Page 26: CHAPTER VI • THE PELLETTIERI AND MASSARI FAMILIES
Luigia Trivigno Pellettieri, my grandmother’s younger sister, and her spouse Domenic Pellettieri, both of Castelmezzano, immigrated to the U.S. about 1897, with four children; Rose, John, Joseph and Charles. They also settled on Cherry Street in Manhattan, where their youngest daughter, Mary, was born in 1900. Shortly thereafter Domenic Pellettieri, the father, died.
Soon after arriving in America Rose, the eldest at fifteen, began working in a men’s clothing factory on Delancy Street.
Joseph Massari was born in Castel di Sangro, province of Abbruzzi, a town near Rome. On completing the elementary school, he began working as a stone sculptor apprentice. After serving the compulsory draft in the Italian military service as a Royal Carabiniere, he finished his apprenticeship and became a skilled stone sculptor.
He emigrated to the U.S. around 1897 and lived with his older brother Nick, in Brooklyn, New York.
Louis Sciubba, also a native of Castel di Sangro and a friend of the Pellettieri and Massari families, invited his friend Joseph Massari to be the best man at his wedding to Celestina Paterno, my father’s cousin.
It was through the Sciubbas that Rose was introduced to Joseph Massari. He started to court her. Even though she liked him she objected to his trade because it made his hands rough and calloused.
He took the hint and to please her and secure her love, Joseph gave up his own trade and joined his older brother Nick in his established barbershop, and remained with him to become a Master Barber.
In early 1900 Rose Pellettieri and Joseph Massari were married, rented an apartment in Brooklyn, Joseph kept working with his brother. Into this community, Domenic and Virginia were born.
A few years later they moved to Manhattan, to 124 West 101st Street, a cold water tenement. Joseph opened his own barbershop at 829 Amsterdam Avenue.
Eventually, the other children, Willie, Fred who died at birth, Louise, John, Joseph and Marty, were born.
In that era barbers worked six and a half days a week, and the income was small, because the going rate for a haircut and shave was 25 cents.
Domenic, the eldest, was an ambitious boy. He helped after school hours by selling candy on the Hudson River piers to the incoming sailors.
Willie was born in 1907, very bandy-legged. His condition made it very difficult for Mama Massari, taking him daily to the clinic. At the age of four he was operated on to correct the deformity.
It was during that period that Louise was taken by her grandmother Pellettieri, remaining there until she was nine years old.
Joseph Sr. died suddenly on February 11, 1922. The attending doctor diagnosed the cause of death as acute indigestion.
Joseph Sr. left seven children, Domenic was 18, Virginia was 16, and the others were very young, the last, Mary, being only seven months old.
Page 27: Things became very difficult for Mama Massari. She took in home work from factories, and applied for and received some welfare aid. The Paterno and Campagna families jointly contributed to a fund set up to ease Rose’s heavy burden.
Domenic, who had been working since the age of 16 with a Mr. Mulloy in a diner at 96th Street and the Hudson River, was made a partner soon after his father died. He also earned extra money helping his Uncle Joseph sell Sunday paper on Saturday nights.
Virginia at 16 started working, as a manicurist with Uncle Nick’s wife Anna in her beauty parlor in Brooklyn. Domenic and Virginia thus helped their family financially.
Willie, through the help of his Uncle John Pellettieri who encouraged him to attend a trade school, worked as an electrician apprentice. Eventually he because a qualified electrician journeyman, joined the union and worked quite steadily at his trade.
Louise attended Manhattan Trade School, for sewing. Then she began working as a seamstress in a dress designer’s shop. Later she worked in a dress factory on 37th Street and Broadway.
Our Uncle Anthony Paterno paid for young John’s education. He attended a private school in Tarrytown, New York. When John graduated Uncle Anthony employed him in his construction business.
While on a project for Uncle Anthony in Teaneck, New Jersey, John arranged to buy a building plot and erected a lovely home for his mother, in Englewood, New Jersey.
Another employee of Uncle Anthony’s, Al Steiner – an excellent draftsman who had been previously employed by the architect Rosario Candela – and John Massari formed their own construction firm and became financially successful building apartment buildings in Delaware and New Jersey.
John also gave employment to his younger brother Joseph, who remained with the established company quite a few years after John died at the early age of 59. John thought his successful years retained his loyalty to his mother and brothers, and was very generous in his dealings with them.
My mother-in-law, whom I adored and respected, was a truly understanding and thoughtful person with tenacity, patience, care and love which kept her family closely knitted.
She grew older gracefully, coping wit the aging adversities, tailoring her life to fit her infirmities, yet at the same time fulfilling her joy of family life with her children and grandchildren.
I did not have the pleasure of knowing my father-in-law, who had died before I arrived in America. He left an everlasting impression on those who knew him, and it has been related to me that he was a very loving, amiable, generous and hard-working man. His amiability and love for the children made it very difficult for him to use the parental prerogative of scolding. This duty usually fell on my mother-in-law. His generosity was such that even during hard financial times each Sunday the children looked forward to lining up for the usual meager stipend of spending money. No wonder my wife, sister-in-law and brothers-in-law always related their love to their father – Love, Amiability, Generosity being virtues we don not all possess.
After his death, in the early ’20’s, Mama moved uptown to Vermylia Avenue, later to 276 Sherman Avenue.
Page 28: (image)
Rose and Joseph Massari Family Photo
Taken soon after Willie was operated on and long before the last two children, Joseph and Mary, were born.
Top: Rose standing, supporting baby John. Seated, left to right: Virginia, Domenic, Willie, Louise and Joseph Sr.