The folloing is the history of John and Sophia Nigro which
is comprised for the archives of the Huerfano County Library.
John Nigro was born in Walsenburg, Colorado June 7th, 1909. His parents
were Joe Nigro and Caterina Baratono. They came to Walsenburg from Vialfre,
Piedmont, Italy. They were married on December 11, 1905 in Walsenburg. They
had six sons, the first died in infancy, Dino and John were next, then Marco
who died July 8, 1931, at the age of 21, He drowned while swimming in Martin
Lake west of Walsenburg, Then there was Alex, and the sixth son died
with his mother at his birth on February 23, 1916. At this writing Dino lives
in Walsenburg, and Alex lives in Trinidad with his wife Katie (Dighera before
Marriage). The boys were all born in Walsenburg and lived here with the ex-
ception for a year and a half when they lived in Raton, New Mexico, where
John's father was in partnership with Mr. Frank Donati in a garage, selling
Pontiacs and serviced cars too. That is when I met John, they had sold a car
to my Uncle. John was a mechanic.
I met John March 30, 1929, and we were married on June 7, 1930, on his
21st birthday.in Dawson, New Mexico in St. John, The Baptist, Catholic Church.
I was the daughter of Serafino Bergamo and Anna Bergamo. They came from Tyrol,
(Austria before World War 1) now Italy. There were nine children in the family.
The oldest, Primo, was born in Italy and came to America with my mother at 16
months old. He married a La Veta girl, Rose Luchino, cousin to John Nigro.
He was killed in a mine accident on December 12th, 1941 in Cameron, a camp
near Walsenburg. I, Sophia was the second child. Three brothers followed, Fred,
Ernest and Bruno, then three sisters, Minnie, Norma, and Margie, and the ninth,
a boy, Louis. All eight were born in Dawson, New Mexico. All were educated in
Dawson Schools, graduated from High School except Primo. All lived in Dawson
until the camp closed except myself and my sisters Minne and Norma, this
happened in 1950. Dawson, New Mexico was a Branch of Phelps Dodge Corporation.
At the age of fourteen John went to work at the Studebaker Sales and Ser-
vice garage, owned by Mike Reviglio, at the noon hour and after school, so he
could earn the money to buy a bicycle. He continued to work for Mr. Reviglio
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until he went to Raton, New Mexico, to work in the garage for his father.
John and Dino graduated from Huerfano County High School in 1927, Marco
graduated in 1930, and Alex graduated in 1931. Their father never remarried. He had
various businesses, one was a bar and recreation parlor all on main street.
When I married John we lived with his brothers and father. At this time John
worked for the county for a while and for the city for a while. His father and
brothers were in the Recreation Parlor, where the men played pool and cards.
On March 14, 1936, John opened his own business, a package liquor store, The
San Isabel Liquor Store. The first advertisement in the World Independant
has wine fifty cents a quart and one quart of whisky for one dollar and a half.
The store was at 511 Main Street. Several years later he moved his business
to 526 Main Street. He operated the store until he retired 28 years later.
As for myself, I kept busy at home. We had three daughters, Catherine,
Lorraine and Rose Marie. Catherine graduated from Huerfano County high School
in May 1948. The class was saddened by the tragic death of a class member,
Elmer Cannon, who was killed in a plane crash at the airport outside of Walsen-
burg, That same month we moved from our home on 622 Colorado Avenue to a
house we bought from Mr. Everet Sears on 207 Walsen Avenue. Lorraine grad-
uated from Huerfano County High School in 1950. Rose Marie graduated from
St. Mary's High School in 1956. All three graduated as valedictorians of their
class. They attended St. Mary's College of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana,
with degrees in education. Rose Marie went to the University of Toronto, in
Canada for two years and received a Masters Degree in Phylosophy. All three
married, Catherine to Michael Yuhas. They live in South Bend Indiana,
Lorraine married Elmer Lee Cervanyk and lives in Denver, Colorado and Rose Marie
married John Groppe and lives in Ressalear, Indiana. We have 17 grandchildren
and one great-grandson.
Catherine and Lorraine were members of the Girl Scouts. Rose Marie was a
member of the Carnation Square Dance group that performed in many places,
including Amarillo, Texas, where they placed third in a contest, and for a
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festival in Fort Sindy, Nebraska. The girls had music lessons and dance
lessons. Catherine and Lorraine were in the school bands from the third grade
through high school. At the age of ten, Rose Marie started to play the organ
for Masses at the St. Mary Catholic church and she was accompanist for many
of the church and school programs. She was active in the 4-H programs and
was Food Champion at the County Fair once. In 1956, she received the Betty
Crocker Award for the city and for the state. For this she reeived a $1,500.00
Scholarship and a trip to Washington D.C.
As for myself, I love to cook and collected many receipes, especially
Italian. From my mother I learned to cook the Tyrolean foods. My favorites
are polenta, a cornmeal ball eaten in place of bread, and stew, and sauer kraut
spare ribs and sausage. Another favorite is canedelli, a dumpling made with
stale bread, sausages and parsley, cooked in broth, and could be served with
sauer kraut. Ravioli is my favorite Piamentese receipe. Of needlework, crochet
was my favorite. In the past few years, I've crocheted 33 afghans, gifts for
daughters, grandchildren and great-grand son. Crocheted a number of table
clothes, did embroidering and sewing. I loved to work in the flower beds but
after John retired, I relinquished this hobby to him. Another of my hobbies was
cake decorating. Some I decorated for my girls to raffle for their school and
school projects. Some I donated to be raffled for church projects.
Because I was the oldest girl of the family, I started to help mu mother as
soon as I could reach the dishpan by standing on a box to wash dishes. I was
either watching the younger children or running to the store for groceries,
or meat, being that there were no refrigeration in those days, shopping
was an everyday chore.
I started to help John at the store when World War 11 started. When our
girls were gone I decided to go to Mass daily. And so it happened that on a
Sunday morning, when a priest overslept, on a snowy morning and the
church was locked until Mass time, I was met the next morning at the door by
Father Gallagher, our new pastor in 1967, with the key to the church. And so
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began my work for the church. Now I oversee that the sanctuary and the sac-
risty are cleaned, that there are candles, holy water, baptismal robes and altar
breads. I am a member of the Tabernacle Society, which is a group of Catholic
Ladies who "work" soley for the needs of our church. We furnish the baptismal
robes, which we make and the altar breads, of which I am the chairman. We make
them every week, a little over a thousand besides the big ones for the priests,
and they are also used in the mission churches in La Veta, Chama and Gardner.
Very few churches make their own altar breads, and by making them we save our
church over $500.00 a year. We, also, pay for the baptismal robe material.
We make about 100 of these a year. We also purchase the flowers for Easter
and Christmas and give a substantial donation to the church on these festive
days. Both of John's brothers, Dino and Alex, were in World War II, both were
in the United States Air Force, Dino was in the Battle of
the Buldge, and Alex was in the Italy invasion. I had three brothers in the
service at the same time, Ernest and Bruno in the United States Air Force, Ernest
in the Pacific Area and Bruno in Italy. My youngest brother was in the Navy,
In the Pacific area on a Mine Sweeper. I would write to each of them twice
a week and sent them the daily comics, getting them from the neighbors papers.
John and his brothers interests are sports, especially baseball. When they
were in the Recreation Parlor Business, nicknamed the "Rat Hole" they spons-
ered a softball team. After John retired, he learned to golf, and loves it!
I recall the duststorm of the 1930's when we didn't go out of the house for
a number of days because the atmosphere was so black with the dust. There was
fear of dust pneumonia. The first winter that I was in Walsenburg, there was
a snowstorm that my brother-in-law, who worked for the John Biavia Meat Market,
on seventh street, brought groceries to people who needed them, walking and
carrying the stuff in a gunny sack. In 1946, another big snow storm the day
before election, had only a few voters at the polls, those who were brave
enough to walk. The snowstorms in 1972, Stranded my daughter from Denver here
for four days, instead of the over-night visit she and her husband had planned.
Two of the children were in Denver with all of the family gifts, and the other
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three here without gifts. Santa Clause left a few gifts in the stockings
of the youngest grandson here in Walsenburg. In the middle of May in 1957,
I was in Sante Fe, New Mexico to be near my mother who was in the hospital
with a broken hip, I missed the big snowstorm that broke many trees and
caved in roofs on some houses. On my return home on the bus, the driver
commented on what a sight it was to drive through Walsenburg after the storm
to see the deep snow and see so many broken tree branches, for that time of
the year. He mentioned seeing many beautiful sunsets while driving through this area.
In my opinion, Colorado is a good state to live in for an all year decent
climate. As for Walsenburg--it is a paradise for comfortable living--small
friendly, scenic, sepecially the Huajatolla--Spanish Peaks, so picturesque
all year. Visible from my bedroom, as soon as I put up the shade I look at
them, rarely finding them hidden behind clouds!
