Logan area had thriving Italian community

Leave a Comment / Articles / / Dwight Williamson


By Dwight Williamson

Photo of Dwight Williamson, authorThere’s a quote I recently saw from British author Virginia Woolf that says, “Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.”

If you give that quote some thought, you might agree with me in believing that history — be it on the tiniest of levels — is important to document in one form or another, if in fact, anything is to be understood in the future.

Even the early cavemen drew crude pictures on the walls of their dwellings, depicting to a certain degree their lives and environment. The Egyptians and others much later left many educational writings in tombs that have since been discovered. On the domestic level, some of us still treasure our Kodak pictures that our parents and grandparents kept during the days of yesteryear.

Just imagine what the world would be like if the different forms of the Bible were not miraculously recorded.

Now, I realize that some people couldn’t care less about the past and even believe that it — particularly if it is not to their particular liking — should be forgotten, almost as if it didn’t occur.

My personal thought on the matter is what I’ve related before, “There cannot be a future without a past.”

Having said all that, let me tell you about a little section of Logan County located at Mt. Gay, maybe a mile or so from the county seat of Logan County. There is a great deal of historical significance to this location that once was a thriving area – a community of which nearly all families were of Italian descent.

About the only reminder of a time gone by is what once was a very busy alley. Even though the sign that once stood there with the street name on it somehow has disappeared, for some people growing up near there, “S. Joe Alley” has not been forgotten.

Not many people who resided there in the 1930s are still living, but thanks to a few folks who are alive and some others who recorded memories of the place, I thought penning a small chapter of Logan history would be in order, perhaps for future generations.

One of those former Mt. Gay residents is a fellow I’ve written about before, Mel Cottone, a person I have previously described as “going from the outhouse to the White House.” Without rehashing it all, some readers may recall that Mel went from “shoe shine boy” to being a top official in both the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson presidencies.

Anyway, Mel tells me that the name S. Joe Alley is derived from the name of a 5-foot, three-inch’ roly-poly fellow by the name of Joe (S. Joe) Scarramuzzino, who became a fairly wealthy businessman at the Mt. Gay location, named of course, from the former Gay Coal Co. that existed across the road from there where a coal tipple operated in the vicinity of what is now commonly called Chalet Village.

While Mel has fond childhood memories of S. Joe and others in that always-flooded community, other folks, including some of S. Joe’s relatives, also remember the same area that once was owned by the wife of former Logan sheriff Don Chafin, Mary Mounts. She, along with other siblings, were each left a small fortune by their father (Moses Mounts), following his death without a will, which led to a division of his property.

There was a brick building there owned by S. Joe, and many memories of growing up at Mt. Gay are based on an elevator in the building and an ice house that existed there. Riding the elevator and being allowed to roller skate on the third floor of the structure is mentioned by some folks who left their memories scribed on a page of the Logan County History and Nostalgia site. That site is a spectacular receptacle of local history and a valuable source for this writing.

According to the website, the Scaramuzzino family moved to Mt. Gay in 1913, and Joe and his brother, Ambrogio, went into the grocery business, building a four-story operation they named Joe S. Grocery (not S. Joe). According to the site, the bottom floor was for the selling of grocery products, clothes, shoes, and even furniture, all of which were items needed by nearby coal miners and their families. The two middle floors were used for storage, while the top floor was where the Scaramuzzino family lived.

The four-story building stood across the tracks from where the Mt. Gay post office used to be, the post office location now being a beauty salon. The post office was reconstructed at its current site. The oil bulk plant still stands nearby at its then location. Some folks may be surprised to know that a 7 Up bottling company was also located close by, adjacent to the road nearest the creek, which back then was referred to as the Holden Road.

Although many families of Italian heritage lived there, not all of them “got along,” according to Mel Cottone, as the families came from different areas of Italy and Sicily. Perhaps that is why there were other stores in the area such as the ones owned by the Piccorrillo and Venci families. In addition, the Vito Esposito family had a store operation there on a corner across from the bridge to Cherry Tree.

Some older folks may recall that local businessman Dale Carroll opened a mining machine shop business in the former store owned by S. Joe, after S. Joe closed his store in 1960.

There exist also many people who can recall the grocery store facing the roadway that was known more recently as Jimmy’s “Big C” Market. Following his father’s death and the closing of the store, the late Frank Chirico opened his first restaurant at the same location. Frank, who as a younger person became a great award-winning motocross cyclist by practicing nearby on a homemade course at a location known as Billy Goat Junction. Chirico restaurants expanded to several locations, including Man and Charleston, and exist now in Logan and in Pikeville, Kentucky.

Of course, the interesting Mel Cottone always gives us what I shall term as “an insiders’ view” of nearly everything, and here’s what he had to say about growing up at Mt. Gay.

“S. Joe’s brother, Ambrogio, operated a hotel or beer joint near Dingess Street in Logan,” recalls Cottone, who once shortened his name to just Cotton. “Once, when he got caught for operating a prostitution house or selling illegal liquor, the sheriff allowed Ambrogio to call “one of your Italian friends with money, and we will let you go.”

Cottone said S. Joe produced the money and that his brother was let go and never prosecuted.

Before the Logan boulevard was even thought about, according to Cottone, Ambrogio had a large herd of billy goats that he owned in that location, which, of course, led to the name of Billy Goat Junction, a small community that had to be vacated because of the boulevard and consequent flooding that its creation created there.

Ambrogio, who Cottone said even “cut his own hair,” terraced the hillside like one would see in Italy, even growing grapes.

“I don’t know,” Cottone explained, “but those goats and deer were supposed to have gotten together. I do know there sure were a lot of albino deer in that area back in the day.”

Some other local Italian names that folks can identify with that either lived or had direct connections to the community of Mt. Gay include Pansera, Fortuna (Fortuna’s Market), Dress, Nolletti, Murreddu, Varrassi, Triolo and Barber, to name a few.

So, now, there it is — recorded for history’s sake.

Perhaps, a hundred years from now, some family member will appreciate this information.

Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner and a retired magistrate for Logan County.

*Published with the author’s permission.

You may also enjoy: Giuseppe Joseph (S Joe) Scaramuzzino

Leave a comment.

Articles by Dwight Williamson on this site.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *