The oldest known photo of Plessa villagers comes to us courtsey of Plessa Photo Safe/Spyros Chryssanthakis. It was taken in the 1880s and shows Konstantinos Georgios Chryssanthakis (Χρυσανθάκη) (1823–1899) and his wife Aikaterini Ioannis Georgious (Γεωργίου) (1835–1920). Konstatinos’ mother was Anthoula Kamoutsi (Καμουτσή) (1805–1850)
Next up: two men who emigrated from the Fokidos region to Minnesota (USA) and who both lived past 100.
Age 104 – Nick Haidos (born in Milea, Fokidos). You can read newspaper articles here.
Age 103 – James Efstathios Kotonias (Dimitrios Efstathios Koutonias). He arrived at Ellis Island on 24 Mar 1907 at age 24.
In his book, The History of Plessa, A. Manetas writes:
“Σε κασσέτα, που υπάρχει σε μουσείο του Hibbing Minesota των ΗΠΑ, είναι αποτυπωμένη η φωνή του παλαιού μετανάστη συγχωριανού μας Δημητράκη Ευσταθίου Κουτονιά (γ. 1882) ο οποίος απεβίωσε σε ηλικία 104 ετών, που διηγείται τη ζωή των μεταναστών τα παλαιότερα χρόνια καθώς και παλαιά περιστατικά της περιοχής εκείνης.”
( “In a tape, which exists in a museum of the US Hibbing Minesota, is the voice of the old immigrant villager Dimitrakis Efstathiou Koutonias (c. 1882) who died at the age of 104 years, where he talks about the life of immigrants in the older years and old incidents of that area. “)
An excerpt of that recording has been set to this video slideshow by his grandson James Kotonias.
