Hadjin Protestant school circa 1903

The School Years

• Hadjin Protestant school circa 1903

• Mark Keshishian in Pictures From 12 to 80

• Attended Central Turkey College, Aintab, Turkey

  • Central Turkey College, Aintab, Ottoman Empire (Later Gazi Aintab, Republic of Turkey) The school was established in 1876 by American Missionaries and was overwhelmingly Armenian.

In 1912 MK took his third trip to the United States visiting the New York. In part the trip was to visit his brother Mathew and partially to earn money for school. MK managed to save 400 dollars for school on this trip in just 1 year. (To put this in context a 1914 Ford Model T Runabout had a Base price of $495)

• Delivery boy Wallach Brothers Store on 125th Street in New York City

• Delivery boy Russell's Lunch Room and Bakery.

• Dupont, Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. Cap powder worker in an Ammunition plant. This was particularly dangerous work where MK had to handle nitroglycerin. MK left after only two weeks when a explosion dispatched two coworkers just 100 feet down the line. It was after the blast that MK decided not to put off his return to college any longer.

The trip to visit Mathew is significant. A few years before Mathew with $2500 in gold set up a carpet business for the family at 220 Genesse Street in Utica New York. They choose Utica because of a close family friendship with an American Missionary from Utica. The store has since moved and is now known as Mark Keshishian & Sons in Chevy Chase Maryland.

Mark Keshishian in 1913 at college in Bardazag.

Mark Keshishian at graduation from Bardazag college in 1913.

Not long after this was taken Mark was arrested and then drafted into the Ottoman army. He then served with the 4th Army in Syria. Note the chain through the lapel button hole. That was a gift to Mark from his sister in 1909. The chain is now in the possession of Harold Keshishian.

Mark Keshishian as a Medical student in Beirut in 1915.