Melikian / Merigian
Family Story

HIGHLIGHTS

Levon Melikian was one of Nazaret "Agha" Melikian's six children.  During the Genocide, he lost three of his siblings: Ohan (John), Arshag and Dikran.  His father, a prominent man in town (akin to the mayor) converted to Islam in hopes of better treatment from the occupying Turkish soldiers, but was tortured and killed anyway. Levon's first wife was also killed, and possibly a child. 

After arriving in the United States, he spent some time in Williamson, West Virginia with his first cousin Mariam Davitian and her family, and some time in Maryland, where census records list him as a farmer.  Eventually, he settled in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, just outside Springfield, where he purchased a great deal of land.  On part of this property, he built a development of houses, and named the road Melikian Drive.  

In 1957, Levon and his second wife, Asnif, were instrumental donors to a campaign to purchase a church building to house a local Diocesan mission parish in Springfield.  They were named "godparents" of the church, which was called St. John after Levon's brother Ohan (John), who was killed in the Genocide.  

Levon died suddenly of a heart attack in his sleep, the night before he was scheduled to move into his brand new home in Tampa, Florida.  His widow, Asnif, never moved into the home, and instead left it in her will to a friend.  She also donated a large tract of land in East Longmeadow to build a new church building for the parish of St. John.  This particular parcel was sold, and a more suitable lot purchased on Wilbraham Road in Springfield, where the new church was built in 1983 and renamed St. Mark.