Evangelos Zappas
Evangelis Zappas was born to a Greek family on August 23, 1800 in the village of Labovo in the Ottoman Empire. His parents were Vasileios and Sotira Zappas. Zappas received no education during his youth. At 13, he left his village and worked as a mercenary in the Ottoman militia of Ali Pasha. Zappas was involved in the Filiki Eteria, a Greek patriotic organization, and served in the Greek War of Independence when it started in 1821. He claimed to have been wounded five times during the war. Zappas later moved to Wallachia in 1831 and made a fortune in land and agriculture. In the 1850s, Zappas became one of the wealthiest businessmen in Eastern Europe. The value of his whole fortune was calculated at six million gold drachmas.