Sonoma County Biography
Elio M. Genazzi
This genial and popular citizen of Sonoma county has been a resident of California since 1885, which marks the length of time he has lived in the United States, coming to this country alone when he was a mere lad. His quick adaptability enabled him to readily master the language and customs of his adopted country, and has been the secret of his success as an agriculturist. Until he was fourteen years of age he lived in Switzerland, where he was born in 1871. When he had attained the age just mentioned he bade farewell to home and friends and came to the United States, proceeding at once to California, and locating in Sonoma county Here he has realized his expectations fully, and he is thankful indeed that a kind Fate directed his thoughts to this land of opportunity.
Mr. Genazzi is the descendant of a long line of Swiss ancestors and is the eldest of a large family of children born to his parents, Giacinto and Marie (Campigli) Genazzi, natives and life-time residents of that country, where the father carried on a mercantile business. The four sons included in the parental household were as follows: Elio M., Giacinto, Edward and Frederick, while the daughters were Linda, Mary, Jeanie, Aureglia, Guiditta and Daria. Aureglia became the wife of Basilio Gorzolia and has three children, Walter, Enio and Daria. Linda is the wife of Silva Magistochi, and the mother of two children, America and Perini. As the eldest child in the parental family Elio N. Genazzi early realized the necessity of relieving his parents by beginning to be self-supporting, and he bravely undertook the task by immigrating to the new world. While he still has the love for his home land which is natural and just, he loves his adopted home no less fervently, for here he has been enabled to accomplish what would have been impossible in the land of his birth. Not far from Petaluma he is located on a ranch of six hundred and seventy-six acres of land which he leases from Mr. Forsyth. Here he has a dairy of sixty milch cows, besides which he has about thirty head of young stock, and in the near future these will contribute to the dairy industry. Besides the stock mentioned his also has five head of horses and two hundred chickens of a good variety.
In all of his undertakings Mr. Genazzi has the cheerful co-operation of his wife, who before her marriage was Miss Clelia Garzoli, a native daughter of the state, born in Marin county in 1881. Two children, both daughters, have been born of this marriage, Elma and Linda. Mrs. Genazzi’s father, Peter Garzoli was born in Switzerland in 18456 and came to California in 1863, when about sixteen years of age. His marriage united him with Miss Celesta Quanchi, who like himself was a native of Switzerland, her birth occurring in the canton of Ticino in 1862. Eleven children were born of this marriage, four sons and seven daughters, as follows: Jeremiah, Henry, Marion, Charles, Clelia, Belinda, Lena, Olympia, Clara, Louisa and Emma. All of the children are native sons and daughters of California. In his political views Mr. Genazzi is independent, voting for the man whom he believes to be best fitted for the office, and in his religious views he is a Roman Catholic, this having been the faith of his ancestors for many generations.
History of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
October 2009 Pages 632-635
Sonoma County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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