The Legacy of H.H. Mansbach: Motherless Boy, Civil War Hero, Father of Eight, and Successful Merchant

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Amy

We saw in the last post how the first decade presented some sad challenges and losses for the family of H.H. Mansbach. The family matriarch Nannie Hirsch Mansbach died unexpectedly in 1907, the youngest son Isaac was institutionalized, and Louis Mansbach’s wife Clara died at age 36.

The family’s losses continued in 1912 when the family patriarch, H.H. Mansbach, died April 1, 1912, in Norfolk; he was 71 years old. The Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch (April 1, 1912) published this obituary:

image courtesy of John Fazenbaker from FindAGrave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85694927&PIpi=56133015

H.H. Mansbach, father of Louis, Charles, and George Mansbach, proprietors of “The Hub,” died this morning at 12:20 o’clock in the home of his son-in-law, D.R. Broh, 140 Main Street, Berkley ward. Mr. Mansbach was 72 years of age [sic: he was 71] and while he had been in failing health for more than a year, his death was unexpected and came as a shock to his family. Tomorrow evening on the Washington steamer his body will be conveyed to Cumberland, Md., where the funeral will be held and the deceased laid in his last resting place beside his wife, who preceded him to the grave about five and a half years ago. The body will be accompanied to Cumberland by the members of his family.

H.H. Mansbach was born in Maden, Germany, but came to his country when nine years old. [There is no record to support this assertion; records instead show that he came in 1856 with his uncle Gerson Katzenstein when he was sixteen; even his older brother was not in the US in 1849 when H.H. would have been nine.] A resident of Americus, Ga., and a member of the State militia when the war between the States began, he enlisted in the Confederate army and served gallantly until the close of hostilities under Generals Beauregard and Chalmers. He was wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro and at Shiloh and after the war became a member of the Confederate Cap at Romney, W.Va. His name is still on the roster of that camp.

After the surrender of General Lee, Mr. Mansbach engaged in the mercantile business in Piedmont, W.Va., where he was a leading and very prosperous merchant for forty-one years, and up to the time of his retirement about five years ago, when he came to Norfolk and has since lived with his daughter, Mrs. D. R. Broh. He was one of the best known business men in West Virginia and was widely known throughout Virginia and Maryland.

Mr. Mansbach is survived by seven children, four daughters and three sons. [Once again Isaac is not included in the list of survivors; the rest of the children were named and their residence locations as indicated above were identified.]

Mr. Mansbach was a Royal Arch Mason and had the distinction of being a Mason fifty years ago in the same lodge that conferred the degree on the late President William McKinley at Winchester, Va. He also was a member of Ohef [sic: Oheb] Shalom Temple.

H.H. was survived by his eight children and (eventually) seven grandchildren. He was buried next to his wife Nannie at Eastview Cemetery in Cumberland, Maryland.

Courtesy of John Fazenbaker
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85694927&PIpi=64039432

His children carried on his business and his name.

H.H. and Nannie’s youngest child, May, married in 1914; her husband was Sigmund Louis Emanuel, who was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1876, but had lived most of his life in New York City. In 1910, when he was 33, he was living with his parents and some of his siblings in Queens, New York, and owned a clothing manufacturing business with his father.

How did he meet May, who was living in Virginia? My guess—the Emanuels supplied clothing to the retail clothing business owned by the Mansbach family, and a connection was made. Or possibly May’s two sisters Hattie and Bertha who lived in New York set her up with Sigmund. May and Sigmund would have one child, a daughter Nanette born in 1916 in New York City.

In 1920, four of the Mansbach siblings were living in Norfolk: Louis, Charles, Bertha, and Fannie. In fact, Louis, Fannie, and Bertha were all living in one household, along with Fannie and Bertha’s husbands and children.

Mansbach siblings on 1920 census in Norfolk, VA
Year: 1920; Census Place: Norfolk Madison Ward, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: T625_1902; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 101; Image: 279

Their brother George was living in Baltimore, sisters May and Hattie in New York, and brother Isaac in the state hospital in Sykesville, Maryland.

The siblings appear to have remained close. In 1920, Louis traveled to St. John’s Newfoundland with Fannie and her family. In 1923, Louis, Hattie and her family, and Fannie all traveled to England together. Fannie’s husband Daniel Broh did not travel with them, and three years later he died of stomach cancer at age 60. According to his death certificate, he had been ill for eight years, so presumably he was not well enough in 1923 to travel with Fannie and her siblings.

Daniel Broh death certificate
Ancestry.com. Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: Virginia, Deaths, 1912–2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.

Charles and Louis traveled to Key West together in 1928. A year later Charles’ wife Regina died at age 47 of heart disease caused by rheumatic endocarditis, which she had contracted thirty years earlier, according to her death certificate.

Regina Rosenbaum Mansbach death certificate
Ancestry.com. Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: Virginia, Deaths, 1912–2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.

Thus, by 1930, three of the eight Mansbach children had lost their spouses: Louis, Charles, and Fannie. Fannie and Louis were living in the same household in Norfolk with their sister Bertha and her husband David Loewenstein and their son in 1930. None of them was working at that point. Although the census record lists Fannie as “Deborah Danial,” it is evident to me that this is Fannie based on the fact that “Deborah” is described as the sister of the head of household (Louis), is the same age that Fannie would have been in 1930, and was born in West Virginia. My guess is that the census enumerator heard “Fannie Broh” as “Danial Deborah” and wrote it that way on the form.

Mansbach siblings on 1930 census Norfolk, VA
Year: 1930; Census Place: Norfolk, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: 2470; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0050; Image: 888.0; FHL microfilm: 2342204

Charles, also a widower, was living with his son in Norfolk in 1930, running the department store. Also, by 1930 May and her husband Sigmund Emanuel and their daughter had moved to Norfolk, where Sigmund was working as the treasurer of the department store. Thus, in 1930 five of the eight siblings were living in Norfolk.

Isaac remained institutionalized, Hattie was still in New York, and George was in Baltimore. George was living with his wife Bessie, her brother Arthur, and her mother; both he and Arthur listed their occupations as retail clothing merchants.

In 1936, another Mansbach sibling lost a spouse when David Loewenstein, Bertha’s husband, died at age 68 from heart disease; his death certificate also notes that he had suffered from locomotor ataxia for 27 years.

David Loewenstein death certificate
Ancestry.com. Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: Virginia, Deaths, 1912–2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.

As the Mansbach siblings and their spouses entered their seventies in the 1940s, more and more of them passed away. Louis died November 9, 1940; he was 72 and died from stomach cancer. His brother-in-law Milton Hirschman, Hattie’s husband, died on April 29, 1942, in New York; he was 78. George Mansbach died August 13, 1946; he was 74. The Cumberland News (August 15, 1946, p.20), ran this obituary:

George Mansbach obituary

Again, Isaac is not mentioned as a survivor although he was still living at that time.

Charles Mansbach died four years later on April 4, 1950; he was 75.

That left just the four sisters and Isaac still living, and three of the four sisters were widows. They died in the 1950s: Bertha (1952), Fannie (1958), and Hattie (1959). They were 76, 85, and 90, respectively. Isaac died in 1963 at age 84. May outlived all her siblings and her husband Sigmund, who had died in 1963. She was 89 when she died in 1976. Unfortunately I was unable to locate obituaries for any of them.

When I think about the life and legacy of my cousin H.H. Mansbach, nephew of my great-great-grandfather Gerson Katzenstein, it is quite remarkable. From the beginning his life was filled with challenges. His mother died on the day he was born (July 3, 1840). He came to America as a sixteen year old, sailing with his uncle Gerson and family. He moved far from the family, living in several states including Georgia, where he joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and was injured twice in his four years of service in the Civil War.

Then he settled in West Virginia, married, and had eight children, meanwhile establishing himself as a very successful merchant. He lost his father and siblings all within a ten year period from 1883-1893, and then lost his wife Nannie in 1907. Five years later he was buried beside her at Eastview Cemetery in Cumberland, Maryland, the town where his wife had first lived in the US and where H.H. himself had lived for many years.

H.H. Mansbach
Courtesy of John Fazenbaker at FindAGrave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85694927&PIpi=56133066

His eight children benefited from his remarkable success as a merchant. Almost all of them were involved in some way in the family’s department store business. They all lived well. Many of them lived close to if not with each other in Norfolk, Virginia. Sadly, many of them also suffered losses— Louis had a child who died as a baby and then lost his wife Clara when she was in her thirties. Charles also was widowed at a young age as was Fannie. Isaac lived his entire adult life in a psychiatric facility.

But overall H.H. lived a good life with many successes and accomplishments. In addition, he was survived by seven grandchildren who continued his legacy.

Years of Progress and Growth for the Mansbach Family: 1893-1900

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Amy

By 1893, H.H. Mansbach had lost his father and both his brother and sister. It’s hard to know what kind of relationship he’d had with them all after serving on the opposing side of the Civil War, though it did appear that the families had some overlapping connections, as pointed out in my last post. But what happened to H.H. and his family after these losses?

As noted previously, by 1880, H.H. and Nannie had had seven children, and in 1887 they had an eighth child, May. By that time Nannie was over forty years old, and H.H. was 47.

H.H.’s business was doing very well, and according to this article in the April 1893 Piedmont Herald, by that time he had opened stores in Wheeling, West Virginia, as well as Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, where Nannie’s family continued to reside. It also appears from this article that by 1893, H.H. and Nannie were also residing in Cumberland. A partial transcription of the article (with paragraphing added for readability) appears below:

Image courtesy of John Fazenbaker from FindAGrave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85694927&PIpi=56133015

Possibly of all the establishments in the mercantile line in Piedmont and Westernport few are more familiar to our people or more widely known throughout this whole section of the country than the one whose firm name heads this article. The merchant tailoring business in this community has been inseparable from the name “Mansbach” for more than a quarter of a century.

As far back as 1866 the head of the firm located among us and established the business now conducted by himself and son. [biographical information previously described] In 1866 he came to Piedmont, and at once engaged in business, and such has been his industry, push, and enterprise that he has built up one of the largest and best known house of the kind among all these mountains. During the time this his firm-house has been among us he has ventured business at Wheeling, Cumberland, and Baltimore, in several cases conducting very large establishments at these points.

At present he manages personally a fine custom made tailoring establishment at Cumberland, Md., beside the large industry here. His son George is directly in charge of the Piedmont House, while Mr. Mansbach the senior gives his care to the Cumberland business. The firm name has changed in the course of the years, but Mr. Mansbach has always been the moving power in the several ventures that have been organized. The house is a progressive one, believes in the virtue of printers’ ink, and sustains its wide reputation by its systematic method of advertising. …

H.H. Mansbach
Courtesy of John Fazenbaker at FindAGrave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85694927&PIpi=56133066

Thus, H.H. by 1893 was quite a successful businessperson. In the 1890s the older Mansbach children began to marry and move out on their own. Hattie, the oldest daughter, married Milton Hirschman on December 26, 1893. Milton was born in Pennsylvania, at one time had lived in New York, but was living in Morgantown, West Virginia in 1893.

Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, West Virginia) January 2, 1894, p. 2

This evening at 7 o’clock Miss Hattie Mansbach, of Cumberland, and Milton Hirschman, of Morgantown, were married in the Jewish synagogue on South Centre Street. Rabbi Stern officiated. The bride is the daughter of H.H. Mansbach, a prominent merchant tailor, and has won much of her popularity as a singer. She has a highly cultured voice and has been much sought for by local operas, in several of which she has taken a prominent part. ….

The article then follows with a list of guests. The only names that I could recognize as being part of the Mansbach/Katzenstein family were Hattie’s siblings Fannie, Louis, and George, who were in the bridal party. Of course, this was shortly after Henrietta Mansbach Gump had died so perhaps it is not surprising that there are no Gump family members included on the list.

The family had another elaborate wedding on March 29, 1898, in Parkersburg, West Virginia when Louis Mansbach married Clara Nathan.

Cumberland Evening Times, March 31, 1898, p. 4

Again, the only familiar names here are those of the groom’s immediate family—his parents and his siblings. None of the children of either Henrietta Mansbach Gump or of Abraham Mansbach were listed among the attendees. So perhaps there were some lingering bad feelings between H.H. and his relatives. Hard to know.

In January 1899, Louis and Clara had a child, Frances N. Mansbach, who died just six months later on July 19, 1899. At first, I was led to believe that Frances was the daughter of Harry H. and Nannie Mansbach because that’s what it indicates on her FindAGrave memorial. But I was skeptical. In 1899, Nannie would have been about 53 years old, and she had not had a child in over 12 years. To me, it seemed more likely that this was the child of Louis Mansbach and his wife Clara.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=73282474&PIpi=45349678

Not only did Nannie’s advanced age support this conclusion, but on the 1900 census, Clara reported that she had had one child, still alive (see the last column below). There was, however, no child is living with them.

Louis and Clara Mansbach
1900 census
Year: 1900; Census Place: Fairmont Ward 4, Marion, West Virginia; Roll: 1764; Page: 19B; Enumeration District: 0053; FHL microfilm: 1241764

In addition, the 1900 census for H.H. and Nannie Mansbach reported that Nannie had had eight children, eight of whom were still living (last column on Nannie’s line). Frances would have been a ninth, if she were Nannie’s child.

Harry Mansbach and family
1900 census
Source Citation
Year: 1900; Census Place: Cumberland Ward 5, Allegany, Maryland; Roll: 604; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0128; FHL microfilm: 1240604

Finally, the 1910 census record for Clara Mansbach reported that Clara had had one child, but had no living children. Thus, it seemed to me that Frances Mansbach was the child of Louis and Clara Mansbach, not the child of HH and Nannie Mansbach.

Louis and Clara Mansbach
1910 census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Norfolk Ward 2, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: T624_1637; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 0026; FHL microfilm: 1375650

Thanks to Cathy Meder-Dempsey of Opening Doors in Brick Walls, I was able to confirm my hunch that Frances was the child of Louis and Clara (Nathan) Mansbach. Cathy pointed me to the West Virginia Vital Research Records Project, where I was able to locate both the birth and death records for little Frances Mansbach:

Frances Mansbach birth record
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=2874441&Type=Birth

Frabces Mansbach death record
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=5965737&Type=Death

The death record makes it quite clear that Frances was the child of Louis and Clara. She died of cholera infantum. How devastating that must have been for the couple, who’d only married a little over a year before their daughter’s death. They never had another child.

H.H. and Nannie’s second daughter Fannie was the next to marry; she married Daniel Rose Broh of Parkersburg, West Virginia, on September 6, 1898. Of particular interest in this wedding announcement is the fact that Jacob Katzenstein, Fannie’s first cousin and my great-grandmother Hilda’s brother, attended the wedding, suggesting that H.H. and his family had not severed all ties with their Katzenstein relatives even after his father and siblings had died. But Jacob was the only Katzenstein family member listed, and there were no Gumps or Mansbachs, except for Fannie’s siblings and parents.

Baltimore Sun, September 7, 1898, p. 6

Thus, by 1900, three of the four oldest children of H.H. and Nannie were married. Where were they and all the other members of the family of HH and Nannie Mansbach living when the 1900 census was taken?

The oldest son Louis Mansbach and his wife Clara were living in Fairmont, West Virginia, where Louis was a clothing merchant. Hattie (Mansbach) and Milton Hirschman were living with their first child Simon in Morgantown, West Virginia, where Milton was also a clothing merchant. And Fannie and her husband Daniel Broh were living in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1900 where he also was a clothing merchant. Thus, by 1900, the three married children of H.H. and Nannie’s children were all living in different towns in West Virginia, where all the men were working as clothing merchants. In addition, the second oldest son George Mansbach was still living in Piedmont, West Virginia, where he resided in a boarding house; he was working as a bookkeeper.

But by 1900, H.H. and Nannie (Hirsch) Mansbach had relocated with three of their other children, Charles, Bertha, and May, to Cumberland, Maryland, where Nannie’s family still resided. Charles and his father were working as dry goods merchants in Cumberland.



Embed from Getty Images

As for the Mansbach’s youngest son, Isaac, he was living in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (today part of Pittsburgh), studying law. He had previously been a student at Morgantown University.

Thus, the years after the Civil War were highly successful years for H.H. Mansbach and his family. His business was thriving, he was able to provide lavish weddings for his children, and he even had a son who was going to be a lawyer.

Harder times were ahead, however, in the 20th century.

****************

I was honored to be interviewed by Michelle Ganus Taggart for Geneabloggers. You can read the interview here.

After the Civil War: Did the Mansbach Family Come Together?

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Amy

As we saw in my last post, two of the nephews of my great-great-grandfather Gerson Katzenstein fought on opposite sides of the Civil War. Abraham Mansbach served (albeit briefly) in the Union army whereas his younger brother Heinemann, aka Henry or Harry or H.H. Mansbach, fought for the Confederacy. I thought it would be worthwhile to research their post-Civil War lives to see if I could learn what effect, if any, this had on their relationship.

After being injured twice fighting in the Confederate army, H.H. Mansbach settled in Piedmont, West Virginia, where he became a dry goods merchant. By 1868, H.H. had married Nannie Hirsch, who was born in Germany and whose parents had settled in Cumberland, Maryland, which is about 25 miles from Piedmont, West Virginia. In 1870, Nannie’s parents were still living in Cumberland, Maryland, where her father was a merchant. As of 1870, H.H. and Nannie had two children, Louis, born in 1868, and Hattie, born in 1869.

H.H. Mansbach and family 1870 US census
Year: 1870; Census Place: Piedmont, Mineral, West Virginia

Where was the rest of the Mansbach family during this time period? H.H.’s sister Henrietta was, by 1861, living in the United States and married to Gabriel Gump, who was also a German immigrant. By July 1862, they had settled in Morris, Illinois, where their first child Abraham was born. In June 1863 with the Civil War going on, Gabriel, a saloon keeper, registered for the draft in Illinois, so he was on the Union side of the war, opposing Henrietta’s brother H.H.

Gabriel Gump
Civil War draft registration
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); NAI: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 2 of 5

By 1870, Gabriel and Henrietta had moved to Cumberland, Maryland; they had three children at that time, Abraham (7), Louis (6), and Harry (2), all born in Illinois. Also living with them by that time was Henrietta’s father, Marum Mansbach, who had emigrated from Germany on August 6, 1864.[1]

Marum Mansbach on passenger manifest 1864
Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Microfilm No.: K_1710

Gabriel Gump and family
1870 US census
Year: 1870; Census Place: District 6, Allegany, Maryland

Thus, in 1870, H.H. Mansbach’s sister Henrietta and father Marum were living in Cumberland, Maryland, the same town where H.H.’s in-laws were living and where his wife Nannie had lived herself before marrying H.H. in 1868. I find it hard to believe that this was just coincidence and thus take it as a sign that H.H. still had a relationship with his family despite the fact that he’d fought for the Confederacy while his brother Abraham and his brother-in-law Gabriel had been on the side of the Union.

Cumberland, Maryland, where the Gump, Mansbach, and Hirsch families were living in 1870. English: {City of Cumberland, http://www.ci.cumberland.md.us} Category:Images of Cumberland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for Abraham Mansbach, brother of H.H. and Henrietta, he had married Eliza Gump in Philadelphia on January 6, 1861. Eliza was the younger sister of Gabriel Gump, husband of Abraham’s sister Henrietta. Abraham and Eliza had a daughter Mollie, born in October 1866. I was unable to locate them on the 1870 census, but in 1873, they were living in Baltimore where Abraham was engaged in the wholesale liquor business.

Marriage record for Abraham Mansbach and Eliza Gump
Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 792
Description
Organization Name : Congregation Rodeph Shalom

Thus, in some way the Hirsch-Mansbach-Gump families were all interconnected by marriage and/or geography. Henrietta (Mansbach) and Gabriel Gump were living in the same town as HH Mansbach’s in-laws in 1870. Abraham Mansbach was married to Gabriel Gump’s sister. Perhaps they all knew each other from the “old country” or perhaps they’d all just met after immigrating to the US. But it certainly seems that at a minimum, H.H. had not been banished from the family since he somehow ended up marrying the daughter of his sister’s neighbors in Cumberland.

Between 1870 and 1880, the families of the Mansbach siblings grew. H.H. and Nannie had five more children in that decade: George (1871), Fannie (1873), Charles (1875), Bertha (1876), and Isaac (1879). Thus, by 1880, there were seven children in the family; they were still living in Piedmont, West Virginia, where Harry continued to work as a merchant.

HH Mansbach and family
1880 US census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Piedmont, Mineral, West Virginia; Roll: 1408; Family History Film: 1255408; Page: 152C; Enumeration District: 034

By 1880, Henrietta and Gabriel Gump were no longer living in Cumberland, Maryland. They had moved to Baltimore where Gabriel was now in the liquor business with his brother-in-law Abraham Mansbach. Henrietta and Gabriel now had four sons: Abraham (17), Louis (16), Harry (12), and Joseph (9). Marum Mansbach was still living with them as well.

Gabriel Gump and family
1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Baltimore, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 501; Family History Film: 1254501; Page: 290C; Enumeration District: 121; Image: 0760

Abraham Mansbach, brother of Henrietta and H.H., was still living in Baltimore in 1880, working in the liquor business with Gabriel, as stated above. Abraham and his wife Eliza (Gump) now had two children: Mollie (fourteen) and Jerome (six months).

Title : Baltimore, Maryland, City Directory, 1880
Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

The 1880s saw the Mansbach family suffer two big losses. First on April 3, 1883, Marum Mansbach died at age 83. The German-language newspaper for Baltimore, the Deutsche Correspondent, ran this obituary and burial notice on April 5 and 6, respectively:

marum-mansbach-second-article-april-5-1883-deutsche-correspondent-baltimore

Der Deutsche Correspondent – 5 Apr 1883, Thu – Page 4

As translated by those at German Genealogy Facebook group, the obituary reads:

Death of a well-known old German man. One of the oldest Jewish men in Baltimore, Marum Mansbach, died of throat cancer in his 83rd year, on Monday evening at the house of his son-in-law G. Gump, 26 South Green St/Rd. Mr Mansbach was born in Maden, Electorate of Hessen, and came to Philadelphia in 1865. From Philadelphia he moved to Cumberland, Md, and then ten years ago he moved here with his son-in-law. His wife died 43 years ago, leaving him three children who are still alive, sons A. and H. Mansback and Mrs Henriette Gump. The elder of the sons runs a Whiskey wholesalers with his brother-in-law Mr Gump, and the younger has settled in Wheeling, W.-V. The funeral will take place this morning at 10 am at the cemetery of the Hanover St/Rd Synagogue.

marum-mansbach-death-notice-april-1883-deutsche-correspondent-baltimore

Der Deutsche Correspondent – 6 Apr 1883, Fri – Page 4

The burial notice was translated to say:

Burial. – The mortal remains of Marum Mansbach were taken yesterday morning from the house of his son-in-law G. Gump, 26 South Greene Road, to his final resting place in the Jewish cemetery on Trapp Road, accompanied by numerous mourners. Rabbi Dr Szold gave a moving funeral address. Pall-bearers were H. Hamburger, N. Frank, J. Eisenberg, S. Dettinger, M. Kaufmann and B. Brettenheimer

Then, just four years later on November 18, 1887, Marum’s son Abraham Mansbach, the first of my Katzenstein relatives to come to the US, died unexpectedly while on business in Virginia. His obituary ran in English in The Baltimore Sun and in German in the Deutsche Correspondent:

Der Deutsche Correspondent – 21 Nov 1887 – Page 4

Here is a translation of the German version:

At the age of 53 years, on Friday morning, Abraham Mansbach, the senior member of the local spirits company, Mansbach and Gump, died very unexpectedly in Culpeper, Virginia, where he had been engaged in business affairs yesterday for eight days. On Thursday he had written to his business partner, Mr. Gabriel Gump, that he was perfectly well; on Friday, however, the named gentleman received a telegram, saying that Herr Mansbach was seriously ill, and then in the afternoon he received a second telegram, which reported his death. His nephew, Mr. Harry Gump, went to Culpeper, accompanied by Alexander Wegner, a long-time friend of the deceased, to fetch the corpse with which they returned the same night. Mr. Mansbach came from Germany and came to America as a young man, where he first ran a dry goods business in Philadelphia; later, however, he moved to Baltimore, and since 1873 has been involved in the trade of spirits. He was particularly well known for his great kindness, and belonged to several societies, including the “Legion of Honor”, the “Ber. Works” and the “Royal Arcanum-Lodge.”

The English version says essentially the same thing:

The Baltimore Sun – 19 Nov 1887, Sat – Page 4

Abraham Mansbach was survived by his wife, Eliza, his daughter, Mollie, age 21, and his son Jerome, who was nine years old.

Then six years after Abraham’s death, his sister Henrietta died on March 15, 1893. She was sixty-one years old and was survived by her husband Gabriel Gump and their four adult sons, Abraham, Louis, Harry and Joseph.

henrietta-mansbach-gump-death-notice-1893

Baltimore Sun, March 16, 1893, p. 4

Gabriel Gump and his sister Eliza Gump Mansbach were thus both widowed by 1893, and H.H. Mansbach had lost his father, his brother, and his sister in the ten year period starting in 1883. Although it is hard to know exactly what relationship H.H. had with his family of origin by then, it nevertheless must have been sad for him to lose them all within such a short period of time.

More on what happened to the families of Henrietta, Abraham, and HH in the 20^th century in posts to follow.

[1] Sailing with Marum were two young women: Bertha, age 24, and Elise, age 17. I’ve not yet determined who they were and what relationship they might have had to Marum.

Brotmanblog: A Family Journey

Adventures in Genealogy

Category Archives: West Virginia

The Legacy of H.H. Mansbach: Motherless Boy, Civil War Hero, Father of Eight, and Successful Merchant

Years of Progress and Growth for the Mansbach Family: 1893-1900

After the Civil War: Did the Mansbach Family Come Together?

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