How one Chatham judge is living the American dream

Everyone has a family history, and it plays a crucial role in how communities are formed and how people end up where they are.

For Superior Court Justice Allen Baddour, that’s especially true.

Believe it or not, Justice Baddour and I have a few things in common when it comes to our family histories.

The Baddours and the Heedens can trace their lineage to the same village in the mountains of Lebanon — Hammana. This small village outside of Beirut served as a haven for Christians, particularly Catholics, in the Beirut area during a time when they were facing persecution under the rule of Turkish Muslims in the late 19th century at the peak of the Ottoman Empire.

My great, great-grandfather Cater Heeden came to the United States in 1895 with his brothers, Frank and John, to start a new life because of the hardships they faced under Ottoman rule. Seven years later, Cater and his brothers settled in the Carolinas, and Cater was finally able to afford to bring his family to the U.S.

For his family, Allen said they heard from other Lebanese families in the United States that North Carolina provided opportunities for prosperity, as well as a sizable Lebanese population. The family made its way to Goldsboro, where my family ultimately settled and both families reside there to this day.

Allen says his great-grandfather Shikrey Baddour worked as a traveling salesman and eventually was able to start one of the most notable pickle companies in the country: Mount Olive Pickle.

“He was always seeing all these cucumbers in the fields after the picking that was good, salvageable and so forth,” Allen said. “And so he was like, ‘Let’s scoop up the leftovers, and make pickles,’ and so he and others formed the company.”

After the pickling company became successful, Shikrey sold his shares in Mount Olive to help take care of his family — but that wasn’t the end of the Baddours’ success.

The Baddours, like Heedens, always emphasized education as a way to a successful life and as a way to help support your family. This is something that is ingrained in Lebanese-American culture, and it impacted the way Allen and I were each raised.

“My grandparents didn’t go to college, but they understood the value of sending their boys to college,” Allen said. “We were never a well-to-do family … they did what they needed to do. And they put their kids — my dad and his brothers — through college.”

Lebanese culture also places a strong emphasis on giving back to your community in the form of service, and the Baddours are no exception.

Allen’s grandfather, Phillip Sr., became a shop owner in Goldsboro and also served on the Goldsboro Town Council. Allen’s uncle, Phillip Jr. (whom I sat behind in church as a child), became one of the first Lebanese representatives in the N.C. House of Representatives. And Allen is the first Lebanese justice in Orange and Chatham counties and is among one of the first in North Carolina.

Now, why am I telling you all of this? It is because of the “third pillar” of Lebanese culture: family.

During our conversation, Allen made a great point.

He talked about how we, as a people, tend to live in communities that reflect our values. In Chatham County, he experienced a familial connection to the community and its members. He spoke of a time when he was preparing to move out of his house near the Pittsboro courthouse and three county commissioners rolled down the windows to tease him for moving to Orange County.

“Three of our elected officials were on top of things enough to know that I was moving out, and it just to me describes the personal connection there is in Chatham County,” he said. “Family has a broad and expansive definition … I find that that’s just a big part of who we are, and it’s an important part of our story.”

Chatham County’s communities are like a large, extended family, and it’s those places that draw in people with different cultures and backgrounds. The friendly folks here are what make Chatham County an amazing place to work and live, and it provides a place where families like Allen’s can share their stories and make Chatham the diverse community it is.

By sharing our stories, Allen said it helps bring the community closer together and may help inspire others from similar backgrounds to achieve that American Dream our ancestors worked so hard for.

“I think that the immigrant story is a common one and that a lot of people can see parallels in their own stories with our story,” he said. “If that helps in some ways sort of shine a light or be an inspiration for others, wonderful.”