EXAMINING PATTERNS OF ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO ...

As in 1870 no women were enumerated as working outside the household. Twenty-
four of them are indicated as housekeepers. In 1880 the relations among the members of the
same household are indicated in the census, and sixteen households out of twenty-six
include boarders. This suggests that the women are making an active contribution to the
incomes of the family.
3.3 Occupations in 1900
In 1900 the Italian community includes 2,789 members. According to the census
1,680 of them have an occupation.
Most of the Italians are employed either in the mines or in fields strictly connected to
them (65.3%). Trammers are the most numerous, 428, followed by miners, 290, laborers,
220, and timber men, seventy-six. These data are not surprising. Given the fact that Italy did
not have a prominent mining tradition, Italians occupied low rank positions in the mining job
hierarchy, at least during their first years of work. 37
TABLE XI. OCCUPATIONS IN 1900
GROUP
MINING GROUP AND RELATED 1,097
(65.3%)
Blacksmith/mine 1 Laborer/rock house 24 Teamster/copper 2
Drill boy/ mine 19 Lander/copper mine 3 mine Timberman/copper 76
Engineer/ engine 2 Miner/copper mine 290 mine Tender/dry house 2
Fireman/engine 2 Oiler/engine 1 Trammer/copper 428
Laborer/mine 105 Overseer/copper mine 1 mine Watchman/copper 18
Laborer, day/ mine 115 Pump man/copper mine 1 mine
Laborer/mill 6 Sprinkler/copper mine 1
TRASPORTATION
2
Laborer/railroad 1 Driver 1
(0.12%)
BOARDING
7
Boarding house keep. 6 LandlordBOARDING 1
(0.42%)
BUILDING
48
Carpenter 5 Plasterer BUILDING helper 1 Stone cutter 2 (2.9%)
Contractor 1 Painter 1
Mason 37 Stone contractor 1
37 “Besides being locked out of supervisory positions, only one fifth of the […] Italians killed underground had
worked their way up to miners’ jobs. More than half of them had risked their lives - and lost them - while still
on the very bottom rungs of the wage earning ladder”. Lankton, D. Larry. Cradle to Grave: Life and Death at
the Lake Superior Copper Mines. Oxford University Press: New York, 1991, p. 113.
37