The founding history of our Magro family.
Sunday weddings were once considered to be the luckiest in old Sicilian tradition. Sunday was considered the only day for a wedding if the couple to be married were to live a life of happiness and good fortune, and any other day was considered unlucky.
It was on one of those lucky Sundays in the month of April of the year 1917, when the Magro Family as we know it was established by the marriage of Saverio Magro (born November 15, 1886 in Monreale, Sicily) and Crocifissa Salerno (born September 13, 1893 in Monreale, Sicily).
Traditionally in Sicily, there were two wedding ceremonies, a civil ceremony followed by a religious ceremony or mass, and the religious was considered the more significant. In fact, the groom would not consider himself to be married until after the religious ceremony and the date of that ceremony was considered the wedding date.
On Sunday, April 29th, 1917, Saverio Magro and Crocifissa Salerno were married at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church, the oldest Catholic Church in Michigan City, Indiana, USA.
A traditional toast often heard at Sicilian weddings is “Per Cent’ Anni” which means “for 100 years”. Given our family’s history that has unfolded in the 104 years since their wedding day in 1917, there is no doubt in this Magro’s mind the traditional toast was given at the Sacred Heart Church, or more likely at the following reception on that lucky Sunday in April, 1917.
Roots in the Old World
So how did these two from the same rural area of Sicily end up marrying in Michigan City, Indiana? Back in Sicily, the Magro family owned and operated a grain mill in the small town of Monreale, which was at the time, a day’s journey by foot from Palermo. Saverio was the youngest of his siblings and the family mill was not large enough to support everyone, so Saverio was sent to be an apprentice with a shoemaker.
Giuseppe Salerno was a shoemaker in Sicily. Giuseppe was the master cobbler who trained Saverio in what was to become his and his future family’s occupation and livelihood for at least the next five generations. Giuseppe was also Crocifissa Salerno’s father. And it was likely near the Salerno family’s home in Commune di San Ciperello, a district in the town of Monreale, where Saverio and Crocifissa (Anna) first met and then engaged to be married.
The years preceding Saverio’s departure from Sicily saw the Italian government becoming increasingly involved in regional conflicts, which in turn increased the need for expendable troops. Naturally most of these troops were conscribed from the Mezzogiorno (southern region of Italy) and Sicily. While all of this was happening, Saverio was mastering his new trade as a shoemaker and making big plans for America. It was around this time Saverio’s older brother, Francesco (Frank), left the family business at the grain mill in Monreale for uncertain opportunity in the United States. Frank found that opportunity with the railroad and soon sent for his younger brother Saverio.
Coming to America
When Saverio arrived in America on October 26 of 1912, it was just a week after a former president, Theodore Roosevelt, was shot (but not killed) by a saloon keeper while on the campaign trail. Within a month of his arrival in his new country, a new President, Woodrow Wilson is elected. And within a few years that President would lead the nation into World War I. Even though things were tumultuous in his new country, things in Sicily when Saverio left were no better.
Sicily had fairly recently been forced into unification with Italy. After this unification, municipal and political control of Sicily was shifted from a local seat in Palermo, to Rome where the new capitol of a unified Italy was shifted from Florence. Consequently, Rome ignored and neglected Sicily, beyond anything more than exploiting her natural resources that included her inhabitants, but only after confiscating and redistributing much of the land. The forced unification eventually gave rise to a plethora of social and political issues for Sicily, one notably was the formation or fortification of la cosa nostra (translated: “our thing”) or the mafia, which by the time of Saverio’s birth in 1886, cosa nostra had permeated the landscape and had long since seized control of legitimate commerce on the island, particularly around Palermo. Additionally, the Italo-Turkish (September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912) war that was now raging saw the “unified government”, i.e., Rome sending many conscripts drawn from Sicily, her young men being sent to their death in the desert of Libya, the territory in a left-over dispute from the Roman Empire era.
Saverio followed his older brother Frank who had preceded him to America, and had secured work for them both with the railroad in Lima, Ohio. After a couple years the two brothers wound up in Michigan City, Indiana still working for the railroad, only now at a permanent location building rail cars.
Four years after his arrival, Saverio had worked hard and saved enough money to send for his fiancé Crocifissa. In September 1916, Crocifissa Salerno arrived at Ellis Island, New York with her younger sister Bernadetta Salerno and her younger brother, also named Giuseppe Salerno. Crocifissa and Saverio were soon reunited in Michigan City and seven months later, the two were about to be married, beginning their new life together, in a new country and in a new professional trade.
Crocifissa’s father Giuseppe also came to America at this time and the story of Magro’s Modern Shoe Repair, “the shoe store” was born. Another story to be shared another time.
Until next time…Ciao!
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