Peter Demens - Life in The United States

Life in The United States

In May 1881, "leaving his family behind, sailed for New York, hoping for American promise of mobility and opportunity. He reportedly "spent his sea voyage studying an English language textbook." "Arriving in New York with $3,000 to start a new life, Demens embarked for Florida" ("spending one day in New York before boarding a train bound for his cousin's Jacksonville orange grove"). Because land in Jacksonville was expensive for him at the time, Demens took "a steamer to the back country, where he expected to get more for his money."

He decided to enter the lumber business ("investing in a sawmill and a construction company in Longwood, Fla.") and in 1885 Demens was supplying railroad ties to the Orange Belt Railway when he took over their charter because they couldn't pay him. Becoming the owner of the Orange Belt Railroad, Demens " its lines to link Kissimmee with Jacksonville and Tampa Bay" (with the help of Hamilton Disston).

On June 8, 1888 the first train pulled into the terminus in southern Pinellas County (the end of the line) with one passenger. The area had no official name and no real streets or sidewalks. Demens named the location of his terminus St. Petersburg, Florida, after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he had spent half his youth.

Starting in 1904, Demens helped hundreds of Russians immigrate to California. The Russians were part of the Molokan Church, a Christian Protestant sect that broke away from the Russian Orthodox church a century earlier. Demens provided advice and money for many of the original Molokan immigrants to Los Angeles. Between 1905 and 1912, about 5000 Russian Molokans immigrated to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even though Demens was not a Molokan, the Molokan people have always held him in high regard.