Giuseppe Bartoli, New York contractor

[joetucciarone]

Hi Suanj,

Thank you for your continuing efforts on this; unfortunately, the name "Brattoli" doesn't appear in any immigration reports that I can find.

All two dozen articles about Giuseppe Brotali's consignment business (on Baxter Street in New York City) were printed in May and June of 1882. Before and after I can't find anything about him. But, I just found an article in the June 22, 1884 edition of the New York Herald. It's an interview with Celso Moreno about the poor conditions of Italian immigrants in New York City. The Moreno Bill, made law in 1874, prohibited the padrone system in the U.S. As reported in the Herald, Mr. Moreno was angry that the law was not being enforced. He showed the reporter how some Italian immigrants were treated by their padrones; he told how hundreds of them poor Italians lived in near-enslavement "in Mulberry and Baxter Streets". He also said that "some . . . padrones . . . live in Baxter Street" but he didn't give their names.

[KSRattazzi]

I have stumbled across this thread as an accident of sorts. I have hit a roadblock on my Rattazzi lineage.

I believe your Pietro Rattazzi listed here is my great-great-uncle. He and Carlo Rattazzi migrated from a little town called Baveno. They were stone cutters and carved beautiful monuments.

I would like to see what it is that Pietro carved for Giuseppe. Thank you!

[joetucciarone]

An article in the New York Daily Tribune, dated April 22, 1882, stated that the S.S. Victoria had just docked with 1,161 Italian immigrants on board. According to the article, 8 of the immigrants were going to Chicago, 44 were headed for Philadelphia ". . . and the remaining 1,109 wended their way up Broadway and Chatham-st. to Baxter-st." That means 96% of the Italians on the Victoria were going to Baxter Street! That's where Giuseppe Brotali operated his labor bureau.

Does anybody know the history of Baxter Street in the 1880s? Are there any records from that time and place?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Joe

[Tessa78]

An article in the New York Daily Tribune, dated April 22, 1882, stated that the S.S. Victoria had just docked with 1,161 Italian immigrants on board. According to the article, 8 of the immigrants were going to Chicago, 44 were headed for Philadelphia ". . . and the remaining 1,109 wended their way up Broadway and Chatham-st. to Baxter-st." That means 96% of the Italians on the Victoria were going to Baxter Street! That's where Giuseppe Brotali operated his labor bureau.

Does anybody know the history of Baxter Street in the 1880s? Are there any records from that time and place?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Joe

Baxter St. Was originally called Orange St. And was part of the Five Points neighborhood. Read through this to learn of the area throughout the 1800's, including razing of the tenements and construction of parks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Points,_Manhattan

http://www.nycmanhattan.org/p/five-points.html

T.

[joetucciarone]

Hi Tessa,

Thank you for these links; the old photographs of the "Ragpickers" and the "Tombs" are interesting. Over the last few days I have found articles about Italian ragpickers from Baxter Street and the "Tombs" was mentioned in some stories as well.

[Tessa78]

That area was the focus of Jacob Riis' social reform journalism and photography... in the late 1800's.

T.