By birth order, Giuseppe Ernesto Corazza was the 6th of 13 children born to Oliverio Corazza and Barbara Franch in the village of Revo, Val di Non, Tirol, Austria. Joe and his people spoke Nones, a dialect all to itself. For centuries, the Tirolese had their own unique culture in the Dolomite mountains.
Joe had proudly registered for the draft as an American citizen in WW1 to fight for his adoptive country as well as to prevent his native home from coming under the flag of Italy. WW1 armistice was therefore bittersweet--the Americans won but his homeland was then ceded to Italians--foreigners--by treaty.
As a young man, Joe learned the trade of coopersmith.
At 23 years old, he arrived in NYC in 1903, and after a short stopover in Chicago, headed straight to Cambria, Weston County Wyoming to work in the coal mines with brothers Louis and Olivo.
Joe took a brief reprieve from mining to work in 1910 in Muskrat, Fremont County, WY. It's remote location was the sight of an oilfield. This is big open, country with spectacular vistas as far as the eye can see.
By 1915, he had returned to Cambria and successfully filed naturalization papers; beginning a habit of being a voracious newspaper reader to continue as a lifelong learner and to acquire and polish English proficiency.
In 1919, Joe married Blanche Teresa Vanni nee Casari and with pride assumed fatherhood of her daughter, Adelaide. The following year, daughter Josephine was born. He intimately called her his "la doughlee"--Dolly.
When the mines of Cambria closed in 1928, Joe relocated his family in his Studebaker to Superior, Sweetwater, WY. With impeccable references, he obtained work at the mines as a motorman. Later, he would become a justice of the peace for the town.
Joe pooled with other miners each year to order a boxcar of grapes from California for winemaking. He also made his own sausage in the Tirol fashion. Following a shift, Joe came home to bathe in a washtub lovingly prepared by Blanche. He did not need to use the miner's bathhouse.
He was happy with a supper of gorganzola with polenta or panitis, his pipe and a chikit at bedtime. In the morning, the day often began with smoren dunked in coffee and the Rock Springs Miner as Blanche prepared his miner's pail for his work shift.
Joe lasted 42 years in the mines before illness from coal dust finally overcame him. He had many friends and was widely admired for his judgment and in his role as husband and father by all that knew him. Blanche did not receive a widow's pension nor compensation.
Joe is laid to rest beside his brother, Silvio.
-submitted by Clint Black, grandson, Sep 2011
Joe had proudly registered for the draft as an American citizen in WW1 to fight for his adoptive country as well as to prevent his native home from coming under the flag of Italy. WW1 armistice was therefore bittersweet--the Americans won but his homeland was then ceded to Italians--foreigners--by treaty.
As a young man, Joe learned the trade of coopersmith.
At 23 years old, he arrived in NYC in 1903, and after a short stopover in Chicago, headed straight to Cambria, Weston County Wyoming to work in the coal mines with brothers Louis and Olivo.
Joe took a brief reprieve from mining to work in 1910 in Muskrat, Fremont County, WY. It's remote location was the sight of an oilfield. This is big open, country with spectacular vistas as far as the eye can see.
By 1915, he had returned to Cambria and successfully filed naturalization papers; beginning a habit of being a voracious newspaper reader to continue as a lifelong learner and to acquire and polish English proficiency.
In 1919, Joe married Blanche Teresa Vanni nee Casari and with pride assumed fatherhood of her daughter, Adelaide. The following year, daughter Josephine was born. He intimately called her his "la doughlee"--Dolly.
When the mines of Cambria closed in 1928, Joe relocated his family in his Studebaker to Superior, Sweetwater, WY. With impeccable references, he obtained work at the mines as a motorman. Later, he would become a justice of the peace for the town.
Joe pooled with other miners each year to order a boxcar of grapes from California for winemaking. He also made his own sausage in the Tirol fashion. Following a shift, Joe came home to bathe in a washtub lovingly prepared by Blanche. He did not need to use the miner's bathhouse.
He was happy with a supper of gorganzola with polenta or panitis, his pipe and a chikit at bedtime. In the morning, the day often began with smoren dunked in coffee and the Rock Springs Miner as Blanche prepared his miner's pail for his work shift.
Joe lasted 42 years in the mines before illness from coal dust finally overcame him. He had many friends and was widely admired for his judgment and in his role as husband and father by all that knew him. Blanche did not receive a widow's pension nor compensation.
Joe is laid to rest beside his brother, Silvio.
-submitted by Clint Black, grandson, Sep 2011
By birth order, Giuseppe Ernesto Corazza was the 6th of 13 children born to Oliverio Corazza and Barbara Franch in the village of Revo, Val di Non, Tirol, Austria. Joe and his people spoke Nones, a dialect all to itself. For centuries, the Tirolese had their own unique culture in the Dolomite mountains.
Joe had proudly registered for the draft as an American citizen in WW1 to fight for his adoptive country as well as to prevent his native home from coming under the flag of Italy. WW1 armistice was therefore bittersweet--the Americans won but his homeland was then ceded to Italians--foreigners--by treaty.
As a young man, Joe learned the trade of coopersmith.
At 23 years old, he arrived in NYC in 1903, and after a short stopover in Chicago, headed straight to Cambria, Weston County Wyoming to work in the coal mines with brothers Louis and Olivo.
Joe took a brief reprieve from mining to work in 1910 in Muskrat, Fremont County, WY. It's remote location was the sight of an oilfield. This is big open, country with spectacular vistas as far as the eye can see.
By 1915, he had returned to Cambria and successfully filed naturalization papers; beginning a habit of being a voracious newspaper reader to continue as a lifelong learner and to acquire and polish English proficiency.
In 1919, Joe married Blanche Teresa Vanni nee Casari and with pride assumed fatherhood of her daughter, Adelaide. The following year, daughter Josephine was born. He intimately called her his "la doughlee"--Dolly.
When the mines of Cambria closed in 1928, Joe relocated his family in his Studebaker to Superior, Sweetwater, WY. With impeccable references, he obtained work at the mines as a motorman. Later, he would become a justice of the peace for the town.
Joe pooled with other miners each year to order a boxcar of grapes from California for winemaking. He also made his own sausage in the Tirol fashion. Following a shift, Joe came home to bathe in a washtub lovingly prepared by Blanche. He did not need to use the miner's bathhouse.
He was happy with a supper of gorganzola with polenta or panitis, his pipe and a chikit at bedtime. In the morning, the day often began with smoren dunked in coffee and the Rock Springs Miner as Blanche prepared his miner's pail for his work shift.
Joe lasted 42 years in the mines before illness from coal dust finally overcame him. He had many friends and was widely admired for his judgment and in his role as husband and father by all that knew him. Blanche did not receive a widow's pension nor compensation.
Joe is laid to rest beside his brother, Silvio.
-submitted by Clint Black, grandson, Sep 2011
Joe had proudly registered for the draft as an American citizen in WW1 to fight for his adoptive country as well as to prevent his native home from coming under the flag of Italy. WW1 armistice was therefore bittersweet--the Americans won but his homeland was then ceded to Italians--foreigners--by treaty.
As a young man, Joe learned the trade of coopersmith.
At 23 years old, he arrived in NYC in 1903, and after a short stopover in Chicago, headed straight to Cambria, Weston County Wyoming to work in the coal mines with brothers Louis and Olivo.
Joe took a brief reprieve from mining to work in 1910 in Muskrat, Fremont County, WY. It's remote location was the sight of an oilfield. This is big open, country with spectacular vistas as far as the eye can see.
By 1915, he had returned to Cambria and successfully filed naturalization papers; beginning a habit of being a voracious newspaper reader to continue as a lifelong learner and to acquire and polish English proficiency.
In 1919, Joe married Blanche Teresa Vanni nee Casari and with pride assumed fatherhood of her daughter, Adelaide. The following year, daughter Josephine was born. He intimately called her his "la doughlee"--Dolly.
When the mines of Cambria closed in 1928, Joe relocated his family in his Studebaker to Superior, Sweetwater, WY. With impeccable references, he obtained work at the mines as a motorman. Later, he would become a justice of the peace for the town.
Joe pooled with other miners each year to order a boxcar of grapes from California for winemaking. He also made his own sausage in the Tirol fashion. Following a shift, Joe came home to bathe in a washtub lovingly prepared by Blanche. He did not need to use the miner's bathhouse.
He was happy with a supper of gorganzola with polenta or panitis, his pipe and a chikit at bedtime. In the morning, the day often began with smoren dunked in coffee and the Rock Springs Miner as Blanche prepared his miner's pail for his work shift.
Joe lasted 42 years in the mines before illness from coal dust finally overcame him. He had many friends and was widely admired for his judgment and in his role as husband and father by all that knew him. Blanche did not receive a widow's pension nor compensation.
Joe is laid to rest beside his brother, Silvio.
-submitted by Clint Black, grandson, Sep 2011
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