Prince Nicholas
Hadjimoukoff, in the uniform
of the Czar's Cossack
regiment, around 1890
Who Was Prince Hadjimoukoff?
Deane Merrill, 96 Beverly Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28805,
USA
email: dwmerrill@charter.net
and
Sébastien Fabre, 144 Rue Breteuil, 13006
Marseille, France
email:
sebafabre@hotmail.fr
May 2007 (revised
1/15/08)
Shelburne Falls,
Massachusetts is a small rural
town with practically no ethnic population. Perhaps the most curious gravestone in Arms
Cemetery in Shelburne Falls is the one which reads as follows:
Elizabeth Montgomery - 1896 - (no date of death)
Wife of R.H. Montgomery
Daughter of Prince Nicholas Hadjimoukoff
Elizabeth’s husband was
Robert H. Montgomery, whose father, Thomas J. Montgomery (1844-1900) came to Shelburne Falls
from Boston
about 1882 along with his wife, Harriet L. (Johnson) Montgomery. Thomas
apparently fell in love with Shelburne
Falls, for after buying
the spacious Joseph W. Gardner home (now the Smith-Kelleher Funeral Home), he
built three identical lovely houses on Maple and Severance Streets for his
wife’s sisters, and generously built and donated in 1884 the Emmanuel Memorial
Episcopal Church (now the Trinity Fellowship). Although Thomas never counted Shelburne Falls as his home, for several years he
was its largest taxpayer. Sadly, his fortunes were short-lived. In
1894 the Shelburne Falls Bank foreclosed on all four of his residences, plus
another 25 acre parcel. He left town, and his later whereabouts are
unknown.
But who was Elizabeth's
father, the mysterious Prince Hadjimoukoff? The question was asked in a
1985 article in Mt. Massaemet Shadows, the quarterly newsletter of the
Shelburne Historical Society. Now, 22 years later, thanks to the Internet,
the mystery is finally solved. In 1999 Deane Merrill created an
electronic index of articles in Mt.
Massaemet Shadows.
That index, which contains the name “Hadjimoukoff,” was picked up by an
Internet search engine, where it was found by Sébastien Fabre, who lives in Marseille, France.
Sébastien, a 27-year-old great-great-grandson of Prince Nicholas Hadjimoukoff,
contacted Deane by email. As mysterious as the Hadjimoukoff family was to
Deane, Sébastien was equally ignorant of the Montgomery family, so prominent in
Shelburne’s history. Further correspondence and research has uncovered
the following information. The story is even more interesting than
previously imagined!
Elizabeth’s
Russian name was Elizaveta Nikolaevna Hadjimoukoff
(Елизавета
Νиколаевна
Хаджимуков).
She was born in Russia
on February 2, 1896, one of at least seven children. As is customary in Russia, her
middle name, or patronymic, indicates that her father’s name was Nikolai.
Her father, Nikolai Nikolaevitch Hadjimoukoff, was an officer in the Czar's
personal escort, in a Cossack regiment known as the Kubansky Sotnya. The
photograph above shows him in his Russian military uniform.
But Nikolai was not Russian by birth. He was
Circassian, a member of a proud race in the territory north of Georgia and Armenia,
bordering on the Black Sea. The
Russians, wanting warm water ports on the Black Sea, invaded Circassia
time and time again, finally subjugating them in the mid-19th century after a
brutal campaign that lasted 150 years. The Circassians were legendary for
their fighting skills and their bravery, and they were among the last peoples
to be subdued by the mighty Russian army.
Nikolai at birth was Temtetch Hadjimoukoff. He was the
son of Tarkhan Hadjimoukoff, the last ruler of the Bjedughs, a Circassian tribe
that lived on the banks of the Kuban'
river. In 1859 the Russians, with the aid of Cossack mercenaries, finally
conquered the Bjedughs. In order to guarantee the loyalty of their
vassals the Russians took hostages, among them the 13-year old Prince
Temtetch. They put him in a local Russian military school, baptized him
in the Orthodox faith, and renamed him - Nikolai Nikolaevitch
Hadjimoukoff. The middle name is not his father's name but a fictitious
one - perhaps the name of a Russian godfather.
Later events remain to be uncovered. We know that
Nikolai's daughter Elizaveta, or Elizabeth, married Richard, the son of
Shelburne's Thomas J. Montgomery. In the family, Richard was known as
Monty, and Elizabeth
was called Lala. After their marriage they lived in England.
At some point the couple came to Franklin County, Massachusetts, probably to be
near Richard’s family. Richard died in Greenfield
in 1951, and Elizabeth went back to live with
her sister Xenia near Paris, France.
Elizabeth died
and was cremated, and her ashes buried there.
In the 19th century the Russian noble class was
closely connected to Paris
and French culture. An important colony of Russian émigrés grew up at
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne), about 25 kilometers south of Paris. The Russian
cemetery there has about 10,000 burials, including several of Elizabeth
Hadjimoukoff’s siblings and her mother, Elizaveta Vassilievna
Kolokoltseva. It is not known just when they came from Russia to France. Elizabeth’s father and the remaining siblings died in Russia.
Research is continuing. Please contact the authors
(addresses above) if you can provide corrections or additional information
about the Hadjimoukoff family or the Montgomery
family. An electronic copy of this article is at http://merrill.olm.net/shs/shelburne/hadjimoukoff/hadjimoukoff_v4.htm.
More information is available.
Grave marker in Arms Cemetery,
Shelburne Falls.
Elizabeth
"Lala" Montgomery actually died in France, and was
cremated there.
Richard H.
"Monty" Montgomery. The message to his mother reads
"Mamouska with
two big kisses from Monty 1930-1931."
"Monty" in England, around
1940
back to Shelburne Historical
Society
dennie2:\\c:\dwmerrill\shs\shelburne\hadjimoukoff\hadjimoukoff_v4.htm
1/15/08
http://merrill.olm.net/shs/shelburne/hadjimoukoff/hadjimoukoff_v4.htm