Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Lives of the Past Informing the Future | Page 16

Simon Antranighian
First Born, First Buried
1827–1855
By Steve Pinkerton
Volunteer Docent
T
he first known Armenian to be buried at Mount Auburn
Cemetery was Simon Antranighian. “Antranig” is
Armenian for “first-born,” which lends a compelling
symmetry to his status as “first-buried.” Cemetery records show
that he was interred on March 17, 1855, in the public “St. John Lot”
on Vesper Avenue. His burial record notes that a funeral was held
the same day, and his probate record notes a payment of $12.45 to
a hackney for “coaches at funeral.” No records have been found of
payment for purchase or installation of a monument, and his grave
remains unmarked.
Antranighian’s last name was mistakenly entered as “Antranagan”
in the application for burial submitted by Boston undertaker John
Peak, and Mount Auburn Cemetery dutifully replicated the error in
interment registers. However, his name was correctly spelled in the
Boston and Massachusetts death records. An unfortunate skip in
the ink in filling out the burial application also rendered “Peak” as
“Meak,” but the Boston death record clearly identifies the informant
as “J. Peak.” Antranighian’s probate statement recorded payment of
$15.50 for “John Peake, undertaker’s account.”
Antranighian arrived in Boston on November 30, 1853, on the
barque Sultana, along with four other passengers traveling from
Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey. The passenger manifest gives his age as
twenty-six. He applied for U.S. citizenship on May 6, 1854, stating
that he was an “Artist,” born in Constantinople, Turkey, on February
12, 1827. His probate record identified him more specifically as a
“Daguerreotypist.”
He was not listed in the Boston Directory for 1854, but he did
appear as Simon “Amtraniccian” in the Boston Tax Records for
that year as a boarder at 116 Hudson Street in Boston’s South Bay.
His occupation was recorded as “Tender,” or waiter (AKA starving
artist). The property where he lived is now part of an on-ramp
to the Massachusetts Turnpike. One of Antranighian’s fellow
lodgers was Sarkis Hachadoorian, “Dentist,” who soon returned to
Constantinople.
14