Where did the first Italian immigrants go? Did they go to the rural communities of America, like Chautauqua County? Usually not. Most of them went to the cities. New York, Buffalo, Rochester, and other cities in the state of New York received large contingents. It must be remembered that immigrants almost always came to join others who had preceded them - a husband, or a father, or an uncle, or a friend. In western New York most of the first immigrants from Sicily went to Buffalo, so that from 1900 on the thousands who followed them to this part of the state also landed in Buffalo. There they joined their friends and relatives who in many cases had purchased the tickets for their steerage passage to America. After they arrived, guided and assisted by friends and relatives, they ventured out of the city of Buffalo, joined work gangs all over western New York to pick peas, beans, and other crops and to work in the numerous canneries located in the small towns and villages. Mostly they were women and children. Some of the men folks found work in the city. The women and children became the migrant workers of their day. They performed the most  monotonous and back-breaking chores without a murmur. Twelve to fourteen hours work a day was not unusual. The temporary structures furnished by the employers usually lacked even the minimum conveniences. Whole families were often housed in one room, the children sleeping on the floor. So it was in this manner that the immigrant who landed in Buffalo became acquainted with the surrounding country. In their westward migration they first went to work on the farms at Brant, Angola, Farnham and elsewhere and also in the canneries at Farnham, Silver Creek, Irving and other places. Some of the  men found work on the railroad. They moved from place to place and lived in freight cars. In this manner some of them reached as far as Westfield and settled there. But the focal point in the northern end of the county seemed to have been the village of Fredonia.  The canneries there and the rich farm lands provided work for the whole family. Fredonia became a favorite place to settle in. While the Italians who came to Fredonia were not the first Italians in this county, they were some of the very first. All of the first families to settle there came from Buffalo.

I have examined the village and city directories of practically all of the villages and the two cities in the county, going back to 1887, and have talked with many people in an attempt to determine, if possible, who were the first Italians to come here and who were the first-born of Italian parentage. I found that many of the names in the directories were misspelled, almost beyond recognition. I found that directories are not very reliable. I am quite sure they do not give the names of some of the people who lived in the town or village in which the census was taken. Many of the early immigrants were men without their families living in rooming or boarding houses or in freight cars, if they worked on the railroad, and they were likely to be overlooked by the census taker. Also, it was possible for an immigrant to settle in a village or a city in the year after the census was taken, and his name would not appear in the directory until the next year. It may be also that the census taker considered these early Italians to be transients and did not include them in the directory. But people's memories are not reliable either.  People forget what happened sixty or seventy years ago, especially if they were young when they came here, as those with whom I talked had to be. For these reasons, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information which I am about to report.

" The History of Chautauqua County and its People" published in 1921 by the American Historical Society states that in 1892 some Italians were imported from the city of Buffalo to work on the Dunkirk and Fredonia Street Railway then under construction. Among these was Peter Lanza. It goes on to state that in 1893 relatives and friends - about ten families -came from Buffalo and settled in Fredonia. The Fredonia directory of 1889 - 90 contains the name of only one Italian - Francisco Geoginto -  I believe the last name is misspelled - who ran a confectionery store at 93 Main Street. He may not have been an Italian, but the name looks to be an Italian name. The directory of 1894 contains only four Italian names: Anthony Lanza, Peter Lanza, Anthony Lograsso, and Michael Traverso.  Four years after that little group came to Fredonia, according to the directory of 1898-99, the number of Italian names increased to 31. With very few exceptions all of the names are familiar to me because they came from the same village in Sicily in which I was born.

This immigration to Fredonia, both from Buffalo and direct from Sicily was much more rapid than the immigration to any other village or city in Chautauqua County. Those who came to Fredonia did not all remain. Many of them went to Falconer, Jamestown, Westfield, and other villages in the county.

" The History of Chautauqua County and its People" also states that Joseph Serrone was the first Italian to establish a permanent residence in Dunkirk and that he went to Dunkirk in 1888. The city directory for 1887-1888 contains only four names which may or may not be Italian.  It does not contain the name of Joseph Serrone. The directory of 1898-1899 is the first directory which contains the name of Joseph Serrone, who was then in the fruit business in Dunkirk. The other Italian names appearing in that year were : Sam Catanzaro, shoemaker; the family of Benjamin Martingnoni; Joseph and Julie Nalozetti; George and Josephine Naperala (apparently misspelled); Joseph and Celia Narducci, shoemaker. Yet the information contained in " The History of Chautauqua County and its People" may be the correct one with respect to Joseph Serrone being the first Italian immigrant in Dunkirk.

Again we find in " The History of Chautauqua County"  that Tony Dolce and Alexander Gentile came to Westfield in 1891. Yet the directories of 1898-1899 and 1900-1901 do not contain the names of Tony Dolce and Alexander Gentile. The 1898-99 directory contains three Italian names; Pietro Gulotta, who was in the fruit business at 12 Portage Road; Gaetano Dolce; and Frank Pataljo (intending perhaps Battaglia). The directory of 1900-1901 contains only three names, but they were different; Vincenzo Cervasi, Cosimo Ippolito; John La Duca.

I am citing these discrepancies between the report in " The History of Chautauqua County"  and the report made in the directories merely to show how difficult it is in this day to obtain the exact information. However, the fact is that all of the names appear in the directories and all of those concerning whom the information is acquired by interviews were among the first Italian immigrants in this county, if not the very first.

In contrast with the rapid settlement in Fredonia in the early 1900's the immigration to the rest of the county was slow. The Silver Creek directory of 1898-1899 contained only four Italian names: Angelo Luongo; Michale Mancuso; Michale Mangano; and Fred Settezzo (apparently misspelled). In Sheridan, Brocton, and Portland none were reported in that year, although " The History of Chautauqua County " states that Peter Runfola was the first Italian to settle near the village of Brocton with his family and brothers. The year is either 1892 or 1893. A census of the county taken in 1900 showed a population of 88,314,  716 of whom were Italian immigrants.

The first children of Italian parentage to be born in the village of Fredonia, according to the birth register, were Olimpia Familet (name misspelled) - born January, 1894 - and Orazia Barone, born June, 1895. From then on the register shows births of children of Italian parentage practically every year.

Almost immediately on settling in and about Fredonia and through the grape belt these earl Italians began to manufacture and sell grape wine. Several wineries were established, especially in Fredonia. The first was established in  about 1894 by Peter Lanza. In the beginning the wineries were of modest size but gradually thousands of gallons of wine were produced by a single winery. The wine was sold usually in 50-gallon barrels to the Italian immigrant who lived and worked in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

The first macaroni factory was established by Cosimo and Filippo Drago in the year 1902 in a building located at the corner of Cleveland and Orchard Streets in the village of Fredonia. The property in which the factory was started, as far as I have been able to determine, is the first piece of real property acquired by an Italian immigrant in the village of Fredonia. It was purchased by one Antonio Rizzo in 1900 and was sold to the Dragos in 1902.

Italian immigration to the southern end of the county was almost all confined to the city of Jamestown and the village of Falconer. Many of the immigrants came to both Jamestown and Falconer from Fredonia and are the townspeople of the original settlers in the village of Fredonia.

A number of Italian immigrants who live in Falconer originally migrated to Louisiana in the 1890's and worked in the sugar plantations and the cotton fields. Life was harsh because  the competition with the very cheap negro labor was hard to meet. After they had been in Louisiana a number of years the boll weevil attacked the cotton fields and made cotton growing unprofitable, so that they lost their jobs and their only source of livelihood. They had friends in Buffalo and after having lived in Louisiana more than ten years, moved to the city of Buffalo.  A short time thereafter they found their way to the village of Fredonia. From there they went to Falconer because there was a considerable need for both skilled and unskilled labor in the factories of Falconer and Jamestown. Many of them found work in the Adsonia and the Goodwill Worsted Mills, and some in Maddox Table Co.

The first Italian immigrants to come to the city of Jamestown were the Bottini brothers - Louis and Antonio. They came to Jamestown in 1887. Louis Bottini went back to Italy, got married and returned in 1892. The first child of Italian parentage born in Jamestown is A.B. Bottini, who was born Dec. 8, 1892. The names of Joseph Meli, a barber; Saverio Roselli, musician; Frank Marcello, owner of a fruit stand; Antonio Mancino, a musician; Paul J. Gentilini, commercial traveler; Paul D. Gentilini, a student; Frank Bellizio, musician; and James Bellizio, a weaver, were all listed in the 1900 directory for the city of Jamestown.