Nicola Cavallaro: From the Mountains of Calabria to Bridgeport
This story comes from the history our family wrote down for the original Cavallaroplace website.
A shepherd from Calabria
Nicola Cavallaro was born in Calabria, Italy, in 1876. As a young man he was a sheepherder in the mountains of Calabria. He was one of six brothers. Three of his brothers also came to the United States, one went to Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada, and another went to Argentina. We haven’t yet been able to learn more about them.
Our family name, Cavallaro, means “brave horseman.”
A farm in Lordship
Nicola came to the United States in the early 1900s (our records show he arrived in 1903) and bought a farm in Lordship, Connecticut. Around 1915 the main house burnt down, and Nicola sold the property for about $3,800. The land later became the site of the Avco plant.
He then bought a small farm on Congress Street in Fairfield, Connecticut, and continued to raise his family there. Of Nicola’s ten children, only one, Teresa, was born in Italy.
Later years in Bridgeport
When his wife died in 1930, Nicola sent for a new bride from Italy, and they married. In the early 1950s he sold the Fairfield farm and moved to the East Side of Bridgeport, where he spent his last years. He died in Bridgeport in 1963.
His children were Frank, Dominick, Sam, Joe and Tony, and Theresa, Rose, Vera, Mildred, Kate and Frances. You can see their photos on our Older Generation page and find them all in the family tree.
Can you help?
Our family’s written history and our Ancestry records don’t quite agree on Nicola’s wives. The family story says his first wife Maria died in 1930 and he then married Mary from Italy. Our Ancestry tree lists Mary Grace Gulli (1882–1930) and Maria Trungadi (1875–1954, married in 1945). If you know the real story, or anything about Nicola’s brothers, please let us know!
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