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When I was a little kid, I always bugged my grandparents about coming
to this country in a covered wagon. However, you just don’t get to New York from
Sicily in a covered wagon! When thy finally took me to see New York Harbor and
the docks in Brooklyn, I began to get the message. From then on, the favorite
question was. ”Did you at least come from the docks to our house by covered
wagon? ...Did you see any Indians on the way?” Of course, I still had no
conception of time or where they were in it or where I was in it for that
matter. To make matters worse, little kids in Brooklyn were only taught a brief
history of the California Gold Rush. Italian immigrants just didn’t fit into the
picture. They were too busy making pasta in the kitchen and wine in the
cellar to have ventured off into the great, far away romantic land of beautiful
sunsets, cattle drives and cowboys.
So, I had to satisfy myself with Wagon Train and to grow up thinking that
Italians just never made it past New York or New Jersey. Guess what? I found
them right here. They did make it. And oh, what a story. Come,
let me share just one of those stories about Italian-American California
pioneers.
Did you know…
…that Augustino Marengo left his native Salterana in the province of Genoa,
Italy in 1869, crossed the choppy Atlantic only to walk through the mosquito
jungles of Panama before boarding a ship that sailed him to San Francisco Bay? From San Francisco he came to Stockton where he stayed for a short time before
coming to Galt. Did Augustino get busy? It would take him 10 years to prepare
for the day when he and his wife, Teresa (Marengo) and their four children would
be reunited!
The very next year in 1869, Augustino and a partner purchased 160 acres of
land three miles east of Galt and in 1878 he purchased 624 acres three miles
northeast of Galt. Like the pioneers of his day, he spent the next year
improving the land and building a house for his long-awaited family.
Imagine Teresa and the four children. For 10 years Teresa raised a young
family by herself (In Italy). Imagine the fortitude, the determination and the
vision that theses two must have shared! How many today would commit themselves
to a 10-year waiting period to fulfill a goal that involved the dream of coming
to some new and unknown land. It would be as if you or I decided to pioneer Mars
for 10 years before sending for our families on Earth. Think about it.
There must have been endless periods between letters that traveled over a
continent and an ocean. The fear that comes with being apart. The little and not
so little “disasters” that can only come when raising children. In spite of the
hardships these two must have endured, the time finally arrived in 1879 when
Teresa and the four children journeyed across the ocean from Havre, France to
New York. In New York, it was travel by the Central Pacific Railroad to Galt. I
can only imagine how the five must have felt seeing this beautiful country of
ours. Can you imagine the scene in Galt at the train station in front of our
“old town”? The family reunited, finally!
There were four Marengo children – Giuditta, Mary, Virginia and Alessandro. Giuditta married Amadeo
Lippi of Galt, a descendant of the famous painter. Amadeo, a vintner from Vorno, Italy maintained the winery with his wife and
children until prohibition. The winery was later reopened under the name of Galt
Winery. The couple raised two boys and three girls. But life would take some
unfortunate turns for the family. Their son, George, was killed in World War I
in France and their other boy, Pio, was killed in an auto accident. Today, Giuditta’s
granddaughter, Eugenia Olson, lives in the Lippi family home.
Giuditta’s sister, Mary, married Antonio Bisagno. Life in those days must
have been so hard. She died leaving eight children. Virginia became Mrs. Peter Denevi. She, too, died and left three children. Alessandro and Giuditta
were the only surviving children.
Alessandro(Alex) did not have the opportunity to learn the English language,
but he worked, acquired a good deal of practical education, became a
contributing citizen and later became a member of the Knights of Columbus. He
married Matilde Denevi in Galt. Matilde was a native of Cembrano, a province of
Genoa, Italy. She was one of Domenico and Maria (Solari) Denevi’s seven
children. Alone, she traveled to California in January of 1878 and married
Alessandro six months later on July 9, 1898. By 1923 she had become the mother
of three boys, Joseph, August, and Antonio and two girls. Mary became Mrs. Antonio Dutra of Galt. They had one daughter, Elizabeth.
Teresa became the wife of Raymond Baima.
Alessandro worked with his father, Augustino. He bought 160 acres from him
and paid for it by working. When Augustino died, Alessandro inherited 160 acres
from him but he had to pay his mother $900. He later bought the home ranch from
his mother which consisted of 156 acres for the sum of $ 4000. Quite a steal by
today’s standard of living but in those days it was quite a sum. In 1923,
he sold 113 acres of the 476 which left him with 363 acres of family land that
he used to farm and to raise stock.
Today, Irene, wife of the late Joseph Marengo and her son, Joseph Jr. still
live in the area. Irene is a welcome face at our GAHS meetings. She and Eugenia
(Lippi) Olson provided the information for this article. Thank you both! I look
forward to putting together the family tree!
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