Bob Cudmore will Moderate

Queen Libby of Fonda   

By Bob Cudmore

   A formidable woman from Italy stopped a train, saved a man from the electric chair and was a major property owner in Fonda. 

   Born in Atripalda in southern Italy on March 10, 1873, Elizabeth Luciano came to Fonda by herself in 1889 as a teenager and lived at the James Snell house on Railroad Street.  She had relatives who lived in Johnstown.  Her obituary claimed she was the first Italian immigrant to settle in Fonda.  

   People in the Mohawk Valley called her Queen Libby or Queen Lib.  According to one of her grandchildren, she received her nickname after knocking down a man who had used an ethnic slur about Italians. 

   “The next time you see me, you bow,” she reportedly told the fallen man, leading him to refer to her as Queen Libby.

      She married Italian native, James Cassell, in 1891.  They had three children before Cassell died.  In 1901 Luciano married Alphonso Mancini; he hailed from Pietramelara, Italy, and worked for the railroad.  They had four more children. 

   The couple returned to Italy for a time where Alphonso was a jailer.  Elizabeth came back to America by herself and Alfonso eventually followed her back to Fonda. 

   Queen Libby ran a boarding house and grocery store in the west end of Fonda, where she fed, housed and cared for Italian Americans who worked on the railroad.  She purchased sixteen two family houses in the village.  Patsy Cassell, one of Libby’s sons, ran a Fonda tavern called Patsy’s for many years.

      In 1923, one of Libby’s daughters, Eva Mancini Pepe, was about to give birth to her first child.  Eva was married to Ralph Pepe, whose father, Salvatore, founded Pepe’s Bakery on Amsterdam’s South Side.

   According to the Recorder, Libby was informed by telephone that her daughter was about to have a rare Caesarean section at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam.

    Libby secured a red flag at the Fonda train station and when an express came “thundering in its usual way” she waved the red flag, convincing the engineer to stop the train and then convincing him to take her to Amsterdam. 

   Arriving at the hospital, she charged into the operating room.  Libby also made a phone call to the New York Central Railroad and demanded that the next possible train stop in Fonda to take her husband to Amsterdam. 

   The headline from the newspaper read, “Flags train to reach daughter as stork comes: Fonda woman bossed the whole New York Central Railroad but got to Amsterdam hospital on time.”

   The child born that day was Vincenza Pepe.  Eva Pepe ultimately had seven children and the child she bore in 1924 was Salvatore Pepe of Amsterdam.

      “Queen Libby was strong-minded, tough but a gentle grandmother,” Salvatore Pepe said, recalling that Libby gave quarters to her grandchildren. 

      Ann Sherman of Amsterdam also claimed Queen Libby as a grandmother.  Sherman’s mother was Constance Cassell, one of the children from Libby’s first marriage.

   According to Sherman, Queen Libby was an interpreter for Italians who could not speak English who were brought before the court in Fonda.

   Libby once saved an innocent man who was charged with murder from the electric chair.  Libby called Italy where the real murderer had fled and had him sent back to the United States for trial.  Governor Franklin Roosevelt was so impressed that he visited Fonda to commend Libby.

  Alphonso Mancini died in 1936.   Queen Libby suffered a stroke and later died in 1937.  Both were buried at St. Cecilia’s Cemetery in Fonda.  Her grandchildren said her funeral was one of the biggest funerals ever seen in the village.

Monday, January 16, 2023-Story behind the story, Queen Libby of Fonda.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023, From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-The Sanford Stud Farm fire in 1939

A tragic event in Amsterdam’s history was the January 9, 1939 fire that killed 25 thoroughbred horses and did $200,000 damage at the Sanford Stud Farm outside the city limits on Route 30.  A police dog also died in the blaze.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 76, August 30, 2015- Nick Bunker is author of “An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America.”  The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  

Thursday, January 19- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Death rode the wings of the wind

Friday, January 20, 2023-Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander.  250th American independence anniversary coming in years ahead.

As New York State Historian, my duties are twofold; to help provide support and coordination to the historical field, including local historians, academic historians, and historical societies and museums; as well as to conduct research on various topics relevant to New York State history and the New York State Museum.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, January 15, 2023

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