EXAMINING PATTERNS OF ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO ...

most Italians were occupied. 36 Transportation, General merchandise sale, Professionals and
Skilled Tradesmen, Boarding, and General office jobs have been included because the data
from the censuses frequently showed Italians working in these sectors, at least in some
years. Unskilled includes all those workers with no particular skills or for whom the
censuses do not indicate any. Others include those whose occupation does not fit into the
previous categories.
3.1 Occupations in 1870
In 1870 the census for Houghton County includes six Italian families for a total of
twenty-one Italians. As Table IX shows, eight of them have an occupation.
TABLE IX. OCCUPATIONS IN 1870
GROUP
MINING GROUP AND RELATED 0
TRASPORTATION 0
BOARDING
0
BOARDING
BUILDING
0
BUILDING FARMING 0
FOOD & DRINK SELLING
1
Saloonkeeper 1
PROFESSIONALS AND SKILLED TRADESMEN
2
Shoemaker 1 Timberman 1
GENERAL OFFICE JOBS 0
GENERAL SALES 0
UNSKILLED
5
Laborer 3 Housekeeper 2
OTHERS 0
TOTAL 8
Unless the three laborers, for whom the place of work is not indicated, are mine
laborers, there are no Italians working in the mines yet.
No women are indicated as working outside the household. Because the relationships
among the persons in the same households are not specified, no boarders are mentioned;
therefore it is not possible to say if women are contributing directly to the monetary incomes
of the family.
36 Glazer, Nathan and Daniel Moynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. 1970. According to
the work of Glazer and Moynihan Italians arrived in the countries of emigration “as stonecutters, mason, and
unskilled laborers, but they remained to become merchants, professional people, and - where opportunity
offered […] - farmers”, p. 182.
35