RUMFORD — The Order of the Sons of Italy in America will dedicate a monument Thursday to recognize the contributions residents of Italian heritage have made to the area over the past 200 years or more.

It lists 78 family names.

“The Italian community should be proud,” member Jim Rinaldo said. “This monument is a dedication to them.”

It will be officially presented at 11 a.m. next to the Muskie Memorial near the Rumford Information Center on Bridge Street.

The Sons of Italy was organized in Rumford in 1915 and is one of the oldest orders of its kind in America.

The Rumford order closed this year after 107 years, the last one in Maine to do so. Lack of members and lack of money to keep its building in the hamlet of Smith Crossing on Route 108 were among the reasons.

Speaking at a Rumford Historical Society meeting June 14, Rinaldo mentioned contributions made by Italian residents over the years.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s “you had the Chisholms, the Pettingills and other names in Rumford Point and Rumford Center that I don’t know, who were instrumental in getting the town started,” Rinaldo said. “But from the ’50s the Puiia family was very instrumental in helping the town move into another era.”

He mentioned:

• Vito Umbro Jr., a tailor on Exchange Street who worked for Edmund Muskie’s father and took over his shop. “He was the one who actually got Hope School started (in Mexico) … What we see now on Hancock Street is what happened because of what he did,” Rinaldo said.

• Carmelo Puiia Jr., a barber, brought cable TV to Maine. “He used to go to people’s homes and install antennas for them to watch TV.” He visited relatives in New York and they explained to him they had cable and told him what he had to do to do the same in Maine. “He came back and went to Augusta and he actually got the contract for the whole state of Maine to put in cable TV,” Rinaldo said.

But after officials started looking at it, Rinaldo said, they realized it was too big a project for one man. So they went to Puiia and said he could have a quarter of the state to provide cable. Puiia selected the area from Augusta to Rumford. “The Blaine House was the first place to have cable TV in the state, because of Carmelo Puiia,” Rinaldo said.

• His father, Carmelo Puiia Sr., had a shoe shop in Mexico between what is now the Circle K and C.N. Brown. He also had a machine that made shoes from customers’ descriptions. When town water did not go to Smith Crossing, Carmelo Sr. and his son Nick Puiia went into the woods there to a reservoir and brought water to their area. “So all the people in Smith Crossing that wanted running water instead of wells had running water because these guys started their own little water district, until finally, Rumford got their water down there, and they didn’t need them anymore,” Rinaldo said.

Rinaldo said he was told that at one time, Puiia Hardware and Lumber Co., owned by Nick Puiia, was the largest hardware and lumber company under one roof in the northeastern United States. “I worked there for 17 years, back in the ’60s and ’70s, and the education I got there was unbelievable,” he said.

•  Nick Puiia bought a hardware store next to his business and made it into a cash and carry store, and then bought the H.P. Hood building, which he made into a gift shop. “His mind was always working,” Rinaldo said. To draw people into his gift shop, he brought the Paul Bunyan statue and put it there. “When people saw that, they had to stop and take pictures. And right there is the gift shop,” Rinaldo said.

• Tony Puiia, Nick’s brother, bought the property where the Sons of Italy building stands. It used to be a school. The railroad owned the property and was willing to sell it for $1,000. The order paid Puiia back over time. Members worked for years renovating it. “The people who couldn’t work there would buy pizza or beer for the guys working there,” Rinaldo said. “They all chipped in, one way or another. There was great camaraderie up there.”

“There were great bocce tournaments,” he said. “The New Year’s and Halloween parties were unbelievable. We had beano downstairs and our parties were upstairs. When we had parties, members would carry the chairs and tables upstairs, set them all up. Then the next day, haul them back downstairs. Proceeds from beano helped finance the club.

On Thursday, members will gather with others to recognize the contributions by those of Italian heritage. The granite monument features a map of the country and some of its major cities. It was inspired by painting by Rinaldo’s wife that adorned the Sons of Italy hall.

The monument was a collaboration with Laperle-Durland Memorials in Mexico. A plaque at the top reads, in part:

“Their motto is liberty, equality and fraternity. They lived up to their motto not only as an organization, but also as individuals becoming very active in Rumford and the surrounding communities. They excelled as business leaders, officials in public office and volunteers. This monument is for all of the people these family names represent who lived, worked, prayed and played here in this and surrounding communities. May they never be forgotten for the sacrifices they made for their families and their community. Their legacy will last forever. We, your friends and families, think of you every day. God bless you all. Buona Notte.”

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