Why it’s spelled “Italee”
Renovo Heritage Park Italian Festival Happening Today!
By Christopher Miller
In the 1880’s when they were logging the virgin hemlock and hardwood in Pennsylvania, they needed a lot of laborers to build the railroads to the tall timber. What they came up with were mostly Italian immigrants that spoke very little, if any English.
A group of Italians were hired to build the tram roads (railroad beds) and lay the rails for the Howard and Perley Lumber Co. of Gleasonton. This group, along with their families built a dozen or so homes a mile North of Gleasonton where the right and left hands of Young Women’s Creek fork. They naturally called this settlement Little Italy.
Meanwhile another group of Italians working for the Shepp and Titman Lumber Co. Likewise built a small village of some 10 to 12 homes where the Sebring branch enters Mill Run about eight miles north of Cammal. They called this Little Italy.
A problem soon arrived with mail delivery. Since there were no zip codes back then, the mail kept getting mixed up. The Young Women’s Creek Little Italy was getting the Sebring Branches Little Italy mail and vice-versa.
The solution they came up with was to change the name or at least the spelling of one of them;
Hence the Little Italy on Young Women’s Creek became Little Italee. The problem was solved, and there was no more mis-delivered mail.
I have since made another sign that says “Village of Little Italee” which is displayed at the bottom of the hill as you enter Little Italee. The small metal sign hung by Chapman Township to identify the area was spelled Italy, so I figured I had better explain the odd spelling on the new sign, and that my friends is the end of the story.
In honor of The Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park putting on their Italian Heritage Festival and discussion Saturday afternoon, additional information on the original Italians of the greater Renovo area was discovered.
Though family history’s passed down from generation to generation may differ, the information that was recently uncovered in old census records mentions that the first “Italians by birth” recorded on the census arrived in Renovo between 1870 and 1880 since the census is taken every 10 years.
A few of the names listed do not sound Italian, so one has to guess that they might have changed their names in order to “anglicize,” or hide their Italian identity given the negative attitudes toward immigrants during that time period.
The names of those living in Renovo in 1880 are Adolph Russ and his family including John and Anthony. There are also the names of John Thompson and Joseph Rovegna. These four people might have been the ones involved in telling the rest of the families back in Italy about Renovo and its mountains, causing an exodus from Italy. While living in Renovo, they were primarily in the 1st and 2nd Wards.
These original Italians in the area had jobs such as merchant, or fireman on the railroad. Others later on also worked for the railroad, in construction, or in a local mining operation.
The federal census in 1900 shows 32 people who were born in Italy and settled in Renovo; eight times that amount in only 20 years. Some of these last names are familiar even today in the Renovo area: Bruno, Malazzi, Poleto, Pagnato, Conti, Martino, Martella, Pompili, Sabatini, Severino, Curcio, Fedele, Russo, DeMarte, Morocko….the list goes on and on.
