Kachigian/Hekimian
Mariam Hekimian Kachigian was born in the village of Bazmashen, province of Kharpert, in March 1904 to Sarkis Hekimian and Yeghnar Terzian. Mariam’s earliest memories of her father were not from the village, as Sarkis had left his family and the village for America when Mariam was about 1 and Yeghnar was pregnant with Mariam’s sister Varvar. Sarkis’ journey took him first to France and then to Brazil for a year before he eventually arrived in America in 1913 and settled in Massachusetts.
During her early childhood, Mariam was surrounded by her large extended family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. They were wheat farmers in this entirely Armenian village, and as a young child, Mariam attended the village’s Catholic school (her grandfather was a healer in the village and the treasurer of Bazmashen’s Catholic church). But her childhood and education would soon be upended by the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Not quite understanding what was happening around her, Mariam recalled that caravans of refugees from Erzerum and Keghi arrived in Bazmashen with warnings to resist orders to leave the village. Soon after, soldiers arrived, confiscated the villagers’ guns, and removed men from the village, including her grandfather, and marching them, with their hands tied behind their backs, to the provincial center in Mezire. After being briefly jailed, the men were executed. As word of the executions reached the village, police arrived ordering the remaining villagers to join the refugee caravans.
Mariam started the deportation march with her family -- her grandmother, aunt, mother and sister, along with others from the village. The few possessions they carried with them were taken. Along the way she witnessed family members and others being attacked, robbed, drowned, and killed. After her sister Varvar was carried away by a Kurd, her mother made the difficult decision to save Mariam’s life by giving her to a Kurdish family and becoming a servant to another Kurdish family in another village. Eventually Yeghnar was able to negotiate the return of Varvar, Mariam’s sister.
Mariam was renamed Mayroo and lived with the Kurdish family for approximately 3 years, learning their language and customs and doing chores alongside their daughter Sophie who was the same age. Her mother visited her once during that three-year period, but she was unable to rescue her at that time. After securing her own freedom, Yeghnar succeeded in securing Mariam’s return to the family with the help of foreign soldiers and a trial. They were now living as refugees in Urfa; Yeghnar enrolled Mariam into the orphanage so that she could re-learn her Armenian language. Around the same time Mariam was reunited with her mother in Urfa, her father’s brother Setrag serving as a volunteer soldier with the French Foreign Legion arrived from America. After Setrag left with his battalion for Aleppo, it would take approximately two more years before Mariam, her mother, and sister Varvar would join Sarkis in America. In 1922, they sailed to France and then to Providence where they reunited with Sarkis and traveled on to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two weeks after arriving, Mariam started work at a silk factory in Brockton, where she started to learn English. Four weeks later, her mother Yeghnar died, leaving Mariam and Varvar with their father. The grieving family moved from Cambridge to Newton Upper Falls to stay with Sarkis’ brother and his family, and in early 1925, they moved into their own home in Newton. In 1925, Mariam was engaged to Garabed Kachigian.
Garabed Kachigian was born in Bitlis to Khachig Abourian. He left his father behind in Bitlis in 1912 when he was 25 years old, traveling to America on the Rochambeau which departed from Le Havre France at the end of September 1912 and arrived in New York in October. On his records, he indicated he would be joining his uncle Hovanes Hovanesian who was living in New York. By 1917, Garabed was living in Whitinsville on Willow Street and working at the Whitin Machine Works; his registration for service during WWI indicates that his friend Mourad Hovanesian would know his whereabouts. Mourad was boarding with the Setrack Sahagian family, also from Bitlis, on D Street.
Mariam and Garabed married in 1925 and started their family in Whitinsville, living with other Armenian families on East Street before moving to D Street. Years later, Mariam’s sister Varvar married and moved to Providence. Sarkis moved in with Varvar’s family, died in 1971 and was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery.
Mariam and Garabed had three children, all born in Whitinsville: Khachadoor, Sarkis, and Sonia.
• Kachadoor married Elizabeth Setian and had three children, born in Whitinsville: Sandra, Lynda, and Gregory; Kachadoor died in 2017 and is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery
• Sarkis married Anne Krikorian, settled in New Jersey and had three children: Susan, Steven, and Margaret (New Jersey); Sarkis died in 2008.
• Sonia married Harry Dodakian, settled in Worcester, and had four children: Gary, Richard, Marianne and Harry; Sonia died in 2022.
Garabed died in 1981 and is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery; Mariam recorded her oral history in the 1980’s and lived until 2003. They are buried together in Pine Grove Cemetery.