Colleen Macdonald

4/20/16

Coming to America

Family Story

David Thomas

The story of David Thomas immigration from Lebanon to

America represents immigrants journey to America to create a
better life style then what was available to one in his or home
country.

David Thomas was born in 1901 in Lebanon, during this

time Lebanese did not celebrate their birthdays rather the
year that they were born so Thomas never knew when his
actual birthday was. He is the youngest of four children. He

has two brothers, Abe and Simon, and a sister Alexandria.

They grew up in a very small town with limited economic
opportunities. In their town David and his family owned the
water supplies. This was their main source of income, when
people would come and pay for water. His father passed away
when he was very young leaving their mother to raise the
children on her own and also provide for the family.

His

brothers Abe and Simon came to America first. Abe lived in

Worcester and Simon lived in Boston, both areas had large
Lebanese populations.

In 1915 David decided to leave for America, he wanted

to create a better life for both his mother and sister. He
journeyed to America alone; although they are not sure where
he left from he landed in Elis Island. He only brought his bible
with him on his journey because religion was extremely
important to him. At this time in order to be a legal immigrant
one must be at least 16 years old, David was only 14 at this
time. He lied about his birthdate; in America he was born July
4th, 1899. He picked July 4th because he knew that this was a
very important date in Americas history and this would now

be a very important date in his own history. Also in Lebanon

people did not have a last name, rather they would take their
fathers name as their last name, so once in America David
took Thomas as his last name. For the next month he lived in
New York to make money in order to get to his final destination
of Worcester. While in New York he worked as a dishwasher at
a local restaurant. He knew no English so this was the only job
that was available for him. While working here he learned first
two English words, apple pie and ice cream. For the whole
month this is all he ate because thats all he knew to say.
After a month he started his final decent to Worcester.

Once in Worcester he moved in with his brother Abe. He

wanted to make enough money to both support himself but
also make it so his mother and sister could come to America
as well. He worked at a leather tannery, as a farmer, and also
making tools. Since he knew no English and did not have
even a high school degree getting a job was extremely difficult
for him. Every few weeks he would send a portion of his pay
check to Lebanon for the rest of his family to come over but
this never happened. Thomas would go on to meet and marry

his wife, Eugenia. Her parents were immigrants from Lebanon

as well. Together they had two children, a female, my
grandmother, and a male. He made sure to instill the same
morals that his mother instilled in him. Their family revolved
around on another but also having strong religious views. His
wife passed away after giving birth to their son from having
improper health care during childbirth. This was a result of
their low economic status.

David was left to raise his two children, just like his
mother was left to raise him and his brother. He wanted to
make sure that his children could still be given the same
opportunities as those of children whos parents were from
America and that their father was able to work better paying
jobs then his own. He really wanted his children to have a
proper education and a college degree. Thomas knew that in
order for them to be successful in America that they needed to
have a college education. He did not want this just for his son
but also his daughter. Both children went to college and would
go on to have successful lives. His daughter became a nurse
and went to BC. His son also went to BC but went on to

become a priest. Seeing how both parents were from Lebanon

keeping the culture alive was very important. The family ate
only Lebanese meals and only ate fresh foods. They had a
garden in their backyard to get some ingredients easier David
wanted to make sure that his children were able to fully relate
to their culture and that they would be able to relate to
himself most importantly. During this time David was still
working the same job, he never went on to get his license
because he could not read or understand English so having a
license would not help. He had always hoped to go back home
to Lebanon to visit his mother and sister. However he was
never able to because there was a lot of war with the Middle
East. He would never see his mother again in his life after
leaving for America. He saw his sister once when she came to
America to visit him and brothers. She would go on to move
to Egypt and get married.

David retired but worked at a local Lebanese bakery

making bread. He did this for many years. After is soon was
ordained into the priesthood he traveled to Rome to see this
event. This was the first and last time that he left the country.

He lived in Worcester for his whole life. He worked at the

bakery until the day he died. He had five grand children, one
who is my mother; he spoke very fondly of Lebanon. He said
how he would have never changed the actions he took but
wished that he worked harder to get his mother and sister to
America so they could live as one family. He never learned
much English but learned enough to get by in everyday life. A
drunk driver killed him November 11th, 1969 while walking
home from the bakery. In relation to myself David Thomas is
my Great Grandfather on my mothers side.

Thomas was from Lebanon and their for could be

considered either Arab or Caucasian. Therefore during this
time he would be considered either in the second or third tier
of Americas ethnic hierarchy. (134) Ethnicity at this time was
determined by what people were familiar with or if a certain
group of people had the same history and spoke the same
language. (62) Although Thomas was a catholic he did not
speak any English and did not have an education. This
prevented him from being higher in the ethnic hierarchy.
During this time there were many pull factors in America that

lead not only Thomas but also many Lebanese. The major pull
factor was the ability to make more money and live a better
life style. According to Daniels, to discover the economic
opportunities of the United States. (Daniels, 207). They were
being pushed from Lebanon because of conflicts, religious
prodigious, and limited economic improvement. Many Arabs
that came to America worked as peddlers, which in their home
country would be considered a minority job, in America is was
still a non-dominate job but it paid more here then in their
home country (Daniels, 207). Many of these peddlers would
go on to learn English from dealing with their customers.
However this was not relevant to because he did not deal with
customers at his first two jobs. It was not until he worked in
the bakery and making tools that he was able to pick up more
English. This would help raise his social class status. However
since he was clumped with other Arabs because of his ethnic
similarities he faced many stereotyping and discrimination.
Since the majority of Arabs were peddlers society frowned on
it and they would be called trash and worthless people
because of it.

During this time the Johnson bill, or the Immigration Act

of 1924 had just been passed. This made it harder for more
immigrants to come to America (US, 146). During this time
there were a limited number of immigrants that could be
allowed into America. The act made it so only 2% of total
people in each nationality could have visas. (148). This was
very important because during this time Arabs were trying to
find religious freedom in America and couldnt because many
of them could not stay in America without visas. Right around
the same time in 1920 the first mosque was built in the US. By
1930 only two known mosques were built (Daniels, 209). This
is very important because with the immigration act there
could not be a lot of new immigrants coming over therefore
preventing the number of mosques that could be built and the
expansion of the Arab culture. This law also made it harder for
Arabs to move up in to social classes because many of them
would no longer be legal immigrants therefore making it
harder to get jobs.

Although none of these laws directly affected Thomas,

they effected the way he was viewed by the rest of society.

He tried to get better paying jobs but couldnt because many

job opportunities didnt want to hirer him with the risk of being
an illegal immigrant. It also made it harder for him to try and
get the rest of his family to America. With the limited number
of visas that could be given neither his sister nor mother
wanted to waste the money that he had worked so hard to
earn to come to America and find out they would not be given
visas.

David Thomas was able to create a successful life for

himself. He came to America with the hopes of creating a
better life for himself and family. Although he was not able to
bring the rest of his family to America, he was able to provide
his wife and children with the best possible life with the
resources given to him.

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