The other day when we were in West Blocton, we went to one of the places that’s been listed on the Alabama Places in Peril list…the Italian – Catholic cemetery.
What makes it so interesting is that the monuments are inscribed in Italian, and some of them have stories. This first one is of Nargiso Nucci:
It very roughly translated reads: “On the land of the extinct — the mortal remains of Nargiso Nucci of 52 years who died in Blocton, Alabama on July 7, 1908 after having suffered for 12 consecutive years on the altar of a painful disease. Death took him from those suffering, and the affection known for its kind quality leaves already his wife Adrietta and his seven children his enduring memory. Pray for his tomb.”
This one is for Elizabeth Castelli:
It translated reads something like this: “Here lie the ashes of poor deceased Elizabetha Castelli born in 1864 murdered at the young age of 36 years, robbed and killed by a murderer of the black race at 8am on December 15, 1902 leaving behind her husband and son, weeping and sobbing”.
This area of Alabama has coal mines all around, and this monument has the miner’s tools sculpted into it:
We subscribe to Alabama Heritage magazine, and in the last issue they asked for readers to send in pics of “story” monuments, so I sent the top two in. The editor wrote me that they’re putting together a web page for all of the ones they’ve received, so it should be interesting to see all the others!