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used in the constmction process were often manufactured by the builder himself, only
bare essentials, such as glass, being obtained elsewhere. While the Italian speakers
were among the few settiers at Jim Crow prepared to take their constmctions above
one-storey, few added a traditional third level, finding that the greater availability of
land and the milder climate permitted the building of extemal storage areas. Their
stone stables and dairies were often large and solid constmctions (TognoUni,
Gervasoni), stressing the importance of the productive areas in such households.
Not all of the Italian speakers built their homes in stone or solely in stone. A
number selected handmade bricks, a material almost as durable and somewhat easier to
manage. The use of bricks for housing constmction depended, as with stone, on a
ready supply of clays or shales, as weU as access to plentiful supplies of fuel, such as
firewood, both of which were available around Jim Crow. To make the bricks, the
settlers dug clay from the ground, mixed it into a pug, pressed it into wooden moulds
and stacked the bricks in the sun to dry. If clay was hard to find in some areas, there
was always a good supply of mud by the sides of the rivers and creeks to which
chopped straw, sand or gravel could be added. Once the bricks had been baked in a
home-made kiln and had dried hard, they were laid with the mud mortar. The finished
home, Morgantis' being an example, was both cool in summer and warm in winter. In
several cases, such as may be seen on the Morganti and Lucini properties, brick
buUdings rested on stone foundations. At the Gaggioni home, a brick chimney
completed a stone constmction.
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