Family Tragedy: Giuseppe Salvagione

My first blog post is a tribute to a young immigrant – my great-uncle, Giuseppe Salvagione, who did not get to live out his dream in America. Born on March 31, 1899 in Corato, Puglia, Italy to Rosa Scaringella and Angelo Domenico Salvagione, Giuseppe had a twin brother, Cataldo, an older brother and sister and a younger brother (my grandfather). His oldest brother Vitantonio (Tony) was the first in the family to emigrate in 1911. Guiseppe was the second.

Giuseppe first sailed to the U.S. in August 1913 at the age of fourteen (though his age on the ship manifest was listed as sixteen) on the S.S. Re D’Italia with his cousin Nunzio Scaringella. The destination for both was Yonkers, New York, where Tony had settled. Giuseppe returned to Corato but made another voyage to the U.S. in December 1914, again sailing on the S.S. Re D’Italia with Nunzio and another young man, Giuseppe Tarricone. This time he settled in Yonkers, living at 158 Willow Street, worked as a laborer, and adopted the American name Joseph. 

Joseph had a job working at the National Conduit and Cable Company in Hastings, New York. On October 24, 1916, Joseph and six other men were on their way to work when the jitney bus they were riding in had an accident. According to newspaper accounts, the driver, Joseph McCarthy, swerved to miss hitting a dog and lost control of the bus. It crashed into an automobile standing at the curb in front of the B. and O. garage on Warburton Avenue. McCarthy told the Hastings police that as the bus neared the garage, a dog ran out into the street and when he swerved his machine aside, he lost control of it and telescoped the car standing at the curb. All of the passengers were thrown out. Salvagione pitched headlong to the asphalt pavement. Tragically, his skull was “crushed like an egg shell.” The others were cut by flying glass, and sustained various minor injuries which were dressed by two Hastings doctors, and the injured were taken to St. John’s Riverside hospital in Yonkers. Joseph died there of a fractured skull and internal injuries, just thirty minutes after the accident occurred.

The coroner held an inquest in the Hastings police station on November 10^th. A Hastings policeman, questioned after the inquest, stated that he had seen a dog with a broken back screaming in agony, and moved to pity, he shot the beast. Two of the passengers, O’Hara and Pinsimey, told of seeing the car strike the dog down, adding that in their opinion, McCarthy had swung his machine around to avoid hitting the animal. Other passengers, Sethseto and Spekowski, didn’t seem to know very much about the occurrence. They testified that the automobile was traveling at the rate of eighteen miles an hour. Chirelli, a fifth passsenger, swore that the jitney was going at an excessive rate of speed. He seemed to be the only passenger in the car who could give a fairly relevant account of the accident. Coroner Engle rendered a verdict of accidental death. McCarthy, the chauffeur, was held in jail on $2,000 bail for driving without a license.

Joseph was buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Yonkers. He died at the age of seventeen, less than two years after settling in New York.  My great-grandmother Rosa never saw her son again. The only known photograph of Joseph was taken in Corato in 1911 when he was twelve years.