Hownice Itis! So Whenigot Offhere, When
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Mother always praised the United States so much: 'Come on to America, you'llsee it, how nice itis!So when Igot offhere, when we wake up inthe morning, Isaid, let's look over America, and see what itlooks like!So wepullthe drape and look out and all we see was a pile ofmud! -Louise (Bogo) fioroni OUISE BOGO was 12 years old when she arrived by train in the coal town of Avella, Pennsylvania. She and her siblings had come fromthe small village ofBelluno, innorthern Italy, to jointheir parents, from whom they had been separated for seven years. Louise's father, typical of many Italianimmigrants of the turn of century, had worked on different labor gangs, traveling from town to town, wherever work was available. When he was able to find steady work in Avella as a loader in one of the area's coal mines, he called his wife over from Italy. She helped out by taking inboarders. They could not bring their children over untilthey had saved enough money to pay their way. Louise recalls arriving in Avella in the spring, "inthe night, with a lantern and mud up to your knees." 1 Catherine Cerrone is the Italian-American Program coordinator at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Her research in Avellais part ofan ongoing documentation ofItalian life inWestern Pennsylvania. Many Italians found work in mines such as the Donehoo mine, left, closed in 1926 and now the site of a strip mining operation. A / 1vella-area coal miners, above, gather outside a company building. Many nationalities worked side by side — circled in the photo by Dorothy Yurnick Tonini and labeled "Dad," is Joe Yurnick, of Hungarian extraction. Although different nationalities often lived next door to each other in Avella, opposite, the area in the foreground was called ItalyHill due to its concentration of Italian families. 102 Pittsburgh History, Fail1995 — — The year was 1907, and Avella mud streets and all was a boom. The Washington Observer reported in1903: "There is no choice destination forhundreds of Italianand Eastern European abatement inthe inquiryfor coal lands inthis and adjoining families like the Bogos, who came mainly to workin area coal counties, and sales are made as fast as principals can make terms. mines. This article focuses on Italian immigrant life in Avella,and The greatest activity is inWashington and Greene Counties where mainly explores the ways inwhich those immigrants maintained about 10,000 acres changed owners the past week at the best 8 ties to the "old country" while adapting— to the new worldaround— prices ever named for this class ofproperty." The railroads them. Italso addresses the factors both physical and social provided a means to transport raw materials from the area to that ameliorated a sense ofcommunity inAvella,both within the distant industrial sites, while the mines created jobs forlaborers Italian population and among other immigrant groups. Although that ushered ina wave of immigration. The Western Pennsylvania formal studies of coal-mining towns are numerous, relatively little countryside was transformed. literature exists onrural Western Pennsylvania coal towns (also Avella was established as an unincorporated village once the called "camps" or "patches"). This scarcity of writtendocumenta- railroad was completed in1904. 9 For 50 years, Avella was the focal tionabout Avella's post-frontier history as an immigrant commu- point of social activity, business, and commerce for area mining nity elevates the importance of oralhistories and raw census data families. The first makeshift quarters for workers sprang up as principal research tools for this article. Another aspect of the around the various mines that dotted the landscape, but Avella had research, one of general concern to many scholars intheir studies the post office, established in 1903, and a bank, Lincoln National, of immigrants, is that only people who remained in the region which closed during the Depression in1931. The first passenger could be interviewed. The experiences of those immigrants who trainpassed through Avella onJuly 2, 1904, and passenger service returned to Italy, or who moved far away, could not be taken into continued through the early 1930s, providing links to Pittsburgh, account. 2 Wellsburg, Steubenville, and MingoJunction. 10 The Wabash Avella,inWashington County, has a population today of Hotel, next to the Avella station, was owned by an Italian immi- about l,300. 3 Itlies in the Cross Creek Valley next to the West grant family named Safara. Itwas a favorite watering hole for Virginiaborder, about 40 miles southwest ofPittsburgh, partly in travelers, as was De Phillip's bar. Morris Morasky, owner ofa Cross Creek Township and partly inIndependence Township. It clothing and appliance store in town, sponsored the Avella Soccer was originally settled by Englishman Alexander Wells in1772, and team, which went on to winthe National Junior Championships soon after by other English and Scotch-Irish families, such as the inNew York in1939. The town had a small creamery and milk Doddridges and Manchesters, Vances, Campbells, and Browns.4 station initsheyday, as well as a theater, jewelry store, and the Before that, Native Americans had inhabited the area for centuries, popular Avella Gardens, which housed a roller skating rink, taking advantage ofplentiful springs, hills, and valleys for hunting swimming pool and open air dance pavilion for the town. Accord- and camping sites. (Infact, Native American legacy inthe Avella ing to one old-timer, Avella inits 1920s prime was "a rip-roaring area has long fascinated local residents, and nearby Meadowcroft town."11 Rockshelter, on the property of Meadowcroft Museum of Rural The firstItalian immigrants to the Avella area were men. Life, a site of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, They worked as transient laborers and many were recruited by contains the earliest known archaelogical evidence of civilization contractors' agents to build the Wabash Railroad through the inNorth America.5) Cross Creek Valley in1901. Horse-operated plows, picks and The early Europeans controlled the land inthe spirit of the American frontier; most were farmers, though some were also tradesmen and entrepreneurs. Inthe late 18th century, for exam- ple, Alexander Wells established a grist and saw millin what is now Avella. Thomas Patterson did the same a few miles up the north fork of Cross Creek. Avellabecame animportant center for local commerce. Flatboats filled withflour were floated down Cross Creek to the Ohio River, to be transported to major ports. By 1900, farms belonging to S.S. Campbell, WJ. Brown, and the Millerfamily covered the site of present-day Avella.6 The cadence of lifeinthis farming community is reflected by newspapers of the day, which report onbroken threshing machines and the weight of home-grown apples. 7 By the time construction of the Wabash Railroad com- menced, just after the turn of the century, all of the land in and surrounding Avella was owned by the Campbells, Browns, Millers, and other families descended primarily from the original settlers. Over the next few years, a flurry ofland sales accompanied the progress of the railroad, setting the stage for the impending coal Come to America 103 on shovels were used to dig Independence townships. 19 They came, for the most part, from the railroad bed, so there the Piedmont and the Tyrolregions innorthern Italy, and from was a demand for cheap Tuscany, the Abruzzo, and the Marche regions incentral Italy.20 immigrant labor. The men Later, inthe 1920s, several Sicilians settled inthe Avella area. 21 The would be "brought by ship overall population of the two townships in1910 was about 2,000, to New YorkCity,then by withover 50 percent being native-born Americans. 22 The majority rail to either Burgettstown ofimmigrants were Austrians and Slovaks. However, the Ty- or Wellsburg, and then roleans, one of the largest groups toimmigrate to Avella,may walked out' to the various have considered themselves Austrians at this time rather than labor camps along the Italians, since they were ruled under the Emperor Franz Joseph railroad right-of-way." 12 A and not KingVittorioEmmanuele. 23 Detailed census records are 1903 newspaper account not available after 1920, but a history of the Cross Creek Valley ofthe continuation ofthe written inthe 1970s cites the Italians as the immigrant group who Wabash lineintoGreene "over the years... out-numbered those coming here from any other County reported on the single European country"to the Avella area. 24 Italian labor employed: "In Italians were not the most populous ethnic group in the the morning there will Avella area in1920. That distinction belongs to ethnic Slovaks arrive fromPittsburg some from Russia, Austria, and Hungary, nearly allof whom had arrived 25 Italians whohave been during the years of the Italian influx, for many of the same secured to start the work. The Italians. ..have been employed by reasons. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Scotch, and Germans were also the same concern of the construction of the other portions of the present. 25 However small innumber the Italians might have been, Wabash line and willarrive in Washington shortly after 8 o'clock. they immediately distinguished themselves as entrepreneurs, They willimmediately be taken to the scene of the proposed setting up small bakeries, butcher shops, and grocery stores. In operations and just as soon as possible set to work." A local many cases, the Italianmen worked inthe coal mines, while their lumber company built"shanties for the accommodation of those wives ran small stores or confectionaries out of their homes. This laborers who willbe placed at work withpick and shovel." 13 was the case withminers Sam Gallo and Vince Romano, and brick The Washington County Coal Co. opened the firstlarge mine layers Steve Odesio and Steve Gianotto. One miner, George in1906 at Cedar Grove. 14 Others opened inthe Avella area shortly Frangulli, had his 15-year-old daughter oversee their family's afterward: Duquesne Coal and Coke Co.'s Duquesne Mine, just grocery.