Six
Generations of the Cassaretto Pioneer Family
of Groveland, Coulterville and Chinese Camp
Compiled by Karlin Merrill, July 24, 2003
In the heyday
of James Savage, "Savages Digins," "gold digins" that
is, was the first geographic name applied to the area later known as Garrote,
or Groveland.
Casimir Raboul, a Frenchman hoping to gather gold dust the easy way, in
1849 built an adobe block store building in Savages Digins. which later
became Garrotte and, eventually 18730 Hwy. 120, Groveland, California,
as a trading post. This is the oldest building in Groveland. Luigi Michael
Noziglia bought the trading post from Raboul. Noziglia married Rosa Cassaretto
on Dec. 25, 1874. Prior to Noziglia’s death, the Trading Post was
deeded to Rose Cassaretto Noziglia. She needed help and was able to get
her brother, Louis Cassaretto, born Jan. 02, 1854 in Italy, to come to
her assistance. Louis arrived in 1876, operated the store and became its
owner in 1878.
Louis Cassaretto
became a Tuolumne County pioneer merchant. The sign over the store’s
iron doors read, "Pioneer Merchant, Dealer of Dry Goods, Boots, Shoes,
Fine Groceries, and Provisions." The store carried hardware, wine,
liquors, and cigars. Cassaretto’s had a good supply of clothing and
patent medicines. You could order hay, grain, and wire for building fences.
On the counter was a coffee grinding mill, weighing scale, gold scale,
and a twine holder. Many wooden barrels contained a wide variety of items
such as: beans, pickled fish, sugar, rice, sauerkraut, and building nails.
Pots and pans hung from the ceiling and walls. Mining items, like picks,
lanterns, and gold pans were a must. A customer could order hogs, chickens,
ducks or beef, alive or butchered, to be delivered from one of the Cassaretto
Ranches at Big Creek, having 360 acres of patented land, (now a part of
the Pine Mountain Lake Development) or from their ranch out by Smith Station,
where they had livestock and raised fruits and vegetables.
Groveland was at
the end of the telephone line but the store had the only phone. The stagecoach
stop was right in front of the store. A thriving business was the norm.
Many of the customers were Indians from the Miwok Rancheria, which existed
where the Pine Mountain Lake development is. The Indians traded for staples,
especially chunks of sugar. They would come to the store with gold dust
for payment and make a beeline for the sugar barrel. By paying the Indians
in sugar, pioneer women could get heavy washing done for fifty cents worth
of sugar.
Louis Cassaretto met and married Adeline Josephine "Lena" Bruschi on May 8, 1880, at the Bruschi family home in Coulterville, California. According to Louis’s son, Fredrick "Rico" Cassaretto, "The Bruschis put on a big show!" "It was the wedding of the time!" The Cassarettos lived in a wooden structure at the back of the store and in the attic above the store, where their nine children were born. They were, however, raised in the nice Cassaretto home that was built next door to the store in 1898. This is where their son, Joseph Leonard Cassaretto, brought Lena Margaret Lertora of Chinese Camp after their marriage in 1936. Lena lived in this attractive home until her death on August 12, 2001, at the age of 96 years.
Louis build the adjoining
annex to the store in 1904 next to where the Charlotte Hotel would ultimately
be built. The annex is presently occupied by the Cocina Michoacana restaurant
and was originally the location of the Justice Court. Some of the gold
mines the Cassaretto family have owned, or had an interest in, are: Mt.
Zion, the Hartford on Priest Grade, and the Kanaka Mine.
Starting in the teen
years of the 1900s, local business and other interests began to pick up
because of the construction of the City of San Francisco’s Hetch
Hetchy Water and Power project. To alleviate the crowded condition of
the Cassaretto Store, Frank (a son of Louis Cassaretto) built the building
we now know as the Groveland Community Hall as a second Cassaretto store
in 1918. After this building was no longer needed by the Cassaretto Family,
it was sold to the County of Tuolumne.
Members and Extended
Family of Six Generations of Cassarettos Who Have Lived in the Groveland
Area:
Francisco
Bruschi
Rosa Castagneto Bruschi
Adeline "Lena" Bruschi Cassaretto
Aloysius Louis Cassaretto
Elmer John Cassaretto
Floyd J. Cassaretto
Frank Louis Cassaretto
Fredrick "Rico" Joseph Cassaretto
Harry Eugene Cassaretto
John Cassaretto
Joseph Leonard Cassaretto
Joseph Leonard Cassaretto, Jr.
Lena Margaret Lertora Cassaretto
Louis Albert Cassaretto
Lulu Longfellow Cassaretto
Marco Reynold Cassaretto
Pamela Lorraine Cassaretto
Sarah Fioelia Elmore Cassaretto
Todd Leonard Cassaretto
Henry M. DeFerrari
Rose Cassaretto DeFerrari
Janice Marie Cassaretto Hagopian
Louise Margaret Cassaretto Miller
Luigi Michael Noziglia
Rose Cassaretto Noziglia
Levenia Cassaretto Stanley
Information has been provided by Leonard Cassaretto and his second cousin
Howard Mason.
