Yiorgos Caralambo
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Yiorgos George Caralambo, was a specialist, along with Hadji Ali, he was one of the first camel drivers ever hired by US Army in 1856 to lead the camel driver experiment in the Southwest. Swinging along came a cavalcade of heavily laden camels under the charge of Hadji Ali, or "Hi Jolly", and "Greek George", who had been brought with them from the Orient. The animals were to be used as beasts of burden in transportation across what was then known as the "Great American Desert." [1] Caralambos staid with the military long after the Camel Corps were disbanded.
[edit] Biography
George Caralambo, who was of Greek decent, was living in Smyrna when he was selected for the Camel Corps. In 1856 the American government recruited several camel drivers from Asia Minor to handle and care for the animals. One of these camel experts was "Greek George" Caralambo, he came out West leading a pack train of camels commissioned by the Union Army as the ideal means of desert transport.[2] He was one of eight Greeks that arrived at the Port of Indianola in Lavaca County, Texas aboard the USS Supply.[3] In his autobiography "Go West Greek George" by Steven Dean Pastis, which was a published both in Greek and English, it specifically identifies all eight men. These pioneers were Caralambo, Hadji Ali (later known as Philip Tedro), Mimico Teodora (Mico), Hadjiatis Yannaco (Long Tom), Anastasio Coralli (Short Tom), Michelo Georgios, Yanni IIIato and Giorgios Costi. The Americans acquired 3 camels in Tunis, 9 in Egypt, and 21 in Smyrna, 33 in all. The Camel Corps hauled supplies to build the Butterfield Overland Stage Route from St. Louis, Missouri to Los Angeles. The route was completed by September 1858. Through his service in the Union Army, Greek George met Major Henry Hancock, a Harvard trained lawyer and wealthy Los Angeles landowner (who was not related to Capt. Winfield Scott Hancock, although the latter Capt. Hancock directed field testing of the camels on trips from Los Angeles to nearby Fort Tejon, California, from 1858 to 1861). Henry Hancock was impressed by Caralambo's dedication that he wanted to privately employ him to drive camels carrying mail along the Butterfield Route. Hancock allowed Greek George to build a farmhouse with stables to house the dromedaries in the northwest part of Rancho La Brea in present-day West Hollywood. The plan fell through when the Union Army decided to disband the Camel Corps in 1862. Greek George was forced to liberate the camels that roamed the area for nearly thirty years afterward.
After the Civil War and well into the 1870s, Greek George remained at Rancho La Brea and took care of Major Hancock's cattle and horses. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1867 and changed his name to George Allen. On May 5, 1874, it was at Greek George's home that Tiburcio Vasquez, the most notorious of the Mexican banditos to terrorize California in the 1870s and 1880s, had his last stand off with the US authorities while hiding out in a shack behind the home of Caralambos, known to locals as "Greek George". Vasquez, who terrorized Southern California for over twenty-three years, frequently used Greek George's farmhouse as one of his numerous hideouts. Somebody ratted Vasquez out, some say it was Greek George enticed by the $15,000 reward, others say it was a relative of Vasquez's because he had an affair with a young niece in the area, whoever it was they alerted the sheriff to the bandit's whereabouts and a posse led by Albert Johnson headed from downtown L.A. to Greek George's residence, believed to be in present day West Hollywood, near the present-day corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and King's Road(between Aaron Brothers and Basix), is were Vasquez was finally captured. Caralambos later moved to Montebello, California and died near Mission Vieja San Gabriel on September 2, 1913.
