronites, but for
those in other Texas cities.
Community spirit has always been
"MAGIC IS THE NIGHT"
strong and, in 1964, led to a city-wide
festival called "Magic is the Night." Pre­ceded
by the mayor's proclamation of
Lebanese Colony Week, the festival an­nually
entertains thousands of non-Leb­anese
with Arabic music, dancing, cos­tumes,
and food. An amateur dance troup
of parish youth offers its version of the
Middle Eastern harem dance. Enthusi­astic
festival-goers also enjoy learning the
Dabke, a traditional Lebanese village
dance.
Fred Damon Photographics
LOUIS HADDAD
1926
Farming attracted relatively few of Tex­as's
Lebanese immigrants; however, Louis
Haddad was an .exception. He became a
rice farmer on the Gulf Coast almost as
soon as he reached Texas from his native
Endara. Born in 1880 to a family of grain,
vegetable, and silkworm growers, Had­dad
left his wife and infant son in 1912 to
come to America. He intended to return
to his native land in a few years, but
fourteen passed before he again saw his
family.
In the meantime, he settled at Neder­land,
Texas and worked two years on a
rice farm before beginning his own oper­ation.
He was located first at Spindletop,
then Fannett, and finally at La Belle,
near Beaumont. Mules were used for
plowing and pulling the drill; steam­powered
threshing machines were rented.
Haddad bought his first tractor in 1925,
the year before his wife and son, Daher,
finally joined him in Texas. Since then,
four generations of the family have be­come
Gulf Coast rice farmers.
Louis Haddad retired in 1947 and
turned the operation over to his son,
Daher. The family is active in Syrian
Lebanese club work in the Beaumont­Port
Arthur area, and in Syrian Orthodox
church affairs. Daher's wife, Esma, is a
mainstay of the International Club at
Lamar University, helping hundreds of
foreign students to adjust to American
life.
J. M. HAGGAR
1926
One of America's largest clothing manu­facturers,
one who has helped revolution­ize
the industry, is Lebanese-born J. M.
Haggar of Dallas, Texas. He visited Mex­ico
as a teenager in 1909. After deciding
to return home, he changed his mind
during a stopover at New Orleans. He
made his way to St. Louis by chopping
cotton and driving wagons. There, he was
employed in a dry goods store before
moving to Bristow, Oklahoma, where he
23
24
J. M. HAGGAR
clerked in a grocery store, bought cotton,
and sold oil leases. In 1915, he married
Rose Wasoff, then became sales repre­sentative
for a firm that manufactured
pants and overalls. In 1920, he moved to
Dallas and six years later invested his
savings in his own company.
Haggar rented space in the old Santa
Fe Building and started business with
eighty used sewing machines and about
one hundred employees. A hard trader
with an uncanny ability to anticipate
selling patterns, he quickly became a
major force in the clothing industry. His
Haggar Company, Inc.
company was one-of the first to advertise
nationally. Today, Haggar slacks are pro­duced
in fifteen plants located in Texas
and Oklahoma. He serves as chairman of
the board, while his sons, J. M., Jr. and
Ed, conduct the day-to-day affairs of the
vast enterprise.
In 1972, the elder Haggar celebrated
his eightieth birthday with a three mil­lion
dollar donation to educational, medi­cal,
and civic . charities through the
foundation which bears his name. The
Haggar Hall of Psychology at Notre
Dame and the Haggar Student Center at
the University of Dallas both resulted
from his generosity. He has also aided
various denominational schools in the
Dallas area and made possible an added
wing at St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis,
Tennessee. Haggar funds have been
established for civic development in four­teen
communities where his factories are
located. The Boy Scouts and the Salvation
Army have also benefitted from his
patronage. These charitable efforts have
earned J. M. Haggar several national
awards for community service.
JOE T. SA LEM
1931
Not all contributions of Lebanese Texans
to the history and culture of the Lone
Star State have occurred in the larger
towns and cities. They have been wel­comed
and assimilated into countless
rural communities where they have pro­vided
firmly established leadership for
many years. Such an example is Joe T.
Salem of Sudan, Texas, a small town fifty
miles northwest of Lubbock. Here, Salem
has had a highly regarded career as a dry
goods merchant, farmer, and civic and
religious leader.
Born in Kafracab, Lebanon in 1904,
Salem was eight when he and his brothers
joined their father who had previously
settled at Provo, Utah. While his father
and older brothers worked, young Joe
acquired a sixth grade education. His
mother and sisters came to America at
the first opportunity, and when his father
died in 1915, Joe accompanied one broth­er
and the women of the family to Cana-
dian, where they had relatives, the
Maloufs. Forced to quit school and earn
a livelihood, he began as a peddler, then
opened a dry goods store at Ranger in the
waning days of the oil boom there.
In 1931, Salem moved his wife and son
to Sudan, where he opened another dry
goods establishment. The family lived in
cramped quarters at the back of the build­ing.
During harvest seasons the tiny store
was usually crowded until midnight on
Saturdays. With proceeds of the day's
sales in hand, he would reorder stock im­mediately
to be ready for the following
Saturday's rush. In time the business was
expanded in a new location, but it con­tinued
as a family operation until 1954.
After struggling to make his store a
success during the Depression, Salem
gave both time and effort to civic en­deavor.
He was chamber of commerce
president from 1933 to 1941, and a direc­tor
of the regional West Texas chamber
in 1936.
JOE T. SALEM Courtesy of Joe T. Salem
SOUTHERN FEDERATION CONVENTION, 1932
THE SOUTHERN
FEDERATION OF
SYRIAN LEBANESE
AMERICAN CLUBS
1931
The emblem of the Southern Federation
of Syrian Lebanese American Clubs de­picts
a Phoenician galley departing the
cedar-covered hills of Lebanon. The or­ganization
itself dates from 1931, when
the idea was expressed during a July 4th
convention sponsored by the Young
Men;s Amusement Club of Port Arthur.
Two months later, the details of a federa­tion
were worked out at a Labor Day
gathering initiated by a Syrian girls' club
in Austin. During the fo.llowing weeks,
Courtesy of Kamal Antone
clubs from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, and Alabama attended organ­izational
meetings. The first convention
was held at Beaumont in 1932. A con­stitution
was adopted and officers elected;
H. A. Amuny of Port Arthur became the
first president. Within ten years the Fed­eration
had expanded to the East Coast.
Conventions were suspended during
World War II, but the Federation con­tributed
to the war effort, principally by
sponsoring War Bond drives.
The organization's bi-monthly news­letter
began in 1933 as a column, "The
Galley" in The Syrian Voice, a New York
City newspaper. By 1936, The Official
Bulletin had achieved its present format.
25
I
I
I
26
The current editor is Kamal Antone, him­self
an organizer of the Federation. The
records on file at the Houston office are
the best archive available on the Lebanese
in Texas and the South.
With the establishment of Lebanese
neighborhoods, clubs, and churches dur­ing
the early 1900's, assistance often was
forthcoming to the unfortunate, the un­employed,
the sick, and the orphaned.
With the creation of the Federation in
1931, aid on a much larger scale became
feasible. Relief was now given to the
refugees of Middle Eastern conflicts, and
to natural disaster victims in Syria, Leb­anon,
and America itself.
Scholarships have also been a principal
activity of the Southern Federation pro­gram.
A student loan fund was initiated
in the 1930's, and in 1948, a scholarship
program was established which has
handed out over $100,000 from nine dif­ferent
funds. In addition, the Federation's
Kahlil Gibran awards have honored
America's most popular author from Leb­anon.
Since 1969, donations have been
made to the Center for Middle Eastern
Studies at The University of Texas at
Austin. In 1973, the Southern Federation
Foundation, Inc. was formed as a Texas
corporation to manage the scholarship
and charitable programs.
Today, the Southern Federation is com­prised
of approximately seventy clubs in
over fifty Southern cities, with a total
membership exceeding 2,700. Texas, the
pioneer state of the Federation, has
twenty-five clubs in a dozen cities from
Beaumont-Port Arthur to EI Paso. It pro-vides
a forum in which Arabic-speaking
people can foster their customs, music,
food, language, folklore, hospitality, and
devotion to heritage. Families and friends
meet to exchange news and to introduce
their children. A nonpolitical, nonsec­tarian
policy is followed. At convention
parties, dances, banquets, and official
meetings, the traditions of old and new
homelands are blended in a mixture of
patriotism and pride.
ANTHONY R. FERRIS
1932
Anthony Ferris combined a full life in
business, education, and service to his
adopted country with a love of his native
Ara bic literature and music ~ As trans­lator
of the writings of Kahlil Gibran, the
world-famous Lebanese mystic, philos­opher,
artist, and poet, Ferris made a last­ing
contribution to the literary arts.
Born in Roumie, Lebanon in 1907,
Ferris received an excellent education at
the British Missio:nary School in Brou­mana
and at the American University of
Beirut. After a brief teaching career, he
came to visit an uncle, Saadi Ferris, in
Texas during the early 1930's. He ad­dressed
the organizational meeting of the
Southern Federation of Syrian Lebanese
American Clubs at Austin in 19:3'1 and is
listed as one of its founders. After a visit
to Cuba, Ferris was readmitted on the
Lebanese immigration quota in 1932, and
settled in Austin, where he worked with
his brother, Elias, in a pharmacy.
In the years that followed he received
undergraduate and graduate degrees
ANTHONY R. FERRIS
Courtesy of Anthony P. Ferris
from The University of Texas at Austin.
During World War II he was an officer
instructor at Lackland Air Force Base
near San Antonio. Later, he became a
teacher and eventually a lecturer at the
university in Austin. From 1959 to 1962,
he was a consultant on foreign languages
for the Texas Education Agency. He was
married to Carmen Kazen, daughter of
the pioneer merchant, Abraham Kazen,
of Laredo. Their son, Anthony, became
a lawyer in the Kazen family tradition.
Ferris's renditions of Gibran have bene­fitted
a wide public. Faithful to the idea
and style, he painstakingly translated the
difficult Arabic into English to supple­ment
the existing versions available to
the reading public. Before Ferris's death
at Austin in 1962, he was responsible for
no less than six volumes of Gibran's work
in English.
........
,(
"
#
MR. & MRS. BOBBY MANZIEL AND DAUGHTER ON RIGHT Courtesy of Mrs. Bobby Mfnziel
BOBBY MANZIEL
1932
One of Texas's most successful wildcatters
and independent oil operators, Bobby
Manziel, acted as his own geologist and
opened up nine fields during the great
East Texas boom of the 1930's. Located
in Wood, Smith, and Marion Counties,
the fields were named for members of his
family. One of his wells, drilled near
Hawkins in 1940, resulted in the com­pletion
of 243 additional wells which
produced 1.5 million barrels of crude
within a year's time.
Manziel was born in Lebanon in 1905,
and was brought by his parents to Ameri­ca
when he was only a year old. The
family settled in Arkansas. As a young­ster,
Manziel worked as a paper boy and
sold peanuts at sporting events. Later, he
became a boxing and wrestling promoter
in Arkansas, and a sportswriter for news­papers
in Monroe, Louisiana, and Fort
Smith, Arkansas. In 1932, he moved to
Gladewater, Texas, where he operated a
small hotel, until the opportunity arose
to enter the oil business. On one occasion
his friend, Jack Dempsey, loaned him
four hupdred dollars to c'omplete a wild­cat
well. Dempsey said later that it was
the best investment he ever made. Sub­sequently,
the two became partners on
many successful business ventures. In the
early 1950's Manziel planned construc­tion
of a twenty-two-thousand-seat sports
stadium near Tyler as a result of his life­time
interest in such activities.
His business empire grew to include
banks, hotels, and newspapers, as well as
oil production. He was proud of his an­cestry,
and was an organizer of Tyler'S
Cedars of Lebanon Club. He was also vice
president of the Southern Federation of
Syrian Lebanese American Clubs. Two
years before his death in 1956, he estab­lished
the Bobby Manziel Scholarship
Award. His widow, Dorothy, has con­tinued
the tradition of generous contribu­tions
to scholarships and Federation
charities.
GEORGE E. KADANE
1935
The fabulous story of oilman George E.
Kadane began in the mountain village of
Baskinta, Lebanon, in 1880. At eleven his
father died and his mother was faced with
the task of supporting her children. She
immigrated to America with her young­est
sons, Fred and Charlie. George and a
younger sister arrived later.
When the family reached Denison,
Texas, in 1896, George had already tired
of the peddler'S life. Five years later he
apprenticed an architect and builder and
quickly learned his life's trade. One of
Kadane's first projects was construction
of the Catholic Church at Denison. He
educated himself at night by reading
an encyclopedia. He also learned draft­ing
and became his own architect. Soon
he had a thriving business in North Texas
and Oklahoma.
The Kadane enterprises grew to include
highway and railroad construction. By
1914, he was using his own drilling rig
to explore for oil in Oklahoma. Four years
later he returned to Texas, first to Dallas
then, in 1918, to Wichita Falls, where he
and his brother, Fred, formed the Western
Drilling Company, which had its first
27
great success in the Burkburnett boom.
He also drilled in fields at Breckenridge,
Ranger, Desdemona, and Mexia. Return­ing
to Oklahoma, he reentered the con­tracting
business, and also operated movie
houses in Frederick and Altus, Oklahoma.
In 1935 he was back in Wichita Falls,
drilling for oil in partnership with his
sons and his brother, Fred. After eight
dry holes, the Kadanes brought in their
first sensational wildcat well in what be­came
a sixty-thousand-acre field. Later,
there were significant discoveries in Okla­homa
and California.
George Kadane died in 1945, but his
sons continued in the petroleum industry.
Jack Kadane brought in twelve new fields
in north and west Texas and pioneered
development of the thermal process for
the secondary recovery of oil and gas.
Jack died in 1972. Today, only Eddie
Kadane remains active in his father's pro­fession.
GEORGE KADANE
Courtesy of Margaret Kadane Binger _ > ...r';. l.it!MW:Y' ....
NAJEEB E. HALABY
1944
One of the most celebrated names in the
American aviation industry is that of
Najeeb Halaby, Jr., a Dallas native of
Syrian ancestry. In 1927, the twelve-year­old
Halaby was in the throng that greeted
Charles A. Lindbergh's triumphal visit
to Dallas, following his historic solo flight
across the Atlantic. Then and there, the
youngster determined to become an
aviator. By the time he entered college,
he owned his own plane.
Halaby's Syrian father, born at Aleppo
in 1880, came as an eight year old to New
York with his parents. At fourteen he be­gan
learning the ihterior decorator's
trade. Between 1891 and 1910, he moved
to South America, back to New York, to
New Orleans, and to Dallas, where he
imported oriental rugs, was an interior
decorator, and later ran an art shop in the
Neiman-Marcus store.
His son, Najeeb, Jr., was born in 1915,
educated in the Dallas public schools,
graduated from Stanford University, and
received a Yale law degree in 1940. Dur­ing
W orld War II he gained a reputation
for courage and intelligence as a Navy
test pilot. He manned the first cross coun­try
flight of a jet plane in 1944. From
1948 to 1954, he held important adminis­trative
positions in the Department of
Defense. He then practiced corporate law
until 1961, when President Kennedy ap­pointed
him director of the Federal Avia­tion
Administration.
In 1965, America's top civilian aviator
left government service, having helped
NAJEEB E. HALABY
Southern Federation Bulletin
frame new safety regulations that had
reduced airline crash fatalities by two­thirds.
He joined Pan American World
Airways and rose to become president and
chief executive officer. In 1974, he formed
his own Halaby International Corpora­tion,
a venture capital company, and
opened his own international law firm as
well.
In addition to his aviation, financial,
and legal careers, Najeeb Halaby, Jr. has
devoted himself to teaching, serving in
numerous corporate directorships, and
participating in government study groups
relating to defense and foreign affairs. He
has also given time and effort to a wide
range of civic, charitable, cultural, and
educational programs in New York City
and elsewhere. He is a trustee of Stanford
University, the American University of
Beirut, • and of the Amon Carter Museum
of Western Art at Fort Worth.
DR. MICHAEL DeBAKEY
1948
World-famed cardiovascular surgeon, Dr.
Michael DeBakey, was born in 1908, the
son of Lebanese immigrants. His father,
Morris, came to the United States in
1900, and settled at Lake Charles, Louis­iana,
where he eventually acquired his
own drugstore. Michael DeBakey at­tended
Tulane University, receiving his
medical degree in 1932. After his intern~
ship at New Orleans's Charity Hospital,
and residencies at the Universities of
Heidelberg and Strasbourg, Dr. DeBakey
returned to Tulane, where he developed
a roller pump that later became a vital
part of heart-lung machines. During
World War II he served in the Surgeon
General's Office. In 1948, he came to Tex-
DR. MICHAEL DEBAKEY
as as chairman of the Department of
Surgery at Baylor University College of
Medicine in Houston. He is now president
of the Baylor College of Medicine and
Director of Cardiovascular Research and
Training Center at Methodist Hospital in
Houston.
Dr. DeBakey, with wide renown for his
surgical skill and research, has invented
techniques, materials, and devices for
heart and vascular surgery besides the
roller pump. He pioneered the use of
synthetics for grafts and leads efforts to
perfect heart valves and artificial hearts.
He has invented some fifty-five new sur­gical
instruments and written over six
hundred scientific articles. He performs
over two thousand operations a year, in
addition to his administrative duties, lec-
Houston Chronicle
tures, and service on numerous boards.
His honors and awards are international.
In 1964, President Johnson appointed Dr.
DeBakey head of the Commission on
Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke. With
his own funds the doctor has established
the DeBakey Medical Foundation to make
research grants and to foster the dissemi­nation
of medical knowledge throughout
the world.
MICHEL T. HALBOUTY
1960
America's energy shortage and its reper­cussions
were predicted as early as 1960
by Michel T. Halbouty, Houston inde­pendent
producer, geologist, and petrole­um
engineer. He forecast that by 1975 the
American consumer would blame the oil
industry for lagging in exploration and
production, thus precipitating a criSIS.
His prediction was based then upon thirty
years of experience in the petroleum in­dustry.
Halbouty was born in Beaumont, the
son of Thomas and Sodia Halbouty. The
couple had arrived from Beirut in 1902
during the Spindletop oil boom. The Hal­boutys
encouraged the education of their
children, who entered the fields of geol­ogy,
petroleum engineering, teaching, in­surance,
and medicine. Michel T. grad­uated
from Texas A & M in 1930, took his
master's degree in 1931 , and was the first
to be awarded that university'S profes­sional
geological engineering degree, in
1956. He was a geologist and petroleum
engineer for the Yount-Lee Oil Company
from 1931 to 1935, and for the Glenn H.
29
30
!\-iICHEL T. HALBOUTY AT TEXAS A & M
Courtesy Dr. M. R. Halbouty
McCarthy interests from 1935 to 1937.
He then opened his own consultant's office
in Houston. By 1942, he had discovered
eight oil and gas fields in Texas and
Louisiana. During World War II he
served in the planning division of the
Army-Navy Petroleum Board. Later, he
was responsible for discoveries and de­velopments
in eighteen Louisiana, thirty­six
Texas, and one Alaskan field.
Active in professional circles, Halbouty
has also served as a distinguished lecturer
for national petroleum and geological
societies, has published more than 190
scientific and technical papers, and has
authored and co-authored books on the
oil industry and its history. In 1965, he
received the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and
Gas Association's Distinguished Service
Award, and in 1966-67, was president of
the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists. In 1968, Halbouty was named
a distinguished alumnus of Texas A & M,
where he has created scholarships for
geology and petroleum engineering stu­dents.
D. D. HACHAR
1967
The D. D. Hachar Foundation for Educa­tion
was established at Laredo in 1967 by
an immigrant from Syria. The Hachar
family originally fled Mount Lebanon in
the 1860's to escape the infamous Druze
massacres of the Maronites, ' and found
refuge in Damascus. About 1920, Dimitri
Hachar immigrated to Mexico, where he
worked for two years in the oil boom town
of Tampico. He then journeyed to Laredo,
Texas, where an older brother, Nicholas,
had preceded him five years earlier.
Nicholas became . a department store
owner and well-known civic worker.
Dimitri, meanwhile, opened a shoe store
and soon acquired enough capital to initi­ate
some shrewd real estate investments.
Kind, generous, and retiring, Dimitri
Hachar has always been admired for his
quietly effective charity work. In 1967,
he established the D. D. Hachar Founda­tion
for Education to benefit the people
of both Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. Since
that time, over one hundred thousand
dollars has been given by the foundation
to assist disadvantaged people in obtain­ing
an education. Children and adults
have been aided at all levels from ele­mentary
to university, and in both voca­tional
and professional fields. Baptist
ministers and Catholic priests have been
recipients of Hachar funds. In 1973, D.
D. Hachar was honored in his own com­munity
when a new elementary school
was named in his honor.
LEBANESE ATHLETES
1968
Athletic prowess among Lebanese Texans
was not at first emphasized by the immi­grants,
whose overwhelming concern was
finding economic security for their fam­ilies.
Boys and girls were expected to work
in their parents' stores after school. How­ever,
by the 1920's the American-born
generation was infected with baseball
fever. As these youngsters grew up play-
CHRIS GILBERT V .T. Austin Sports Information
ing on neighborhood sandlots, there
emerged baseball teams often composed
of, and sponsored by, Syrian and Leba­nese
clubs. As early as 1923, Port Arthur's
Young Men's Amusement Club had a
team coached by Louis Abraham. By
1925, tournaments were being held with
the Syrian clubs in Beaumont, Houston,
San Antonio, and Port Arthur. Later,
Austin, Victoria, Corpus Christi, and
Waco organized teams. When the South­ern
Federation formed in 1931, part of
the activities included a baseball tourna­ment.
Several young men, such as VV:aco's
Louis Fadal and George George, went on
to play semi-pro ball.
Football has attracted Lebanese fans
since the 1920's, also. The diminutive
Anees Semaan of San Antonio once tried
out for the Texas Longhorn squad and
ended up as head cheerleader. Others had
better success in winning places on the
squad. These have included Albert Nemir
(Texas, 1929), Edward Ogdee (Texas
A & M, 1942), Steve Jamail (T.C.D.,
1965-67), Tommy Asaff (Texas, 1969),
George Herro (Texas Tech, 1971-72),
Doug Jamail (Nebraska, 1971-72), and
Joe Aboussie (Texas, 1973).
The University of Texas All-American
halfback, Chris Gilbert, who played from
1966 to 1968 set the greatest record for
Lebanese Texan athletes. Half-Lebanese
on his mother's side of the family, Hous­ton-
born Gilbert broke three school
records as a sophomore and was the only
player in N.C.A.A. history to gain over
one thousand yards three successive years.
Gilbert established a new Southwest Con-ferenct:
record for his ninety-six-yard
touchdown run in his junior year. He was
All-Southwest Conference for three years,
Most Valuable Longhorn for three years,
and the winner of the first Annual Kern
Tips Award. In 1968, Chris Gilbert be­came
the first Lebanese Texan to be
named All-American. Today, he is a
Houston businessman.
JOE SALEM
1968
Joe Salem has represented Nueces County
for three terms in the Texas House of
Representatives, beginning in 1968. His
father, Sam, was born i~ Tripoli in 1891,
and came to the United States as a teen­ager.
The elder Salem eventually opened
a grocery store in Galveston. In 1918, he
married Mary Moses, daughter of Leb­anese
immigrants in Morgan City, Louisi­ana.
The Salems moved to Corpus Christi
the following year and opened another
store. They were joined by Mrs. Salem's
parents, Michael and Rosa Moses, who
opened their own grocery business. Dur­ing
the Depression, "Mother Moses" be­came
a local legend as a friend of the
down-and-out. She fed and helped them
find jobs until her death in 1938.
Her grandson, Joe Salem, was edu­cated
in Corpus Christi and served as a
pilot and instructor during World War
II. After the war, he became a business­man,
investor, and developer who took
an active role in club work and youth
activities. He was a member of President
Johnson's National Committee on Em­ployment
of the Handicapped.
HELEN DONATH Courtesy of Mrs. Helen Philpo
HELEN DONATH
1972
When she made her Corpus Christi debut
before a hometown audience in 1972,
Helen Donath was already a star attrac­tion
of European operatic circles. Born
in 1940, Miss Donath received her first
musical instruction at the age of two from
her Lebanese grandmother, Mrs. Alex
Hamauei, who taught the child Arabic,
Spanish, and English folksongs. As a teen­ager,
she studied voice at Del Mar Col­lege,
continued her training in New York
City, and began her career in 1961 as a
member of the Cologne Opera. Later, she
toured Europe with the Hannover Opera
and was a great success. In 1965, she
married the Opera's principal conductor,
Klaus Donath. She sang for four years at
the Salzburg Festival and, in 1966, joined
the Bavarian State Opera, with which she
31
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has appeared in most of the European
houses.
Although Miss Donath had been re­cording
vocal parts since 1962, her
American debut was not until 1970, when
she first appeared with the Chicago Sym­phony
Orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony, conducted by Sir Georg SoIti.
During the n ext two years, she became
better known to North American audi­ences
through appearances in New York,
San Francisco, Ottawa, and elsewhere. As
a lyric soprano, Miss Donath's voice has
been praised for its tender lyricism,
beauty in color, dramatic power, sup­pleness
and flexibility. Although an un­pretentious
performer, her warm and re­sponsive
stage presence has delighted
audiences in America and Europe.
LEBANESE TRADITIONS
The Arabic-speaking immigrants and
their descendants still celebrate their
ancient traditions in a variety of ways.
Arabic language preservation-a nostal­gic
goal of the immigrant generation­suffered
a decline after the second genera­tion,
but is experiencing a rebirth.
Church-sponsored Arabic schools disap­peared
in the 1940's to be replaced by
Arabic courses in several of Texas's uni­versities.
Arabic phrases and family-re­lated
words are taught the children in
Lebanese Texan homes.
32
Syrian and Lebanese foods have re­tained
their popularity. Prepared regu­larly
for the family, the special recipes of
the Middle East have reached a wider
audience through Lebanese food festivals
DANCING THE DABKE
Fred Damon P, hotographics
held in such cities as Austin, San Antonio,
Houston, Beaumont, EI Paso and Waco.
The role of the woman was nowhere more
visible than in church-sponsored fund
raising drives which were based on their
culinary skills. Arabic bread, beans,
salads, pastries, and kibbe (meatloaf)
helped finance the first Orthodox
churches in Texas.
Syrian and Lebanese Texans period­ically
relive their traditions at social
gatherings called sahrias. These are fes­tive
evenings attended by Arabic Texans
from far and near. These occasions ar:e
held by families, clubs, and churches to
provide an ethnic experience for young
and old. Food, drink, Arabic music, and
the dabke are necessary for the sahria.
The dabke is a traditional Lebanese circle
dance. Music is provided by a small band
of native instruments-the oud (lute),
the derbukki (hand drum), and the tam­bourine.
The haunting, wailing, half­tone
sounds add a new dimension to the
musical scene.
CONCLUS I O N
I would define our Syrian-Lebanese
heritage as that group of historic moral
values, ancestral customs, racial char­acteristics
and ethnic qualities and vir­tues
acquired over the centuries by our
forefathers of Lebanon and Syria;
brought over to America by our parents
and grandparents as they emigrated;
and then bequeathed to us, their Ameri­can
descendants, to be used by us to
attain a richer and more rewarding
American way of life.
Judge A. A. Semaan
Judge Semaan's speech to the Southern
Federation of Syrian Lebanese American
Clubs at San Antonio in 1966 sums up
the pride in ancestral heritage and
American citizenship which has charac­terized
one of the state's most colorful
ethnic groups.
From those scattered first-comers to our
present leaders in business, law, science,
politics, and culture, the Syrian and Leb­anese
Texans have made steady advances.
The hardships faced by turn-of-the-cen­tury
immigrants were rewarded slowly
by a better way of life, freedom of re­ligion
and politics, and with solid family
and community ties. Their children ob­tained
sound educations and contributed
their knowledge and skill to every variety
of occupation. Their culture has given
Texas a welcome addition to its multi­ethnic
society.
One of a series
prepared by the staff of
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
AT SAN ANTONIO
INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
1974