Henry McCleary, who ran this company town, "wished not to tolerate unions" and hired many workers from Italy and Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean in the early part of the 20th century as they were not likely to organize as laborers at that point in history.
Many of the Italians, who mostly arrived from the northern part of Italy, remained in McCleary. Angelo Pellegrini, perhaps McCleary's most famous historical resident, landed in McCleary as a boy in 1913. The neighborhood blocks around First and Mommsen (where the Pellegrinis lived) was known as "Little Italy."
Many of the Greeks who worked here did not settle in McCleary, although a few remained such as grocery store owner Nick Rillakis. The McCleary Cemetery has a small Greek section and a few of the headstones are carved in the Greek alphabet.
May 25, 2012
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