|
he met his wife, Adeline Mary La Salle. They were married on February 18, 1920, when
<br />Tony was 21, and Adeline, born in Louisville on June 26, 1903, was only 16.
<br />... Tony worked at the Hecla Mine and was caught up in a violent strike at that mine. He
<br />told his children he and a friend went to the mine during the strike and were shot at by
<br />mine employees. His friend was hit and Tony found a bullet hole in his pants leg when
<br />he got home. The militia had to be called out to suppress the violence.
<br />Around 1920, Tony moved his family to Southern Colorado, where he and Adeline
<br />started their family, which eventually included six children. Louis, the first child, was
<br />born on July 4, 1921, in Oakview (also called "Tropic"), Colorado, a mining town in
<br />Huerfano County. Doris (Winslow), the next child, was born on June 22, 1924, in
<br />Berwind, Colorado, once a bustling mining town in Las Animas County located less than
<br />three miles from the site of the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914.
<br />Two other daughters followed, Violet Ann (Varing), born April 20, 1925 in Louisville, and
<br />Elaine Mary (Biella), born October 6, 1933, in Louisville. Another son, Dominic De Santis,
<br />was born on September 14, 1929, in Farr, Colorado, also known as Cameron, near
<br />Walsenburg.
<br />From 1920 to 1936, Louis recalls, his family moved back and forth between Southern
<br />Colorado mining towns and Louisville. Louis started school in Louisville in 1926, at age 5,
<br />and attended school there for 3 years. Then his family moved to Berwind, where he
<br />attended school from the 4th to the 6th grade. Louis spent the 7th and 8th grades in
<br />Cameron. Back in Louisville in 1935, he attended Louisville High School and graduated in
<br />1938.
<br />Around 1935, when Doris was about 10 years old, Tony and Adeline moved their
<br />growing family back to Louisville, where Adeline's family resided. Tony had repeatedly
<br />told his sons that he did not want any of them working in the mines. He moved to
<br />Louisville, in part, because it was near the University of Colorado in Boulder. Tony hoped
<br />that his children would attend the University or some other college.
<br />The De Santis' youngest child, Dean William, was born in Louisville on August 24, 1935,
<br />less than 5 months before Tony was killed in the Monarch Mine explosion.
<br />When the De Santis family moved to Louisville in 1935, they lived at 1045 Front Street
<br />with Adeline's father, Michael ("Mike") La Salle, who owned that home. Mike was born
<br />in Carbona, Italy in 1867. His wife, Rosa Scran, also from Carbona, was born in 1871.
<br />They married in Italy in 1888. Mike, attended trade school in Italy and became a
<br />carpenter. He came to the U.S. soon thereafter and sent for Rosa in 1891. She traveled a
<br />5
<br />
|