{geni:about_me} His mother having died when he was about 6 years old, he and his younger brother and his father came to Pirgos, Samos from somewhere unknown. There is a village on the other side of the mountain named Manolates which has a public square by the name of presumably his grandfather, as determined by traditional patrinymics.

At 12, he left Pirgos for work in Crete. Both Samos and Crete were still under Ottoman rule at the time.

He worked as a pipe cleaner and waiter at a Turkish smoke shop, where he would procure and prepare various smoking substances for the Turks and other denizens of such places.

When he had enough money, he struck out for America. He roamed the United States to see it all and reportedly, when he got as far as Denver, he asked what was on the other side of the mountains. The answer he god was "the edge of the world", so he returned to Peabody, Massachusetts, where his compatriots from Samos were established as laborers in the leather tanning industry.

In order to work in the United States, one had to speak, read and write in English, so he taught himself to do so. He also taught himself concurrently the same in Greek.

He smoked one cigarette per week, on Sunday.