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December 21, 2005
Filippo Branca was born in Turbigo, province of Milano in 1870. In 1890 he followed the route of the Cuggionesi and worked in the mines of Iron Mountain, Michigan and then in the coalmines of Herrin, Illinois. He then moved to Utah, at Castlegate where he joined other Lombards working in the coalmines and where he is also registered in the 1900 Federal Census. In the meantime he had married Teresa Christopher (Cristoforo?) he had recalled from Italy. Teresa from Trentino and thus defined by Americans as South Tyrolean. His son Joe was born in 1908. Filippo is still looking for something different and heads for California. He stays there only for a short while and this time he ventures further north after being hired by the Dunsmuir mines for its coal deposits close to Nanaimo, the Extension Mines on Vancouver Island. Soon after the Gold Rush to Klondike started and Filippo was among the daring. He returned with an estimated hoard of more than 10,000 dollars. Then the mining camp now renamed Ladysmith became again Filippo Branca’s home. A few months after the discovery of a copper deposit about 15 kilometers from Ladysmith made him change his life again. Henry Crofton (a town was named after him) was given the task by his father-in-law Dunsmuir to organize the mining camp with the necessary machinery to mine the mineral. The management of the company store was awarded to n employee with cash assets : Filippo Branca. The mine operated for a while in spite of the difficulty of the territory but its success was undermined by internal strives and soon after failed and entered the numberless list of ghost towns that stud the Canadian West. However Filippo Branca had suspected something and left on time. In the meantime Ann and Angelo were born , in 1901 and 1903 respectively. John was born in 1906 and Joseph, born in 1910 was baptized with the his brother’s name died on September 27, 1908. This time Filippo crossed only the strait and settled in North Vancouver on the opposite side of Burrard Inlet. It was 1903. At first he opened a grocery store on Main Street in partnership with a Piedmontese named Giovanni Crosetti. The society didn’t last long since Filippo preferred to open his own store on North Street in North Vancouver. In 1908 Filippo Branca returned to Italy for family reasons. He had inherited from an uncle who had been a finance minister of the Kingdom of Italy. On October 3, 1908 the ship Lorraine docked at new York Harbor from le Havre. Filippo, listed as an American citizen, had no problems at Ellis Island. Before continuing his journey to Vancouver he stopped at the hotel Bertini located at 154 Bleecker Street in the heart of the Italian Greenwich Village. During his voyage to Italy Filippo had conceive the idea to transform his business and enter the the export-import of Italian food products. The increasing number of Italians engaged in Chiasso by the Corecco and Brivio agency and in Udine by Paretti was augmented by the groups from Calabria. The mines and most of all the Canadian PacificRailway needed more workers. And at the end all this turned into a request for product from the home-country. Branca sold his store in North Vancouver and re-opened on the Main Street of Vancouver where his wholesale and retail business would last until his death. In 1911 Branca bought 160 acres of land in Burnaby to his own produce. The soil was untilled and needed no fertilizers. The results were excellent. In the same year 1911 Branca established the Società Veneta to help the members both economically and socially. Actually the association became a vehicle of acculturation into the new Canadian way of life. Loyalty towards the home-country but also respect for the adoptive country. In 1966 his son Angelo would follow his father footsteps to found the Confratellanza Italo-Candese with the same goals and through the union with various societies. On February 12, 1936 Filippo was cheered on occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Società Veneta and his contribution to the success of the Italian-Canadian community was recognized. He had been for years the reference point of old and new migrants. He died on April 26 1939. His son Angelo became a judge of the Canadian Supreme Court and he is still remembered as the Gladiator of the Courts. Also his niece Dolores Holmes has become a judge. Turbigo maybe is only a dot in the map. How many migrants have beaten the odds that saw them as illiterates, poor and losers?
Filippo Branca can’t
even be found on the passenger lists of Ellis Island except for the
return voyage. No clues in New York, Boston, Halifax, Baltimore and
Philadelphia. |