Anthracite Boot Camp (eBook)

CHAPTER II

IMMIGRATION AND ARRANGED MARRIAGES (1905–1915)

Dad’s mother, Nonna Ersilia Stella, was married to another miner before she married Nonno, and before Dad was born. Around 1913, Nonna’s first husband, Luigi (Louis) Corsaletti, emigrated from Pastina, Italy, to work in an anthracite coal colliery in the Old Boston Mining Settlement, which is north of Wilkes-Barre. Pastina is a small farming village near the City of Gualdo. Nonna Ersilia and her three children - Uncle Ted, Aunt Della, and Aunt Vienna - remained behind in Pastina until such time as her first husband was financially able to send for them. Old Boston is approximately eight miles north of Wilkes-Barre, on the east side of State Highway 315 (Near bottom of Figure 1). As with most small towns in The Wyoming Valley, the origin of the settlement began with the construction of a nearby coal colliery in the Nineteenth Century, surrounded by the subsequent construction of shacks for the miners and their families. Louis Corsaletti’s plan was obviously on track in 1914 because by then, he had purchased a small shack on Old Boston Road, about 1.5 miles from its’ intersection at Highway 315. The shack was adjacent to the Old Boston Italian-American Citizen’s Club. The club was demolished in 2019; but I have fond memories of the many evenings Dad took me there during my childhood to observe the miners playing bocce, darts, shuffleboard, card games, and the very vocal game of “Morra”. The most exciting events occurred when the bocce team played other miners from similar clubs in Plains, Hudson, Keystone, Browntown, and other nearby anthracite mining villages, in an organized Bocce League. My unforgettable memories of the miners’ very emotional outbursts during the games of “Bocce” and “Morra” will be described in an upcoming chapter.

The 1915 Wilkes-Barre Record Almanac reports that there were fourteen homicides in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1914. Although his “alleged indiscretion” was later disproved, it said of Nonna’s first husband, “In November, Luigi Corsaletti of Boston Settlement was shot by a boarding house keeper for alleged intimacy with the latter’s wife.” A newspaper clipping from 1914 reported that the shooter “claimed self-defense when Luigi drew a pistol first”. The incident further testifies to the guns and lawlessness that existed in coal mining towns during that period. With the encouragement of her sister, Adele, who had already immigrated to the nearby town of Plains, Nonna, Uncle Ted Corsaletti, and Aunt Vienna immigrated to Old Boston in 1915 to live in the wood shack left by Nonna’s deceased first husband. Aunt Della was left behind in Gualdo to live with Nonna’s mother because Nonna felt it would be impossible to safely manage one baby and two small children during the long voyage. Nonna’s sister, Adele, also wrote that Nonna would have a wonderful opportunity to wed a very nice, hardworking miner who was a personal friend to Adele and Adele’s husband, Nazzareno Berrettini. Of course, the very nice man Adele was referring to was my Grandfather, “Nonno” Luigi (Louis) Scatena, who at the time, was rooming in a boarding house on Hilldale Avenue in the mining community of Plains. For many years, Adele’s description of Nonno as “NICE” was hotly debated by his family after his death in 1941; but more about that hot debate later.

The following summary of Nonno’s European background in coal mining is quite relevant to my story about anthracite mines. According to immigration records that I found available in the vast genealogical libraries of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, Luigi Scatena departed Naples, Italy, on August 29, 1908, on the SS CRETIC and arrived at Ellis Island in New York on September 11. In the ship’s manifest, Nonno reported that he was twenty-four years old, single, could read/write, and had $24 in his possession. After seeing the quality of his personal signature on a “Petition for Naturalization” dated September 17, 1917, it raised a question in my mind whether Nonno could indeed ‘write’. In one column of the ship’s manifest, each immigrant had to report his occupation. On line after line, page after page, men responded: “Laborer,” but Nonno responded: “Miner.” It clearly suggested to me that Nonno and other coal miners were proud to make that distinction. In fact, it has dawned on me in recent years that I, too, feel proud to point to that distinctive coal mining experience and connection in my background. I can well understand why countless exhausted coal mines have been turned into visitor museums by municipalities world-wide. An historical account titled “Le Miniere di Lignite di Spoleto” by Giovanni Antonelli stated that the League of Miners near Spoleto, Italy was a proud fraternity. A literal translation of the preface states that “the miners were an unusual hard-working breed, with strength and character, and born with a resolve to endure hardship”. The book’s author also writes that the proud League hired artists to fabricate bronze statues of their leaders and heroes throughout the coal fields, and to design a colorful organizational flag. They also designated a special holiday called the Feast of Saint Barbara. The League celebrated the Feast and their Patron Saint each year in Spoleto with a very large festival on December 4. (2) Typically, Saint Barbara was worshipped by tradesmen who faced the danger of sudden and violent death in their work.

The miners of Northeastern Pennsylvania brought this strong sense of honor and pride with them from Europe, and passed it on to their descendants. Indeed, the fraternity of miners of Northeastern Pennsylvania celebrated John Mitchell Day on October 29. Many miners also looked forward to the annual “John Kehoe Celebration” at that coal magnate’s estate in Harding, just up the Susquehanna River, a few miles north of Pittston. To what extent John Kehoe of the Twentieth Century was related to Jack Kehoe of the Molly Maguires in the Nineteenth Century, is uncertain. Unlike “Black Jack” Kehoe who was hung many decades earlier, John Kehoe owned collieries and breakers in The Wyoming Valley, and his estate on the bank of the Susquehanna River was magnificent. With pride in its coal mining history, the City of Scranton invites visitors to its’ Anthracite Museum in West Scranton. Anthracite mining museums also exist near Hazleton, Pottsville, and other locations in Northeastern Pennsylvania. With similar pride, a museum has also been dedicated to the lignite miners at the shaft where Nonno and his father once worked in the small village of Morgnano, just outside Spoleto. The people, pride, perseverance, and politics of miners in Europe and Northeastern Pennsylvania were the same, separated only by several thousand miles of ocean.

The following is an intense description of Nonna Corsalletti’s first meeting with Nonno Scatena in 1915 in the mining settlement of Old Boston. It was described to me in the following details by Aunt Della in 1987, many years after Nonna had recalled it for my Aunt.

“When Nonna entered the room where she knew she was about to meet her new husband for the first time, more than a dozen miners were seated against the walls around the room in their best Sunday outfits.

Very self-conscious and extremely nervous, with her head down, Nonna glanced around the room and out of the corner of her eye, one man, in particular, caught her attention. Nonna recalled that he had a robust, healthy complexion, well-groomed mustache, and a meticulous black suit, vest, and tie.

His trousers were tucked in wide leather straps that wrapped the top of his shining black boots. Nonna avoided eye contact with him and recalled telling herself, “No, it can’t be. I’m not that lucky!” Nonna also sensed out of the corner of her eye, the miner was very intensely eying her up and down, and observing her every move. Then, as the other well-groomed miners seated against the walls passed a wine jug from one miner to the next, the man next to Nonno asked him if he wanted a drink, referring to him by Nonno Scatena’s nickname: ‘SCA-TAY’ ! BEVE VINO, SCA-TAY’? At that instant, Nonna said she lost her breath and recalled that Nonno replied, “NO GRACI,” and passed the wine jug to the man on his other side, without taking his glaring eyes off Nonna.

Immigrant miners typically had a strong preference to marry a woman from their native country. Nonna’s somewhat “steamy account” is only one example of the many transatlantic arranged marriages of that period, and the circumstances leading to the next generation of anthracite miners. On my Mother’s side of our family, my Grandmother Maria’s marriage was also pre-arranged in a similar way by her brother, Michael Trombetta. After emigrating from Italy to Pittston in 1905, Grandmother Maria Trombetta and her Mother had been living with Mike and his family for some time on Parsonage Street in Pittston. Then one day, her brother angrily demanded that his sister, Maria, must “GET A HUSBAND!” In response to newspaper ads that Mike had placed, she interviewed and rejected one applicant after the other. Finally, her impatient brother demanded, “THAT’S IT! YOU’RE MARRYING THE NEXT ONE THAT COMES THROUGH THAT DOOR!”………and of course, the next one through the door was my Mother’s father, Nicholo Vigilante. If...