29.

"WHAT'S PAST IS PROLOGUE" - Shakespeare

This is a quotation by William Shakespeare from his play The Tempest. The phrase was originally used in Act 2, Scene I. Antonio uses it to suggest that all that has happened before that time, the "past", has led Sebastian and himself to this opportunity to do what they are about to do: commit murder, or make another choice. In contemporary use, the phrase stands for the idea that history sets the context for the present.

I equate this to how our family history search for the true identity of Joseph Louis Mott has been a journey based on the information that was preserved and passed on. And even though we now know, though DNA testing and much research in Laurenzana, Italy, civil records, that Joseph's birth name was Rocco Vincenzo Sarli (1857-1894), it is still important to value and appreciate the past contributions of information that marked the path to that discovery!

In retrospect, it's interesting how close the family lore was to the truth:

1) "Larvasjaw" or "Larvasjan" turned out to be Laurenzana. I guess that j was a z.

2) "Solorm" turned out to be Salernum, the Latin-sounding name for Salerno, the town in southern Italy on the Gulf of Salerno, an inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Originally a Greek settlement and later a Roman colony (founded in 197 BC), Salernum was the site of the Schola Medica Salernitana, a noted Medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. It was founded in the 9th century and rose to prominence in the 10th century, becoming the most important source of medical knowledge in Western Europe at the time.

3) "Mary C. Moroni" turned out to be Maria Carmela Marone (1821-1869). So interesting that his mother's name remained constant, despite minor spelling changes.

4) "Agadia" or "Ajadia" Motta turned out to be Egidio Antonio Sarli (1817-1860). He died young as reported, at the age of 42, when Joseph was young (not quite 3).

5) His sister "Josephine" turned out to be Maria Giuseppe Sarli (1860-1869) who died young, as reported. Maria Giuseppe translated into English is "Josephine."

6) Joseph Louis Mott used August 2 as his birthday, same as his wife Mary Emeline's. Rocco Vincenzo Sarli's birthdate in the Laurenzana, Italy, civil records turned out to be August 12, 1857.

7) It turned out that there was a step-father. His name was Francesco Urga (1822-1906). He and Maria Carmela Marone had a son together named Giovanni Antonio Urga (1864-).

There is much more to figure out, but I think we are all very grateful to have been blessed to get this far. We found the proverbial "needle in a haystack." I'm especially blessed to have been able to be in contact with descendants of Joseph/Rocco's only surviving sibling, Vito Maria Sarli (1855-1944). Those who have been receptive to my inquiries have been kind and delightful!

28.

from CLARINDA'S STORY of SAN LUIS VALLEY ROOTS
by Clarinda K. Sewell

page 115
"There was some excellent talent in the early days. There were dramas and an orchestra organized by William Woodward. The very first dance orchestra was Jordan Brady, Will Thomas and Joseph Mott. Joseph Mott played the large harp in the first dance band. Whether the other two played anything different from violin is not stated. There were no pianos in the settlement then."

page 209
"Joseph Mott was born in Italy. He, with his uncle and cousins, were concert musicians making a tour of America. While in Denver, he left his group and went to Idaho to visit cousins. While there, he was converted to "Mormonism." On his return to Denver, he discovered that his uncles and cousins had been murdered and their instruments destroyed. Having no place to go, Joseph Mott joined the Mormon migration to the San Luis Valley. He brought his Italian harp with him and it is in possession of one of his descendants. He was the only Italian born pioneer among all the early Mormon settlers. He took up farming like all the rest." (related to Clarinda by Marilyn Mott Oberrick)

27.

THE LIFE OF JOSEPH ELMER MOTT, compiled c. 1977 

by PAPA & GWEN (Joseph Elmer Mott & his second wife Gwen)

from book by Harvey Paul Mott, son of Joseph Elmer Mott & Annie Prudence Coombs

                                  Back, L to R: Joel Heber Mott, Joseph Elmer Mott;                                                  Front, L to R: Jacob Lyman Mott, Mary Emeline Kelly Mott

“I (Elmer) am the oldest son of Joseph Louis Mott and Emeline Kelly Mott. Father came from Italy as a young boy with his mother’s brother. They were musicians. Father’s instrument was a full sized harp. One of my earliest recollections is of father loading the harp into the wagon on a bed of straw and going to play for dances in La Jara, Monte Vista, Del Norte or Manassa.

Soon after they came to the USA, father and his uncle became separated in Denver.  Father always thought his uncle had been killed, but he never did know exactly what happened to him.

Father went to Idaho then, where he got a start in cattle. An extremely hard winter wiped his small herd out. He met the Beers family there and came with them to Manassa. He joined the LDS church and was baptized May 1,1881, by W.M. Ball and was confirmed by Hencel H. Heiselt. That same year he became a citizen of the United States, getting his papers June 26, 1881, at Del Norte.

Mother was born in Perry County, Tennessee. She joined the LDS church there and the family came to the valley in 1882 or 83. I’ve heard Granddad Kelly say that if he had had the money, he would have gone back on the next train, it was such a desolate place. They settled in Richfield first, then homesteaded at Morgan.

Dad and Mother were married January 21, 1886. Father was homesteading a quarter section. It had a two-room log house where they set up housekeeping. The house was (a) half mile west of Quince Norton’s on the southwest corner of the quarter. He later moved the house to the northeast corner of the 160 acres where artesian water was available. He built a lean-to on the south of the house for a kitchen. I was the first child born to them in the house, followed by Heber and Oscar. Jessie Oscar only lived about a month.

We moved to Manassa for one year. Father owned a piece of land on the northwest corner of Manassa across the road from Rogers. Jake was born while we lived there. I started school in Manassa. Then we moved back to Morgan where father farmed for two years.

Father became ill in the fall. He underwent surgery for what the doctors called telescoped intestines. The operation was performed on the kitchen table by Drs. Gale and Boothe from Alamosa. Dad never regained consciousness.  He died Oct. 4, 1894.

Our neighbors finished stacking the grain for us. Pete Mortensen thrashed the grain free of charge and all the men donated their work. Granddad Kelly hauled the grain to Conejos to the mill by team and wagon, a two day trip. He hauled about a thousand pounds a load.  It sold for fifty-five or sixty cents a hundred. The money was applied on the doctors bills. Mother went out to do house work at two dollars and fifty cents a week to finish paying the doctors.

Grandma (Mary Malinda Hunt) Kelly took the three boys into her home while mother worked. We grew up in the same home with the Kelly boys and girls, our uncles and aunts. 

Dad was a loving father, affectionate and kind. I still remember Jake running to meet him, to ride his shoulders to the house. He was short, wore a black mustache and had black wavy hair. He looked somewhat like Troy (Mott) except he was heavier.

Early in the settlement of Morgan the need for a school became evident. The school was built across the road from Alfred Price's present home.  Dad gave the land. The building was made of logs and was erected by donated work (about 1 1/2 to 2 miles north of homeplace).

Dad and Grandma Kelly did much of the work. The building served as school and church. There was one room with a few regular seats, but some of us had to sit on benches and hold our slates on our laps. The school term was four months in the summer for the first six or eight years.

. . . Times were very hard and money extremely scarce. After Father’s death, it was worse for us. After I was ten years old, I only got about six weeks of school a year as I had to work. Alma (James Alma Kelly) and I worked as a team.  We were too small to handle the team of broncos and the plow one so one of us held the plow and the other one drove.  Grandpa would broadcast the grain and we would plow it under as there were no drills then. 

. . . Once when Alma and I were about 5 years old, we wanted to bake some potatoes in (the) Kelly’s fireplace.  We were not allowed to, so we tried to do it in the barn.  Result: complete loss of barn, hay and corrals.  Needless to say, what a tragedy this was.

. . . One day at school we were digging to make a cave in an old sand mound. When we got down about 18 or 20 inches, we started finding bones. We dug up most of a human skeleton. Some people thought it was an Indian. We put the bones back and covered them up."

26.

ARTICLE FROM BOOK BY HARVEY PAUL MOTT,
son of Joseph Elmer Mott, grandson of Joseph Louis Mott

Joseph Louis Mott and Mary Emeline Kelly Mott and their Family

“Joseph was born on August 2, 1860 in a village in Northern Italy.  His Italian name would be Giuseppe Luigi Motta or perhaps La Motta.  Our family records say that he was born in Larvasjaw, Solorm, Italy.  Much research tells us there has never (been) found a place with that exact name.  We think that Joseph's newly learned English was so heavily accented that he was misunderstood, or what it sounded like to the writer was not what it actually was.  There are several places with similar names.  We are still trying to discover which place he came from.

The names we have for his parents are Ajadia and Mary Moroni.  In a book on Italian names, it gives Morrone as a common surname.  An Italian researcher at the Family History Library in Salt Lake told Sherri and Doris that Ajadia is not a known or even slightly used name in Italy.  However, Marlene was looking on an Italian site and found an article on Italian given names.  The name Egidio, (a Catholic saint) is a name used occasionally now and more frequently in the eighteen hundreds.  So there is much work left to (be) done to try to search this part of our family.  

One time back in the seventies we were visiting with Papa and he was telling us about his father.  He said his father always told he was from Northern Italy and either lived on or near a farm that had olive trees.  He told his little son about growing olives and harvesting and pressing the olives.  These are the two things he always told the same, time after time.

During the years of Joseph’s boyhood, it was common in Italy for young boys between 10 and 17 to leave their families and travel to America to try to make a better life for themselves.  Joseph’s father died when he was quite young, and when his mother remarried, he came to America with her brother.  We are not positive but believe the uncle would have been Giuseppe Morrone.  Both he and his uncle were musicians.  Grandfather played the full sized harp….

Grandfather and the group he was with made their way to Denver and spent some time there.  They earned coins by playing music in front of the saloons, pool halls and other businesses.  There were many Italian musicians, and competition was keen for the best street positions and the coins that the miners, travelers and others were willing to toss in the pot for music the musicians played.  

Somehow, young Joseph was separated from his uncle.  He believed his uncle had been killed by rivals.  He left, fearing for his life, and went west with some people going to Idaho.  He stayed there for a year or two in the Bear Lake area, trying to get a ranch started.  (A) hard winter killed most of his cattle.  A friend named Robert Beers invited him to travel south with them.  They ended up in the San Luis Valley in Colorado.  Somewhere he was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized by William Ball and Hans C. Heiselt on May, 1881.  He became a U.S. Citizen on June 26, 1881 in Del Norte, Col…. Most of the knowledge we do know about grandfather Mott is told in papa’s life story.”

25.

Part 2 SEARCH FOR GRANDPA MOTT'S BIRTHPLACE
(Rocco Vincenzo Sarli/Joseph Louis Mott)

by Joseph Dennis Mott, grandson 

Regarding "Larvasjaw":

Father Bonifacio Bolognani of Trento, Italy wrote me back when I inquired of him where Larvasjaw was. He is the author of "Courageous People of the Dolomites" and other books about the people from Trentino, Italy who immigrated to Trindidad, Colorado, to work in the coal mines. I thought maybe "Larvasjaw" was in northern Italy, since that is where Uncle Elmer had thought his father came from. I will transcribe the letter:

Febr. 2nd.1990

Dear Mr. Mott:
I had from Mr. Pellegrini of Chicago, my friend, your letter. But is real a "PUZZLE" to find out something about your family tree.With friends we try to find out about this place:LARVASJAW,SOLOROM. There is not such a name in any place in Italy..You should find out and to be more explicit...

Please, try to inquire..and write back. The Mott in Trentino of our Province are in PRIMIERO REGION. We have on the telephone book about ten families..But it is very far from my place. But even if this place would be here, I have not enough information from you to be able to find out. He was born...in LARVASJAW SOLOROM..where it is this place.. not in Italy, certainly. We HAVE many MARONI..(mother's name) in Trentino..But how to find out?
It is interesting the "saga" of story of your ancestors in Colorado. Indeed, interesting! Not even LAVASCHIO near Telve or BORGO Borgo Valsugana is available. No Mott in those places of Telve or Borgo!

Sorry about this/Very sorry. Try to find out ,please! Give us clearer indications!
I am happy that you found by Pellegrini my book.

Sincerely I am
Fr. Bolognani
The DECONCINI of Arizona (Senator, Evo De Concini) are my friends. I visited them in Tucson, many times. ARIZONA is the best State!

24.

SEARCH FOR GRANDPA MOTT'S BIRTHPLACE  
(Rocco Vincenzo Sarli AKA Joseph Louis Mott)   

by Joseph Dennis Mott, grandson              

There were several times in our family when the subject of Grandpa Mott came up.
The discussion always centered around "two uncles." I remember one time in particular. It was in the summer, and it must have been around 1955. With a little research, I can pinpoint the year, since it was the summer that Dad had come home to recuperate following an operation at St. Mary Corwin Hospital in Pueblo, Colorado. We were sitting in the living room one afternoon, and I believe someone was visiting him, a family member I believe, and the subject of Grandpa Mott came up. 

My father said that his father, Grandpa Mott, had come from Italy with two uncles, and they were robbed and killed in Denver, Colorado. I didn't hear much more from my father other than that. I know that he wanted to know more about his father, and he must have done some searching, since, in later years, I heard him say that his father "may have changed his name," since no one was able to find where he came from.

In papers handed down, there is a typed sheet entitled: "Life History of J.L. Mott Senior and Family." J.L. Mott, Senior, is my father Jacob Lyman Mott, Sr. I am not sure how I obtained the paper. Perhaps it was my sister Joyce or another one of my sisters who wrote it. It is apparent that they were getting the information from my father. Here is what it says:          

"Life History of J.L. Mott Senior and Family"
He was born in Manassa, Colorado in the month of June 13, 1893 to Joseph Louis Mott and Mary Emeline Kelly Mott. He was the youngest of four boys. In the order of their birth was first Joseph Elmer born October 26, 1886, Morgan, Colorado
Joel Heber born June 8, 1889, Morgan, Colorado
Jesse Oscar born December 25, 1889, Morgan, Colorado.
He lived about a week after birth according to the memory of Jacob Lyman.

Jacob's father owned a piece of land NW corner of Manassa and they lived their for some time. He doesn't know how long. Then they moved to Morgan, Colorado. This is a little farming community situated about nine miles NW of LaJara, Colorado. This is where his father was taken ill when Jacob was about two years old. He had an inflammation of the bowels which in this day would probably be considered appendix trouble. He passed away October 4, 1895. Emeline continued to live there in Morgan and work at various places doing general things like housework and cooking.

A little about Jacob's father as best he can remember was that Joseph was born in Lava Jaw, Salorum County, Italy in August 1860. He came from the old country with two uncles. They were musicians.
They played the violins and Joseph played the harp which is still in the home of his son Jacob. These two uncles and Joseph played up around Central City, Colorado, and in the locale of Denver in probably some where in the years 1875 or thereof. From the information passed down from Joseph's wife Emeline the two uncles were murdered for their possessions. These were the rough mining days of Colorado. I being a granddaughter hope to go through the records of these old day of Colorado and seek out more information as to this account of the two uncles, and to find their names and etc. As far as we know Joseph had a sister named Josephine born in 1864, Larvas Jaw, Italy and she died in 1868.

On another day I will comment on information from Mary Olive Mott, Uncle Elmer Mott, and Grandma Mott, and compare it with what my sister wrote. Mary Olive used to talk to Grandma a lot when Lyman and Mary Olive lived in the Carmel District.