The Tripi Story - Liborio's Journey

Noted writer D. H. Lawrence once wrote that Sicily in the mid 1800s was "the poorest place in Europe. A Sicilian peasant might live through his whole life without ever possessing as much as a dollar.”  It is no wonder, that in that backdrop, two young men from different towns in Sicily would seek a better life and economic opportunity in America.

Salvatore Liborio Tripi was born in November, 1871 in Sclafani, a small rugged mountainous village of less than a thousand people about 79 kilometers southeast of Palermo.  Sclafani (later called Sclafani Bagni) was known, like many parts of Sicily for its therapeutic mineral bathes.  Liborio’s daughter (my grandmother) vividly recounted stories of returning to Sclafani from America to seek its healing treatments for her legs.

Sclafani

Sclafani is a village immersed in antiquity - founded by the Greeks during their colonization of Sicily and later flourishing under Arabic influence.   The origin of the name is unclear, but is believed to have been named in honor of a Greek god or temple.   Later, during the Middle Ages, Matteo Sclafani ruled Sclafani as a feudal lord and was responsible for some of the architectural monuments still standing.

Because of its location high atop a mountain cliff, two fortresses rise above the village – il Castello Grande and il Castelletto, united by a wall with one entrance way.  La Porta Soprana, an important monument, greets the visitors at the entry of the small village, overlooked by the coat of arms of Sclafani family.     

Not far from the entrance way is the Chiesa Madre, (church of the Mother), erected by Matteo Sclafani.  It is one of three churches including The Cathedral Church and the Chiesa of S. Giacomo (Church of St. James),  the oldest of the village.

Sclafani is filled with winding roads, narrow stairways, irregular alleys and intriguing albeit modest homes almost randomly arranged.  Along this fascinating labyrinth of passageways, these centuries old stone houses wrap themselves into the mountain landscape with little regard for symmetry or style.

With a population today of less than 600, it remains mostly agricultural – consisting of  cattle and sheep breeding as well as the raising of crops such as grapes, olives, and almonds and fruit.

Sclafani is a village of raw beauty.   It is located in a chain of mountains called Madonie, which next to Etna, is the oldest mountains in Sicily. 

The word “Bagni” (bathes) was added to the town name in 1953 in reference to the presence of thermal spa.

La Famiglia Tripi

It was here on November 19, 1871 Salvatore Tripi and his wife Sebastiana Leone, gave birth to one of perhaps two or three children.  (Accounts vary with Salvatore Liborio having one or two brothers – Nicolo and/or Ignazio and perhaps a sister Concetta).  Their humble home was on Via Quartiere Chiesa Madre, a street adjacent to the historic church.  It is located in one of the highest parts of the town near the Monastery of Santa Chiara and the castle of Castello Grande. 

Salvatore Liborio Tripi, it is told, was raised in the village of Sclafani by his grandmother, as his mother died when he was very young.  She dropped the first name and called him by his middle name, Liborio, which stayed with him throughout his life.   Growing up, he learned the trade of tailoring, most likely from his family.

(Interestingly, the name Tripi does not appear to be one of the more common names in Sclafani.  There is, however, a town named Tripi in Sicily, perhaps from which, the family originally resided, which was of Greek origin).

In 1892 at the age of 21, Liborio married Maria Grazia Teriaca, a young girl the same age and from the same village.  Maria, whose parents were Maria Varca and Tomasso Teriaca, also had a younger sister Francesca.

Sicily, like most of southern Italy was in the midst of economic crisis.  High taxes, over-farmed land, and a repressive government system combined with cheap, imported grain and manufactured goods from abroad caused economic despair.  These conditions, combined with the new mainstream availability of trans-Atlantic passenger steamships caused a mass exodus of the island.

Liborio, along with thousands of other Sicilians prepared to set sail for America, in search of a better life.  Sometime between 1892 (the year that Ellis Island opened) and 1895, Liborio and his new bride, Maria, joined the exodus of thousands of their fellow Sicilian paisani, and boarded a ship to New York City.  It would be the first of several voyages he would make across the Atlantic.  He like, many Italians would return to Italy on a regular basis.  Passage was only about $15 and could take as few as 10 days.   Many emigrants, in fact, were young men looking for seasonal employment with little intention of staying in America at all.  But many more did stay and adopt a new country.

Across the Atlantic

Loborio and Maria first settled on Cherry Street in a tenement on the Lower East Side of New York, an area teeming with Jewish and Italian immigrants.  The Lower East Side was also the home of New York’s garment industry. Here he worked from his home as a tailor, probably as an independent contractor, which was a common practice.     Immigrant workers would use their tenements as mini factories during the day, churning out garments.  Unlike Little Italy (to the west) which was almost completely Italian, the Lower East Side was 60% Jewish in 1900 – mostly immigrants from Russia and Poland (then part of Russia).  

Cherry Street had its own place in history.  It is notable for being the place of residence of no less a historical figure than President George Washington.  The following is excerpted from the web site of the President’s State of the Union address:

“On a cold January morning, the President rode in a carriage drawn by six horses from his residence on Cherry Street in New York to Federal Hall for a joint meeting of the two bodies of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. When George Washington personally delivered the first annual message to Congress on January 8, 1790, he was aware of his constitutional duty to deliver his message and of the precedent he was setting for future presidents”

On August of 1895, the first of Liborio’s many children was born.  He was named Salvatore, after his father.  Two years later, his first daughter Sebastiana (my grandmother) was born on September 27, 1897, named after Liborio’s mother.

Liborio would return to Sclafani with his family in 1899.  At this time, his wife Maria became gravely ill.  It is speculated that his return to Sclafani could have been an effort to treat her ailment with Sclafani’s therapeutic mineral baths.  The effort was not successful, however, as Maria Grazia passed away in Sclafani in March of 1899.

Liborio, not one to be alone for any length of time, remarried (probably between March and June of 1899) to another woman named Maria – Maria Barca.  It is assumed he married in Sclafani, but this is not definitive as no records could be located.  Their first child, Giuseppina, was born in New York on March 5, 1900.

Liborio returned to Italy with his family, probably around 1902.  It was this time that Sebastiana recollects her father, Liborio, leaving her in Italy under the care of her less than affectionate stepmother.  Liborio returned to America to work.

The Greek playwright Euripides once wrote, “Better a serpent than a stepmother!”  That’s probably a bit harsh, but Sebastiana did not have fond memories of hers.  It seemed like something out of a Grimm’s fairy tale, as I would listen to her recount the story over and over.  She recalled one instance where her father sent her a pair of shoes from America, only to have her stepmother throw them away.    But, where there is a wicked stepmother, there is usually a fairy godmother.  In this case it was her maternal grandmother and her mother’s younger sister (Sebastiana’s aunt) Francesca, of whom she had very fond memories. 

Her Aunt Francesca would marry Leonardo Ortolano (around 1898), and emigrate to New York.  Leonardo also worked in the garment industry.  They had 6 children – Thomas (born in Italy); and Lena, Carmelo, Joseph, Charles, and Salvatore (Sam), all born in New York.   Francesca would undoubtedly make several return trips to Sclafani, where she would encounter Sebastiana,  before permanently settling on the lower east side.

Liborio’s marital longevity would not prove any better with wife #2.  Sebastiana recalled that she returned home to New York shortly after her stepmother, Liborio’s second, wife passed away.  She believes she returned to Sclafani with her father to be treated for a leg ailment in the sulfur bathes of the village, but the actual year is unclear.  Again, Liborio is said to have returned to America leaving her and her brother and sister with her maternal grandmother (sometime between 1903-1905). At this time Sebastiana was between 6-8 years old, and spoke fluent Sicilian dialect.  She probably attended mass at the Chiesa Madre church in their part of the village, and made her first Holy Communion in Sclafani.

It always amazed me how vividly my grandmother could recall images from almost a hundred years ago.  She recalled referring to her little village as “Pizzo” or the (mountain) peak;  many of the people owning small plots of land used for planting crops.  She described lots of beautiful trees, particularly the chestnut trees which she enjoyed picking.  Little Sebastiana would pass the time knitting stockings, and later became an excellent seamstress herself.

Liborio sent for his daughter when she was 10 years old.  In October of 1907, she was escorted back to New York by a 41 year old friend of the family by the name of Santo DiStefano (known to my grandmother as “Mastru” Santo) where a surprise awaited.

But just before she left Italy, Sebastiana recalls another fairy tale like event in her life.  Little Sebastiana was staying at a boarding house in Palermo awaiting her voyage back to New York. Another girl from the house asked her if she would like to go with her to buy “un grano di sapone” – or about a half a cents worth of soap (probably equivalent to a bar).  They began walking along when Sebastiana grew tired and decided to to turn back alone.  As she headed back, she soon realized she was lost in a big city and no one to turn to for help.  She cried out loud and began praying to her patron saint – St. Joseph for help.  After a time, an old man with a cane approached her and consoled her.  He told her not to cry and that he would take her home.  After walking with him for a while, she looked up and became ecstatic when she saw her boarding house at which point the man disappeared.  For the rest of her long life, Sebastiana would believe that it was St. Joseph who mysteriously appeared to her to take her home.

St. Joseph, Santa Patrona di Sicilia

It is common in all parts of Italy and Europe for Catholics to adopt a patron saint for their town or village.  In Sicily it is also common to see St. Joseph as the patron saint in many parts of the island.

In Sclafani, there are large celebrations and feasts to commemorate the holiday, which falls on March 19.  Culinary favorites include bacala (cod fish), vasteddi (fried sweets), and special pastries called sfingi di San Giuseppe.

One of the reasons that Maria is such a popular name is due to the Sicilians honoring of the Virgin Mary, wife of St. Joseph.

New York, New York

Liborio probably made his last trans-Atlantic trip aboard the Piemonte – arriving for the final time in New York on May 16, 1905, while leaving Sebastiana, Salvatore and Giuseppina in Italy.  His ship’s manifest listed him as visiting his cousin Giuseppe Tripi at 3 Mulberry Street (at the south end).  This would indicate that he either did not have a permanent residence in New York at that time, or needed the name of a friend or relataive to enter the country.  Immigrant families tended to be somewhat transient, moving from one tenement to another, but generally in the same neighborhood. 

There were a number of other “Tripi’s” coming to America at the turn of the century as well, from all over Sicily including others from Sclafani.   But after a good deal of research,  I was unable to cross reference any to Liborio.  Several from Sclafani settled on Monroe Street.  No doubt, many of them must have been cousins of some sort, but unfortunately, no links could be established.

Sebastiana’s Aunt Francesca (sister-in-law to Liborio) is also shown to have come to arrive in America in 1905 aboard the Lombardia with her 4 year old daughter Antonina. Her age was recorded as 30 years old, making her birth year 1875 (although Census documents show it as 1873.  This was not her first trip, however, since her husband Leonardo Ortolano was already in New York, and her daughter Lena had been born there in 1901.  Their address at the time is also listed as 3 Mulberry Street.

Sebastiana and her brother and sister returned home aboard the Venezia, arriving in New York on November 19, 1907, accompanied by family friend Santo DiStefano. Their address at this time was listed as 61 Catherine Street (at the corner of Monroe).  Santo was listed in the ship’s manifest as returing to visit his brother, located at,  coincidentally, 3 Mulberry !   

It appears that between the time Sebastiana was born, and 1907 when she arrived back on the Lower East Side after her final trip to Italy, Liborio  had moved a block west from Cherry Street (at least according to ship’s records).  Sebastiana would not only return to a new house, a few other surprises as well!