USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
One of the important Irishmen here before the Civil War, accord- ing to Mr. Hall, was James Bannon. In the days when the armory was privately owned instead of by the government, a man named Charles Stearns employed a number of Irish and sold land to them. The Catholics had just begun to make excavations on the property for a Catholic church when local citizens protested violently, and a trial was held at which James Bannon was a prominent witness. Bannon, who had previously served under Robert Emmet, the great Irish patriot, raised a large family here, and lived on Walnut Street. One of his sons, Robert Emmet Bannon, became the first Irish letter carrier of Springfield; another, one of the first Irish in the city council, and a daughter one of the first Irish women to teach in a local school.
During the Civil War many of the Irish worked in the armory, and there was some migration up to points nearer their work in the Carew and Armory Street sections, commonly known as the "Hungry Hill" district, where many Irish live today. Prominent among the Irish was Florance Donahue, the father of John W. Donahue. The elder Donahue rose to be superintendent of construction on the Bos- ton and Albany Railroad, and played a prominent part in the building of many of its bridges and depots. He was also one of the first local Irishmen to become a member of the common council.
Dr. Edward Fitzgerald was the first Irish doctor here, about 1860, as far as old residents can remember. An Irishman named Luke Hart was the first Irish policeman. The Burke brothers ran a combination tea shop and undertaking parlor on the corner of Worth- ington and Main streets, and Phillip J. Ryan ran a Catholic book store on Taylor and Main. Tom Sampson ran an undertaking parlor and is still in the same business. A man named Burns was in the hotel business, as well as Charles Shean, who later became prominent both in his business and public life. A local Irish citizen whose name
475
RACIAL GROUPS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY
became a great one in the American theatre was Jerry Cohan, himself an actor, and the father of the great George M. Cohan, famous the world over. According to Thomas King, every member of the Cohan family was an actor or dancer. The senior Cohan blacked boots and sold papers as a youth, and then worked as a servant for Dr. Otis on State Street. Later, he took his family and went on the road to give theatrical performances, and the world knows the result. The family was billed as "The Four Cohans," but it was George who wrote the show and was the guiding genius behind it. Another local Irishman who became nationally famous was William J. Hynes, who lived on Mechanics' Row. After the Civil War he went to Arkansas, became a Congressman, and later a distinguished criminal lawyer.
There is an interesting sidelight on that famous Mechanics' Row, which has long since disappeared. In former days, when the river overflowed its banks, the Irish tenements and homes were among the first to be submerged. There were no relief agencies to speak of, and the suffering was acute, many of the Irish living out in the open until the waters had subsided. The great fear that hung over the people then was a disease that we little think of now. That disease was malaria. The floods turned the river banks into swampy, muddy, morasses, forming excellent breeding places for the tertian mosquito, carrier of malaria. The danger was accentuated by the cramped liv- ing conditions of the Irish, and when the people crowded into their little church to say mass, this spectre hung over them constantly, and in one year several died of the malady.
Starting from 1870, when the Irish began to achieve their places in public life, up to the present time, the people of Erin who became prominent are too numerous to mention. The Irish devote them- selves to no one activity, but may be found in business, in skilled and unskilled labor, in the professions, and particularly in politics. James B. Carroll is perhaps the outstanding local Irish public figure of the 'eighties. Carroll, through a remarkable gift of oratory and indi- vidual capability and brilliance, rose to become a member of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Other men who might be men- tioned are Captain Henry McDonald, a war veteran and probably the first Irish chief of police; William P. Hayes, who became mayor at the turn of the century; Captain Hugh Donnelly, a prominent local man and a Civil War veteran, who later became clerk of the Supreme Court. Today many city and county officials are of Irish descent.
476
HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
In the colorful mosaic of nationalities which make up Spring- field are the dark-eyed, vivacious and industrious people whose native land is the country of the olive grove and the vineyard. That coun- try which through the centuries has produced the finest in art, music, and architecture, is today under the rule of a Fascist dictator, and across its terrain march thousands of uniformed men who nomi- nally, at least, march with a singleness of purpose under one leader. Yet it is probable that the Lombard will always differ from the Nea- politan, and the Genoan from the swarthy Sicilian, as Italy differs within itself-a checkerboard of provinces with distinct individuali- ties, varying customs, puzzling dialects and opposing temperaments.
The members of this complex and fascinating people number about 15,000 in the city of Springfield, and of these about 4,500 are immi- grants born in Italy. The different classes of society as well as the different provinces are represented here, and those from similar home locations are naturally found living close to each other. In "Little Italy" or the south end section of the city, most of the people are Southern Italians, and comprise in great measure the working class. About sixty per cent. of the Springfield Italians are from the north of Italy, however, and their tendency is not to colonize, but rather to spread to all parts of the city. These northern Italians are engaged in various retail and wholesale business enterprises for the most part, or have taken up professions. The first Italians who came to Spring- field came from that northern part of their native land which gave to the world the man who discovered America. The Genoese have always been noted as adventurous and daring sailors, and have tradi- tionally emulated that greatest wanderer of them all, Christopher Columbus. Not only were they the first to come to the United States, but they were also the first Italians to settle in Central and South America.
The first Springfield Italians were not laboring men. The Genoese, besides their flair for travel, are noted as shrewd and able traders and business men, and it is rather a rare occurrence to see a Genoese work- ing with his hands at unskilled labor. The early Italian settlers here had business ability or were men with a trade, and they engaged imme- diately in profitable callings of this nature, despite the handicap of being totally unfamiliar with the language.
Francis Denegri, as far as can be ascertained, was the first Italian to come to Springfield, and his name appeared in the city directory in
477
RACIAL GROUPS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY
1864. Denegri went to work for the Kibbe Brothers Candy Com- pany. The following year his son came and worked for the same firm. Both men, with characteristic aptitude, did well in their occupation. Francis eventually became an expert candymaker and rose to the posi- tion of foreman before the family moved to Canada in 1875.
From this point on, Italians straggled into Springfield in small groups. A noted family was the Papantis. The sons, all skilled tech- nicians, worked in the armory, Smith and Wesson and the E. H. Barney companies. Luigi Papanti, the father of these men, though his English was broken and his manners strange, in a very short time became a well-known musician and dance teacher throughout New England, and was the leader of the Southland Orchestra at the old Gilmore Theatre, which was then Springfield's opera house. During his residence he also taught music and dancing at Smith and Mount Holyoke colleges.
The Italians who came in the 'seventies were, in the main, small business men, opening groceries and fruit stands, the latter until then unknown in Springfield. An outstanding Italian who settled here in the 'seventies was Joseph Bardelli, who made a name for himself not only in Springfield but throughout the country. Before his coming to America, fancy paper boxes were imported from France and Ger- many. Bardelli learned his trade in his native city, Milan, and later in Paris, and finally developed into a clever designer of novelties in fancy boxes. He came into Springfield in 1875, and is really the man responsible for introducing fancy boxmaking in this country. In Springfield, Bardelli made a small fortune at his trade, and he spent it lavishly in expensive living and entertaining his friends. Old men relate that when Bardelli was connected with the Morgan Envelope Company he lived in a large house, kept four fast horses, employed two coachmen and two servants, and that in 1877 he gave a banquet at the Gilmore block, where every kind of food, domestic and imported, was available for the table, besides every variety of wines and spirits then known. The most prominent citizens of Springfield, including Mayor Wight and the members of the city government, sat at this magnificent banquet, which is reputed to have cost Mr. Bardelli $1,700, a lot of money in those days.
These first Italians, contrary to the later custom of the people to colonize, lived in different sections of the city. Every Sunday, how-
478
HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
ever, they gathered in the house of one of the members, enjoyed Italian food and the opportunity to talk their own language to those who would understand, and helped each other whenever possible in the difficulties encountered by a small group of strangers in a strange land.
Toward the end of 1873 the first Sicilians and other southern Italians came to Springfield. Until 1890 there was an influx of these people and they immediately colonized. The newcomers established themselves in the houses along the river bank at the foot of Court and State streets, which marked the beginning of "Little Italy." In 1885 there were over a hundred southern Italians here, most of them laborers. It was near this time that the contract to build the Hamp- den County Jail was awarded to a Boston contractor named Nye, and he brought about twenty-five Italians to the city. Most of them liked this locality so well that they adopted it as their permanent home.
The southern Italians have produced their share of prominent men in business, in the professions and in art, although not as many as those from the north. But in those early days, handicapped as these people were by their complete ignorance of American language and custom, there was nothing for them to do but work at unskilled labor here, despite the fact that many of them were artisans of one sort or another in Italy. Many of them worked for Sackett and Reynolds and J. R. Driscoll in excavating, and many also on the railroad gangs. It was a common sight to see groups of Italians coming down the railroad along the river working furiously at the handles of the hand- cars and eating their lunches as they went.
The leader of the early southern Italians here was John Albano. He opened an Italian bank on Union Street, and later a steamship agency and office which was really a clearing house for sending money and mail to relatives in Italy. If an Italian of this period went to one of the regular banks in the city, it was impossible to make himself understood and he had no knowledge of the strange ways in which American business and banking was conducted. At Albano's his affairs of this nature were taken care of with ease and in a manner understandable to himself. Albano rose to prominence among his people as the years went on, and was called "The King of Little Italy." For years he was a professional bondsman for those Italians who were so unfortunate as to fall afoul of the law, and he was promi-
479
RACIAL GROUPS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY
nent at festivities in the colony and also as one of the founders of the Patria Society.
There are many Italian barbers in the city today, but a man named Carlo Florio was the forerunner of them all. He had a small shop at 26 Bridge Street, and was a real expert at his trade. Every Italian who was desirous of learning barbering went to Florio's for his instruction, and there are many in the modern shops of today who, as young men, learned their trade under Florio's guidance.
Along with the small business men and the hard working laborers among the southern Italians came a few who by the nature of their work were looked down upon by their fellow-countrymen. Spring- field, at this time, was a mecca and a headquarters for organ grinders, especially during the winter, when they could get their organs repaired and tuned by a Yankee doctor of music who lived here. The organ grinders as a class, however, were distinctly out of repute with the Italians throughout the city, who considered them on the lower rungs of the social ladder.
Many of the laborers worked for the city then, as they do now. At that time the average wage for labor was about $1.50 a day, and yet the Italian with characteristic thrift, managed to save a little from his pay envelope every week. There was an Italian boardinghouse on the river bank at the foot of Bliss Street, where many of the laborers boarded, and when times were good enjoyed ravioli, pignoli, pigno- latta and the inevitable spaghetti and macaroni. When times were bad, however, the main and sometimes only item on the bill of fare was soup.
The south end area along the river was a colorful and bizarre place, especially in the cool of the evening. The Italians, when the weather was fair, spent most of their hours in front of their houses in chairs, or on the porches. In Italy, the poor had linen in their wooden chests as did the rich, and they used and bought only the finest. The women brought their hand work with them across the water, and it was a common sight to see the housewife crocheting for hours. Prac- tically every Italian woman was an expert with the hook and needle. Another colorful sight was that of red stockings. In "Little Italy" they were very much in evidence, being preferred by Italian women, old and young, instead of the rather drab greys, browns, and blacks of the descendants of the Puritans. Each woman owned several pairs of them, and they made patches of real color along Columbus Avenue.
480
HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
The observer, as he walked down through this section, could not fail to catch the distinctive odors of strange cooking. The Italian housewife, besides being handy with the needle, is also an expert at the culinary art. On holidays there were special foods to tickle the palate -ravioli, a suggestion of our chicken fricassee with chicken sauce combined in some mysterious way with tomatoes ; pignoli, a Christmas sweetbread pastry with capsule-shaped nuts; foglia, consisting mostly of shortening and eggs and fried in olive oil; and pignolatta, peanuts mixed with honey and resembling very much our peanut brittle. There were a variety of others, including green salads with olive oil used instead of our dressing, and onions baked instead of raw or fried.
In the year 1888 the first mutual benefit society was founded and named the Societa Unione e Fratellanza Italiana, which provided for the services of a physician and also a sick benefit. Eugene Metelli, an influential and well-to-do Italian was the founder. It did some splen- did work among the Italians then as well as later.
There was a wave of immigration to America toward the turn of the century, and the number of Italians in Springfield increased con- siderably. By 1893 there were 2,000 Italians here, and three years later there were thirteen fruit and confectionery stores, two whole- sale fruit stores, eleven grocers and seven liquor stores run by them. The colony expanded southward along the river bank until lower Union Street became the center of the Italian quarter, invading the domain of the old Irish residents, who gave way and moved elsewhere. Before the Italians came to Springfield, the city directory did not contain such words as "fruit dealer," "peanut vender" or "bootblack." In 1894 there were no bootblacks registered, but the next year seven of them made their appearance and did a thriving business.
One of the greatest Italian celebrations ever to take place in the city occurred in 1892 when the four hundredth anniversary of the dis- covery of America by Columbus took place. Amidst scenes of the wildest enthusiasm, a parade marched down Main Street led by the Lafayette Band, and later came a dance at Turn Hall, followed by banqueting and general celebration everywhere. The Italians are by nature demonstrative, and the annual Mt. Carmel celebration is something that we may view even today, when Columbus Avenue is bedecked with arching colored lights, the streets teem with humanity in a holiday mood, and fireworks light up the sky. There was another
481
RACIAL GROUPS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY
tremendous celebration shortly after the war when Enrico Caruso came here and sang.
An Italian worthy of mention as the new century came into being was P. A. Breglio. He was a communal leader here, always striving for more recognition for his race, and was instrumental in organizing the Italian-American Protective League. After some years in the grocery business, Breglio went into construction on a large scale, and was especially influential in the building of the Little River water sys- tem, which now supplies Springfield. It was Breglio who furnished the labor and to some degree directed it, and a large number of the workers on this tremendous engineering project were Springfield Ital- ians. Another Italian worthy of mention was Silvio Origo. Like many other Genoese, he had been a sailor, serving for many years as an officer in the Italian Navy, and he could speak French, English, and Spanish fluently besides his native tongue. It was Origo who made the speech of welcome when Cardinal Martinelli came to Springfield in 1898, and later he became the official interpreter for the Police and Superior courts here. After some years he became an ardent Socialist, and the National Socialist committee sent him out twice on speaking tours.
The Italian population in 1900 was upward of 3,000. The colony then extended all the way from Bliss to Mill Street between Main and Water streets, now Columbus Avenue. Some years later there was a definite exodus into the smaller towns of Hampden County, especially to West Springfield, Agawam and Feeding Hills, where many Italians established small garden and truck farms, bringing their produce to the city each day. The World War had a radi- cal effect on the Italians here, many of them becoming factory work- ers instead of laborers, especially at the Springfield Armory, which had been the stronghold of the Yankees, Irish, Germans and Scan- dinavians, and there were many young Springfield Italians who took up arms for their native land.
The Italians, who are Roman Catholic almost without exception, were without a church or chapel for many years. An attempt was made in 1892 by Joseph Bardelli and others to raise funds for a small church, but the attempt failed, and the Reverends Kelley and Conaty, both of whom spoke Italian, ministered to the spiritual needs of the
Hampden-31
482
HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
people. In 1906 the Reverend Anthony Dellaporta came to Spring- field and began his hard and discouraging task of raising funds for the building of a church. For several years the Italians gathered in a little impoverished structure on Union Street for religious worship, until in 1911 enough money was raised for the building of the Mount Carmel Church on Williams Street and Columbus Avenue.
The Italians are inclined toward social activities, there being roughly eleven societies and two clubs formed by the race here. In the world of art the people of sunny Italy have produced many local musicians and artists of distinction, as well as a generous number of professional men.
Louis Rittenberg, as far as old men can remember, was the first known Jew in Springfield. He moved here, in 1881, from Holyoke, where he maintained a dry goods establishment, and opened a store on Worthington Street to dispense peddlers' supplies. Jews alive today who patronized that store will tell of the sterling qualities of this man, who rose to be a millionaire "woolen king" in New York City from his humble start here. He trusted impoverished Jewish peddlers; shared with the neediest of them his bed; and constantly sought to relieve his friends in distress. Like him in charities, a few years later was Henry Glickman, the father of Dr. Alfred L. Glickman.
Philip Cohn, who died three years ago, is considered by many the "Pioneer of Springfield Jews." When he came to this city, in 1883, there was but one other Jew here, Louis Alpert. In 1885 there were three Jewish families in town beside that of Mr. Cohn: Henry Glick- man, H. Winitsky, and Abram Abrams.
These first Jewish families all lived on Liberty Street. The men were humble peddlers, and it was only natural that they lived close to each other. It gave them a feeling of kinship and prevented a solid front of resistance to the hoodlums who sometimes made sporadic excursions into that neighborhood, and who delighted in taunting the newcomers. Mr. Cohn still has scars on his forehead that were caused by stones thrown at him during his peddler days. But the police swung their clubs menacingly and brought a much-appreciated protection to this minority group. Mr. Cohn was always a staunch admirer of the Springfield police, and this is one of the reasons he gave:
483
RACIAL GROUPS IN HAMPDEN COUNTY
One night, in those early days, young Cohn, laden with eggs, ink, molasses and kerosene, was attacked by a half dozen roughnecks with no great respect for the beard he wore. The provisions and supplies were destroyed and the culprits fled. But the police rounded up the guilty ones a few hours later by detecting the odor of kerosene on their clothes.
Cohn and Rittenberg headed the parade of Russian Jews who flocked to this city immediately after Ignatief, the Russian Secretary of the Interior, issued an edict expelling them from Russia. Spring- field was then merely an enterprising country town with a population of about 37,000 people. White Street was a fruitful hunting section, while the Forest Park district was a dense wood.
Although Mr. Cohn is dead, his son Frederic is a well-known attorney here. As his father was called the "Pioneer," his son may well be called the "Historian." Last year he made a thorough study of the Jews here, over a fifty-year period ( 1885-1935), and presented his results in two lectures to the local B'nai B'rith.
By 1887 the influx of Jews in Springfield became more pro- nounced. Louis Lasker, the father of Attorney Henry Lasker, was a prominent newcomer of that year, and shortly afterward came Benjamin Bearg, who is still alive and a well-known merchant on Main Street. Mr. Bearg will never forget the day in 1889 when he made a clear profit of $2 from his peddling. He remembers, too, how amazed Springfield people were, during the course of his peddling route, to find out that he was a Jew. After surviving the shock, they would press the peddler curiously for an account of himself and listen intently while he spun a woeful tale in rather unusual English.
The files of the "Republican" for January 22, 1888, reveal a story with the headline, "A Genuine Jewish Synagogue," which reads, in part, as follows :
"In the upper story of Patton's Block, on the corner of Main and Hampden Streets, is a room of fair size which goes by the somewhat dignified designation of a Jewish Syna- gogue. Here the Jews of the city are wont to gather at stated intervals and hold simple and yet devout services.
"The furnishings of the room are rather disappointing to those who expect before entering to see an elaborate minia- ture temple. The walls are plainly whitewashed, simple
484
HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
settees give ample accommodations, a table in the corner, covered with cloth and bearing two candles is the altar, and a curtain placed behind, shields the most sacred portion of the apartment from the view of the unholy.
"There are perhaps in this city twenty Jewish families, who, with the well-known characteristics of the race speedily took measures to secure a place of their own. "
Historically anything that comes first is of prime importance. In 1888 William Gelin was the bridegroom in the first Jewish wedding in Springfield. Harry Greenberg opened the first Jewish grocery on Ferry Street in 1889, and Benjamin Rosenstein became the first Jewish shoemaker. In 1890 Selig Manila, Felix Cohen and Ferdinand Haas made names for themselves by opening the first Jewish-operated brewery.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.