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Christos Dimitrios Christou

1884 – 1958

About

Granddad came from Kymi on the island of Euboea which is the second largest island after Crete in Greece. It has an old settlement back during the Hellenistic period. Chalcis was the homeland of settlers who founded cities in several parts of the Mediterranean during the VIIIth and VIIth centuries B. C., epecially in Sicily and Italy, Cumæ, Zancle, etc. Evia (Euboea/Euboia) has been inhabited since pre historic times. Its most important settlement early became today's Chalkida, since it was the closest to the mainland and had natural resources of copper, making the city a trading center of great importance. The island's name means "rich in cattle". During the 5th century it was part of the Athenian league against the Persians, and one of its most important centers was Eretria. It helped the colony Miletus during the Ionian revolt in 499BC, but when it failed, war with Persian was unavoidable. Eretria was destroyed by the Persians seven years after the revolt. In the 4th century BC it was an important cultural center, and the Eretrian School of Philosophy was founded here. The Romans invaded in the 3rd and 2nd century BC, and Evia became a vassal to the mighty empire, just like the rest of Greece. On Chalkis the chief town the great Aristotle died here in 322 BC having fled Athens some time earlier for fear of being tried as pro-Macedonian. It was captured by Philip II of Macedonian (Alexander the Great's father) and was annexed by Rome in 194BC. It was later passed to Byzantine rule and then by the Fourth Crusade (13th Century) became a colony of Venice. During the Byzantine period many churches and monasteries were built on the island, and it kept its trading status, even though parts of the island was raided by pirates from time to time. When the Venetians came in the 13th century, Evia was to become a battle ground between them and the Turks, because of its strategic position. It was finally ceded to the Ottomon Turks in 1470, then the island rebelled against the Turks in 1821 and finally became a part of Greece again in 1830. It's most famous citizen is Dr. George Nicolas Papanicolaou inventor of the Pap smear. When I visited Great Uncle Angelo in Greece, he said his dad came to America in 1914 and was here when my granddad Dimitrios was born in Greece. He said that he had staked out some mines in Colorado called Christos' mines. He went back to Greece to get his wife but she would not come to America so he stayed back in Greece. His sons would later come to America too. Granddad Dimitrios stayed but Angelo and Gus went back to Greece. I later found him in the 1920 Las Animas CO census. He was a coal miner there.