January 2, 1917

Pietro Bandini died in Little Rock (Pulaski County) of heart failure. Bandini is most widely remembered in Arkansas for the 1898 founding of Tontitown (Washington County), located in the northwest corner of the state and designed to be a refuge for Italian immigrants who had come to Arkansas for work and ended up in diseased quarters on a Chicot County plantation. He was also a tireless advocate for immigrant communities throughout the nation and was honored by Pope Pius X and Queen Mother Margherita of Italy for his work.