{"id":58419,"date":"2020-05-07T11:03:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T15:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=58419"},"modified":"2024-06-28T12:37:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:37:03","slug":"the-story-of-zafris-a-sweet-couple-worth-remembering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/the-story-of-zafris-a-sweet-couple-worth-remembering.html","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Zafris: A Sweet Couple Worth Remembering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry digs into old newspapers and archival records, as well as interviewing their surviving son, to tell the story of James and Marguerite Zafris and their sweet shops. <\/em>Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a><\/em>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When confectioner James George Zafris (1883-1977) tied the knot with Marguerite Greeley Russell (1892-1986) on 14 October 1911, it made the coastal town of Newburyport, Massachusetts, much sweeter.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Zafris family in front of the \u201cZafris Bros\u201d store, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Credit: James Zafris Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past few years, I have worked with their son James Jr. (b. 1928) in Newburyport. The photos he shared are a great contribution to the Port\u2019s rich history.<\/p>\n

His father left Greece when he was 13 to attend school in Alexandria, Egypt. He came to the United States in 1907 with his brother George Zafris. George was James\u2019 partner until he returned to Greece after 1917.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: James Zafris in front of his store, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Credit: James Zafris Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two brothers\u2019 business, \u201cZafris Brothers,\u201d had two locations: 38 and 88 State Street in Newburyport. Zafris enticed the locals with an elaborate soda fountain shop shelved with sweets, succulent fruits, and exotic figs and nuts. They stocked with only the best quality goodies from such places as Schrafft\u2019s Candy Factory in Cambridge and Jersey Ice Cream Co. in Lawrence. Aromatic coffee blends and the best cigars could be had as well. They catered and made home deliveries.<\/p>\n

\"Montage:<\/a>
Montage: ads for Jersey Ice Cream sold at the Zafris Bros.\u2019 stores, run at various times in the Newburyport Daily News. Credit: Newburyport Archival Center Digital Newspapers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James established himself quickly and proved to be a real entrepreneur. He did renovations at the 88 State Street store per \u201cpatron demand,\u201d and added a new room to serve lunch.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: James Zafris crossing the bridge from Amesbury into Newburyport, Massachusetts. Credit: James Zafris Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The family enterprises increased to include a vending business and the Riverton Trolley Park in Portland, Maine (partnered with Dennis J. Kelleher).<\/p>\n

The sale of the 88 Street store to a Miss Annie J. Ryan was noted in \u201cConfectioners\u2019 and Bakers\u2019 Gazette, Volume 41.\u201d James Zafris is listed in the 1922 \u201cThe New England Business Directory and Gazetteer\u201d running a wholesale confectionery goods company on 13 Market Street in the same town. James Jr. remembered his dad was a wholesale distributor for Drake\u2019s Cake Company after he closed his shop.<\/p>\n

I did find a few dramas in this family history. On 30 December 1912, James was held up at gunpoint, but he outsmarted the thief by pulling out his flashlight which the thief mistook as a gun.<\/p>\n

A news clip called \u201cA Lively Time\u201d recalled the events one afternoon when a man named Crocker was in town to repair chimneys. He left his horse and buggy near the new Kimball block on Main Street alone. The horse got startled and made his way down Main to Timothy Sullivan\u2019s store and crashed into the truck owned by Zafris Brothers. The buggy and truck were wrecked, but the horse just trotted on, making his way to Market Square.<\/p>\n

According to the Standard<\/em>, in 1922 a fire consumed all the candy stock at Zafris Brothers on 13 Market Street and a loss of $10,300 was reported.<\/p>\n

James Jr. remembers his mother was proud to be a \u201cJoppy-ite,\u201d a term used by the locals who lived in the area named \u201cJoppa Flats.\u2019 Her father, Captain Albert Russell (1862-1921), served at the Newburyport Hose 8 Fire Station and was chief for part of his career. Her mother, Margaret Moynihan, was a talented dressmaker born in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were real opposites,\u201d James Jr. said. \u201cMy mother was extroverted, and my father was reserved.\u201d What brought these two together? Perhaps the magic started at the local dance hall. James Jr. showed me his mother\u2019s dance card from the \u201cSixth Annual Dance\u201d given by \u201cThe Telephone Girls Club,\u201d to which his mother was a member. She was a telephone operator at the time, and \u201cshe knew everyone\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a gifted pianist and loved music,\u201d noted James Jr. She gave private lessons and volunteered her time to teach children. I found several newspaper clips of community concerts, pageants and festivals in which Marguerite performed.<\/p>\n

James Jr. noted that his father was a very disciplined fellow. He was a 32nd degree Mason head of the Newburyport Commandery, No. 3, Knights Templars, and a Shriner.<\/p>\n

In addition, he served on the school committee, trustee of the library, and as director of the Y.M.C.A.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 9 January 1977, page 38<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marguerite\u2019s vivacious personality must have rubbed off on her husband. I found news clips revealing this couple liked to party and cut a rug. When the South End Civic Association was raising money for Christmas, James furnished the lasts tunes at the rock hop! Opposites really do attract.<\/p>\n

In addition to James Jr, James and Marguerite had three daughters: Marguerite Zafris Walton, Georgiana Zafris McDonnell, and Eugenia Zafris Arsenault. James Jr. and I discovered many ancestral connections, which include Wolfe Tavern founder Captain William Davenport, Mayor Moses Davenport, Henry Coit Perkins, Rev. John Hale, and a few witches. We have traced the family line back to John Perkins of Ipswich and Captain William Berry of Rye, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> Just as an online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, helped tell the stories of James and Marguerite Zafris, they can tell you stories about your ancestors that can\u2019t be found anywhere else. Come look today and see what you can discover!<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry tells the story of James and Marguerite Zafris and their sweet shops in Newburyport, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":58449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12557],"tags":[53885,53887,53889],"class_list":["post-58419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-stories","tag-james-george-zafris","tag-marguerite-greeley-russell","tag-marguerite-zafris"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/photo-0507-2020-featured-graphic-zafris.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99473,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58419\/revisions\/99473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}