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Click on photos to enlarge 		Scafuro Family History and Stories
Essays by Frank Scafuro on
family's emigration from Italy
Raffaele Scafuro
Born 3/14/1884
Died 2/1/1938, age 53

Son of
Francesco Antonio Scafuro
b. 05/06/1851 d. 1922
& Maria Michele, nee Crisci
b. 11/1/1861, d. 04/12/1939
both born in Pago del Vallo di Lauro and died in Allendale, NJ

Grandson of
Raffaele and Pietra Caterina

Certficate of Naturalization
Raffeale - Memorial Card - 1938
His Mother's Obituary
His Parents' Gravestone - 1939
Maria & Raffaele Scafuro - unknown date 		Maria Scafuro
Daughter of Antonio Iannicelli
Born April 5,6, or 14, 1884
Marzano di Nola, Avellino, Italy
Died October 19, 1968, age 84
Sons: Frank 1906-68, Tony 1911-90, Vic 1914-65, Larry 1915-66, Al 1918-2001, Ralph 1923-79, Ange 1924-96, Lindy 1927-88
and Daughters: Maggie 1908-89 and Jo 1921-2001

I remember
... Crisp linens, china, silver and a table laden with fruit and nuts stretching through two rooms -- home
...Uncle Tony's enormous pot of wriggling black eels for Grandma to prepare for Christmas eve
... Luaus and firecrackers at Uncle Lindy's for the Fourth
... Lazy summer Sundays, sausages on the grill and Uncle Vic swinging from the trees at Camp Scuffy
... Helping Aunt Barbara make forty-three bologna sandwiches for the campers
... Exotic "chocolate soda" in Aunt Josie and Uncle Larry's refrigerator after school -- no one else had chocolate soda
... Clouds of meringue on Aunt Adele's pies and the surprise of tender red meat inside Uncle Al's charred steaks
... Lamb chops and brocolli for lunch and Aunt Jo telling me I would be no bigger than an ant and people would step on me if I didn't eat
... it was my favorite lunch -- and she knew it.
... Red wine stains and walnut shells on the tablecloth




Frank ~age 6, circa 1910
The photographs were probably taken shortly after Maria arrived with 6 year old Frank (as well as Maggie and Tony). They were postcards sent to Raffaele's father who must have brought them with him when he and his wife emmigrated later.

Maggie, Frank,Tony, Victor, Larry

MOTHERS WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE
Transcript of 1982 Newspaper article - Click Here for original

      While the Scafuro family was growing up in a fieldstone house in Saddle River, Ralph Scafuro, who had brought his family to America from Italy in the early 1900's, was a foreman for a road construction firm. His wife, Maria, meanwhile, took care of their eight sons and two daughters. To supplement her husband's income she also made the work compound's 125 beds every day; and she cooked dinner every night for some 50 construction workers.
      "She didn't use pots -- they were caldrons," recalled Anthony, 70, an accountant and former mayor of Waldwick. The Scafuro family were sitting around the fireplace of the large 120-year-old Colonial home of brother Albert, an attorney who had been mayor of Allendale in 1956, the same year that Anthony served his town.
      Their father died in 1938 -- "the days of the Depression," remembered 58-year-old Angelo, now the owner of Camp Scuffy, a large private day camp in Rockland County.
      "We were very much aware that we were poor," he continued. "To feed 10 fatherless children, my mother fell back on her farm upbringing in a small Italian town {near Naples}. We helped her plant 1 1/2 acres of vegetables and fruit. She canned hundreds of jars of tomatoes."
      At 5:30 a.m. on many summer mornings, she'd take us berry picking in nearby fields," Angelo said. "By noon, we'd go door to door, selling all we could at 10 cents a quart, while mom used whatever was left for preserves." Other fund-raisers included hundreds of bushels of peaches, grapes, apples. Angelo's sisters, Josephine and Margaret, assumed the traditional female roles of helping their mother with domestic duties.
      "I looked up to my mother with amazement -- 10 children, one husband, and she handled each in a very special way," said Dominick, the youngest of the 10, who has a dental practice in Waldwick. "Her secret was that she was there -- I never came home to an empty house."
      Throughout her life, Maria Scafuro instilled in her eight sons and two daughters the principles of loyalty and responsibility to each other. Another principle she considered vital was education.
      "We got our education by helping one another," said Albert, the attorney. "Frank, the eldest, got through first by going to night school; he got through by sheer guts and working day and night. When he got his degree [in economics from NYU] he sent the second one through, and that one sent the third and so on.
      When Frank died 14 years ago at the age of 61, he was senior vice-president of the Bank of America and was credited with originating many innovative international banking systems. The heart condition that had claimed their father, Ralph, and brother Frank also killed Larry at age 51, then an owner of several pet stores, Victor at age 52, who had owned the largest aquarium supply company in the world, and Ralph, owner of 45 pet stores, at age 54.
      Their mother died in 1968 at the age of 85. "I remember her presence as one of extreme courage, love for all of us, and a complete faith in God," Angelo said. "We lived well and happily all because of a hardworking, courageous mother who always had time for us and who inspired us all to get a good education."


Maggie & Frank

circa 1930
Top: Victor, "Mom", Tony, Larry Bottom: Lindy (?), Ange, Ralph, Nancy Biangardi, Maggie, Albert

1966, Standing: Tony, Ralph, Maggie, Ange, Albert, Frank, Jo
Seated: "Mom"


Left side of table: Jo, "Mom", Maggie
Front: Filippa, Raffaele (glass raised)
Left side of table: Vic & Rose - Right side: Jim Biangardi & probably his 3 daughters Nancy, Mary, & Bubbels


Angela Biangardi & Tony Scafuro's Wedding
Nancy Biangardi? Rose, ???, Jo?, ???, Angie. Tony, Frank, Victor - rest unknown


In January 1920 Maria & Raffaele were living on Boroline Road in Saddle River. According to Fell House records, the house at 371 East Allendale Ave was built for them about 1922-24. The house above - which says "352" on the fence looks a lot like the one currently at 371 E. Allendale Ave at the corner of Boroline Rd, albeit with a new 3rd floor dormer window and roof.


371 East Allendale Avenue today