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The Venice-Hylo district was home to many Italians who had
traveled to western Canada in search of a better life.
Thankfully, the Hylo-Venice History Book Committee has
recognized the importance of preserving many of the histories
of these families, and have compiled a series of family
histories that they have published in the book Hylo-Venice Harvest of Memories.
The book provides the most comprehensive information on
Italian settlement in Alberta. These brief
overviews of those family histories are only preliminary and
more research needs to be done with employment records as well
as oral history interviews:
- Olivo John and Anne Biollo-Olivo John
(O.J.) Biollo
was born in the town of Padua, in the province of Venice,
Italy, on May 27, 1883. Mr. Biollo emigrated
to Canada in 1902 at the age of 19, as a prospective
employee of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Anne was born Annie D'Mitruzinski,
on July 5, 1891 in Czerwonograd, Poland. She emigrated to
Canada with her family in 1899. On September 10, 1907 they
were married in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After working off
his commitment to the railway, he moved to Winnipeg and
went into a partnership to acquire the Savoy Hotel. Two years later the O. J. Biollo family moved to Rivers, Manitoba. In 1911 they
moved to Edmonton. Mr. Biollo owned and operated a store
and movie theatre, as well as serving as president The Italian Society while in Edmonton. Along
with other members of the Society, Mr. Biollo
left in 1914 for the Venice area. He homesteaded the
NW¼ 12-66-15-W4, which was partially surrounded by
Lake Missawawi. Mr. Biollo purchased a small store that
served as a depot that supplied the logging camps in
the area. Mrs. Biollo was very busy on the new homestead
gardening, making butter, cheese, ice fishing, preserving
meat, mending and making clothes, and serving as a midwife
for other women in the community.
Over the years Mr.
Biollo ran businesses, served as postmaster, worked on
road crews, and was even interned by the government during
WW ll. Together Olivo and Anne had 10 children (Valentina,
Florence, Mike, Mary, Arthur, Fidelia, David, Valentino,
Gloria, and chosen son Gilbert).
Oliver Michael
Biollo was born in Edmonton in 1911 and worked with
his Father on the farm breaking land, threshing around the
district and helping his Father in the store, grain
elevator and sawmill.
He also worked on road
building. He married
Gisella Michetti in 1934 and
began to work for the Northern Alberta Railways where he worked for 22 years, 20
as a section foreman. The couple had seven
children: Victor, Aileen, Oliver Jr., Caroline,
Christopher, Leslie and David.
Arthur Biollo was
born in Edmonton in 1918 and worked on the family farm as
well as helping other farmers in the area. In 1939,
he enlisted in the Army. In 1945 he married Eleanor
St. Jean and they operated a sawmill in Venice. They
also farmed. They had seven children: Delores,
Valerie, Brian, Debra, Randolph, Collin and
Darryl.1
- Pio and Lucia (nee Macor) Bonifacio-Pio
Bonifacio was born in
Toffia, Italy, 1886; Lucia also born in Toffia, 1889. Married in spring, 1911. Pio left for America in the fall
of 1911with a friend, Pangrazio (Pete) Rauco. They landed in
Boston, Massachusetts and made their way west, working in
the coal mines of Pennsylvania and Kansas. Then they moved on to
Winnipeg and Edmonton where they worked on railroad
construction. Lucia joined Pio and stayed for a time with
the O.J. Biollo family while Pio was working on the
railroad. In 1914 Pio joined a group of men from Edmonton
who had decided to start an Italian Colony in northern
Alberta. This group included Felice De Angelis
(civil engineer),
Beniamino Maragno,
Antonio Piemonte and son, Teofilo. They left Edmonton on July 27, 1914. Pio
built his family home on NE1/4 1-66-15-W4. Pio worked as a
logger and was joined by Lucia at Venice in 1915.
He then
ran the farm with the help of his sons. In 1942, Pio
and his son Quinto, together with
Peter Rossi and
Frank
Ferro cut cord wood for the Northern Transportation along
the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories. In 1947 Pio and Lucia retired to Edmonton where, for a time, he
worked in the Misericordia Hospital in the kitchen.
He then worked for a crew that was cutting trees in the
Redwater-Egremont area for the construction of Highway
28. In 1958, he was one of the founders of the Santa
Maria Goretti Parish in Edmonton. The couple had
five children (Tony, Joe, John, Quinto and Bernice).2
- Anthony P. (Tony) and
Rina (Macor) Bonifacio-Tony Bonifacio was
born in June 1917, the first of the five children of Pio
and Lucia Bonifacio and said to the first child born in
Venice. He was sent to the Lac La Biche Mission at
the age of seven and had to learn French. In 1926,
when the Venice School was established, he transfered
there and learned English. He completed grade 8 and
then worked on the farm.
In 1935, he went to work
for the Northern Alberta Railways as a section man at Mile
199, north of Lac La Biche.
He worked on the
railroad until 1940 when he returned to work on the farm
because his two brothers, Joe and John, were serving in
the army. In 1948, Tony moved to Edmonton and, in
spring 1949, worked on the construction of the Imperial
Oil Refinery.
He worked there for 31 years retiring
at age 64. In 1949, he married
Rina Macor and had
three sons (Robert, Leonard and Terry). In 1997, Tony Bonifacio
compiled a history of the Venice settlement Venice
Alberta 1914: The Pioneers and Others That Lived
There, drawing on the
diary of the consular agent Felice De Angelis as well as
his personal memories and those of other Italian
immigrants.
- Joe and Antoinette (Nini) Bonifacio-Joe
did
farm work and in the winter worked on tie camps, which
involved cutting and limbing trees for railroad ties. In
1942, he was conscripted to the Army and was discharged in
1946. He returned to Lac La Biche and worked on the
farm as well as the building of the airport.
He married Antoinette (Nini) Maccagno, youngest daughter
of Tomaso and Giovanna Maccagno in 1947 and they had three
children (Joann, Kenneth and Catherine). In fall
1947, they bought the family farm.
- John and Florence Bonifacio-John served in the army in WWII and then worked
with Edmonton Transit driving streetcars. He and his
wife Florence had six children (Patricia, Larry, Connie,
Daryl, Debbie and Randy).
- Quinto Bonifacio
worked in construction of gas
plants in the oilfields and refineries and was
instrumental in the construction of Suncor in Fort
McMurray.
- Bernice Bonifacio moved to
Edmonton and married Walter Sams and had six children
(Walter, John, Gale, Marlene, Glan and Valerie) .
- Benedetto and Maria Coli-The family came to
Canada from Fermignano, Italy, which is a small town in
the province of Pesaro. Benedetto served his country in
World War I for four years, spending 12-14 months in a German Concentration camp. After the war, he
married Maria Rossi and started a family while working for
the landlord. Benedetto's dream was to emigrate to Canada,
and after six years an uncle in Canada said that he would
sponsor the family (c1926). Benedetto, his wife, and their
three children (Augustina, Johnny, and Lena) boarded a
boat in Cherbourg, France and sailed to Quebec.
They
boarded a train and headed west to Hylo. Maria and
the children worked on the homestead while Benedetto found
work on the railroad, and at logging and tie camps. Another baby boy was born to the family in 1930. His name
was Hugo. At this time Benedetto became very sick, and the
family was almost deported because they could not pay
their hospital bill. Later, Benedetto and Maria worked
as the school's janitors to help pay for the taxes on the
homestead. Benedetto and Maria lived on the farm, farming
with their son Johnny, until Benedetto's death in January
1955. In 1963, the homestead was sold to
Ray Meardi, and
Maria moved to Athabasca with her daughter Lena to operate
the Hillside Motel. In 1970, they sold the hotel and moved
to Edmonton. Maria passed away in 1983. 3
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