Individual Details

Story

Posted by Georgeann Morekas on the Facebook group, Amykle-Sklavohori-Mahmoutbei-Godena-Peristeri Village History Group, April 8, 2021

Many who emigrated from Amykles in the late 1890s-1920, were young men. They learned their soda fountain/candy/confectioners skills in the United States. Nicholas Karangelen (Amykles) settled in Baltimore. He and wife Panayiota (nee Minakakis of Kalyvia) had a soda fountain and candy stand in the Cross Street Market. They made their chocolates on a marble slab in the basement workshop of their home in Federal Hill. My great-grandfather, Nikolaos Demas had confectioners shops in Ashtabula and Steubenville, OH from 1906-1921 serving the immigrant steel worker community. My papou, George Dimitrios Karangelen (Karaykioules) of Ayios Ioannis left Greece at the age of 13 (in 1908) for Newport News, VA where he worked a push cart selling candy and gum. He moved to Baltimore a few years later and dressed the windows of the Konstant's peanut and confectioner stand in the Lexington Market. In 1922 he opened George's Lunch with my yiayia, Georgia (nee Demas) of Amykles. They were in business for 62 years.