1. Decsent - Migration to south Russia
Dimitrios Sp. Inglesis was born in Kefalonia. He came from an aristocratic family as is evidenced by the certificate of the Seven United Ionian Islands in 1804. Following the death of his father, Spyridon, he migrated with his uncle from Kefalonia to Taganrog, where he worked in a ship. He served in the Russian army during the Russo-Ottoman war and was assigned the office of captain. We have no information available concerning his arrival at Odessa but it is known that in 1804 duke Richelieut, the French governor of the town, employed him in order to send provisions to the Russian troops of the Ionian islands. To this duty Inglesis responded supplying his own capital. 2. Career in Odessa
Inglesis was a successful merchant of Odessa in the sector of grain trade. His trade company was in 1817 one of the ten most important export enterprises. He got married to Ekaterina Koutzovskaya, a descent of an aristocratic Russian family, and they had five children. His success in trade paved his way for his involvement in committees of the municipal administration. During Napoleon’s expedition in Russia in 1812 he was assigned the responsibility for the of donations of the Greek community with the purpose of assisting the Russian troops. During the cholera epidemic that hit Odessa in 1813, he was placed by Richelieu in charge of one of the five sectors, in which the town was divided in order to cope with the epidemic. In 1815 he gathered money for the construction of the hospital and the Greek-Orthodox church. He took the office of mayor of Odessa between 1818 and 1821. Inglesis had not been a member of the "Society of Friends" (Filiki Etaireia). Nevertheless, he was in correspondence with Ypsilantis offering him moral boost and material assistance (11 March 1821) while he kept in touch with a group of volunteers from Kefalonia, headed by Loukas Valsamakis, who had entered his camp on 5 March 1821. Following Chios’ destruction and the coming influxes of refugees that swamped Odessa, Dimitrios Inglesis became the president of the local committee created to supply assistance subsides to the refugees (1821-1831). At the same time he organized solidarity actions to the new government of the Greek State under Ioannis Kapodistrias. At the end of the Russo-Ottoman war (1828-1829) he participated in the project of stone transport from abroad with the purpose of turning the streets of Odessa into pedestrian roads, an operation that -he believed- would bring commercial profits to the town. |