Tony Schiavo, a recent Italian immigrant, went pheasant hunting, because in 1918 pheasant and rabbit made up a good part of his family’s daily supply of food. He got lost in the Mount Horeb area, west of Madison. He came across the Foster Handle family dairy farm. He could hardly speak a word of English, was dying of thirst and met Cecelia Foster, who was only 15.
“It was a love at first sight,” and they eloped a month later, says Madison’s Nino Amato, who is their grandson. Tony was Catholic, Cecelia was Protestant, and back then Protestants and Catholics both hated each other. “My great-grandmother refused to talk to her daughter for about 20 years. As time went on, everyone made amends, and everything was just fine,’’ said Nino. Tony and Cecilia went on to own the Stone Front Tavern on the corner of Regent and Francis, in the Greenbush Neighborhood.
