Waukegan's development began in many ways with the arrival of industries such as United States Sugar Refinery, which opened in 1890, Washburn &amp; Moen, a barbed-wire manufacturer that prompted both labor migration and land speculation beginning in 1891, U.S. Starch Works, and Thomas Brass and Iron Works. Immigrants followed, mostly hailing from southeastern Europe and Scandinavia, with especially large groups from Sweden, Finland, and Lithuania. The town also became home to a considerable Armenian population. One member of this community, Monoog Curezhin, even became embroiled in an aborted plot to assassinate Sultan Abdul Hamid II, reviled for his involvement in massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Curezhin lost two fingers on his right hand while testing explosives for this purpose in Waukegan in 1904.