Hannah Kalajian, a native of Evereg, Armenia, emigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1924. She and her husband George operated George's Spa and Market on Lincoln Street where Mrs. Kalajian's Armenian specialties, including rice pilaf, proved extremely popular. The family kitchen became the birthplace of the company that made pilaf a major factor in modern American meals, Near East Foods.

Iver Johnson arrived in Worcester from his native Norway in 1863 at the age of 22 and immediately set to work as a gunsmith. By 1885, he was also manufacturing bicycles, turning out 15,000 bicycles a year. The Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works located on Central Street later moved to Fitchburg, producing "honest goods at honest prices." The beautiful monument of a woman and child, attributed to sculptor Andrew O'Connor, Sr., was erected following Johnson's death by his widow Mary; their daughter Nettie died in 1874 at the age of 5.

Bom in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1841, Thomas Plunkett emigrated to the United States as a young man and achieved fame for his ser-vice in the Civil War. A member of Company E, Twenty- first Massachusetts Infantry, he was severely wounded carrying the colors to their furthest point in the Battle of Fredericksburg. After the war he returned to Worcester. An impressive funeral held at Mechanics Hall and attended by the governor and many other dignitaries was followed by his burial at Hope in 1885.