The Bisis of Pittsburgh: Love, Liquor, and Linguini

Ernesto Bisi arrived on American shores in 1880 as an impoverished Italian immigrant with limited education.  After getting a start selling groceries and liquor in Pittsburgh, he went on to become the largest pasta producer in the United States.  But he did not do it alone.  Under highly unusual circumstances, Bisi in 1895 married Emilia Biagiotti Bonistalli, a woman who became the mother of his children and his partner in business.

Shown here, Bisi was born in Nivino, Italy, in 1858 into an Italian family struggling financially. According to a biographer: “The economic conditions of his family improved when he was about eight and his father became a highway repairman.”  His education likely ended about the sixth grade, usual for Italians born poor during the 1850s.  The eldest of seven brothers, Bisi saw a better future in the U.S. than in Italy, in 1880 crossing the Atlantic in steerage to New York City.

He settled in Gotham for four years, earning a living by selling fruit from a pushcart and as an accomplished musician, played the mandolin at local venues.  In 1884, for reason unclear, Bisi, still a bachelor, moved to Pittsburgh. There a city directory gave his occupation as salesman and musician. In Pittsburgh, he soon met Frank Bonistalli and his vivacious young wife, Emilia.

Bonistalli had immigrated from Italy almost two decades earlier just as the Civil War broke out.  Shown here in later life, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served until the end of hostilities, seeing combat as a seaman on the gunboat Kennebec under Admiral Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay.  After the war he operated a restaurant in New York City, in 1871 marrying Emilia, also an immigrant from Italy.  Over the next five years the couple would have three children.

In 1883, Bonistalli uprooted his family and moved to Pittsburgh where he opened a store selling fruit and pastries, a year later hiring the newly arrived Bisi.  Financially, it was a fortuitous move.  After one year the earnings of the store increased substantially.  Noting this progress, Ernesto requested that he be made a partner in the business.  Bonistalli agreed renaming the company  “E. (likely for Emilia) Bonistalli & Bisi,” located at No. 9 and No. 10 Diamond (later Market) Square, shown above. 

To their groceries, the partners added a full line of spiritous beverages, as shown here in 1893 and 1894 ads.  In addition to featuring Italian, French and California wines, E. Bonistalli & Bisi claimed “…A full stock of Guckenheimer, Silver Seal, Crystal Wedding and other whiskies.”  Many of the brands were Pennsylvania-made and would have resonated with the Pittsburgh clientele.  

As one biographer has put it:  “It was clear that Ernesto possessed a remarkable business sense.”  Within a few years the store registered gross sales of over $100,000 — a fortune in the late 1880s. Goods were sold in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and further west.  At 11 Penn Avenue Bisi also established a small factory for making pasta.  Employing ten workmen, the plant later was destroyed in a fire believed to have been arson.

All was not well, however, at Bonistalli & Bisi.  Emilia was the cause.  As a “silent partner” in the store she was constantly on the scene. She was 18 to possibly 26 years younger than her husband and virtually the same age as Bisi.  Noting that she had lived “a very adventurous life,”  a descendant has written:   “Our dear ancestor Emilia was able to maintain the fiction of her being younger than she really was all the way to her death.”

In addition to her business savvy, Emilia, shown here, was talented.  She spoke three languages in addition to Italian, was noted for a fine singing voice, and performed with the Pittsburgh Opera Society.  Now she found herself with an aging husband who in 1882 had claimed a veteran’s disability from the government, possibly the result of a stroke.  She could see the promise in Ernesto and the two became lovers.  Their liaison produced a son in 1891, baptized as a Bonistelli.  Four more years elapsed before Emilia sued for and in 1895 was granted a divorce from her husband.  Ernesto and Emilia soon married, traveling to Hancock County, West Virginia, for a quickie ceremony.

That spelled the end of Bonistalli & Bisi. In its place were two entities.  The No. 10 Diamond Square store became a liquor house called Bisi & Caprini.  It was run by Carmelio Bisi, a younger brother whom Ernesto had brought from Italy in 1889 to assist him.  Now Carmelio with another Pittsburgh local were calling themselves “importing merchants of fine wines, liquors and cordials.”  Shown here are ceramic jugs bearing the company name.

This move allowed Ernesto and Emilia to concentrate on macaroni, spaghetti and linguini.  Together they established a large pasta factory at Fort Pitt, on the periphery of Pittsburgh.  Shown below is an illustration of the facility. Situated on fifteen acres of land, the plant employed 150 employees, all of whom were provided housing on the grounds.  A railroad spur led directly to the facility from which the pasta was sent all over America and even abroad. The Bisi United States Macaroni Factory eventually would be accounted the largest in the Nation. Ernesto was president; Emilia was secretary, in charge of all communications with suppliers and clients.

The 1900 federal census found the Bisi family living a large house in Fort Pitt. shown right.  Living with Ernesto and Emilia were three children, including Ralph five years old and Margaret, three.  A third child, Charles William, nine, apparently as a sop to propriety, was listed in the census as Ernesto’s stepson although Charles was in fact his own child.

Early in 1907, according to his obituary, Bisi at only 45 years old “was arranging his business affairs so as to permit him to enjoy the best part of his life.”  He  planned to leave in the following spring for Italy with Emilia and other family members to meet his aged father whom he had not seen in years.  Those plans crumbled in March.  Bisi attended a banquet of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in New York, of which he was a member, and there contracted a head cold.  After returning to Pittsburgh he worsened as the cold turned into pneumonia. Following an illness of three weeks, he died.

Termed “one of the most prominent Italians in the eastern part of the United States,”  Ernesto was given a lavish funeral.  Floral tributes and condolences poured in from all parts of the country.  A requiem high Mass was celebrated at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.  There were twenty honorary pall bearers, among them Count Babri, the Italian vice consul.  Active pall bearers were eight of Bisi’s employees.  He was buried in Calvary Cemetery where a tall obelisk was erected.  Carmelio, only 37, died three years later and was buried in the Bisi plot.  Emilia died in 1920, her headstone placed adjacent to Ernesto’s.

On the outside front wall of the United States Macaroni Factory was a large sign bearing the words, “Perseverance Wins.”  In a real sense the slogan epitomized the trajectory that had taken Ernesto Bisi, an impoverished, poorly educated immigrant to a rousing career in America.  Because of the opportunities presented, his own “remarkable business sense” and his marriage to Emilia, Ernesto Bisi became a wealthy industrialist and nationally recognized Italian-American leader.  

Note:  This post would not have been possible without the diligent assistance of Montserrat and Ernie Lehmann, Italian-speaking friends in Alexandria. Virginia, who translated and summarized a long biography of Ernesto Bisi that appeared in a Internet publication called Piacenza Antica, no author or date given.  Six of the photos come from the same site.  Newspaper obituaries also provided information on this remarkable Italian immigrant and his “adventurous” wife.