By Joyce Thomas
It all began in 1911 in Pulsano, Italy. You didn’t date in those days. After dinner, everyone sat outside “al fresco” and young men would walk by and look! Our grandma Chiara (born 4/28/1894) had an older sister who had to get married first or it was considered a family disgrace.
Our grandpa Francesco would walk past Chiara’s home and whistle. She would peek out the window but was never allowed to speak to him or meet with him. She was barely 16 (born 4/28/1894) and he was 19 years old. The Gualanos were well off and owned a vineyard. Frank was just a laborer in a neighboring vineyard field. They didn’t think he was in the same league as Chiara.
But they were in love and decided to elope in 1911. They were married at a justice of the peace. Chiara’s family promptly disowned her and wouldn’t speak to her or have anything to do with her after the wedding. Francesco took his new bride to live in his parents’ home. Sweet, young Chiara moved in with her mean mother-in-law, Erminia DiMichael.
Francesco and Chiara’s first child, Graziella, was born June, 1913. My mother was born June, 1915 and named Erminia Jovanne (Emily Jean). ..named after Francesco’s mean mother!
Soon, the war broke out. Francesco joined the Italian Army to fight the Germans. He was taken prisoner by Germany for three years. He had to work as an indentured servant for a German family.
After the war, everyone was talking about coming to America and getting rich quick. Francesco left for America, departing from Bordeaux, Gironde, France and arrived in America on October 18, 1920 via the Ship “Caroline”. He was 29 years old. In America, he worked on the railroad in Hazelton, PA with his cousin. He didn’t initially intend to stay there but time went by and he dearly missed his family. He kept trying to get Chiara to come to America.
Finally, in 1921, Chiara made the very difficult decision to leave all that was familiar to her, to leave her family, her friends, her home and travel alone with her three small children, Grace, Emily and Tony, to America to be with her husband. So, on a bright morning in August, 1921, a stranger arrived to transport Chiara and her children from the tiny Pulsano to the city port of Naples. Her family clung to her, held her tight and cried. They didn’t think they would ever see each other again. Emily and Grace were so excited to be on such an adventure. The horse-drawn wagon had planks in the back where they all sat for the 200-mile journey. With her girls on each side and holding young Tony tight, Chiara waved a tearful goodbye to her family and the wagon slowly headed out of Pulsano. She was in her early twenties and had never been on her own before. She felt scared and alone. The ride to Naples through the beautiful countryside, with the well cared for vineyard, occupied Emily and Grace and soon they arrived. Naples had many narrow streets and steps leading up to more narrow passages to explore. They waited alone in Naples for over a week for the ship to arrive and take them to America.
Finally, there it was – huge and dark and called the Presidente Wilson. It was time to board! They had been able to afford only the lowest fare and it definitely wasn’t first class. The ship was 477 ft. in length and 60 ft. wide with two funnels and two masts, twin screw and a speed of 17 knots. She held 125 first class, 550 second class and 1230 third class passengers. Chiara and the children were third class passengers and had to sleep in a large room way below deck, three berths on one wall and three on the other and they shared it with strangers. The trip was long and Chiara got very ill on board and baby Tony too. If you died at sea (as some did on this trip), you were thrown overboard. Tony got better, but Chiara was taken to the ship’s infirmary. Emily, age 6 and Grace, age 8, took care of Tony, age 1, with the help from kind strangers on the ship. They weren’t allowed to even see their mother but somehow they coped. Chiara didn’t want her children eating the ship food so she had packed homemade bread with vinegar and tomatoes. She said the vinegar would “hold” their stomachs and it must have worked. The children stayed well the rest of the trip.
After a harrowing trip of more than two weeks on rough seas, the Presidente Wilson docked at Ellis Island, New York City. There was much excitement. They had finally made it. The gangplank went down and everyone was being met by relatives, so many people all around her. Chiara didn’t know how to find Francesco, and didn’t speak or read English. She didn’t know that Francesco couldn’t get there to meet her because he was working in Buck Mountain, PA. Her brother Giuseppe was supposed to be there, but he was late and couldn’t find her in the crowds. She stood next to a huge pillar on the dock and waited and waited. All their belongings were in pillowcases piled next to the pillar. She was so scared and cried as they waited for hours searching the faces of strangers looking for someone she knew in this strange land. Finally, there he was, her brother Giuseppe Gualano. She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck and wouldn’t let go. He put them on a train for Hazelton, PA and Francesco.
Their new home in America would be at Buck Mountain #1. They lived in a company house, one of 22 identical houses with two rooms upstairs, two rooms down, and bare floors. There were shanty shacks out back with wash tubs to do laundry. They lived way out in the woods with a huge mountain right behind the row houses and blueberry bushes as big as trees. Isolated, mountainous, very few people around. Emily had never seen anything like this place and said, “Papa, is this America?” It wasn’t what she had imaged it would be.
Buck Mountain #1, PA was totally different from Pulsano, Italy, but they were all together at last. They stayed in America, never did move back to Pulsano and never did get rich quick.
All they could leave us was all we would ever need: A legacy rich with LOVE.
