Occhieppo Inferiore

I Cèp ad suta

Occhieppo Inferiore has always been a very poor village, real poor, dragging poverty for many centuries because, when there were only the products of the land, their land was arid and not good in producing much. Then, somehow or someone released that the clay accumulated during diffent periods, could be made into bricks and following this, again somehow or someone, thought of fire and the first kilns were born. As the cumulus of clay were located at certain distances, the kilns were destroyed and moved and therefore today we find no traces of them.

 This type of work required no specialization so most of the workers were hodmen and when emigration started, some of them decided to move to Turin, just made new capital, where there was a lot of building work going on to construct Royal houses.  When in 1404 Occhieppo Inferiore was given by the Avogadros to count Amedeo VIII of Savoy, life started to change in better for the inhabitants of the village. Then in 1658, it was passed to the Knight Mauriziano Girolamo Bernardo Ferraris. Another step forward was in 1738 with the construction of the bridges on the Elvo and Oremo opening the road that is still today called Strada Nuova (New Road).

  
The real important improvement in the life of the villagers was around 1860 when the brothers Poma decided to open a large factory inaugurated in 1869 with the possibility toemploy 1300 workers. The Occhieppesi saw for the first time cash money: one or more pay slip every Saturday. The sure work under cover all year around eliminated the need to go abroad.

At this time, the tracks were also eliminated; it was normal practice to plant a field of hemp which, when gathered was put to ret far away (by law) from the houses; when this retting was finished, the hemp was taken to the tracks where it was beaten until it became a flock which in turn was spinned by the women in the cowsheds. The thread was taken to Sala where every house had a hand loom; the product was divided into three parts: one was weaved for the need of the family, another was given as payment and the last was exchanged for chestnuts.

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The biographies are 74, 2.8% of the inhabitants in 1911, the lowest percentage of the Elvo Valley. 43% emigrated to France, 29.2% to the United States, 13.8% to South America, 4.6% to Switzerland and Africa, 3.3% to other European countries and 1.5% to Australia. The most frequent family names are Miglietti, Schiaparelli or Schiapparelli, Pavignano and Cerruti. The oldest emigrant is a Customs Inspector, born in 1850 and emigrated to the Belgian Congo.