Researching Sicily and Calabria

The Ferrara Girls

By Charleen Scime

Biagio Ferrara married Liboria Barone in Villalba, Sicily on April 4, 1902.  By 1904 they had two daughters, Giuseppa (Jessie) and Salvatrice (Jenny).  When Jenny was a year old they noticed she was having difficulty standing even in her crib.  The muscles in her legs did not seem to be able to hold her up.  There was nothing they could do for her in their small village and they knew she needed medical treatment.  

Both Biagio and Liboria had family in Trenton, New Jersey as part of the “chain-migration” where immigrants from Villalba settled in Trenton. Biagio left his young family and emigrated to the US with the sole purpose of staying there to make a better life for them.  He traveled on the S. S. Gerty and arrived in May of 1906, with $12.00.  His cousin, Giuseppe, offered him a place to stay.  Once he was settled in Trenton, he sent for his family.  With $40.00, Liboria and the two girls arrived in the United States on Sept. 17, 1907 on the Algeria. 

Soon after their arrival, Jenny was treated at a Hospital in New York for polio.  They operated on her leg and put her in a brace.  This is treatment she wouldn’t have had if they stayed in Sicily. 

In June of 1909, while still living in Trenton, they had another daughter, Concetta (Katie).  Katie is my grandmother.   

The family moved to Niagara Falls shortly after my grandmother was born. In 1915 they lived on the 200 block of 13^th Street.  This was a mixed Italian, Polish and Armenian neighborhood.  They stayed close to that area residing in apartments on 14^th Street and East Falls Street, where they were joined by other relatives and friends from Villalba.  Biagio found work at Acheson Graphite and Carborundum.  On occasion, the girls would go with their parents to farms in Simcoe, Ontario to pick tobacco. They were able to attend school in the neighborhood, an opportunity they would not have had in their village in Sicily.  In 1919, Mary, the couple’s fourth daughter was born. 

Jessie was the first of the girls to marry.  Hers was an arranged marriage to a young man from their village of Villalba.  Angelo Saia emigrated to the States in 1896.  The night before their wedding, Angelo gave his soon to be wife a lavalier to wear on her wedding day.  It was the FIRST time they met!  Jessie and Angelo were married on June 6, 1920 at St. Joseph’s Church.  

They made their home on 20^th Street next to Angelo’s father and sisters. Angelo and Jessie had two children – Joseph and Lucy. 

Angelo died after only 8 years of marriage.  Jessie continued to live in the same building as her father-in-law.  She worked in a laundry and raised her two children.  

Jenny had a third grade education.  When she was old enough she worked at the Searchlight on Highland Avenue.  She did not work very long before a marriage arrangement was made with Salvatore (Sam) Lazzaro. He was a cousin from Villalba.  He emigrated to the US around 1920.  The two were married on September 24, 1922.  They had one child, James in 1923.  Sam died of Leukemia in 1924.

After Sam’s death, Jenny would take Jimmy for walks and she caught the eye of a neighbor, Ventura Terenti, from Spain.  Ventura thought that Jimmy was Jenny’s younger brother.  He finally got up enough courage to talk to her and she told him she could not talk to him unless her father approved.  Ventura asked Biagio if he could date his daughter.  At first, he said no because they were of different nationalities.  Ventura persisted.  When they were finally able to go out on a date, Katie had to go with them.  Ventura and Jenny were married on July 10, 1926 and had two daughters, Josephine and Marjorie.  

Katie went to school until 5^th grade.  When she was 13 years old she was working at Carborundum.  An accident at the plant took part of her finger.  It is unimaginable to me that a girl of middle school age would be working in such conditions.  It was 1922.

Shortly after that, Vito Scime, one of her coworkers noticed her and talked to her briefly at work.  Vito had recently emigrated to the US from Castelvetrano, Sicily, and chose Niagara Falls because his brother and cousin (Michele Scime and Michele Cacciopio) were here.   Before Katie got home that day her mother already knew she was talking to someone at work.  Liboria was not happy and needless to say, neither was Biagio.  

Vito and Katie unofficially began their courtship as he walked slightly behind her on the way home and finally asked her to go on a date. They were married in July of 1924.  She was 15 and he was 22.

They moved into an apartment in the same building as her sister Jenny and her family.  Vito worked at a roofing factory and they had their first child, Charles, in September 1925 – my grandmother was barely 15!  Their second child, Anna Mae, was born in 1928.  

My dad, Charles, says that when he was growing up people were very conscious of who was “Italian” – especially Sicilian.  When he was in Kindergarten the teacher told him instead of saying his last name Shi-may his family should “Americanize”.  She explained that phonetically the Sci is pronounced like the beginning of science and the e is silent.  In the United States, then, his last name should be pronounced SIME.  His parents changed the pronunciation immediately.  They wanted to blend in.  Blending in for my grandfather also included perfecting his English.  He would read nursery rhymes aloud to the children. My aunt recalls that his most animated reading was “Henny Penny”.

With James Lazzaro, Joseph Saia, Charles Scime and with Lucy Saia, Josephine Terenti, Anna Mae Scime and Marjorie Terenti

Mary was the only one of the girls who was able to finish high school.  After graduation she worked at the Searchlight.  While working there, Mary met Sara Vilardo.  Sara asked her if she would like to go on a date with her brother, Nick.  Mary was hesitant, but Sara told her it was only a “date” – she wasn’t going to marry him.  

Six months later, April 19, 1940, Mary Ferrara and Nicholas Vilardo (b. 1909 in Niagara Falls) were married at Our Lady of Lebanon Church.   

In February 1943, Nick was drafted by the US Army.  Mary went with him for basic training and returned to Niagara Falls when he went overseas.  When Nick returned, he worked at Moore Business Forms.  The Vilardo’s had two sons, Nicholas and Ronald.

In 1948, Biagio and Liboria Ferrara moved in with Mary and Nick on 21^st Street.  

Biagio passed away in 1952 and Liboria in 1962.  Many family members are still living in Niagara Falls.  

NOTE from Lynda Hinckley-  Yes, my grandparents had an arranged marriage and she cried when she met him (or rather after he left just after they were introduced) because he was shorter than she was and not exceptionally handsome.  But she came from a poor family and was told she should be satisfied with what she could get.  As it was, he died just a few years later leaving her with 2 children to raise.  She had another daughter (Margie) who died of whooping cough either a week before he died or a week after he died.  If it wasn’t for her family they all would have starved because this was right around the Depression.  Your grandmother used to have everyone over for all holidays because she was the only one who was stable financially.  And to think of the progeny springing from these 4 women!