Panagoitis Demetrios PREVENAS was born 04 Jun 1887 in Phelisi, Skala, Sparta, Greece. His parents were Demetrios and Mary (GIANAKOS) PREVENAS. Peter had at least one brother. It is said that the two brothers fought constantly, and their father told Peter to leave before they killed each other.
At age 13, Peter came to America. From the Greek port of Pireaus, he sailed to England. He left Liverpool 03 Nov 1901, and arrived in the New York City port on 10 Nov 1901. Peter was Naturalized 17 Jun 1921.
He met Mary ZABSKI while they were working together in a restaurant in Chicago. They were married Oct 1906 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Eight of their babies survived to adulthood: Anna (1907), Fanny (1908), James (1909), Thomas (1911), Helen (1912), Peter (1914), Violet (1915), and Katharine (1921).
“Tommy was the apple of his father’s eye along with Anna. Violet was until Dodo was born. Violet was his Billy-boy. Oh how he loved her! There were six years before Dodo came along after Violet.” [*HPT]
“We learned Greek from a tutor with Anna until our father found out we were teaching him English.” [*JPP]
Family gossip said Peter’s brother, Tom Prevenas, came here from Greece in 1911. Peter thought his brother was making a pass at wife. To avoid any troubles, Tom went back to Greece.
Peter bought a 1919 Model T Touring car. He got tired of cranking it so when starters came out he bought one for the car.
"My father taught me how to drive when I was about 12 or 13 years old." [*PPP]
The local theater on Division Street near State Street was showing the Iron Claw serial. When the theater was going bankrupt Peter financed them for two weeks in order to see the end of serial.
Peter loved to gamble. He gambled away one restaurant in a poker card game.
"When we were in LaGrange, he would get through with work and he would take me to a Greek town about 25 miles away where he would play cards. They would play in back of the grocery store. Sometimes I would sit on his lap and throw the chips in. He was good to me." [*KPL]
"He played a game with me as he was driving along. 'See all the bricks, that’s how much I love you.' or 'See all the grains of sand on the beach, that’s how much I love you.' Then, I would have to think of something to tell how much I loved him." [*KPL]
Peter made the best Cream of Chicken soup in the whole world. He taught a nephew, Andrew Prevenas, how to cook. Andrew was the head cook in charge of the guest cafeteria at Glenview Naval Airbase during WWII. Andrew’s beautiful sister, Antoinette, went to Josephina with Helen Prevenas Thein, and enjoyed an arranged marriage with the man who talked Grampa into going into partnership in the vegetable business. Although the partnership ruined Peter, Mr. V. eventually became very prosperous.
"Paterna would buy run down restaurants and build them up to sell. At Greek socials he would get leads on which restaurants were struggling. He would buy a place very cheap. He was able to make a real show of it because he was such an excellent cook and he would make his children work for free. His prices were so much lower than anyone else because of the free labor. After six or seven months it the place would be packed with customers and he could sell it for a big profit. Buyers would see all the profits without realizing the buyer would have additional employee expenses. He was a smart business man." [*HPT]
He
owned twelve restaurants. The restaurant at Clyborne and Haisted
was a small little place called Pete’s Economy. The Venus Restaurant was at
Division. They had five moves in eight years. La Salle, Diversey 1921,
Racine 1922, Hadden Avenue, and La Grange 1928. The Eat Well Restaurant was
owned before moving out to La Grange. Next door to the La Grange restaurant
was a place with an upstairs hotel. The Villa Rica offered a half chicken,
seven course meal for 50 cents. It was so popular there was a police line.
The man next door offered Peter $5,000 to sell and leave. The depression hit
and Peter only received $2,000. He took the sign to sell for junk, it had a
25 horse power motor.
The North Broadway restaurant cost $100. It had fourteen stools and only four tables. During the first hours of business, 10:00 pm until 10:00 am, the sales totaled only twenty cents. Within one year Peter had tons of customers and sold the restaurant and moved on to the Clyborn Avenue Tavern/Restaurant.
“Grampa had a diamond ring that he would use to knock on the counter when he wanted to wake up a worker or correct a daughter who was talking too much to a customer.” [*HPT]
The vegetable man who delivered to Division and California talked Peter into selling and buying brand new Diamond T trucks with solid tires and kerosene lamps. So, he went into the vegie business with Mr. V. delivering fruits and vegetables (primarily potatoes and onions) to restaurants during the depression. The trucks were kept near Halstead downtown. Peter took the big truck on the Northside. His son, James, took the small one on the Southside. Pete asked his customers to save the potato sacks (for a two-cent credit) and bushels. The overhead on the trucks and Peter’s willingness to give too much credit, as much as $8,000 caused the venture to fail. Peter had to file bankruptcy. First however, he put the house in Anna’s name and James and George Thein paid what was left of the mortgage. The house was then owned by James and George.
They put a second floor onto the house. Then using old lumber from the World’s Fair they added a room in the back for Peter. The old lumber was bug infested so they ended up selling.
During later years, he sent flowers home to his wife every Easter and Mother’s Day.
Peter left home several years before he died to live with another woman. He used the excuse that he wanted to give his room to Fani because she had an unfinished room with no light.
Peter died 21 Dec 1941 of a blood clot in the heart. (Tommy told the woman Peter had been living with to stay away from the funeral.) Peter was buried at the Elmwood Park Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois. In one car in the funeral procession rode Tommy, Pete, and a Prevenas cousin who owned a restaurant.
"I remember on LaSalle Street when my father was going to beat my mother, Jimmy stepped in.” [*PPP]
"My father never hit me, never swore at me. I remember when he came upstairs with the belt, though. There were three of us sleeping in the bed: Tommy, Jimmy, and I. Tom was yelling bloody murder. I was yelling 'Ow! Ow!' I didn’t think he knew he was missing me. He was missing me deliberately but was getting Tom and Jim.” [*PPP]
"I believe my father orchestrated women to educate me. I just found it out recently from sister Helen. I had thought I was such a hotshot. I was that naive. He never indicated he had anything to do with it. But, now that I think about it, I can remember he had a snicker on his puss sometimes. Isn’t that a kick in the head? After all these years ... I’ll be a dirty name.” [*PPP]
"Grampa's uncle owned a large chocolate company in Chicago. He fell in love with a con from Marshall Fields. When she left him, he jumped out of his window. They found his frozen body four days later." [*JPP]
[*HPT Helen Prevenas Thein, *JPP James Peter Prevenas, *KPL Katharine Prevenas Langner, *PPP Peter Peter Prevenas]
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