IDES says “Esta Das Contas” Story by Elaine M. Teixeira, Photos by Fred Cunha

Story by Elaine M. Teixeira.

Photos by Fred Cunha

The Half Moon Bay I.D.E.S. Society held their annual Esta Das Contas which is a Thank You to the general membership and to those who donated to the organization in this year’s Celebration of the Holy Spirit.  The dinner for 300 was held on July 26 at the building on Kelly Avenue, which is owned by the organization.  

Eddie Cozzolino, the president of IDES, and his fellow officers, greeted the guests.  The officers and members prepared the food and their wives served it from the buffet tables.  The guests were served with salad, steak, baked potatoes, and bread.  Coffee and dessert were also provided as well as various beverages.  The dinner was followed by music for dancing.

Among those attending:  Kenny Ormonde, Jack and Dorothy Bettencourt, Bernice Silva, Vernon Cunha, Bob (Buzzy) Meyer,  Loretta and Guido Santini, Raymond and Cathy Martini, Jan Miramontes & family,  Lorraine Mantoani, Loretta and Guido Santini, Raymond and Cathy Martini, Tony Lourenco, all of Half Moon Bay; Fred (Fritz) and John Cunha, from Sonoma;  Joe and Mary Lou Cirina, Elaine and Stacy Teixeira and Gloria Bernardo of Redwood City.

Below: Elaine Martini Teixeira, Gloria Bernardo, Loretta Santini, Guido Santini, Raymond Martini, Jack Bettencourt and Dorothy Bettencourt.

The History of the Nerli Family by Elaine M. Teixeira

Elaine M. Teixeira recently spoke with Frank Nerli, who resides in Redwood City with his wife, Millie, a native of Massachusetts. Frank is the last surviving immediate member of his family.

The History of the Nerli Family

by Elaine M. Teixeira

Paolo (Paul) Nerli arrived on the coastside in 1889 and joined his brother, Guiglielmo (William) who was farming  the “Martini Ranch”, in Montara.  He later sent for his bride, Isola Piegaia,  He then began farming in Lobitos and the couple resided on the property. 

In 1925, they relocated to a farm across from the present airport property, near the northern entrance to Princeton; the house no longer is standing and the land is now farmed by David Lea.  Their family consisted of four sons and two daughters:  Ida, her first marriage was to a member of the Romani family, Gino, who married Norma Rossi, from Moss Beach, Pia, who married Roy Torre of Moss Beach, Frank , his first wife was Lena Gianelli, of Half Moon Bay, George and Edward, who married Barbara Valladao.  In the 1930’s the Nerli son. George, who was operating a fishing boat out of Monterey, was lost at sea; no evidence of what occurred to him or the boat was ever found.  His name is listed on a plaque in Princeton, which honors those lost at sea, from the local fishing industry.

In 1928, the family moved to Moss Beach, where Paolo bought property on Vermont Ave., near  the current location of Hwy One,  across from the Moss Beach Club.  On part of the property stood a barn which had been used by the Ocean Shore Railroad. When the railroad was in operation, there was a side track that came to the barn from the nearby main track.  The train would pick up produce brought to the barn by local farmers for shipment to San Francisco.  Paolo tore down the barn, except for one wall, which was left standing to assist in the building of a blacksmith shop.  The remaining lumber he used to build a home on the property.  His daughter, Pia, and her husband, Roy Torre, later built a home on Vermont, adjacent to the Nerli property. Later, Isola’s brother, Guiglielmo and Ida Piegaia resided in the  home and, after,  Albert and Pat Bertolucci.

In 1938, the Nerli’s decided to operate a business in Princeton in a small structure on Petroni property, across the road from a seafood stand  which was operated in the 1930’s by the Bettencourt family and later became Hazel’s Sea Food; today, it is the location of Barbara’s Fish Trap.  The building had a bar and Paolo added to the structure, a kitchen and dining room. Paolo, his wife and two younger sons lived upstairs.  They hired a cook and started up their business operation, serving Italian dinners.  Eventually, their daughter, Pia, worked as a waitress in the business, along with several other coastside women, and their son, Frank, was the bartender.  The oldest son, Gino, served as a replacement bartender on weekends.  They operated the business until 1958. Paolo and his wife sold the business, trading it for a home across the bay, where they resided for a year or two. 

They later returned to the coastside to live out their remaining years; both died during the 1960’s. Later the restaurant site remained closed for several years and was finally torn down and the area served as a parking area.  Today, it is the site of the Pillar Point Inn.

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Corrections from Lorraine Piegai

Corrections; I will have to find records of proof; but, I believe my in-law-parents, Guglielemo and Ida Marie ( Romani ) Piegaia were living in the house, on the Paolo Nerli property you mentioned at the north end of El Granada, across Hiway I, east of the airport from about 1923 – 1942-3. My husbands’ father first came to the Coastside from Italy in 1904; and worked as a farm laborer, with/for his sister, Isola ( Piegaia ‘s ) husband, Paolo Nerli for many years until he retired and the family moved to Moss Beach. Like many others’ he had returned to Italy to marry Ida ( pronounced Eda ) Marie Romani in Jan 1921; and, they came back to the Coastside to set up household, work the artichoke and brussel sprout ranch; and, raised a family of three children, Irene ( who also worked in the Patroni House ); Reno and George.

Also, after the Nerli family sold their restaurant/bar business named, The Patroni ( not P E troni ) House it was operated for a few years as the Harbor House, with lively Saturday night dances many local residents attended and enjoyed, before it was finally torn down.

I agree Frank Nerli the oldest son had served there as a bartender for his father; but, the other bartender mentioned was not an older Nerli son; he was a son-in-law, if it was Gino.

Thanks for making corrections, Lorraine

Summer Reading: The Easton’s Honeymoon (13) Finale!

By June Morrall

[From my “Over the Hill” series]

When the banks learned that the New York underwriters, following the lead of their London counterparts, would pay the insurance claims promptly, a spokesman said, “This will be a great relief. The money market needs it, too.”

The Eastons, Adeline and Ansel, returned to California, and in 1860 purchased 1,500 acres of land in Burlingame, then known as Easton, according to the archives of the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City.

Adeline’s prominent banker brother, Darius O. Mills, purchased an adjacent 1,500 acres in what is today called Millbrae.

Before Adeline Mills Easton died at age 87 in Burlingame in 1916, she retained Nellie Olmsted Lincoln to write a 38-page booklet called: “The Story of Our Wedding Journey.”

The bell of the steamer Sonoma, which had rung on the morning of the Easton’s wedding in San Francisco in 1857, was brought to St. Matthew’s Church in San Mateo and tolled at the grand lady’s funeral.

But history’s final curtain did not drop on the Central America as she lay one mile deep on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Hatteras.

In the 1980s maverick engineer Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor. In author Gary Kinder‘s suspenseful book, Ship of Gold, he chronicles Thompson’s epic search for the lost vessel leading to one of the most successful salvage operations ever undertaken.

Ship of Gold brings to the surface another lost treasure: the remarkable tale of a Peninsula couple with extraordinary ties to the Gold Rush and California’s early history.

——–

Finale!

Summer Reading: The Easton’s Honeymoon (12)

Some railroad advocates used the disaster of the Central America as an argument in support of a transcontinental railroad. This effort was led by Sacramento engineer Theodore Judah, who published an important pamphlet on the subject at the time of the shipwreck.

Judah never lived to see the transcontinental railroad but there is an historic irony here. He had solicited financial support from the Sacramento merchants: Hopkins, Huntington, Stanford and Charles Crocker, soon to be better known as the Big Four, the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad. Later, Adeline Mills Easton’s daughter, Jennie, would marry the son of Charles Crocker.

The Central America herself was not insured but the underwriting companies were committed to covering the losses of the precious gold cargo. The New York banks–already faced with the financial Panic of 1857 –could collapse if the American underwriters did not reimburse their losses.

(Next Part 13)

Summer Reading: The Easton’s Honeymoon (11)

Sixty of the survivors, including the Eastons, chose to sail to New York aboard the Empire City. Chief Engineer Ashby–the man passengers blamed for allowing the engines that operated the pumps to break down–also wanted to make that voyage.

According to Adeline, Captain McGown prohibited Ashby from boarding the Empire City. “Not on my steamers,” he said. “You can’t come aboard.”

News of the wreck was slow to reach San Francisco, and it was uncertain who had been saved. When a vessel was wrecked, it was maritime practice for the next ship to bring the passenger list. That meant an agonizing wait for the information.

Meanwhile, the brig Marine telegraphed that 100 of the shipwreck victims had landed at Norfolk and an additional 91 sailed to New York via the Empire City. This was good news but San Franciscans still didn’t know if their loved ones survived.

(Next Part 12)

Summer Reading: The Easton’s Honeymoon (10)

Adeline was aboard the Marine when another commercial vessel, the Empire City, came into view, and her captain climbed aboard with stunning news.

“Where’s Mrs. Easton?” he asked. “Tell her her husband is awaiting her in Norfolk.”

Adeline Mills Easton almost buckled and couldn’t wait for the reunion.

“Of our meeting a few hours later I cannot speak,” she said. “Great joy is too deep for words.”

(Next Part 11)