Nicodemo and Raffaela
LAKE CITY
The family moved to Lake City in 1894 and Nick went to work in the gold
mines at Henson, He joined the Western Federation of Miners, Henson
Miners Union and they became part of the large Italian community of the
Lake City area, Their lives settled into the routine of the camp and
they were both working very hard.
In 1895, tragedy struck when young Dominick was playing on the high bridge at Lake City and one of the children he was with pushed him and he fell, landing on his. head. He lived for a few days, but the head injuries were so severe that he finally succumbed. Nick and Raffaela were devastated by their first
born death and the bitterness that they felt towards the doctor for not saving Dominick's life remained
with them for many years.
But life had to go on. Raffaela took some of the single miners into her home, as
boarders and she baked bread in a stone oven to sell to the men. She may have suffered a miscarriage during this time, but she did give birth to a set of twins on December 31, 1896. Following an Italian customs, one of the babies was named after the dead child and he was also called Dominick. The name of the other baby boy is unknown, but he died, in infancy and was buried at
Lake City. Sixteen months later another boy, James (given name Jacobus) was born.
In 1899, two events happened in the Lake City area, either of which probably instigated the next move for the family. The members
of the
Western Federation of Miners, which was made up almost exclusively of Italians, went on strike against two of the largest mines at Henson. There was a lot of violence and federal troops were eventually called in to quell the disturbance. At one point, the Italian Consulate came from Denver in the hope that he could help to settle the dispute. It was to no avail,
however and the owners fired all of the Italians and vowed that they would never hire
them. Their attitude towards these men was clearly shown when one of the owners was quoted in the newspaper as saying they would "hire only white men from now on."
The second occurrence was a small pox epidemic The people of Lake City were extremely prejudiced against the "dagos" and believed that they were spreading the contagion so they put up barriers and would not allow them to enter the town. It was very ironic, as the miners and their families were
barely affected by the disease as the barriers kept them from the real carriers. And so, the family moved to Pueblo and it was here that Raffaela gave birth to her seventh child, Mary (given name Mariana). Nick worked for the steel mill in that city but the lure of the mountains and mining soon beckoned him back to lake City. Another set of twins were born on February 28, 1902 and they were named Maria Matella and Louis. They became ill and on May 30, 1902 Louis died of pneumonia, Maria was baptized the next day but it is not known how long she lived as a death certificate has not been located for her. It is doubtful that she survived much longer and she probably passed away shortly after her baptism.
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