Peninsula In Passage

Amedeo Obici

Bennett’s Creek and Driver are known for colorful characters but one of the most intriguing came a long way to find a home there. Amedeo Obici, the peanut impresario who left his mark on Suffolk, came from Oderzo, Italy, by way of the Pennsylvania coal country, to settle along the Nansemond River in Sleepy Hole. Obici was the founder of the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company and a generous philanthropist. His European flair and wealth may have set him apart but his tenacity, ingenuity and concern for the community were traits common to generations of local residents. Born to a saddle maker and his wife in Oderzo, Italy, July 15, 1877, Obici was only 7 years old and the oldest of four children when his father died. He apprenticed to a tinsmith, learning the trade before and after school and on weekends. Four years later his mother’s brother, a tailor who had emigrated to Scranton, PA, sent for him. Obici was 11 years old and alone when he boarded an ocean liner, steerage section, for his trip to America. He arrived in New York City, welcomed by a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, on March 17, 1889. By midnight he was at the Scranton train station, but a miscommunication meant no one was there to meet him. He spoke no English but a kindly policeman found someone who could translate the tag around his neck ““Deliver to Vittorio Sartor, Scranton, Pennsylvania, via Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railways,” and took him to his uncle. Scranton was the heart and business center of the Pennsylvania coal region – and dark with coal dust. But

Amedeo and Louise Obici

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