Isidoro Poppa was the second eldest out of the five children of Fedele and Elisabetta Branca Poppa. He was born on 4 April 1891, in Orsara di Puglia, Foggia, Italy. (Wikipedia Contributors, 2020) [1]
In the early 1900s, Italy suffered from poverty, overcrowding, and several natural disasters, thanks to the continual eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, an earthquake and a tidal wave that swept through the country. People were emigrating from Italy to America in droves, chasing the American dream. Most Italian immigrants were young men who planned to work, earn money, and return home. They left their parents, wives, and children back home in Italy. 78% of Italian immigrants were men, and many of them would return to Italy permanently.
Early Italian immigrants made their living as fruit traders in New York, and growers in California. They didn’t want to farm. They wanted to stay in the city where labor was needed, and wages were high. Italian immigrants lived as cheaply as possible and, in many cases, under deplorable conditions. Many earned their living doing backbreaking manual labor, such as digging tunnels, constructing bridges and roads, and laying railroad tracks. (Researchomatic, 2010) [2]
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| Immigrants Catching Train in Italy to Port City |
Coming to the United States in the early1900s was not an easy decision to make. Assimilating to a new country and new way of life was difficult for many immigrants, who seemed to face more than their fair share of prejudices. Blatant racist views toward Italian immigrants in particular, and refusal to hire them for better-paying jobs were rampant. In large cities, tenements were mainly slums. If an immigrant couldn't get a decent living wage, they might reconsider trying to raise their family in America.
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| Ellis Island Newcomers |
On 28 March 1906, 15-year-old Isidoro and his father left Italy from the port of Naples for America. They arrived at Ellis Island approximately 3-weeks later on 17 April. According to the ship’s passenger list, Fedele paid the passage for himself and his son, Isidoro. He had twenty dollars in his pocket. This meant he was not considered to be indigent according to immigration requirements, and would, therefore, be allowed to stay in the United States. Father and son would be living with Fedele’s brother-in-law, Vincenzo Fiore, at 114 Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy section of the city. The building in which they lived is no longer there. It was torn down years ago and now appears to be a vacant lot according to my research.
While the exact date is not known at this time, Isidoro and his father would return to Italy sometime before 1910. On 18 July 1910, he would marry Theresa DiFoggio in his hometown of Orsara. They had eight children during their 12-year marriage, two of which would not reach adulthood.
6 January 1911, Isidoro set sail once again for the United States, leaving behind his new bride, pregnant with their first child. On this crossing, he would be accompanied by his brother-in-law, Rocco DiFoggio. They arrived at Ellis Island on 21 January 1911. This time, however, Isidoro was held on a 2-day medical detainment. He was finally admitted to the U.S. on 23 January 1911. According to the ship’s manifest, Isidoro and Rocco were headed to Butler, Pennsylvania. They would try their luck at gainful employment building tracks for the railroad.
During the early years of Italian immigration to Pennsylvania, newly arriving immigrants typically obtained jobs with the railroads through the padrone system. The Padrone system was a contract labor system used by many immigrant groups, most notably Italian, to find employment in the United States. Padrones were labor brokers; usually, immigrants or first-generation Americans themselves, acting as middlemen between immigrant workers and employers. They provided housing, food, and transportation to the highest paying jobs available that the padrone could discover. They were the spokesmen and advocates for the immigrants versus the police and local authorities. They prevented them from being exploited by the company that hired them. Padrones served as the cultural link to Italy. They facilitated letters, the sending of money back to the families, and arranging transportation back when the term of employment was over. The padrone was paid for his services, taking cash both from the immigrant and from the employer. (Wikipedia Contributors, 2020) 4
Back in Orsara, Isidoro’s first son Fedele was born on 19 March 1911. According to his wife Theresa’s Petition for Naturalization, she arrived in the United States on 22 July 1912 on the SS Sant’ Anna. To date, I have been unable to find the ship’s passenger list to determine whether or not Isidoro was with her, or if Theresa traveled alone with their infant son. A daughter named Elizabeth was born at some point between 1912 and 1913 in New Rochelle, New York. The child would not survive.
Isidoro’s parents, brothers, and sisters had settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after their emigration to the United States. Isidoro, Theresa, and their young son, Fedele, would also move to Bridgeport, Connecticut. Three more children would be born over the next few years; Antoinette in 1914, Rocco in 1916, and Leonard in 1918. By 1919, Isidoro’s family would relocate to Chicago, Illinois, at least temporarily, and there he would file a Petition for Naturalization. Two more children were born in Chicago, Elizabeth, in 1920 and Agostino in 1922. After Agostino’s birth, the family would move back to Bridgeport for the last time. By 1923, Theresa was pregnant with their eighth child, Mary. She would be born on 9 July 1923. Isidoro would live barely long enough to see the birth of his youngest child. He was not well and, sadly, would die by mid-August.
Isidoro’s cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis. According to his death certificate, he suffered from this dreaded disease for at least 1-2 years. I’ve often wondered if the reason for moving back to Connecticut was because he knew his time was limited and wanted to be near his family at the end. Sadly, baby Mary would not survive infancy. She died in 1924. The exact cause of death is not known, but I suspect she met the same fate as her father.
Isidoro had three very different occupations during his lifetime. He was a tailor, a railroad worker, and at the end of his life, a barber. There is only one known photograph of Isidoro. In it, he is a young and handsome man, who will never age in my memory. A description of Isidoro can be found on his WWI draft registration and on his Petition for Naturalization. He was described as 5 foot-4 inches tall, weighed 125 pounds, had a dark complexion, no distinctive marks, black hair, brown eyes with a defect in his right eye.
Call it a gravestone, headstone, or a tombstone. It is a marker used to memorialize a loved one. For now, the only memorial for my grandfather is that he lived on in his children. He continues to live on in each of his grandchildren, as well as his 27 great-grandchildren. For without Isidoro Poppa, none of us would exist. We are all truly grateful to you, Grandpa. May you rest in peace.
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Isidoro Poppa
April 4, 1891 - August 18, 1923
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Works Cited
Finzi, J. (2017, August 28). Italian-Americans: The History of Immigration to America. Retrieved from GrandVoyageItaly.com: http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/history/italian-americans-the-history-of-immigration-to-america
Researchomatic. (2010, December). Italian Immigration in the 1900s. Retrieved from www.researhomatic.com: https://www.researchomatic.com/Italian-Immigration-In-The-1900s-54077.html
Wikipedia Contributors. (2020, March 1). Orsara di Puglia. Retrieved from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orsara_di_Puglia&oldid=943312282
Wikipedia Contributors. (2020, January 7). Padrone System. Retrieved from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Padrone_system&oldid=934548177
What a nice tribute to your Grandpa!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Valerie!
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