Shishmanian, G. N.

G. N. Shishmanian, born eighty-four years ago in Turkey along the Euphrates, was the son of a banker in Constantinople who grew up in refinement and wealth. He began his education at Babek Seminary on the Bosphorus under Dr. Hamlin, where he mastered Greek, Turkish, Armenian, English, sciences, mathematics, history, and theology. Sent to America to complete his studies, he attended the North Yarmouth Academy in Maine for two years before health issues prompted his return to Turkey. After the American Civil War, he returned to the United States, joined the Christian Church in Dallas, Texas, and later graduated from the University Theological School in Kentucky as an ordained missionary.

Following his marriage to Lucy McClellan in Lexington, Kentucky, Mr. Shishmanian returned to Constantinople with his bride to conduct missionary work under the Christian Church for twenty-six years. The family returned to Kentucky in 1905, spent a year and a half with friends, and eventually settled in Fresno in 1907. In California, he acquired a ten acre raisin vineyard on Orange Avenue and a twenty acre orange grove in Tulare County. He and his wife raised three surviving children, including a son who served as a lieutenant in the French army and daughters who married an aviator teacher and a merchant.