Railroads to the American Dream

by Noah Carandanis

The railroad tracks connecting the East and West coasts likewise connected myriads of Greek immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. While many settled on the East Coast, the railroad industry attracted several thousand Greeks to the West. Communities were built around the railroads. They offered opportunities of work and life for the laborers, and cheap labor for the railroad companies. The memories of the railroads have faded with time. The Hellenic-American Cultural Center and Museum’s (HACCM) Oral History Project preserves this often-forgotten labor of the Greek community through a collection of oral history interviews with first- and second-generation individuals whose families had direct ties to the railroads.

In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for 10 years. Railroad companies would use Chinese immigrants for cheap labor, but with the act in effect they had to find other workers. Workers from a diverse array of backgrounds descended upon the railroads, with the Greek community being no exception.

Greek families of every life path were impacted by the railroad industry. It was no small number of Greeks who worked on the railroads in the Pacific Northwest. Katerina Adeline, who helped moderate the HACCM railroad group oral history interview, provided context from archival research: “In the spring of 1910, the total number of Greeks working in Oregon was 3,448. And 2,114, or 61%, worked on the railroad. Between 1900 to 1910, over 800 miles of track was constructed.” Most Greek men who lived in Oregon worked on the railroads. Unlike today, the railroad network in the Pacific Northwest is what connected various towns and cities. Nick Hanches, another moderator for the HACCM interview, noted that in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were over 100 small railroads operating in Oregon and over 200 small railroads operating in Washington. This work provided a path to prosperity and stability for many Greek families attempting to survive in this foreign land they now called home.

Dorothea F. remembered one of the perks her father received by working on the railroads. “Because he worked on the railroad, we had railroad passes, and our big trip every summer was to take the train to Seaside.” Greeks also lived in railroad towns where they were able to comfortably raise their families. Sam N. recalls that for his dad, along with another Greek who worked on the railroad, the railroad company provided and furnished homes for them. There were a notable number of Greek families working and living in railroad towns such as Stevenson, WA all the way to Hermiston, OR. The families there helped educate and support one another and cultivated a true Greek community within these railroad towns.

Although there were perks to the job, railroad work was quite varied and difficult. It was physically demanding and was not without its emotional scars either. Participants that were interviewed in this project described the various jobs they worked on the railroad. Sam N. and his brother would work in the section gangs as a summer job throughout college. “We just laid rail… I mostly worked on that Pearl District and put down new rail.” However, not every job on the railroad was laying down rail. Fifi P. recounted a story of the railroads from her father-in-law George: “There were a lot of sandstorms in Eastern Oregon and his job was to watch the sand. If it came on the tracks, he was supposed to alert the train that there was sand on the track so it could slow down. He would sand off the track and then it came through, and he said that was the scariest part of the job.” Physical dangers did not only come from the trains however. Anti-Greek sentiment was prevalent in the United States, and Greeks in the Pacific Northwest were correspondingly acquainted with its ugly expressions. Its severity ranged from feeling obligated to anglicize one’s name to enduring at times lethal working conditions.

We may wonder why our ancestors endured these harsh working conditions on the railroads. It is necessary for us to remember that they worked not only for themselves, but for future generations. John S. recalls: “Education was stressed to me. [My father’s] famous words were to me ‘don’t be a laborer like me, working myself to the bone,’ he says get an education.” Our ancestors saw their work on the railroad as a first stop to giving their families a chance at the American Dream for which they longed.