Davidian family in New York City

From: Gohar Yeghiayan Davidian: A Latter-day Saint in Syria

Keepapitchinin, 8 June 2008

Also appeared in Times and Seasons, November 2006

"Political tensions between Armenians and Turks erupted in April, 1909, when an Armenian bid for independence was quelled by the slaughter of more than 5,000 Armenians in the town of Adana, Turkey. Sensing that worse was to come, the Davidians pooled their resources and sent their three adult children to the United States in June; there was not money enough to pay the passage for the elderly parents. In July, the First Presidency closed the Turkish Mission; the last missionaries left Aleppo in September, leaving Sarkis in charge of the branch.

Rather than spending the money necessary to reach Utah, the Davidian children stopped in New York City and found work, desperately trying to raise the fare to bring their parents to safety. The LDS branch in New York City contributed what they could, and the elderly couple was sent for in July, 1910. They sailed on the Athini, a freighter without real passenger accommodations. Gohar became seriously ill during the crossing.

Unlike the vast majority of converts from Scandinavia and the British Isles, Sarkis and Gohar traveled alone. They did not have the aid of returning missionaries or an LDS emigration agent, so there was no friend to help when the Athini reached New York three days before schedule. No one was there to meet them, and the couple could not convince immigration authorities that they had grown children who would support them. They were refused admission to the U.S., and were put back aboard ship to be returned to Turkey. At the last possible moment, Mission President Ben E. Rich learned of the ship�s arrival; he and the Davidian children raced to the pier, just in time to rescue Sarkis and Gohar from deportation.

Gohar never regained her health. Although they could not converse across the language barrier, the local Relief Society sisters visited her often. This faithful Saint, who had cared for missionary sons in far-off Syria, was in turn comforted by the mothers and sisters of the New York branch until her death in October, 1913."