"Among those making their home in Cortland in 1910 were members of the Fabrizio family. The two families I want to introduce in this post lived side by side on Blodgett Street in Cortland’s Ward Six. Today, Blodgett Street, located just off Pendleton and south of Port Watson Street, is still visible on Google Maps but really only serving as a driveway into an auto repair shop with no houses on it. Now a ghost street, Blodgett Street in 1910- as you can see on HistoryForge- was lively with eight houses located on it, sitting behind the Cortland Carriage Goods factory.
At 3 Blodgett St. lived Constantino Fabrizio, 32 years old, and his wife, Catherine, age 28, according to the 1910 census. Constantino was known by several variations of his name, but sometimes he also went by the name of Paul, and that is the name he, or someone else in the household, gave to the census taker. Complicating the matter of identifying Constantino as a Fabrizio was the fact that his last name was recorded as “Flabitz”, for some strange reason. That surname seemed unlikely to me, so cross-checking in the 1910 City Directory, I was lucky to find him listed under this version of his name, “Costandi Frabrizio.” But for one census, Constantino Fabrizio was Paul Flabitz, with a Mrs. Flabitz and four little Flabitzes.
On the census, Paul/Constantino gave his immigration year as 1899 and was not yet a citizen, so was considered an “alien”. He had been married to Catherine, who had immigrated in 1900, for ten years. Both spoke mainly Italian and they currently had four children, all American citizens. They were Lillian (7 yrs.), Louise (5 yrs), Felice (3 yrs) and Rose (1 yr). All of the children’s names were misspelled by the census taker. Constantino was renting his home, lived with three additional boarders (all Italians), and worked as a laborer in a piano shop.
Next door at 5 Blodgett St. lived Constantino’s brother, Sebastiano. He was 29 years old and had lived in the U.S. for fourteen years. He was already a naturalized citizen and spoke mainly in English. He had been married to his wife, Mary, for seven years. She had immigrated in 1901 and was, according to the census, 20 years old. They had two children, both citizens: Josephine (3 yrs) and Tulio (5 months). He, too, rented his home, worked as a laborer at a piano shop and lived with- besides his immediate family- his mother, Josephine, another brother named Joe and his family, and eleven other Italian boarders.
So, those are the facts as reported to a census taker in 1910. But facts in a census do not a story make; in this case, they don’t even tell us that Sebastiano and Constantino were, in fact, brothers. That takes a little more digging, and, as it turns out, there was a lot to find. However, I do not mean to write a book here, so a few more facts must act as a hint for the full story that could be written, one that shows how two brothers, and their families, wove themselves so strongly into the fabric of their community.
The first thing to know about these two brothers is where they came from: they were from Dogliola, a village in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo, Italy, as were many others in the Cortland Italian community, all of whom were following extended family on a well-trodden path to a new life. Though Sebastiano was proud later in life to lay claim to being one of the first Italians in Cortland, from what I can tell from available records, he came here after an older brother, Gaetano (who went by the name of Joe). They both show up on the 1905 state census, living together with their respective wives, children, and their mother. Constantino first shows up in the 1906 city directory. In an interview when he was 80 years old, Sebastiano was asked why he chose Cortland instead of some big city. He replied that the good wages Wickwire workers were getting (15 cents an hour) beat what he was earning in Pennsylvania working for the railroad (12 cents/hr). Over the years, both Constantino and Sebastiano would work as laborers in several factories in Cortland, including the “piano shop” of the 1910 census. Eventually, Constantino would settle into work as a cooper or “keg maker” at the different cooperages that came and went in town. Sebastiano, however, interspersed his factory work with entrepreneurial endeavors. In 1908, he was co-proprietor, with his older brother, Gaetano, of the Hotel Venice (now the
Gable Inn). In the 1912 city directory, he is co-owner of a pool hall at 157 Port Watson. And in 1916’s directory, he is listed as a grocer at
122 Elm St. But like his brother, he finally settled for steady pay at a local factory, in this case,
Beaudry Wallpaper.
Both brothers had no problem fulfilling the stereotype of the patriarch of a large Italian family. Besides the two mentioned in the 1910 census, Sebastiano and Mary (also known as Incoronata) had Alfred, Arthur, Anthony, Bella, and Henry. Constantino outdid his younger brother by three. The original four were joined by Joseph, John, Daniel, Loretta, Anna, and Marian. His wife, Catherine, would die in 1934 of what the paper said was the flu, but I imagine just plain exhaustion played a part!
Between work, church, school, and play, both families were deeply embedded in the life of their community. Sebastiano could rightly be seen as one of its leaders having been involved in helping to start the first St. Anthony’s Day parades, the San Rocco Lodge, and the Mascagni Band (which much later became the Old Timers Band). And the children of both men filled the ranks of local sports leagues, social clubs, and music bands. Josephine, Sebastiano’s daughter, was a respected teacher at Pomeroy School and his grandson, Alfred Jr., was a well-liked band instructor at Cortland High and popular local musician. In every way, it seems then, these two families exemplified the promise of America to Italian immigrants, while at the same time enriching the Cortland community as a whole. So much of the Cortland of the 1910 census is gone, but I think the Fabrizio family, even if just in spirit, will remain.