Christianziano Fossacceca (Matz)

Dates: b. 1859 d. 12 March 1933

Cemetery location: Block H, Row 26, Plot 23

Profile:

Christianziano Fossacceca came to Canada in the 1880s, working west with the railway construction. He worked at the roundhouse in Donald, then transferred to Revelstoke in the late 1890s.

Christianziano smoked a pipe and when he was not using matches to relight his pipe, he was chewing on them. The CPR time keeper refused to write out his name, which earned him the nickname “Jack Match.” Fossacceca adopted the name, but spelled it Matz. He married the sister of Louis Catlin, and they had one son and six daughters, some of whom were baptized as Fossacceca, and some as Matz.