"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." -Marcus Garvey

Nicolangelo "Nicola" Casbarro (1842-1911)

Grand Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge 1883 * 

Nicolangelo Casbarro was born 23 April 1842 in Guardiaregia, Kingdom of Two Sicilies (now known as Guardiaregia, Campobasso, Molise, Italy). His parents were Francesco Casbarro and Angela Rosa Leonardo. When Angela passed away in 1872, Francesco almost immediately emigrated to the US. He arrived in New York City that same year.

On 8 March 1874, Nicolangelo married Nicolina Niro. In 1882, they too chose to voyage to the US, along with their young daughter, Angela Rosa, and Nicolangelo's younger sister Maria. They sailed on the SS Victoria of the Anchor line, leaving Naples in March and arriving at Castle Garden in New York on 21 April 1882. For more than a decade, the family lived in Lower Manhattan, New York, just blocks from the future Brooklyn Bridge. Oral family history holds that Nicolangelo walked across the bridge on its opening day 24 May 1883. 

 

In 1895, their daughter Maria Michela was born. She and Angela Rosa were the only two of fourteen children conceived by Nicolangelo and Nicolina to survive childhood. By 1897, the family was living in Jersey City, New Jersey, just a few miles from the old neighborhood in New York. Nicolangelo and Nicolina remained there the rest of their lives.

 

Antique Grinding Wheel | Animaflora/Fotolia.com 

Nicolangelo often went by the nickname “Nicola”. His proper surname was Casbarro, the traditional spelling in Guardiaregia, and the spelling found in his Italian birth and marriage records. In the United States, however, various spellings have been used by transcribers, either by guesswork or misunderstanding. And, as happens in most families, immigrants' surnames are often reworked (for various reasons) upon arrival in the United States. Some variants of Nicolangelo's forename have included Michelangelo, Nicolo Angelo, Nicolaap, and Nicolis; while variants of his surname have included Casbarra, Casparra, Caspero, Casper, Casbero, Casperi, Caspari, Gasparro, and Casbor. The simplified "Casper" was used most often by his youngest daughter, Maria, who later adopted the name Margaret Casper.

 

Nicolangelo had been a farmer in Italy. In America, his trade was blade sharpening. He carried a heavy manual grinding wheel by a strap around his neck and walked the streets calling "Sharpener, sharpener!" Much the way others called out ‘newspaper’, ‘ice’, or ‘shoe-shining’. When he received a client, he would set up the grinder and sharpen their scissors, knives, etc. right there on the sidewalk. Sadly, the heavy bag rubbed across the same spot on his leg every day and became ulcerated and eventually cancerous. This lead to his death at age 68 on 4 April 1911. He is laid to rest in a family plot with his father, his sister Maria, and his wife Nicolina at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City. His death certificate reads that he was interred at H.C.C. Cemetery. This is an abbreviation for a previously-used name for Holy Name, "Hudson County Catholic Cemetery". The headstone reads "Qui riposano eterno", "here they rest eternally".

 

Nicolangelo worked hard for his family until the end of his life, having faced tremendous change, loss, prejudice, and countless other challenges in hopes of bettering their future. He did succeed, and his vast line of descendants flourishes today. In his memory, may we too find the courage and strength to always persevere.  

Sources include, but are not limited to: Vital records and oral family history from direct descendants.

Written by his great-great granddaughter, Maria McKenzie.

*Currier & Ives. (ca. 1883) The grand display of fireworks and illuminations: at the opening of the great suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn on the evening of May 24th, 1883. , ca. 1883. New York: Published by Currier & Ives. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2001702100/.