Societa de Unione e Beneficenza Italiana History

Founding Fathers: Society Founders: Anthony Caminetti, Alfonso Ginocchio, Bartolomeo Bianchetti and Julius Chichizolo. This image was taken from the Italian Benevolent Society: Centennial 1881-1981 booklet.  Many of the Italian Benevolent Society, IBS, records were lost during a fire in the early sixties -- along with the original hall featuring a hardwood floor ballroom.  What remains is a story told by Pietro Giurlani to reporter Dick Harris, of the Sutter Creek News.  This verbal account was told to Giurlani by older members as Giurlani himself did not join the society until the relative late date of 1897.

"...[t]he Amador Society was a result of a friendly conversation between Ben White (Bianchetti), a temporary resident of Jackson during 1879-1880, and some of this new-found friends in the county.  It seems that Ben White (Bartolomeo Bianchetti) cam to Amador County from Richmond, Virginia, in 1879 from Richmond, Virginia to run the Amador Hotel (the Imperial Hotel) in Amador City but lived in Jackson for a year or more while it was being completed.

"It was January of 1881 that he happened to mention a society to which he had belonged in the East which he thought could be duplicated here.  Its object would be to care for the sick members who were unable to work, to endeavor to pay them enough benefits to help them get buy until they were able to work, and in case of death, to provide a fitting burial.

"Having secured a copy of the Virginia society chapter Bianchetti got together a group of 33 business and professional men of Italian ancestry to form the nucleus of the new organization."

This was in 1881, by 1908 the Society had 62 charter members, but only six were left on the roster:  Alfonso Ginocchio, Andreas Basso, Bartolomeo Bianchetti, Domenico Fenile, Giovanni Gereghini and Lorenzo Marre.  While Giurlani lists the aforementioned as prominent members in 1908 -- the 1951 Picnic and Parade booklets quotes Giurlani as listing these six as the co-founders.

The society met in the Italian styled "Amador Hotel" until a fire raced through the original hotel building in 1879.  After the fire, Benjamin Sanguinetti, the brother-in-law of Ben White or Bianchetti, rebuilt his hotel -- this time in brick.  This is where the charter members formed the  Societa de Unione e Beneficenza Italiana in March of 1881 -- making Amador City its headquarters and meeting place.  The society moved from the hotel to the Knights of Pythias, also in Amador City, its meeting place shortly thereafter.  There is speculation that Amador City was selected as the meeting place, rather than Jackson, because, at that time, there were more Italians living north of Sutter Creek and working in the county's northern mines.

In May of that year, the Society adopted it's constitution, the Dispatch reported the Society had been formed and the first picnic of the Society, most likely private, marked the event as an informal affair in Jackson.  The May 28, 1881 issue of the Dispatch read:  "Our Italian friends of this county have organized a mutual benevolent society to meet in Amador City once a month.  Their object is solely to aid such of their members as may become sick and distressed and bury those who may die in destitute circumstances."