June 5: Immigrant Roots

I am writing about old family photos this month.  This is probably my oldest family picture.

Like those before and after him, Pasquale came to America in search of something, better, different, or perhaps adventure. Yet, he was not the usual late 1800 immigrant in that he could read and write both was both English and Italian when he arrived from his home village near Calabria. I have no idea how his skills were learned in a era where school often took a back seat to survival; yet, they served him well when he made his way from NYC to the Catskill Valley, and settled along the Delaware Rover in a small farming village close to the the Delaware Railroad.

Based on local history, Margaretsville was already a thriving farming and trading hub with general stores, mills, and stagecoach stops when he arrived in the late 1800s. In time, he became a shop owner who also translated messages and made sure the written word was understood. 

Maria, Pasquale's wife and my Great Grandmother, passed shortly after their only child was born leaving him the doting father of a daughter whose life was filled with books, educational opportunities, and more photographs than her peers. At some point, he did remarry a woman who appeared to have been active in the Suffragette movement.

He passed before I was born, and I never really heard much about him from relatives deeply scarred by the Depression and consumed with living in the moment. Yet, the bits and pieces that I do know suggest he was influenced by reading and thinking beyond the scope of many in his times. 

                                            Great Grandfather and his pride and joy, 

                                                       my Grandmother, 1915 ish

Great-Grandpa

In my imagination, he was a teacher, or

Son of a business-person, adventurous,

With curiosity, questions, enough money to 

Fund an America adventure, 

Ahead of his time, considering

Women as valuable,

Capable of more than sauce, 

Encouraged learning, voting, 

College, wearing pants, 

Bobbing hair, thinking 

Outside the box,  

In my dreams.