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Cleveland was one of the major industrial cities of the midwestern US. In the first and second decade of the 20th century, it competed with Detroit in automobile manufacturing before succumbing to the Ford motor company’s superior mass production process by the late 1920s. At that point the city’s automobile factories took on a supportive role for Detroit’s car manufacturers.

Cleveland also sustained steel, iron and sulfur manufacturing.

Finally, the city’s industry depended upon a burgeoning service economy. Restaurants, confectionaries, all undergirded industrial Cleveland.

This was the status of the job market in Cleveland, Ohio, as Ottoman Greek immigrants from various parts of the empire arrived.

Irene Theodore's Memory of Her Father, Charlie Paul.

Cleveland's Ottoman Greeks found community through the kinship networks that led them to the city. One example is the contingency from the island of Koutale, modern Ekinlik.

The Koutalianoi established an organization, the Koutalis Benefit Assocation in 1916 with the goal of providing aid to refugees from Koutale in Greece.

In the US, the Koutalis Benefit Association organized community building events such as picnics and dances.

Irene Recalls Her Father's Community Building Contributions in Cleveland.

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