Josephine Delgado Moss: A Mexican-American Family at Rockside

The Delgado family immigrated from Leon, Guanajuato in Mexico to Cleveland, Ohio in 1928. The father, Erasto "Edward", worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the mother, Epgmenia, was a homemaker. At the time, their daughter Josephine was two years old. When she was nine, the railroad moved the family into a boxcar home in Independence, Ohio. The Delgados later bought a large house beside what is now Rockside Station. Their eight children grew up playing along the Cuyahoga and in the surrounding woods. Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad now runs on the tracks previously owned by B&O.

Josephine and her son Steven Moss recorded oral histories with the National Park Service in September 2017. Her memories help us better understand rural life in the northern Cuyahoga Valley from about 1935 to 1962. At the time, the Delgados were the only Mexican-American family in their area. We learned that the famously polluted river was relatively clean near Rockside.

Josephine trained in the nurse cadet corps at end of World War II. She started her medical career by working 15 years at Deaconess Hospital in Cleveland’s first modern cardiac unit. She left to nurse for the Navajo Nation. Later, she started a home health agency. Josephine lived for many years in Ganado, Arizona and returned to Independence, Ohio when she retired.

Father and Mother

The early 1900s was a time of mass emigration to the United States. For the Delgados, it was a chance to escape the chaos of the Mexican Revolution. “My dad was one of the workers that came up from Mexico. He worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.” Initially, Erasto "Edward" came as part of a migrant recruitment program. The family lived first in Colorado. “Then they went back to Mexico when that program ended and that’s where my sister and I were born.” The family returned to the US when Erasto got a permanent job in Cleveland. Within a few years, they moved to the first of three homes in Cuyahoga Valley. Like other immigrants, Erasto and Epgmenia “Americanized” their names, becoming Edward and Anna.

Josephine described her father Edward Delgado (1892-1961) as a social man who enjoyed working on the tracks with his buddies. He liked to meet friends at the Old Boat House, a bar on Canal Road that was a ¼ mile from Rockside Road.

In contrast, her mother Anna Delgado (1897-1956) preferred to stay at home, centering her life around her home and children. She understood English but couldn’t speak it. (Edward spoke broken English.) Anna only ventured out to attend St. Michael’s Church, take a sickly son to doctor appointments, and shop at the local grocery store and the downtown market. Although the family could ride the train for free into Cleveland, they rarely did.

Father Worked for the Railroad

Josephine Moss describes her father Erasto “Edward” Delgado’s job with the B&O Railroad in the northern Cuyahoga Valley.

“They laid tracks and the ties and then checked it to make sure that they stayed in working condition. That's what he did. Winter. Summer. I recall him coming home. He had a mustache. And I remember him coming home in the winter, icicles hanging from his mustache. (Laughs.) . . . There were times when he had to leave in the middle of the night because a rail car had derailed and all its load was on the ground and they had to clean it up. We always lived near railroads and the river.”

My Mom was Always Home

Josephine Moss describes her mother Epemenia “Anna” Delgado as a homebody who raised food for the family.

“She was a home person. She would not leave her home. She'd raise chickens in the back and we’d have maybe a goat. I know they always used to buy one piglet and raise it. And then in the winter, they'd slaughter it and we’d have—and she'd cure the meat and that's what we'd have. But she'd raise chickens and tend the garden. Tend the house. My mom was always home.”

“I was a Boxcar Child.”

The family lived in Cleveland for the first few years. In about 1935, Edward was transferred. “We moved to Independence to an area that was called Willow, at that time. And, since he worked for the railroad, we were living in a boxcar that was remodeled. It was just like a mobile home.... So we lived there for quite a few years. I went to the Independence schools. Graduated from there.”

Willow was named for the B&O’s Willow Depot at the foot of Schaaf and Old Brecksville roads. The homes were along the tracks just north of there, close to where a branch line split off to the northeast and crossed the Cuyahoga. Their only neighbor was the watchman at the railroad junction. He lived in a smaller boxcar.

In 1938, construction began on the Willow Freeway (now I-77), running from downtown south to this depot. By 1940, Ohio’s first cloverleaf interchange (and one of the first nationally) was built atop Willow. Around this time, the Delgados moved south to a rental home on Stone Road, just north of today’s Canal Exploration Center. They could see the railroad tracks from their house. Beside them was a huge field that later turned into a Nike Missile launch base. South Park Station and a small convenience store stood at the tracks, along the river. Today’s Hemlock Creek Trail follows this old section of Stone Road.

A Tavern Becomes a Home

When the woman who owned the Stone Road house needed to sell, the Delgados didn’t have enough money. Fortunately, the price was right up the street at 7904 Rockside Road. In 1945, Edward and Anna purchased their first home for $10. It was a former tavern called Happy’s, located between the railroad tracks and the Cuyahoga River. (Today this is the entrance to Rockside Station, but there was no depot there historically.) Josephine remembers what looked like a bar in the kitchen and a large room that might have been for dancing.

A farmer grew hay in front of the house. More fields were out back. There was a bar at the Canal Road intersection. Across the train tracks was an abandoned factory that made plumbing nipples. The small building was overgrown with lilac bushes. Beyond that was an orchard that had gone wild. The Delgados picked apples there. At that time, Rockside Road climbed steeply west. Their closest neighbor was at the top, near a Christmas tree farm. After her parents died, the family sold the house in 1962 for the construction of a new Rockside Road and commercial district for Cleveland businesses.

One of Josephine's most vivid memories of life by the railroad was the sound of the train.

It was Loads of Fun!

Find out what Josephine Moss and the other kids did for fun when the railroad staff weren’t working.

“When we were kids, on weekdays when they weren't working, they'd store this handcar in a little shed. We'd go into the shed and get the handcar out. And we'd go up and down the track that wasn't being used. Looking back, it was loads of fun.”

The Lonely Train Whistle

Josephine Moss remembers the steam trains passing her home at night.

“And at night the trains would go by and they had the steam engine then. So, you'd hear the whistle before, of course, they had to cross Rockside Road. And every time they'd pass the road, they'd have to blow their whistle to warn traffic. And at night you'd hear that whistle. And the funny part of it is you could hear that whistle sometimes from a distance. And it sounded so lonely. Just that lonely whistle blowing. It was really neat. It really was. And you'd go down by the window and you'd see the flames inside the furnace that drove the steam engine. Oh, that was neat.”

Fun Along the Cuyahoga

Living close to the river was an important part of childhood for the Delgado siblings. Josephine recalled a sandy beach near their Rockside home where they’d go wading. The river was also a source of food. By the old orchard, water accumulated in an old riverbed. It was a bend before the Cuyahoga was straightened. Here, her older brother and his friends hunted frogs which they later cooked. Sometimes they trapped snapping turtles and made turtle soup in the backyard. At Independence’s Home Days, a man was known for selling his turtle soup. It was like a vegetable soup that “tastes like chicken.”

For a few years during the 1940s, Josephine remembered the Cuyahoga having an unusual smell. The Delgados’ property didn’t run all the way to the riverbank. A liquor company leased that land. About once a month, a truck would dump all the mash from their whiskey production. And that's what you would smell. Whiskey!

Learn More

What kinds of memories does Josephine’s life stir up for you? Perhaps you have ancestors who were immigrants. Maybe there is a special place that has changed significantly over time. Does a certain sound or family recipe take you back to childhood? For more about the Delgado family, explore what Josephine’s son Steven remembers about fish and wildlife in Cuyahoga Valley.

To visit this area, park at Rockside Station and cross the pedestrian bridge to Lock 39 Trailhead. Walk the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail a short way north to Thornburg Station. Double back south to Stone Road. Turn right to follow the Hemlock Creek Trail to the river.

• Steven Moss: Memories of Fish and Wildlife Changes — Read and listen to experienced fisherman Steven Moss, who grew up fishing in Cuyahoga River. He talks about his youth growing up around Cuyahoga Valley and explains how the health of the Cuyahoga River has changed over the past few decades.
• History of the Valley Railway — Since the 1830s rail travel has shaped the sights, sounds, and experiences of the nation. In 1880 Valley Railway Company brought railroading to the Cuyahoga Valley, forever changing the area and those who called it home. Memories continue to be built everyday as passengers climb aboard Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad to experience historic rail travel through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
• Rockside Station — Passengers in the Cleveland area can catch the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad at Rockside Station. This also provides overflow parking for visitors accessing the Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga River Water Trail at Lock 39 Trailhead. The station has ample parking and is a primary starting point for train excursions and events.

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• Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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