Steel Valley Voices

Josephine Ross with a hand-tinted photo of her father from World War I.

Fred and Josephine Ross both grew up in Brier Hill.  While the neighborhood had once been dominated by Germans, many of whom came to the area to work in coal mines and iron production, by the 1920s it was becoming one of Youngstown’s strongest Italian-American communities.

Fred’s Italian immigrant father, Fedele, came to the Youngstown area before 1920.  He bought a home in a mostly German part of Brier Hill, but in order to purchase the house, he had to Americanize his name, changing Fedele Rossi to Fred Ross.  He worked as a bricklayer.

The Rosses had known Josephine’s family back in Rotondella, Italy, before they all came to the U.S.  Josephine’s mother had known Fedele Rossi as a child, and she even helped take care of him, though no one told Josephine this until after she and Fred were married.  Indeed, Josephine’s mother told her that she and Fred had played together as children.

A photo from Fred & Josephine’s wedding album, showing the couple with three relatives — Rose Lombardo, Antonette Ross, and Fred Ross, Sr. (left to right), 1950

When Josephine and Fred were dating, she spent Christmas Eve with his family, and she recalls the experience of learning his family’s traditions.  Over time, she forged a close relationship with Fred, Sr.  Fred and Josephine were married in 1950, at the old St. Anthony’s church on West Federal Street.

The old church was much smaller than the present building, closer to the steel mills, and without air conditioning.  Fred remembers that Sunday mass would sometimes have to pause to wait for a train to pass, because the noise would otherwise have drowned out the priest.  The new church was built when the Division Street bridge was built to connect the north side with the west side, taking over land that had held both homes and several churches.  A new church was built on Turin Street, a few blocks up the hill.

Fred Ross points to a 1956 commemorative plate showing an image of the old St. Anthony’s Church, which once stood on West Federal Street in Brier Hill

Fred had attended St. Ann’s Catholic Church on West Federal, which did not have a strong ethnic identity, but when he married Josephine, he joined her church, St. Anthony’s, which has a strong Italian identity.  They remember church festivals and parades through the neighborhood, with musicians and church members stopping to pray at parishioners’ homes.

The Rosses lived on Dearborn Street in Brier Hill for about a decade, until they moved to Austintown in the early 60s.  They felt that the neighborhood was becoming too dangerous.  But they have strong memories of what the area was like when they were growing up.  While most families had little money, they helped each other through the Depression and later hard times.  The Ross family had one of the few telephones in the area, which they shared with neighbors – each family having a distinctive ring pattern.

People also shared a brick oven, made from discarded firebricks from the mill and built by men from the neighborhood, most of whom were bricklayers.  Different families would use the oven on different days, baking large batches of bread and some pizza – the famous Brier Hill pizza.

Years later, they were among those who first organized the Brier Hill Festival, celebrating the neighborhood that they loved.  They also help raise funds for and distribute a Brier Hill Scholarship for local college students with roots in Brier Hill’s Italian community.  Through these efforts, they seek to preserve a strong sense of Italian identity in the local community.

They also remain active at St. Anthony’s church, and they regret that it is likely to close in the next few years as the Youngstown Diocese consolidates its urban parishes.  They will join Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, another Italian church, close to downtown.  Their shared Italian identity and the welcoming attitudes of members of Mt. Carmel will ease that transition, though it’s clear that their hearts remain in Brier Hill, with their memories of the neighborhood and St. Anthony’s.

Read the complete transcript of Tom Welsh’s interview with Fred and Josephine Ross.

Photographs by Tom Welsh.  Videos by Jeremiah Blaylock.