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About Asser Colchamiro
[from KKJSM site:]
Asser [born 1872 in Ioannina] would never make it to the New World. He would die of an infection caused by an appendicitis attack in 1919. Before leaving his wife Steroula as a widow with 7 young children, Asser had been working in Albania, struggling to provide dowries for his 7 sisters. Steroula would come to New York with her children and aging mother in 1920. Leon Colchamiro would be there to help her and the children find housing and subsistence. Steroula would live to be 90 and was an inspiration to her children and grandchildren.
[from a book by JH and JK:]
Asher Colchamiro, the third child of Yesula and Rachel Colchamiro was born in 1872 in Janina, Greece. As he was growing up, his father had him apprenticed to a friend, who was a merchant, whose business was in Delvino, Albania, a port city, north west of Janina. There he learned to be a manager of a small textile business. His salary was used to pay for the dowries of many of his sisters, being at that time a girl had to have a nice dowry to marry well. This merchant was very pleased with Asher, for he was a very friendly and honest man with a great sense of humor. Asher traveled back and forth from Delvino to Janina very often.
In 1903 he married Esther (Sterula) Eliezer. She was a cousin of his mother Rachel, on the Galanos side of the family. She was born in September 1882 in Janina. Her parents were Rabbi Lazar Eliezer and Sarah (Galanos). At first he brought his wife to live with him in Delvino, but she grew homesick so he moved her in with his parents in the Kastro in Janina. Soon after his father Yesula died of a stroke and his mother Rachel decided to sell the house and move to America. Asher was angry with his mother for wanting to leave so soon. However, he decided to buy the house.
On the 4th of July 1905 they had their first child, a girl they named Rachel. After their second child, a son named Jess, born the 31st of December 1907, Asher wanted to stop trying to run a business in Delvino and have a family in Janina. so he decided to start his own business in Janina.
His brothers Leon and Elias who were in New York at the time arranged to send him merchandise from America. His business dealt mostly with all kinds of yarns, silk, nylons, woolens, etc. His business was very successful. His store was located 15 minutes (by walking) from the Kastro, 2 blocks from the Piater, next to Mr. Levy, the Pharmacist.
Meanwhile, Esther was busy having more children, and taking care of various relatives that needed her care. Nina was born on the 1st of April 1910, followed by Eftimia in 1911. Unfortunately she died suddenly when she was only 18 months old in 1913. The last four children were sons. Louis (Eliezer) was born on the 22nd of November 1912, Matthew was born on May 1st, 1914, Leon was born on the 11th of July 1916 and David, their last child was born in September 1st, 1917.
Asher maintained very good contact with his brothers and sisters in New York. Once in a while they would come to visit and he would entertain them well. He would take them to the lake, were hot meals were served on board boats. His brothers sent him lots of merchandise and his business thrived. His business got so big he had to rent extra space and hire someone to help. He hired Irving Lafazan, a 15 year old cousin through marriage, who was very friendly. He became very close to their family. When World War I came the flow of merchandise stopped. But Asher with his vast stock managed to service it through.
After a while, Asher felt he had made enough money to move to a bigger house. So in 1916 he rented a large house outside the Kastro, in Levidyot on the "Big Street" Megla Rouga. Sarah Galanos Eliezer (Esther's mother), who was already living with them in the Kastro, since her husband died in 1902, came to live with them. The front door had a heavy metal frame. The rooms downstairs were used for sitting purposes and there was a tall staircase leading from the back of the house bottom floor to the bedrooms. There was a very large yard with the well in the center. Fruit trees and vines for grapes were in abundance. Asher would hire a man to stomp on the grapes with his bear feet, to make wine. Asher would then store the wine in the cellar. It was used for Passover and social events when company came. The kitchen in the back of the house was always in use.
When Matthew was just a little boy and climbed up on the wall of the well, and looked as if he was about to fall in. She told the rest of the kids to be very quite and carefully snuck up behind him and grabbed him and saved him from falling in.
Sterula was a good nurse as well. She had many an opportunities to nurse family back to health. When Dinah, one of Asher's married sisters, who was living in Paramythia with her family, had to come to Janina, to have her leg amputated, she stayed with Sterula. Also Rose the daughter of Malka, another sister of Asher, who had gone all the way to the United States, only to be rejected at Ellis Island stayed with them till was eventually healed enough to go back to New York with her family.
Asher was very well liked and respected in the entire community and was one of the first Jewish persons to be elected to the school board, which at that time was set up by local government. This was considered a great honor. Things went very well for this family till the summer of 1919. At this time Asher took sick with a burst appendices. Even though the doctors operated on him with the best of care they could give at that time, he still died of infection.
Matthew and Leon (Yehuda) came to Janina to help Sterula wind up the business and convinced her to come to America with her large family. So she had a big auction, with the help of a cousin. Then she got passports for everyone, including her mother Sarah, and left for Piraeus, a port city in Greece. It took them 30 days, aboard ship to get to New York on the ship "S.S. Pannonia. They arrived on October 16th, 1920 at Ellis Island and happily everyone passed. Leon and some cousins came to meet them. There were nine people in all, seven children and two adults. So they were split up between Leon's, Matthew's and Elias's family till they got their own apartment on 15th street in Harlem. Sarah stayed with her son Isaac Eliezer till then.
Life was not easy in those days. In Janina before Asher died they were very comfortable. They had a servant to do the hard work and all the money they wanted. But in New York it was hard to make a living, especially for my mother who never had to work before. Rachel had finished her schooling in Janina so she went right to work. She worked for her Uncle Matthew sewing aprons and pajamas. Jess went to work. He worked for his Uncle Isaac in the Hat business. As soon as Nina finished High School she also went to work in the Hat industry. Louis, Matthew, Leon and David all went to school. "Kareea" (a word meaning Madame with a lot of respect in Greek) Esther was loved by everyone. Right downstairs was a Kosher butcher who would save the best cuts of meat for her and when my mother was short on cash would always trust her and tell her not to worry and give her meat anyway.
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Asser Colchamiro's Timeline
| 1872 |
1872
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Ioannina, Greece
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| 1905 |
July 4, 1905
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1907 |
December 31, 1907
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1910 |
April 1, 1910
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1911 |
1911
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1912 |
November 22, 1912
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1914 |
May 1, 1914
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1916 |
July 11, 1916
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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| 1918 |
September 2, 1918
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Ioannina, Epirus, Greece
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