TONTITOWN — There’s no separating church and state in this small northwest Arkansas community, so naturally St. Joseph Church parishioners were front and center for the town’s recent centennial celebration.
“We all go hand in hand,” said Brenda Pianalto, a classic example of the intertwined relationships: She’s a member of St. Joseph Parish and an active volunteer with the Tontitown Historical Museum. In addition, she serves as the town photographer. All three entities — church, city and museum — sponsored the May 17 celebration commemorating the 1909 incorporation of Tontitown.
The festivities began with 10 a.m. Mass at the church. The parade was scheduled for 11 a.m., but it got a bit of a late start because most of the participants were still at Mass. When the parade kicked off — from the Knights of Columbus Hall — it was led by a Washington County Sheriff’s Department car and a Tontitown Fire Department truck.
But the majority of those marching or riding came right from the church as Catholic Youth Ministry children in grades six through 12, dressed in clothing styles from the early 20th century, walked along, waving American flags (with an Italian flag or two also in the crowd) and singing “God Bless America.”
Kay Franco, one of the youth ministry volunteers, said the students were thrilled to re-enact the parade of 1905 when residents met the Italian ambassador at the train station in neighboring Springdale and then accompanied him to their community.
Many of the students are descended from families who settled the Tontitown area and “they’re very proud of their heritage,” she said. Others, whose families have moved into the area more recently, have grown to also be proud of Tontitown’s history, Franco said.
“They’re Italian today,” she said with a smile.
Students found clothing by borrowing from their grandparents’ closets and shopping Goodwill and other resale shops, Franco said. They carried American flags because they learned that’s what the original parade participants did.
The story of Tontitown’s founding is familiar to area residents. Father Pietro Bandini led a small group of fellow Italian immigrants to northwest Arkansas in 1898 where they found inexpensive land and a climate good for farming. The families built a church — originally named for St. Joseph just as today’s modern church building is — and established farms. Eventually, grapes emerged as their dominant crop and Tontitown residents celebrated each year’s harvest with a grape festival. The vineyards have gradually disappeared through the years, but the parish’s grape festival is still held each August.
It’s clear the town’s history is important to people here, and many of the names on the original incorporation petition — Maestri, Pianalto, Ranalli, for example — are still represented in the community. Franco married into one of those families — she’s self-described as “just a white girl from Oklahoma” — but said she was warmly welcomed into the community and has loved being part of the community for the past 25 years. She and her husband, Jeff, and Mike and Debbie Verucchi, another long-established surname in the community, sponsor the church’s youth groups.
Jan McQuade-Sturm, on the other hand, has never lived in Tontitown. Her mother, Joyce Norman, is a member of the Maestri family, but she moved to Colorado in the 1950s. McQuade-Sturm and her daughter, June Stevens, have never lived here, but they feel a strong connection.
“We’ve been in Denver all our lives, but this is where our roots are,” McQuade-Sturm said. “We’ve been coming back here for years and years and years.”
The three came decked out in beautiful costumes rented especially for the occasion. Norman dressed in character as her great-great-grandmother, Melania Maestri. Stevens dressed as Kate Neale, who was married to James Neale. The couple weren’t Italian, McQuade-Sturm said, but they were important to the community, having owned various businesses.
McQuade-Sturm is the town’s genealogist. She has tracked more than 60 surnames from Tontitown and more than 4,000 people. She noted that community life was always faith-based and centered around the church.
The day’s activities included the planting of willow trees, and even that had an historic note. It seems that the original settlers tied their grapevines with yellow willow, Pianalto said.
