He was born in Cordovado in 1874, the son of Luigi and Sclabas Maria.
In 1896 he married in the same town Pippo Rosa, a fellow villager. They were farmers all their lives.
Sometime after the turn of the century they moved to Gleris, a hamlet of San Vito al Tagliamento (about 6-7km away); it's possible they followed some of their children, who married and lived there.
I already knew when and how he died before finding this newspaper article, because my grandmother had been told the story and remembered it well, even if she was a baby at the time. Still, I had no proof, it was just oral history, and we all know how stories mutate when they're told many times through generations.
I don't have his death certificate, but even if I did, most italian death certificates for the post-unification (here in 1871) period don't cite the cause of death as there isn't even a space to write it in the form.
With the date I had, I tried searching the newspapers of those days: "Periodici Friulani"
The library of Udine has digitized and put on-line their newspaper collection, you can find it here, it can be browsed by newspaper title or year, then each newspaper can be downloaded in pdf format. I've often found most useful those titled "Il Giornale di Udine", "Il Paese", "Il Friuli" and "La Patria del Friuli". They were mostly published in Udine, and were heavily skewed towards happenings of that town, but on the 2nd or 3rd page they had news from all over Friuli, sometimes just a few lines per article sometimes more.
In this case the year 1932 only had "Il Popolo del Friuli" available, so I searched and quickly found the article I was looking for on the 14th of december issue.
It turns out my grandmother's memory was spot on and the story was confirmed!
I've transcribed the article, I'm going to summarize it in English just below the transcription.
Il Popolo del Friuli, 14 dec 1932, page 4
Transcription:
"San Vito al Tagliamento
Una mortale disgrazia
Nella vicina frazione di Gleris ieri nel pomeriggio è avvenuta una disgrazia che ha suscitato la commozione di tutta quella laboriosa popolazione. Certo Pietro Pilon fu Luigi di anni 58 colà domiciliato, verso le ore 12.30 si trovava nei pressi del ponte della Regina, assieme ai propri figli, per provvedere al taglio di legne. Ad un certo momento si portò presso la cavalla che era attaccata ad un carro, per slegarla e farla pascolare. Improvvisamente questa gli sferrò un potentissimo calcio sullo stomaco, tanto che il povero Pilon si accasciò con un lamento fra le braccia dei figli accorsi. Fu subito adagiato a terra e, dopo alcuni minuti, fra la costernazione dei presenti, spirò senza profferire parola. Sul luogo si sono portati il Maresciallo dei RR. CC. Primo Bologna assieme al R. Pretore dott. Santonastaso ed al dott. Mario Stufferi. Il cadavere è stato trasportato nella cella mortuaria del Cimitero di Savorgnano a disposizione della Autorità Giudiziaria. La misera fine del Pilon ha suscitato profonda impressione."
San Vito al Tagliamento, a deadly misfortune
In the nearby hamlet of Gleris yesterday afternoon Pietro Pilon [Pillon] son of the deceased Luigi, aged 58, living there, at about 12.30 was collecting wood with his children near "Ponte della Regina" [The queen's bridge, locality between Gleris and Carbona, now in Carbona St.]. He approached his mare to free it from the cart, when suddenly the mare hit him with a powerful kick in the stomach and he fell down. In just a few minutes he was dead without saying a word.
It was sad to read of his premature demise in such a sudden and "random" way, but I was also happy and surprised my grandmother's story aligned perfectly.
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