Happy birthday Amanda and belated Happy Birthday to Bobbie!  Big storm news seems to be making everyone crazy.  Including me...I kind of want to choke these people and scream "Stop talking about it!  I beg you.  It's weather..it's winter..we live in New York State.  Stop with the fretting".  Yikes. 

I've been doing a little bit of research into coal mining in Ohio as I think about your extended Dalpiaz family and your Messa family.  Belmont County was the all time leader in coal production in Ohio near the beginning of the 20th century.  In this application for a marriage license, Jake indicates he was a coal miner.  I guess I didn't realize that.  Coal mining was not easy work and maybe this is partly why he was so cruel.  In 1907 miners were paid 57 cents a TON for screened coal and $2.56 a day to work inside the mine.  Until 1940 of so, most mining was done underground by hand with the assistance of animals to haul the coal.  And people are whining for a snow day tomorrow.......

Another interesting item to note about this marriage license application is that both Jake and Caterina say they lived in Black Oak.  This place no longer exists, although there is a Black Oak road along which the ghost of a woman who froze to death in the mid 1800s can be seen walking along the tracks (eerily similar to the story of Jake's fate).  This would interest Joe Falgia--he loved the story of the ghost outside Walton! 

One last item about this application to note is that the actual marriage is not noted on here.  They had their license but the actual ceremony is not listed here, which is a little odd.   But not as odd as that ghost on the tracks.......