More than 54 percent of Hammonton's 12,604 residents call themselves
Italian. That's the biggest concentration of any place in the nation
with more than 1,000 people, just ahead of Johnston, R.I.; East Haven,
Conn.; Rosetto, Pa.; and Frankfort, N.Y.
Southern New Jersey, like the state overall, contains a dominant
Italian strain. Of the approximately 1 million people in this part of
the state, 21 percent told the census they are Italian - making that the
largest single nationality on record. Another 21 percent said they are
Irish and 17 percent said they are German. The census lumped the rest
into "other ancestries."
Those estimates came from the census long form sent to one in six
households. People were allowed to report more than one ancestry, but
the census recorded only the first two. People of African American,
Hispanic, Asian and other descents were grouped as "other
ancestries."
The Press will report more detailed breakdowns when the census
releases the data this summer.
Italian is also the largest single nationality statewide. Eighteen
percent of New Jersey residents are Italian; 16 percent are Irish and 13
percent are German. The rest, again, are "other."
The news that Hammonton contains more Italians than any other town
surprised no one here.
Gabriel Donio, publisher of the weekly Hammonton Gazette and author
of a forthcoming book on the town's history, said Hammonton was settled
in the 1850s by New Englanders who were duped by property owners into
believing there was already a thriving community there.
A few decades later, landowners duped Italians, many of them from
Sicily, in the same way. Over a span of less than 30 years, most of the
population of the Sicilian village of Gesso was transplanted to
Hammonton.
The Sicilians found that vegetables and fruits they had grown in
their homeland worked better in the sandy Pinelands soil than the
heavier crops the New Englanders tried to cultivate. Their abundant
blueberry crops led to the town's moniker as the "Blueberry Capital
of the World."
Farms and once-abundant clothing factories provided plenty of jobs
for Italians, who stopped entering Hammonton en masse not long after
1900.
It's hard not to know a Donio in Hammonton. The family has been here
125 years. Gabriel's cousin, Ann Donio, said being Italian, above all,
means having close family ties.
Children often grow up to work in their family business - whether
it's the family farm, the family tailor shop or, in Ann's case, the
family law firm.
"For people not from Hammonton it can be intimidating. (They
might say), 'We didn't realize people here had so many interpersonal
connections,' " she said.
And she said many don't understand how open Italians are to other
cultures, she said. "If you've ever been invited to Sunday dinner
at an Italian home, everyone's welcome as long as you eat well."
The annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, started in 1875, draws
visitors from across the East Coast each July. It includes a very
Italian procession of the statues of saints through town.
When Sue Padolese and Annie DiGerolamo were children, people would
carry large candles and walk barefoot during the long procession.
"The old people who were very devoted, following the procession
with their bare feet, they're all dying out. The young people aren't as
involved," Padolese said.
Pinto said people all over Italy know about Hammonton.
He runs a business that sells supplies to wineries. Outside his
office is a little piece of home - a five-foot fig tree. Pinto
takes it inside in winter, since Hammonton is not as hot as Italy.
"I'm convinced that over here we will grow olive trees, too.
Because the weather is getting warm. This past year was the warmest, a
lot like Italy. And in Italy it was cold. I was over there in
March," he said.
(Press staff writer John Froonjian and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.)
To e-mail Neal Buccino at The Press:
NBuccino@pressofac.com
