Raffaele Peter Cavallo, who has been engaged in the undertaking business in Utica as junior member of the firm of Scala & Cavallo for the past fifteen years, is now representing the eighth ward in the city council and is well known as one of the representative business men and popular young residents of his native city. His birth occurred in Utica, New York, on the 28th of May, 1887, his parents being Frank P. and Annabel Cavallo, both of whom were born in Italy and were among the first people of that nationality to take up their abode in this city.
Raffaele Peter Cavallo attended the public schools of Utica in the acquirement of an education and was a youth of seventeen years when in 1904 he began learning the undertaking business with H. F. Slawson, a pioneer undertaker of Utica. Two years later he entered the service of the undertaking firm of Ackroyd & Cole, with whom he remained until 1909. It was on the 1st of June, 1909, that he formed a partnership with Carmine Scala, in association with whom he has continued in the undertaking business through the intervening period of fifteen years, under the firm style of Scala & Cavallo. He is thoroughly familiar with the best and most scientific methods in the care of the dead, and his quiet, efficient service in his chosen field has brought him an extensive patronage.
On the 24th of August, 1914, Mr. Cavallo was united in marriage to Miss Ella Colonton, daughter of the late Michael Colonton of Utica. Their children are two in number, namely: Annabel, whose natal day was September 9, 1915; and Jasmine, born on the 27th of November, 1916.
Mr. Cavallo has always been active in the local ranks of the democratic party and stands high in his community as a public-spirited, progressive and enterprising citizen. He served as deputy registrar of vital statistics in 1913 and 1914, and during the two succeeding years filled the position of registrar, in which capacity he again acted through the years 1918, 1919 and 1920, when he resigned. He was elected alderman of the eighth ward in 1923 and has served in the city council since the 1st of January, 1924. This ward is the strongest in the city, having twenty-five thousand voters. Mr. Cavallo is particularly active in Italian affairs. He is a charter member and treasurer of Francesco Stucco Lodge No. 176 of the Sons of Italy in Utica, the first upstate lodge of this organization, is also a charter member and president of the Laurenzana Society, and secretary of the Visunita Club. Mr. Cavallo likewise belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and to the Knights of Columbus and is a communicant of St. Mary Mount Carmel church. He also has membership in the Democratic Club and is president and a member of the board of directors of the Mohawk Athletic Club, Incorporated. He possesses a social, genial nature and many qualities which make for popularity and have won him an extensive circle of friends in Utica.