"The Bank of Pingree"
John DeGiulio's Pingree home
7/9/20261 min read
John DeGiulio, his wife Cecilia and three children lived here, northwest of Pingree, for much of the 1930s and 1940s. John, born in 1890 in Castro (a familiar Italian village that was the home of many, even most, of Pingree's Italian population), emigrated to the U.S. in 1906, went back to Italy to fight the Germans in WWI, then returned. In the 1930 census he is listed as not yet a naturalized citizen but able to speak English. He would become known, only part facetiously, as the 'Bank of Pingree', loaning money to fellow Italians and non-Italian community members, as well, at a time when the banks were neither trusted (many had lost life savings in the economic crash called the Depression) nor loose with their money. His reach extended far. His two sons, Dan and Billy, farmed northwest of Pingree for decades.
