by PolackTony » Wed Jun 28, 2023 9:25 pm
Unsurprisingly, Cosimo Catalano had a sister, Giuseppa Catalano, who immigrated to Chicago where she married Salvatore Cosentino, a grocer from Tèrmini.
Francesco Catalano, who was born 1838 in Tèrmini and may have been an uncle of Cosimo Catalano, was one of the first documented Sicilians in Cleveland, establishing a citrus importing company in 1880 that soon became a major player in produce and olive oil wholesaling in Cleveland (Frank Catalano & Son). Giuseppe Vittorio was another early Termitano who made it big in import-wholesaling. The early Termitani, along with other Sicilians primarily from Palermo province and Messina, settled and established their businesses in the Haymarket district in Central Cleveland, along Woodland Ave. By 1900, this district, rechristened “Big Italy” to distinguish it from the “Little Italy” that subsequently formed to the East around Mayfield Rd, was over 90% Sicilian. Presumably, this was the locus for the early mafia in Cleveland, which I would suspect formed in the 1880s (based on the initiation of Sicilian immigration and further supported by the account that you found from 1892).
The Termitani were very influential in early Sicilian communities, and clearly in the mafia, in a number of cities and regions. They may well have been instrumental in founding the mafia in both Chicago and Cleveland, and possibly Pittsburgh as well. They were influential in early New England, it would seem, and likely influential in STL and NOLA also. If there was an early Family in Baltimore, they were almost certainly a major part of it. From their main centers of settlement and business in Chicago, Cleveland, Pitt, Baltimore, etc, they fanned out across states like OH and PA, setting up produce distribution networks tied to the major importing and wholesaling houses in the big cities. In Chicago, they dominated a large part of the produce market from wholesale to retail by the 1880-90s (implementing a system of, basically, indentured servitude, where the heads of the major wholesaling companies served as patroni to sponsor paesani for immigration who in turn had to work as street fruit peddlers for their patrone to work off their debt for passage and board), provided the first Italian elected official in the city (himself very likely connected to the mafia), and founded powerful pan-Sicilian/Italian social institutions like the Unione Siciliana and Fratellanza Trinacria. They were central in founding the “Società Mano Bianca” to fight “Black Hand” extortionists, even while many of them were likely mafiosi or tied to the mafia themselves, a clear example of the Alta/Bassa tensions that, as you note, were a recurrent feature of the mafia both in Sicily and the early US. In PA/OH, the “Society of the Banana” was composed mainly of men from neighboring Trabìa (another comune that was important in a number of cities in the late 19th century, including SF and Pitt), and Tèrmini, and likely was an early example of collaboration between mafiosi and Mainlanders and Messinesi.
The red bandanna thing is an interesting detail and also reminiscent of the account of Detroit using different colored bandannas in their meetings.
Unsurprisingly, Cosimo Catalano had a sister, Giuseppa Catalano, who immigrated to Chicago where she married Salvatore Cosentino, a grocer from Tèrmini.
Francesco Catalano, who was born 1838 in Tèrmini and may have been an uncle of Cosimo Catalano, was one of the first documented Sicilians in Cleveland, establishing a citrus importing company in 1880 that soon became a major player in produce and olive oil wholesaling in Cleveland (Frank Catalano & Son). Giuseppe Vittorio was another early Termitano who made it big in import-wholesaling. The early Termitani, along with other Sicilians primarily from Palermo province and Messina, settled and established their businesses in the Haymarket district in Central Cleveland, along Woodland Ave. By 1900, this district, rechristened “Big Italy” to distinguish it from the “Little Italy” that subsequently formed to the East around Mayfield Rd, was over 90% Sicilian. Presumably, this was the locus for the early mafia in Cleveland, which I would suspect formed in the 1880s (based on the initiation of Sicilian immigration and further supported by the account that you found from 1892).
The Termitani were very influential in early Sicilian communities, and clearly in the mafia, in a number of cities and regions. They may well have been instrumental in founding the mafia in both Chicago and Cleveland, and possibly Pittsburgh as well. They were influential in early New England, it would seem, and likely influential in STL and NOLA also. If there was an early Family in Baltimore, they were almost certainly a major part of it. From their main centers of settlement and business in Chicago, Cleveland, Pitt, Baltimore, etc, they fanned out across states like OH and PA, setting up produce distribution networks tied to the major importing and wholesaling houses in the big cities. In Chicago, they dominated a large part of the produce market from wholesale to retail by the 1880-90s (implementing a system of, basically, indentured servitude, where the heads of the major wholesaling companies served as patroni to sponsor paesani for immigration who in turn had to work as street fruit peddlers for their patrone to work off their debt for passage and board), provided the first Italian elected official in the city (himself very likely connected to the mafia), and founded powerful pan-Sicilian/Italian social institutions like the Unione Siciliana and Fratellanza Trinacria. They were central in founding the “Società Mano Bianca” to fight “Black Hand” extortionists, even while many of them were likely mafiosi or tied to the mafia themselves, a clear example of the Alta/Bassa tensions that, as you note, were a recurrent feature of the mafia both in Sicily and the early US. In PA/OH, the “Society of the Banana” was composed mainly of men from neighboring Trabìa (another comune that was important in a number of cities in the late 19th century, including SF and Pitt), and Tèrmini, and likely was an early example of collaboration between mafiosi and Mainlanders and Messinesi.
The red bandanna thing is an interesting detail and also reminiscent of the account of Detroit using different colored bandannas in their meetings.