Back to Table of Contents
Next: Descendant Tree of Saverio F. Paterno & Minnie Rose Breden Family
Page 95: Saverio & Minnie Rose Paterno Biography [Excerpts from a narrative by their oldest son, John A. Paterno]
Saverio was a highly spirited young man. He intensely disliked being disciplined. Having been compelled, by his parents to learn a trade, he became an apprentice carpenter. His father, Giovanni/John anticipated that his sone was going to work for and with him in the construction of brown stone houses, which Giovanni was building in several areas of Manhattan Island. Being the eldest son and since the eldest daughter, Celestina, was working ten hours a day in a sweat shop to help feed and pay rent and all the other necessities of a growing family, it was a natural assumption that Saverio would do likewise. Saverio wanted no part of such an arrangement.
One spring Sunday morning Saverio bundled a few items of clothing in a red workmen’s handkerchief, told his brother Charles he would not be home for dinner and to so inform Mama and Papa when they returned from church. Saverio walked all the way to uptown New York to 14th Street. He saw a large tent had been put up on a vacant lot. As he observed the crowd around him, it was obvious that there was a circus in town. In retrospect, he later said it was more a carnival than a circus. Saverio managed to speak to the manager, and later learned he was also the owner. Saverio proposed to clean and wash the various animals for which he was to receive room and board and fifty cents a week for necessities. It was not a large salary, but evidently more to Saverio’s liking than working for his father.
He made friends with most of the people in the troop who either worked or performed and traveled as a family.One such family entertained with dumb bells as jugglers and they were also tightrope walkers. Saverio practiced with the family and after time became quite proficient as a juggler and wire walker. He gave up the job of cleaning and washing the animals and joined the troop as a performer. Eventually the circus made its way to Central and South America. Saverio was not only a talented performer, but he seemed to have a facility for learning languages. He added Spanish and Portuguese to his already familiar English and Italian languages. In Columbia, the owner/manager informed the troop that he was in financial straights and could not meet payroll and general expenses. He advised everyone to try to get work elsewhere. Again Saverio was resourceful and went down to the marina dock where a freighter was being loaded with bananas and coffee. He applied for work and was readily accepted.
At this point I must say in those days traveling from country to country was not as complicated as today. Saverio became a cabin boy and also a bus boy helping waiting on tables in the dining rooms. Soon the freighter was fully loaded and departed for destination USA. Unfortunately, the boat ran into a fierce storm of hurricane proportions. As Papa related the story, the freighter was buffered about and battered by huge waves. It finally capsized and sank. Saverio grabbed and hung on to a fairly sturdy crate, part of the debris. Some forty hours later, with hunger and thirst pains and having survived the shark-infested waters, another freighter rescued him. This boat was on its way to Liverpool He worked for his passage and finally arrived in Liverpool. He was without funds and had only a few clothes on his back. The immediate future was to say the least, dismal. He had youth in his favor and soon located several other youngsters who seemed to be…
Page 96: …stranded and in the same predicament as he. A man seeing the group offered all of them work in the coal mines.
Digging for coal was not what Saverio was looking for in a career. When he had accumulated enough money for train fair to London and sufficient cash to pay for a few meals and a modest room, he made his way to London.
In London’s Cockney district, Saverio found a suitable room in a rooming house. (I said suitable, that is to his pocket book.) He found work in a nearby candy store and decided to write his parents giving his present address. One of the customers in the candy store was an attractive buxom young lady with big blue eyes, blond hair and the soft smooth skin that so many English lasses are blessed with. Yes, she was attractive and it appeared a young Latin man was more attractive to the Cockney girl than the young English boys. She became a frequent visitor of the candy shop. Before long she invited him to meet her parents. There wasn’t much time for what was termed courtship. Saverio was kept very busy at his work, but he did manage to squeeze a little time visiting his girlfriend Minnie Rose Breden. He ingratiated himself with the large Breden family.
Events small and large seemed to fly by with world wind speed. A letter from his father stated that Giovanni was gravely ill and wanted to return to his native land. Saverio’s brothers continued writing the letter and stated that they would have to complete the construction work already in progress (despite their youth and inexperience) and could not travel to Italy with their father. Therefore, Giovanni stated that it was Saverio’s duty to return to New York and escort his father to Castelmezzano. His father further stated that he would send money for Saverio’s voyage to American if and when he was assured Saverio would comply with the paternal request. Tearfully bidding his sweetheart good-by and fervently promising to return, Saverio sailed to New York. His father, somewhat emaciated, greeted him warmly, but his mother steadfastly refused to show any material affection. Carolina never forgave him for leaving the growing family. But as Papa told me when he related the scene, his mother conceded to refrain from any altercation whether in respect for her husband’s condition or for fear Saverio might decide to decline to escort his father to Italy. With tears profusely streaming and with the usually loud sighs from the entire family, Saverio and his father departed for the port of Naples. Giovanni’s condition deteriorated rapidly. Two months after his arrival, he died in his beloved Castelmezzano. Saverio took care of all the funeral and burial arrangements and began to wonder how in the world he was going to return to England. He found a purse in one of this father’s pockets with enough U.S. dollars to pay for a voyage to London and with some cash to spare.
He resumed his employment at the candy shop and naturally his courtship with his cockney girlfriend. Persuasively he won the approval of Minnie’s parents to marry Minnie Rose. It was not a grandiose wedding, but the Breden family was large enough and with a few chosen family friends, Minnie Rose and Saverio were married. In the natural course of event, Minnie Rose gave birth to her first child, a boy. Actually Minnie Rose would bear 12 children, and on baptism the child was named Giovanni (that is I). An old Italian custom dictated that the first-born male should be named for his paternal grandfather; by the same system it was customary to name the…
Page 97: …male children either for the paternal or maternal uncle and females for the aunts.
With three to feed and clothe, Saverio found the money earned at the candy shop did not suffice. The elderly couple that owned the store seemed rather happy to hear the news. Evidently they saw an opportunity of disposing of the store and retiring. They point out to Saverio that with the store there were several rooms and kitchen above the store. So Saverio moved his little family above the store and operated the shop with pleasure. For almost a year, all went well, then a financial depression struck the entire county. Candy and ice cream were two luxury items the people had to give up. He finally found a buyer for the store stock. Saverio then had sufficient money to take his wife and child with him to Italy. Gathering their few possessions they sailed out on a Turkish steamer, which made stops in Gibraltar and Constantinople, before landing in Naples in early 1902.
Before proceeding with my narrative, it is necessary to acquaint you with the town of Castelmezzano, the native village where Saverio Paterno was born and from where his parents originated. To reach Castelmezzano from Naples, one rode on a slow train, spewing coal dust, which tended to choke the hardiest traveler. Frequent stops were made at each station. The conductor, a government employee, went from each train car checking for taxable items, such as tobacco, salt, sugar and other goods controlled by the national government. After an uncomfortable trip of perhaps six or seven hours, the train arrived at the railroad station serving several small towns including Castelmezzano. One continued to journey on a donkey or mule back. The alternative was walking. But whether by mule, donkey or walking, the road or paths were dangerous and difficult. The several towns branding out from several directions were built on the sides of high, rugged, rocky mountains.
Most of the houses were built on the sloping sides of monstrous rocks and those houses were built in several tiers one above the other with one foundation. One especially high rocky mountain had chiseled steps starting from the bottom to a small plateau at the summit. These steps were the result of much hard labor. This platform served a duel purpose. Guards and lookouts could see for miles any strange or dangerous situations from their vantage point. Also, it was an excellent place from which to roll down rocks at an approaching adversary.
In as late as the first two decades of the 21st century, Castelmezzano and many other towns in the vicinity had no utilities of any kind. No water, no sewers, no telephone, no gas nor electricity. Castelmezzano had a small trickling of water coming from one of the rocky mountain crevices. I remember one of my fascinations was seeing some of the women balancing a big barrel called a ‘worreco,’ in their dialect, on their heads, where they had placed a matted cloth to properly balance the barrel. When it rained, the runoff trickled down to a rocky vale and there the women would come to do their washing, using coarse soap and beating the items against an ever ready rock.
Castelmezzano had a population of perhaps seven hundred fifty. Most of the grownup males and many of the children were goat or sheepherders. The women did most of the work such as harvesting, cooking, nursing and rearing the children. The most affluent towns people owned and worked grape vineyards, fig and olive trees, peach or cherry trees. The latest crop of children was beginning to get some elementary tutoring, but 90% of the men and women were totally…
Page 98: …uneducated. Literally, they could not read or write their own names. Natives living in these remote towns tended to resent strangers, especially those who could read and write even it if was a foreign language.
This is the village to which my father brought my mother and me. London was the largest city in the world. It had its street lights and trams. Imagine Mama [Minnie Rose] carrying a one-year-old, riding into town on a donkey, with no knowledge of Italian. Had she spoken Italian, hardly anyone would have understood her, as the language in Castelmezzano was dialect. The natives were absolutely crude and at times cruel to strangers. Their hostility was obvious. Some were so poor they could not afford a candle and if the moon did not shine they would simply go to bed until the next dawn. They were well meaning and sincere people, but they resented strangers.
Poor Mama was subjected to mean and cruel treatment. She did not know the meaning or terms by which she was greeted, if one can comply named such as ‘Laputana Englais’ as a greeting. It translated to English whore. The parents, who were usually strict with their offspring, permitted them to throw stones at Mama when she ventured out of the house. There were many days and nights when tears flood profusely from dear Mama, of course I cried with her and for her. She had to learn the local dialect. Shopping for necessities was indeed a hardship. One method she used when attempting to purchase such ordinary items such as salt was to take a few grains of salt in the palm of her hand and show it to the storekeeper for identification.
She also had to learn to cook Saverio’s way rather than the bland English dishes she has learned to make. Some of the was facilitated by the wife of the local pharmacist and postmaster. I remember this kindly lady as being rather large women in comparison with the average native. She had a perpetual smile and a pleasant nature. She became very friendly with Mama and spent a great deal of time in teaching Mama many of the basic dishes prepared and preferred by the towns people and Papa too. Mama was just twenty when she arrived at Castelmezzano, so she learned both the dialect and the cooking quickly. In time she spoke the dialect as well as the natives and had no superiors in cooking the Italian dishes.
She had to have a strong character to have endured so many deprivations in such an isolated and primitive village and the loss of some of her children who were sacrificed to a modern world. On thing Mama did not surrender too readily was her desire for English tea. She would beam with joy when one of her sisters would send a package containing her favorite tea. The town’s stores did not sell tea of any kind. “Solo Ingles,” which means only the English can drink that poison. In truth I can say, in the course of may years, Mama lived and brought up a family at Castelmezzano. She made friends with everyone in the twon. When the Lord finally took her to His bosom, Mama, at the age of eighty-nine was a highly respected member of the community.
Page 99: [Editor’s Note: Neither John or Michael Paterno publicly mentioned the following incident from Saverio’s life in America:
Saverio, who was “Frank” in America, was unhappy working as a carpenter and had a desire to go into business for himself in another trade. He went to Philadelphia and opened a candy store.
Frank (Saverio) lived in a small tenement flat in the Italian community. One evening he heard a domestic quarrel of a neighbor couple. When he heard the wife calling for help, Saverio rant to the rescue and saw that the man was about to attack the woman with a knife. When Saverio attempted to take the knife away from him, they fought. After the struggle, Saverio was holding the knife and the man was motionless.
Saverio (Frank) fled for his life! He believed the man was dead and was afraid of the police who were often not tolerant of foreigners. The fate of the injured man was not determined but Saverio joined the circus and never returned to America.]
Back to Table of Contents
Next: Descendant Tree of Saverio F. Paterno & Minnie Rose Breden Family
