In fact, in all of Pennsylvania, only Allegheny County boasts greater numbers than Delaware County. Nearly 102,000 people, or 18.5 percent of the total population of the county, are Italian American, according to figures compiled by the National Italian American Foundation based on the 2000 census.
And in the entire nation, only the states of New York and Connecticut surpass the more than 1.4 million Italian Americans living in Pennsylvania.
"Delaware County is among the most populated areas for Italians," said Dr. Sam Cimino of Morton, a dentist who is president of Historic Lodge 12th October, Order Sons of Italy, in Chester. "The immigrants first came to Chester because it was a booming industrial town, as was the Port of Philadelphia."
Cimino's parents hailed from Calabria and Puglia and the family settled in South Philadelphia. "After World War II, the immigrant families started to move out to the suburbs - the number one area being in Delaware County, but they also moved out to Camden County in New Jersey," said Dr. Cimino, 67, whose dental practice is in Concordville.
"The Sons of Italy was very big when I was a boy, so when I went to Concordville," he said, "we started a lodge which eventually merged with the Chester Lodge which was more active."
From 1820 to 1920, over 4 million people emigrated from Italy to the United States, rivaling only the Irish and Germans with their numbers. The Italians flooded through Ellis Island immigration on a quest to escape low wages and high taxes in their homeland. Despite leaving rural villages with little education, the Italians were able to find unskilled work in the largest cities - New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit - often causing hostilities between other ethnic groups such as the Irish who also were competing for work in industrial areas at the time.
"The Irish, the Polish, the Italians, all kinds of immigrant groups flocked to Chester because of the industry," said Veronica Barbato of Media, whose father and grandfather founded Lodge 12th October, Sons of Italy, Number 486, in 1916. The date marks the discovery of the Americas by Italian navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Barbato is secretary of the lodge, designated historic because it was among the earliest in the state founded after the original Sons of Italy, a benevolent organization, was founded in New York in 1905.
In addition to the jobs, it was the education and churches that drew the Italians into the Delaware County suburbs, said Jessica Conley of Drexel Hill, assistant district attorney in Delaware County and state trustee and chairman of District Five, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Order Sons of Italy in America. "People tend to go where there are schools and churches and people of common background."
With immigrants arriving from northern, central, and southern Italy, as well as Sicily, the Sons of Italy became an umbrella group for Italians of all regions. "It is a fraternal organization that is involved with anti-defamation, as well as charitable and educational causes," said Conley.
The Sons of Italy actually was started by a medical doctor, Dr. Vincenzo Sellaro, to aid with the medical care of Italian immigrants who often were in life threatening situations due to the language barrier. It served as a mutual aid society to unite Italians in America, help them find work, housing, funds, and keep their cherished customs alive.
"A scheme was devised where a person would pay 10 cents a week - it was actually called the Sick Fund - and you could use this money for care," said Dr. Cimino. "It was a very early form of Social Security insurance."
The fund also went for burials. "In those days, an Italian would go to Riker's Island to be buried in Potter's Field," he said. "But then, that was true of all immigrants at the time."
In general, immigrant groups had their own separate societies and benevolent organizations. "It wasn't really prejudice," said Dr. Cimino, "it was the language barriers. It just put immigrants in different social circles."
Regionally, there are eight Sons of Italy lodges in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania's District Five, according to Jessica Conley. In addition to Lodge 12th October, others in Delaware County are Central Delco Lodge 2438 in Media, Benvenuto Lodge 2572 in Havertown, and Ardmore Lodge 1943 in Ardmore. Rounding out District Five are lodges in Overbrook, Malvern, West Chester and Coatesville.
"I think it is such a rich culture and heritage," said Conley, whose mother's family is Italian, of her commitment to Italian American organizations. "In order to preserve it, we have to cherish it and nurture it and teach those things carried here from our immigrant families to our next generations."
Since taking over as secretary of Historic Lodge 12th October, Barbato, 73, has enjoyed delving into its rich past. She and other members found big ledger books filled with minutes from meetings dating back to 1916. "Some are written by hand in Italian," said Barbato. "Most of us could read parts of it ... We'd like to find a student of Italian to translate them."
It is the family ties to old Chester that she has found so intriguing - DeProphetis, Pileggi, Cellini, and Pappano among the names of current members whose families date back to the lodge's early days.
"They all had some kind of trade," said Barbato, born Veronica Calvarese and a Chester resident until moving to Media 10 years ago. "There was shipbuilding on the waterfront, there was Ford Motors, you wouldn't believe what Chester was like."
As it had in Italy, life for the Italian Americans revolved around the church and school and organizations related to it - in Barbato's case it was St. Anthony of Padua at 3rd and Franklin streets.
Though Barbato doesn't recall prejudice as a child - "I was happy as a lark, but then everybody I knew was a cousin, an aunt or uncle" - she said there were race problems even though her street was "very diverse.
"It didn't help that the immigrants didn't know the language, that in itself was a blocking point," she said. "But there were a lot of ombudsmen around - my father, Louis Calvarese, used to hold classes in English in each of their homes. He still understood and spoke Italian even though he was educated here."
"In the City of Chester, there was a Columbus Center Association, sort of a social end of the Sons of Italy," said Barbato. "It was a huge building, which no longer belongs to us, but it was built by the men, themselves, stone upon stone.
As is the case each October, the discovery of America by that famed Italian navigator, Christopher Columbus, is celebrated around the world by Italians and non-Italians alike.
In this region, there will be a variety of events surrounding Columbus Day this Monday. A banquet Saturday, sponsored by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, will take place at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel. A Mass Sunday at SS. Peter & Paul Basilica in Philadelphia precedes the Annual Columbus Day Parade starting at 12:15 p.m. on Broad Street and proceeding south to Oregon Avenue. Italian American veterans who have received the Congressional Medal of Honor will be honored.
At 3rd and Market streets in Chester, a statue depicting Columbus kneeling as he might have upon arriving in the new world has been the site of an annual anniversary celebration since its dedication in 1955.
On Oct. 16, a 50th anniversary celebration of the monument's dedication will take pace at 2 p.m., followed by a buffet luncheon of authentic Italian foods and musical entertainment in the community room of Chester City Hall.
In a past anniversary ceremony, former toastmaster Francis G. Pileggi recalled the difficulty getting the Columbus statue, which was made in 1945, to the "new world."
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