Brooklin man’s new book tells story of his immigrant grandfather
Steve Hindy, a former journalist and brewery co-founder, chronicles the history of his Lebanese grandfather in dangerous 1920s West Virginia
Steve Hindy with his new book about the immigrant experience of his Lebanese grandfather. Photo by Steele Hays.
By Steele Hays
Brooklin author and former journalist Steve Hindy spoke Nov. 5 to an overflow crowd at Friends Library about his new book that tells the tale of his grandfather, who came to the United States at age 14 and became a successful small-town entrepreneur and an American citizen.
It’s a story that’s “very topical today,” Hindy said, at a time when Americans are debating immigration issues and engaging in street protests over how immigration laws are being enforced.
“The Ali Hindy Story: A Muslim immigrant in 20th Century America,” tells the story of Hindy’s grandfather, who left his home in what is now Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley at his family’s urging to seek a better life in the U.S.
After spending two years working his way westward through Egypt, Italy, France and England, Ali finally landed in New York City, slipping through customs and border enforcement to enter the country illegally in 1896. He worked for 10 years as an itinerant peddler, selling household goods from a horse-drawn wagon.
In 1911, he settled in Mingo County, West Virginia, an epicenter of violent conflict between coal miners, union organizers, mine owners and hired security forces. It was known as “Bloody Mingo,” after a gunfight in May 1920 between miners and private security forces left 10 men dead.
By that time, Ali was the successful owner of a general store, bathhouse and movie theater and had married an American woman from Ohio. Ali became involved in the miner-owner conflicts when he allowed his warehouse to be used for union meetings. A few years later, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in Ali Hindy’s front yard and threatened his life if he didn’t leave town. Ali turned to a powerful local man he knew for help–William Anderson Hatfield, known as “Devil Anse,” of the famous Hatfield family. Hatfield forced the Klan to back off.
In his talk, Hindy shared personal stories about his grandfather, who he knew growing up. His grandfather was often prone to becoming emotional and crying at family gatherings, Hindy said.
“I think they were tears of joy at his success in the U.S., but also tears of sadness that he had lost touch with his past and his family roots,” he said.
Ali Hindy made only one trip back to his home village. In 1911, he traveled there for a short visit, then returned to the U.S. and, this time, entered legally through Ellis Island in New York.
Hindy’s biography is really “historical fiction,” he said, since he tells his grandfather’s story in a first-person voice and creates conversations, dialogue and characters using his imagination. As an author, Hindy had only a few written documents to draw upon, so he relied primarily on oral histories from other family members. Hindy had just graduated from college when his grandfather died in 1971 at age 89.
In understanding and describing his grandfather’s early years in the Bekaa Valley, Hindy was able to draw upon his own personal and professional experience: He spent six years as an Associated Press correspondent in Beirut, Lebanon, and Cairo, Egypt, during the 1980s covering the Lebanese Civil War, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the assassination of Anwar Sadat. After retiring from journalism, Hindy co-founded Brooklyn Brewery in New York. He and his wife, Ellen, now live full-time in Brooklin.
“The Ali Hindy Story” is available for sale at Blue Hill Books, Leaf & Anna and through online booksellers.
Editor’s note: Steve Hindy serves on the board of directors of The Rising Tide.
