| Peter Demens | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 May [O.S. 1 May] 1850 Tver Oblast of Russia. |
| Died | January 21, 1919 (aged 68) Alta Loma |
| Occupation | Businessman, railroad-builder, and city-founder |
| Spouse | Raisa Demens[1] |
| Children | Claudia Demens Blair, Helen Demens, Vadim Demons, Eugene Demens, Vladimir Demens, Inna Demons, Vera Demons[1] |
Peter Demens (13 May [O.S. 1 May] 1850 – January 21, 1919)[1] born Pyotr Alexeyevitch Dementyev (Russian: Пётр Алексеевич Дементьев) is one of the founders of the U.S. city of Saint Petersburg, Florida.
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Peter Demens was born to a wealthy family in the Tver Oblast of Russia. Demens was a well educated aristocrat who was also liberal-minded. "Demens' father had left him two estates, one near the czar's capital of St. Petersburg and another close to Moscow."[2] "His father died when he was an infant [and when] he was 4, his mother died."[2] He reportedly "grew up in a huge stone house with never fewer than 30 servants" and "was the master of his family estate" at 17.[2] Demens was raised by his maternal uncle Anastassy Alexandrovich Kaliteevsky, marshal of the Vesyegonsk district nobility, who became the boy's tutor and guardian of his land estates.[3] When he was 10, Demens "was sent to St. Petersburg to study [at] Gymnasium No. 3 (today it is School No. 181 in Solyanoi Pereulok), [which] was one of the best in the city."[3] Demens did well enough to eventually transfer "to the newly founded First Technical School in St. Petersburg."[3]
In 1867, "he entered the military service of Alexander II as a lieutenant in the czar's infantry guard."[2] "He rose to command the sentries at the czar's Winter Palace and the home of Crown Prince Alexander III," but "after four years of military duty, he was old enough to own his family estates [and so] "he resigned his commission as a captain and lived as a country squire."[2] He married Raisa Borisenko, who, reportedly, was "also an orphan brought up by relatives."[2] "He spent the 1870s selling off the trees of the estates' dense woodland and converting his land to agriculture."[2] "Elected by gentry peers as county marshal of nobility, he became an outspoken writer and active in his rural government."[2] "Never adopting Marxist or radical notions, Demens sympathized with populist leaders."[2]
He became outspoken about the Czarist regime when "radical terrorist groups murdered Alexander II [and] his son tightened his political pressure on radicals and abandoned his father's reforms."[2] He thus left Russia following the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881. Reportedly, many of the accounts of Demens being forced to flee Russia are "based on Demens' attempts to romanticize his departure from Russia by implying he escaped just before a military raid on his estate" despite never being "more than 'on the fringe' of peaceful populist organizations."[2] Accoding to the biographer Albert Parry, Demens' departure was "more likely [due to] his troubles with an embezzlement scandal that engulfed Demens and others in government posts" ("trials brought only one conviction for a minor government official and acquittals for Demens and 15 others").[2]
In May 1881, "leaving his family behind, [Demens] sailed for New York, hoping for American promise of mobility and opportunity.[2] He reportedly "spent his sea voyage studying an English language textbook."[2] "Arriving in New York with $3,000 to start a new life, Demens embarked for Florida" ("spending one day in New York before boarding a train bound for his cousin's Jacksonville orange grove").[2] Because land in Jacksonville was expensive for him at the time, Demens took "a steamer to the back country, where he expected to get more for his money." He decided to enter the lumber business ("investing in a sawmill and a construction company in Longwood, Fla."[4]) and in 1885 Demens was supplying railroad ties to the Orange Belt Railway when he took over their charter because they couldn't pay him. Becoming the owner of the Orange Belt Railroad, Demens"[extended] its lines to link Kissimmee with Jacksonville and Tampa Bay"[2] (with the help of Hamilton Disston[5]).
On June 8, 1888 the first train pulled into the terminus in southern Pinellas County (the end of the line) with one passenger. The area had no official name and no real streets or sidewalks. Demens named the location of his terminus St. Petersburg, Florida, after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he had spent half his youth.
Starting in 1904, Demens helped hundreds of Russians immigrate to California. The Russians were part of the Molokan Church, a Christian Protestant sect that broke away from the Russian Orthodox church a century earlier. Demens provided advice and money for many of the original Molokan immigrants to Los Angeles. Between 1905 and 1912, about 5000 Russian Molokans immigrated to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even though Demens was not a Molokan, the Molokan people have always held him in high regard.
Demens eventually retired to Alta Loma, California to the family ranch (what later became known as Demens-Tolstoy Estate). Reportedly, "the descendants of Peter Demens now live in California and British Columbia, [including] a grandson, Peter Demens Tolstoy ("writer Leo Tolstoy, who wrote Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilych, is his great-grand uncle"[6]), a great-grandson, Greg Demens, and a great-great-grandson, Greg Demens."[4] Demens Landing in St. Petersburg, FL is named in his honor.[7]
Mohoff, George & Jack Valov. "A Stroll Through Russiantown" 1996. Chapter 13, pp. 83–88 "Captain Peter A. Demens"