Glendale’s earliest known Armenian settler
Archival records reveal the story of Megerdich James Normart, who arrived in Tropico 130 years ago and whose brother became Fresno’s earliest known Armenian visitor.
Los Angeles-area newspaper archives reveal that a forgotten figure, Megerdich James B. Normart (originally Yanikian), bought 10 acres of land in Tropico, today’s south Glendale, on Monday, May 25, 1896, and lived there for 24 years before moving to Long Beach.1“Real Estate Transfers.” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1896, 9. The transaction is listed under Normart’s wife, Eliza G. Normart; “Locals and Personals,” Glendale Evening News, Aug. 6, 1921, p. 3. This ostensibly made him the first Armenian in Glendale, the modern “capital” of the Armenian diaspora, settling there 15 years before the previously identified record holders, the Ignatosian and Jamgochian families, ancestors of the late Paul Ignatius.2Monika Machowska, “Los Angeles: The Capital of the Armenian Immigrant Community in the Twenty-First Century.” Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora 47, no. 3 (181) (2021): 57–78; Katherine Yamada, “Verdugo Views: Distinguished Alum Has Armenian Heritage,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 29, 2014.
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Wow, amazing!
I always love to see research into the early Armenian-Americans and commend your work! Newspaper digitization has indeed created a treasure trove that had previously been so much less accessible. However I do counter the notion in this article that James Normart has “discovered.” For example the family has always known about him, and as a researcher of early Philadelphia- of which Frank Normart was an early pioneer- I’ve known about his brother James and their marriage to sisters for at least 15 years, and I’m sure other researchers knew about him before for. A decade ago traced James to Long Beach and his burial there, as detailed in this article. People don’t do much get discovered as re-remembered. However the Glendale chapter is a new and interesting revelation for me. I’ll also point out another early Glendalian who I don’t know is much known about or not- Helene Jenanyan Handjian died in Glendale in 1917, she was married to two Armenian Protestant ministers but not far as I know part of the pioneer families mentioned. I don’t know what had her in Glendale at her death but I always found it funny nobody would have known at the time what it would become to Armenians. I hope all Armenian-Americans take into in these kinds of stories and we keep researching, there’s more to find!
Thank you Allen for the article, I saw when you mentioned about this in the city council meeting, I had no idea nor ever heard about this, and Glendale has been in my life for 24 years. Really appreciate community members such as yourself who share important values about our culture. Hope you succeed in your future endeavors, you are quite an intelligent man.