A historical initiative is reconstructing the overlooked story of Italian immigration to Madison County, Illinois. Historian Cindy Reinhardt, a board member of the Madison County Historical Society, is examining public records, archival documents, photographs, and accounts provided by descendants.
The project begins with the 1920 census, which Reinhardt is indexing to identify where Italian immigrants lived and which communities developed neighborhoods known as Little Italy. Collinsville remains associated with Italian heritage, but the Williamson and Livingston area had an even larger Italian population in proportion to its residents.
Census records reveal that many families reached Illinois after living elsewhere. Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico appear as earlier destinations because they offered mining work. A large majority of the Italian immigrants who settled in Madison County were coal miners, supporting an industry central to regional growth.
Individual stories give those statistics a human dimension. Alfonso and Teresa Castelli and their son Peter founded the Moonlight Restaurant in Alton in 1937. Today, a fifth generation operates the business as Castelli’s Restaurant at 255. Charles Francesconi followed a different route. Around 1920, a railroad financed his passage to America in exchange for 6 years of track work in Utah and Idaho. After completing the contract, he joined relatives in Madison County and established an Edwardsville business during the 1920s.
The research will appear in the November edition of MCHS News and at the society’s Dining in History program on November 1, preserving an Italian American legacy built through work, enterprise, and family continuity.
