Philip came to New Yort from Sicily around 1910. Although his occupation initially is not known, he worked enough to afford to go back to Sicily for an arranged wedding to Josephine Conoscenti. Josephine had to wait in Sicily until Philip earned enough money to pay her fair to New York. Josephine had her first child while she waited. Josephine was to meet Philip at the foot of the Bank of America in New Yark at a prearranged time upon arriving. The ship she arrived on docked in Boston instead. How Josephine found Philip in New York without knowing a word of english probably required a small miracle. It was an achievement often touted before the children. The story as told involved Philip waiting in a train station for many hours waiting for Josephine to arrive at which time she - with her young child Mary found Philip asleep on the train station bench.
Philip eventually secured a job with the Pennsylvania Rail Road as a track walker (inspector). He lived in a company housing (barrics) in Ronks Pennsylvania. He was responsible for maintaining somewhere around a five mile stretch of track bed. It was said Grandpa Mancuso (Philip) could swear all the way down into his wine cellar, pick a bottle of homemade red wine and swear all the way back to the kitchen and never repeat the same word twice (all this was in Sicilian of course).