Musante Family

MUSANTE FAMILY
(by Rolene Kiesling)

The Musante family is a large family with many branches; this article focuses only on those family members buried in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Cemetery.

G. E. Musante, a native of Italy, whose ranch was located about 4 miles above Priest Station, had three sons. Givoni (variously known as Giambattista, Giovanni, Giambattista or John) was born 28 January 1849 and married Theresa L. Musante in 1877. According to an article in the Union Democrat, dated 2 February 1929, they had six surviving children.[1] Marilyn Roberts states in her work, The Musante Chronicles, that Teresa and Givoni were distantly related. She believes that the Musantes were from that area of Italy known as the Moconesi Alto, an area east of Rapallo Genoa.[2]

Frank J. Musante died September 11, 1934. He was a rancher and also involved in the stock business with his brothers, Joseph and Fred Musante, in the Spring Gulch area off of Priest Coulterville Road.[3]

Joseph John Musante was born 1883 and died unmarried in 1951 in Sonora. He had served on the Board of Directors of the Tuolumne County Fair for about 4 years preceding his death.[4] Frederic (Fred) was born about 1888/1890 and died in 1950 in San Mateo County.

Three daughters also survived Givoni and Theresa. Carmelita (1892-1967) married a miner, Gustave Nystrom (1882-1972), who died prospecting near Ward’s Ferry. He was of Swedish origin and was known as an expert “powder man”, notwithstanding the fact that on one occasion, he managed to unintentionally blow out two windows of the Laveroni residence. Alan Repashy said he was a “man who loved life and knew how to live” and he and his wife frequently enjoyed trips to San Francisco to enjoy the best hotels, food and wine available.[5]

Rosie predeceased her parents, she died unmarried at the age of 24, about whom not much is known. Mary married Giambattista (also referred to as Giovanni Battista or Giavonni or “Bachees”) DeFerrari. Mary must have been a good stay-at-home mom, the kind who doesn't leave a long paper trail but without whom a community does not get along. She must have married DeFerrari, who was 10 years her senior, about 1897 or 1898, for by 1910 they had been married 11 years and had 5 children. In June, 1900 they had already been married 2 years and Mary had just given birth to her second child -- a then unnamed daughter. In 1900 they were enumerated next door to her parents, but by 1910 were living with her parents when the census taker came around. Mary is enumerated at the top of the list with her parents, but a big arrow is drawn from her name to DeFerrari's and indicates that in addition to being the daughter of the head of one household she is the wife of the second head. In 1920 she and John have their own home in Groveland, in the general vicinity of present-day Pacific States Bank and Twice as Nice. In 1930 Mary is living in Roseville with her oldest son, his two young children, and her own youngest son, who is now 11.

Josephine (1886-1969) married Earl R. Dumond (1885-1973). Prior to becoming a mechanic for Hetch Hetchy, he was a refinery worker in Richmond, California; Josephine was a nurse and was employed by the Hetch Hetchy Hospital in Livermore, California.


[1] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, February 2, 1929.
[2] Roberts, Marilyn, Musante Chronicles: a Historical Record of an Italian Family. [no date : privately published], Page 169
[3] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, September 15, 1934.
[4] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, September 27, 1951.
[5] Repashy, Allen J., ED.D, History Makers South of the River: a History of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church and Historical Survey of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cemetery. Big Oak Flat : Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society [1989]