It may seem odd to be writing about ice in the middle of winter since winter was the season coal was delivered, not ice. But winter is the season that ice was cut and stored in large warehouses across the north and Midwest for summer delivery. Many Italian paesano, including my grandfather’s family from Corato, emigrated to Yonkers, New York. And many of our relatives – including the Salvagiones, Scaringellas, Tarricones, Miccolis, and Cavuotos – became ice and coal men.
The first of my grandfather’s family to come to New York was his oldest brother, Vitantonio (Tony) Salvagione. He arrived in New York in 1911 and by 1914 had established himself as a ice and coal dealer in Yonkers. His grandson told me that Tony delivered ice with a horse and wagon until the 1930’s when he got his first truck. He gave the name “Jimmy” to every horse who pulled that wagon.
My grandfather, Leonard, and his brother Charles were also icemen. In 1925, they lived at 126 Oak Street as did other Coratini – Charles Miccoli and Louis Lotito. This building, owned by my grandmother’s father, had three flats.
The Scaringellas also settled in Yonkers and for a time lived at 180 Linden Street – the same building as Tony Salvagione. Michele, Nunzio, Vincent, and Joseph Scaringella were all ice and coal peddlers. Brothers Vincent and Nunzio later established their own business called Scaringella Brothers with another brother, Charles. For over sixty years, Charles owned and operated the Scaringella Ice, Coal and Fuel Oil Co. and was the last of the Yonkers purveyors of ice and coal.
Delivering ice was a physically demanding job. Urban vendors like the Italians in Yonkers did not actually harvest the ice but purchased it from the Yonkers Ice Company or one of the other Hudson River ice companies. The icemen had to maneuver heavy blocks of ice with hooks and large ice tongs. Then they had to carry the ice blocks up several sets of stairs (often to a third floor flat) and through narrow hallways or cramped spaces to fill the customer’s iceboxes.
In 2016, Carlo Magaletti produced a short documentary titled “The Barese Icemen of New York.” In collaboration with the United Pugliesi Federation of New York, over 180 hours of interviews were filmed. Here is a short clip if you want to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTVrWB8_Z7c
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