Monday,
February 18, 2008
The Italian Immigrant Experience In Lockhaven PA
The
ANNOTICO Report
The Italian Immigrant Experience In Lockhaven PA
Lock Haven Express - Lock
By Matt Connor
February
16, 2008
It
takes only a glimpse at the front page of any newspaper to see that the
immigrant experience in the
Today, the issue of illegal immigration, for example, is a matter of contention
from the large urban centers on both coasts to the
But throughout American history, the arrival in cities and towns of
foreign-born individuals has inspired both open hospitality and thinly-veiled
hostility, in roughly equal measures.
In 1883, a reporter for the Clinton Democrat newspaper made his way to a
workmans camp near Mill Hall, where 140 Italian immigrants were working on
the then-ongoing construction of the Beech Creek,
The account by the unnamed reporter is alternately admiring and disparaging,
but paints a fascinating picture of life among the Italian laborers of the day.
The most prominent object (in the camp) was the board tent of no considerable dimensions in which the entire horde sleep, the
reporter related of the Italian workmen at the site. It consists of a
series of floors about a foot and one half above each other and reminds one of
a cabinet whose shelves are compactly filled with specimens. For, beginning at
the bottom, each floor is filled in rotation by its tawny occupants, a unique
bedroom, indeed, but not desirable on these cool spring nights, especially to
the end men.
After finding a supervisor (one Carmine Grandazzo, of
Though strangers in a strange land they spend their dolce far niente (idle) hours playing on the accordion and singing
the sweet songs of Sunny Italy, the reporter noted.
Twenty years later, the Clinton County Times included another account of the
Italian experience in the area, in this case of a
group of laborers working on a public works project near Woolrich.
Its an account, however, that clearly demonstrated the prejudices and
misperceptions of some members of the local community.
In the politically incorrect language of the era, the paper reported: The
ditch of the Chatham Water Co. having been completed, the dagoes have
left. Their coming here appeared to be the signal of distress murder, theft and anxiety. They were
gazed upon as mortal curiosities, but, after all, it could not be doubted that
within each
The article continues: Their mode of living and hardships endured with a
humped back in the ditch through thick and thin, gave ample recompense for the
petty foraging they did in gathering up a few wasting apples, etc. During their
stay here, there was no murder among them or any of our citizens, and their
presence at church and behavior might have been corrupted only by some of our
own more civilized manhood.
While it can be safely said that most immigrants of the late 19th and early
20th centuries found Clinton County to be tolerant of their lifestyle and
culture, its also clear that tensions between recent arrivals and
established locals continued throughout the period.
In at least one case, a derogatory comment directed at a local Italian American
seems to have led to violence and death.
According to a series of articles published in the Clinton County Times, on
Labor Day eve ning, Sept. 7, 1925,
According to Charles account, Valentino approached both Wagner and Charles
and demanded to know if Wagner had called him a - well, lets
just say Charles claimed Valentino accused Wagner of using racially insensitive
language.
According to Charles, Wagner readily admitted to using a racial epithet.
Thats when a "melee" broke out between the three men, and Wagner ended up knifed in the abdomen.
The 28-year-old Wagner survived for four days after medical treatment, and then
succumbed to peritonitis. Valentino was arrested for murder and placed in Clinton
County Jail.
In the trial that followed, Valentino claimed innocence, chalking his
indictment on the charges to a case of mistaken identity .
He had not, he said, been involved in the incident at all.
He was nonetheless found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to
life imprisonment. A subsequent request for retrial was refused, and Valentino
began his incarceration in late March of 1926.
But in November of 1931, Valentinos sentence was commuted, and the charges
against him reduced to second-degree murder. He became eligible for parole
sometime in 1935. At that point the story ends. What happened to Valentino in
the years that followed has been lost to history.....
Today, many of the descendants of the Italian laborers who settled in the
But
let us never Forget!!!!! And Honor What Their
Sacrifices Made Possible For US!!!!!!
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