Aziz Ohanis was born in Persia, (now Iran), in 1880. Sometime before the Great War, he had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Chicago, Illinois. Once there, he obtained work as a labourer and became a respected member of the Persian community there. Having applied to become an American citizen, he had already anglicised his name to Stephen Ohan.
By the spring of 1915, however, he and some of his fellow Persian nationals in Chicago had heard rumours that the Turkish rulers in Persia had massacred many of their relatives and they consequently decided to return home to investigate. Accordingly, at the end of April 1915, they all travelled to New York, where they had booked third cabin passage on the Lusitania for England, on the first part of their journey.
Aziz Ohanis had his last glimpse of his adopted country on the afternoon of 1st May 1915 as the liner left New York harbour and steamed out into the Atlantic Ocean, and just six days later he was dead, killed after the liner was torpedoed and sunk within sight of the southern Irish coast and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
A member of the Persian community in Chicago, a Mr. Malik Hatam of 63, West Grand Avenue, Chicago, said later of the losses on the Lusitania: -
It is a terrible blow to the Persians in Chicago, for on those lost, we depended for news of the wives, mothers and sweethearts imperiled (sic) at home.
As Aziz Ohanis’s body was never recovered and identified after the sinking, he has no known grave. He was aged 35 years.
In the New York Times for 9th May 1915, it was reported: -
The following cablegram was received by Ohan Stevens of 713 North Clark Street, (Chicago) from his son Thomas, who sailed on the Lusitania with a party of twelve other Persians to visit his grandparents: “Father am safe, Son Thomas“.
There was no-one on board the Lusitania named Thomas Stevens or any Persian national, survived or perished with the names Thomas or Steven(s) in their names and it might have been a simple case of mis-reporting or natural confusion understandable after such a disaster.
On the 14th October 1916, James F. Bishop was appointed by the Probate Court of Cook County, Illinois, to collect and preserve Mr. Ohanis’s possessions and property until it was claimed by whoever was entitled to inherit his estate. Mr. Bishop was an official of the Court, and in the application, it was stated that Aziz Ohanis also used the alias - Aziz Oganesoff. The value of Aziz Ohanis’s possessions and property is not known, and it is not known if anybody made a claim for his estate.
Cunard Records, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Tragedy of the Lusitania, Illinois U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1772 – 1999, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.