Abstract:

Hagop Bogigian is the first person to immigrate to America from Huseynik. He is also the “first Armenian-American millionaire”. The story of Bogigian, who set out with the desire to immigrate to America at the age of 19, is of the kind that encourages those who immigrated after him. It is important to follow the traces of his life story even from this aspect alone. It is possible to encounter the characteristic features of the migration movement in many aspects such as the reason for the individual request for immigration, going to America, the aids he received, how and where he settled in America, what he was engaged in. Bogigian, who met the "New World" in Harput under the influence of American missionaries, is not just an ordinary immigrant. Later, as an Armenian-American importer and exporter, he transferred technological innovations to the Ottoman lands, especially to the east. He used all his political and financial means and connections to the Armenian immigrants who came to America like him. Again, the thought and work of Armenians living in a designated area in Canada and America with the idea of an "Armenian colony" is remarkable. After his death, he left his legacy as the “Hagop Bogigian Scholarship Fund” to the education of Armenian students in need, especially women, at Wilson College, Mount Holyoke College and Pomona College. The life story of Hagop Bogigian, whose footprints of the first Armenian migration from Hüseynik to America will be traced, is the subject of this study. Bogigian's life is also a representative story that carries important clues to understand the transatlantic migration that started from Harput.