Agostino Cacchioni and Marietta Lauriente

Marietta and Agostino

Agostino was born on March 28, 1883 in San Martino D’Ocre, Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy to Gabriele Cacchioni and Vincenza Pace.  He arrived in Trail in 1912 and became a Canadian citizen in 1914.  Here, he met Marietta Lauriente.  Marietta immigrated in 1905, at age seven.  She was born on November 20, 1897 in Agnone, Campobasso, Molise, Italy to Tommaso Lauriente and Carmela Cacciavilani. Agostino and Marietta were married on July 17, 1916 at St Francis Church in Trail, BC.  
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Son, Roland David Gabriel (Carolina Molina), was born in 1917 while the family was living in Nanaimo, BC.  At fourteen years of age and being the oldest, he helped support the family by going to work in the mines in Nordegg, Alberta.  Son, Tomasso, Tom Albert, (Dorothy McLeod), was born in 1923 in Blairmore, Alberta. At age eighteen, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  On his return to Canada, he became a dentist in Vancouver.  Daughters, Lorraine Patricia (William Martinou) and Gloria (Armando Gri) were both born in Nordegg, Alberta. 

Agostino was involved with mining in Trail, Nanaimo and Nordegg. He was very active at work, standing up for his fellow workers.  He was blacklisted from the mining industry, at a time when labour organizing was intolerable by employers.

The family moved to Kelowna, BC in 1924. They acquired a small farm on Bernard Avenue,  in the Bankhead area.  Lorenzo R (Lawrence) was born in Kelowna in 1938.  Sadly, he died tragically in 1949.
During the 1930s, groups of Kelowna volunteers, many of them Italian, gave their time to help establish an east side road from Kelowna to Naramata.  In 1938, Agostino and friend, Vittorio Martinato, were on their way to do some blasting work, when a terrible vehicle accident took Vittorio’s life.

Agostino passed away on April 12, 1962 and Marietta on January 22, 1983.  Both are interred in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery, Kelowna, BC. 

Rolli and Robert Cacchioni