Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part XII: The Mystery of His Stepmother Francis

Posted on by
37

Will you help me solve a mystery?

The next page in Milton Goldsmith’s family album was devoted to his stepmother, Francis (sometimes spelled Frances) Spanier Goldsmith. But his story about her background and childhood left me with quite a mystery.

Milton was fifteen when his father remarried, and from this tribute to Francis, it is clear that he was extremely fond of and grateful to her.

Francis Spanier Goldsmith, the second wife of Father, Abraham Goldsmith, was born in Germany in 1854. Left an orphan at an early age, she was brought up in the home of Rabbi Krimke of Hanover, Germany. At the age of 20 she came to America, and having an Uncle, Louis Spanier, living in Washington, D.C. she went there for a while but soon settled in Baltimore, and became friends with our cousins, the Siegmunds. It was there that father met her, having been introduced by Mr. S. Father had been a widower for two years with five young children to bring up, and was looking for a wife, a lady with no relatives. He fell in love with Miss Spanier, proposed after two days and married within two months. She was 22 and he past forty. She was an attractive girl, dark-eyed, brunette, speaking a cultivated German but very little English;- of an amiable disposition. Father’s greatest mistake was to keep the parents of his first wife in the house. This naturally led to friction. A brother, Julius Spanier soon came in our home and lived there for a while. Later a sister, Rose, came from Hanover and also lived with us for several years. She eventually married and lived in Birmingham, Ala, where her brother also made his home. Within a year the oldest son, Alfred was born, and within five years there came Bertha, Alice and Louis. The later years of father’s life were embittered by sickness, loss of money and finally a stroke, rendering him helpless. He suffered for 12 years before he passed away in 1902. During that time Francis was an untireing [sic] nurse and faithful companion. She died of a stroke in Philada, 1908.

[handwritten underneath] She was distantly related to Heinrich Heine.]

I found this essay heartwarming, but also sad. Francis was orphaned, married a man  with five children who was more than twenty years older than she was, had to put up with his first wife’s parents, raise five stepchildren plus four of her own, and tend to Abraham when he suffered financial and medical problems. What a hard life! But how much of Milton’s essay was true?

When I first wrote about Francis over a year ago, I noted that I’d been able to find very little about her background, so finding this essay was very exciting because it provided many clues about Francis’ background. I’ve placed in bold above the many hints in Milton’s essay about people and places that I thought might reveal more about Francis.1

For example, who was Rabbi Krimke who allegedly brought up Francis? Was he just some rabbi from Hanover, or did Milton provide such a specific name because he was a well-known rabbi? It turns out that it was the latter. In Die Rabbiner der Emanzipationszeit in den deutschen, böhmischen und großpolnischen Ländern 1781-1871 (Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach, Carsten Wilke, Walter de Gruyte, eds. 2010)( p. 549), there was this short biography of Rabbi Isaac Jakob Krimke of Hanover:

Here is a partial translation:

Rabbi Isaak Jakob Krimke, born in Hamburg in 24 June 1824, died in Hannover 20 Nov 1886. From orthodox school, 1857 third foundation rabbi at the Michael Davidschen Foundation School in Hannover, at the same time teacher at the Meyer Michael Foundation School and lecturer at the Jewish Teacher seminary, around 1869 first Foundation Rabbi. at the Michael Davidschen Foundation. Married to Rosa Blogg (died 1889), daughter of the Hebrew scholar Salomon Ephraim B.  ….  Was buried in the Jewish cemetery An der Strangriede. The tombstone for the foundation rabbi Isaac Jakob Krimke is preserved; it is adorned with a Magen David and also decorated with strong oak leaves….

I then fell into a very deep rabbit hole when I tried to track down Louis, Julius, and Rose Spanier, Francis’ uncle, brother, and sister, respectively. I was able to find a Joseph Spanier living with his wife and family in Birmingham, Alabama, on the 1910, 1920 and 1930 census reports.2  But Joseph Spanier was born in England, according to all three census records. I was skeptical as to whether this was Julius Spanier, the brother of Francis Spanier Goldsmith living in Birmingham, as mentioned in Milton’s essay.

Jos. Spanier and family, 1910, US census, Census Place: Birmingham Ward 2, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: T624_18; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0047; FHL microfilm: 1374031
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

But when I searched further for Julius Spanier, I found this page from the 1861 English census:

Spanier family, 1861 English census, Class: RG 9; Piece: 243; Folio: 61; Page: 28; GSU roll: 542598
Enumeration District: 20, Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census

This certainly appears to be the same man described in Milton’s essay and found on the census records for Birmingham, Alabama, as he was the right age, born in England, and had two sisters, one named Frances, one named Rose. Could it just be coincidence? Also, my Francis was the same age as the Frances on the 1861 English census. This certainly appeared to be the same family as the Spanier family described in Milton’s essay about his stepmother.

What really sealed the deal for me were the names of Joseph Spanier’s children in Birmingham, Alabama. His first child was Adolph; Julius Spanier’s father on the 1861 census was Adolphus. Julius Spanier’s mother was Bertha. Joseph Spanier also had a daughter named Bertha.

And consider the names of the first two children Francis Spanier had with Abraham Goldsmith: a son named Alfred, a daughter named Bertha. It all could not simply be coincidence. I hypothesized that Joseph Spanier was born Julius Spanier in England to Adolphus and Bertha Spanier and that Francis Spanier Goldsmith was his sister.

But then things got murky. Look again at the 1861 English census. It shows that Frances was not born in Germany, but in Boston—in the US. Every American record I had for Francis indicated that she was born in Germany, not the United States. How could I square that with the 1861 English census and the connection to the siblings mentioned in Milton’s essay—Julius and Rose?

And if Frances was born in Boston and living in England in 1861, is it really possible that she did not speak much English when she met Abraham in 1876, as Milton claimed in his essay?

Spanier family, 1861 English census, Class: RG 9; Piece: 243; Folio: 61; Page: 28; GSU roll: 542598
Enumeration District: 20, Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census

Then I found a birth record for Frances Spanier born in Boston to “Radolph” and Bertha Spanier on September 10, 1854. “Radolph” was clearly a misspelling of Adolph, and this had to be the same Frances Spanier who appeared on the 1861 English census.  Francis Spanier Goldsmith had a birth date of September 13, 1855, on her death certificate, so just a year and few days different from this Boston birth record (though the death certificate said she was born in Germany.)

“Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-XHB7-DJH?cc=1536925&wc=M61J-KNL%3A73565601 : 1 March 2016), 004023162 > image 102 of 857; Massachusetts Archives, Boston.

Frances Spanier Goldsmith death certificate
Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Certificate Number Range: 006001-010000, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966

I also found records showing that Francis Spanier Goldsmith’s uncle Louis was living in Boston in the 1850s.3 It certainly seemed more and more like Francis Spanier Goldsmith was born in Boston, not Germany, as Milton had written and American records reported.

What about the story that she was an orphan and raised by Rabbi Krimke? Francis’ mother Bertha died in England in 1862,4 when Francis was seven or eight years old, so she was partially orphaned as a child. But her father Adolphus died in England in 1873, so Francis was eighteen or nineteen when he died.5 But when Francis immigrated to the US in 1876, the ship manifest stated that she was a resident of Germany, not England.

Franziska Spanier, Year: 1876; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 403; Line: 1; List Number: 344, Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Was Milton’s story just a family myth, or was there some way to reconcile it with these records?

Here is my working hypothesis:

After Bertha Spanier died in 1862, Adolphus was left with five  young children. Francis (then seven or eight) and at least some of her siblings were sent to Hanover, Germany, to live with Rabbi Isaak Jakob Krimke, as the family story goes. By the time Francis immigrated to the US fourteen years later, she might have forgotten most of the English she once knew, so she was speaking only German, and the Goldsmith family only knew that she was an orphan who had come from Germany so assumed she was born there, and the family myth grew and stuck.

How ironic would it be if Francis was, like Milton and his siblings, a child whose mother died, leaving her father with five young children? After all, Francis also ended up marrying a man whose first wife died, leaving him with five young children. Francis may have saved her stepchildren from the fate she might have suffered—being taken away from her father after her mother died and sent to live in a foreign country  with a stranger, who happened to be a well-known rabbi.

What do you think? Am I missing something here? Where else can I look to try and solve this mystery?

This is Part XII of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V,  Part VI, Part VII , Part VIII,  Part IX,  Part X and Part XI at the links.

 

  1. I also spent far too much time trying to track down the Siegmund family of Washington, DC, whom Milton described as his cousins. I had no luck figuring this one out and finally forced myself to stop looking. I also resisted the temptation to try and track down the distant connection between Francis Spanier and Heinrich Heine, the great nineteenth century German-Jewish poet. ↩
  2. Jos. Spanier, 1910 US census, Census Place: Birmingham Ward 2, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: T624_18; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0047; FHL microfilm: 1374031, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census; Joe Spanier, 1920 US census, Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: T625_25; Page: 21A; Enumeration District: 99, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census; Joseph E. Spanier, 1930 US census, Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Page: 32B; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 2339762, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Birth record for Clara Spanier, daughter of Louis Spanier, Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXDT-91R : 11 March 2018), Clara Spanier, 01 Oct 1855, Boston, Massachusetts; citing reference ID #p72 #3222, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 1,428,236. ↩
  4. Bertha Spanier death record, Inferred County: London, Volume: 1c, Page: 147, FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 ↩
  5. Adolphe Spanier death record, Inferred County: London, Volume: 1d, Page: 577, FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 ↩

Henry Goldsmith’s Growing and Successful Family, 1900-1910

Posted on by
23

As we saw in the last post, Henry Goldsmith and his family suffered two terrible losses in the early years of the 20th century. First, his son Edison was killed in a horrendous train accident in 1903. Then Henry’s wife Sarah died from heart failure in 1907.

But not all the news was bad for the family in the first decade of the new century. Henry’s oldest child, J.W. Goldsmith and his wife Jennie had two children in this decade, Eleanor, born August 20, 1901,1 and J. Edison, obviously named in memory of J.W.’s brother Edison, born March 15, 1908. In 1910, J.W. and his family were living in Connellsville where J.W. had a retail clothing store.2

J Edison Goldsmith birth record, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1910; Box Number: 146; Certificate Number Range: 037775-040473, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1911

There were also two marriages in the family in the 1900s decade. Milton Goldsmith married Luba Natalia Robin on March 25, 1905, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Milton Goldsmith marriage record, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania County Marriages, 1852-1973; County: Allegheny; Year Range: 1905; Roll Number: 549855, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, County Marriage Records, 1845-1963

Luba was born in Russia on January 17, 1879, and had immigrated with three younger siblings, arriving in the US on July 23, 1895, when she was sixteen.3 Just seven years later in May, 1902, Luba graduated from Western Pennsylvania Medical College (now University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine)—the only woman in a class of 48.4 She pursued a career in public health, working in the “vaccination corps” of the Pittsburgh Board of Health and then as a tenement house inspector for the Board of Health. She is mentioned in newspapers as a speaker on public health issues beginning as early as 1903.

Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, October 25, 1903. p.2

Milton and Luba were engaged in December 1904,5 and married March 25, 1905, in Pittsburgh.

Robin-Goldsmith, The Weekly Courier, 25 Mar 1905, Sat, Page 1

Reading this article about the wedding, you would have no idea how accomplished Luba was. How could they discuss Milton’s education and profession but not that of his wife? And if you look back at the marriage license above, you will see that it asks for the groom’s occupation, but not the bride’s—a clear reflection of the sexism of those times.

Their honeymoon to Europe was not merely a pleasure trip; they also took post-graduate medical courses.

“Dr Goldsmith Home,” The Weekly Courier, 13 Oct 1905, Fri, Page 13

Milton and Luba had their first child, Norman Robin Goldsmith, on June 15, 1907, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In 1910, Luba and Milton were both practicing medicine and living in Pittsburgh.6

Norman Robin Goldsmith birth record, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1910; Box Number: 88; Certificate Number Range: 067051-070050
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1911

Milton’s younger brother Samuel also was married during the first decade of the century. On April 26, 1906, he married Rae Tumpson, the daughter of Max and Sophie Tumpsen. (Interestingly, the application for a marriage license did ask for the bride’s occupation.)

Samuel R Goldsmith marriage record, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Marriages, 1852-1968

Rae was born Recha Tumpowski in Belgard, Germany, on March 27, 1883. She and her parents immigrated to the US when Rae was just a year old.7 In 1900 they were living in Gouverneur, New York, where her father Max was in the retail clothing business.8 But later that year, they relocated to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where Max opened a new store. 9

After marrying, Samuel and Rae stayed in Connellsville.  Their son Jack Tumpson Goldsmith was born there on January 28, 1909.10 In 1910, they were living in Connellsville where Samuel (known as S.R.) was engaged in the general practice of law.11

Also in this decade, Henry’s son Walter graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Dental School in 1905, graduating with high honors and ranked third in his class:

“Graduated in Dentistry,” The Weekly Courier, 14 Jun 1905, Wed, Page 4

In 1910, Henry Goldsmith, now a widower, was living with five of his adult children and his niece Lena Katz. Henry continued to work in the insurance business; his son Benjamin was in the clothing business with his brother J.W., Walter was a dentist, Henry’s daughter Florence was a music teacher, Oliver a clerk in the insurance business, and Helen was not working outside the home, but still in school.

Henry Goldsmith, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Connellsville Ward 1, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1344; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0006; FHL microfilm: 1375357
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

Thus, in the first decade of the 20th century, there were two weddings and four grandchildren born. Four of Henry Goldsmith’s children had become professionals: Milton was a doctor, Samuel was a lawyer,  Walter was a dentist, and Florence was a music teacher. Henry must have been very proud and likely missed having his wife Sarah to share in all these weddings, births, and accomplishments.

More accomplishments and more weddings and births were to come in the next decade. But first Henry had another obstacle to overcome.

  1. SSN: 573546121, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  2. Jacob W. Goldsmith and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Connellsville Ward 5, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1344; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0012; FHL microfilm: 1375357, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Luba Rabinowicz, passenger manifest, Year: 1895; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 645; Line: 6, Source Information
    Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  4. “Forty-Eight Young Medical Students Will Soon Begin Practicing,” The Pittsburgh Press, May 25, 1902, p. 4. ↩
  5. “Engagement Announced,” The Connellsville (PA) Daily Courier, 03 Dec 1904, Sat, Page 8. ↩
  6. Milton and Luba Robin Goldsmith and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Pittsburgh Ward 11, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1302; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0422; FHL microfilm: 1375315, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Recha Tumpowski, passenger manifest, Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Microfilm No.: K_1731, Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 ↩
  8. Max Tumpowsky and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Gouverneur, Saint Lawrence, New York; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0093; FHL microfilm: 1241156,
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. “New Clothing Store,” The Weekly Courier, 05 Oct 1900, Fri, Page 6. ↩
  10. Jack Tumpson Goldsmith, passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: U.S. Citizen Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2774842; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85,
    Ancestry.com. Florida, Passenger Lists, 1898-1963 ↩
  11. Samuel R Goldsmith and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Connellsville Ward 5, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1344; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0012; FHL microfilm: 1375357, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩

Over Sixty Killed in Train Wreck in 1903, including My Cousin Edison Goldsmith

Posted on by
20

In 1900, Henry Goldsmith and his wife Sarah Jaffa were living with eight of their nine surviving children in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where Henry was in the insurance business.  Their oldest child, JW, was already married and working as a merchant in Connellsville. Two of their sons were professionals: Milton was a doctor and Samuel was in law school. Henry and Sarah had lost one child, Albert, as a young boy, in 1891, but otherwise life must have seemed very good.

Then on December 23, 1903, their son Edison Goldsmith, just 23 years old, was one of over sixty people killed in a horrendous train accident.

“Sixty Dead in Railway Wreck,” The New York Times, December 24, 1903, p. 1

One of the worst wrecks in the history of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad occurred at 7:45 o’clock to-night at Laurel Run, eight miles west of Connellsville, on the Pittsburg Division of the Baltimore and Ohio.  The “Duquesne Limited,” the fastest train on the road, was wrecked, killing sixty-outright, fatally injuring eighteen, and slightly injuring more than fifty.

The wreck was caused by the breaking of the castings on a carload of bridge timbers on a freight train that passed Laurel Run not more than fifteen minutes before the arrival of the limited. The freight proceeded without noticing the accident, and the express train, running at a speed of more than sixty miles an hour, crashed into the timbers before the engineer even had time to apply the emergency brakes.

The baggage car was thrown over the embankment into the Youghiogheny River, and the smoker, which contained more than forty passengers, was thrown over the engine. The steam dome of the engine was broken, and the escaping steam and water filled the car, scalding the passengers.

Every occupant of the car was dead before the rescuers reached the scene of the wreck. The train contained six cars, one baggage, one smoker, one sleeper, and a dining car, all of which were badly wrecked. Engineer William Thornley and Fireman Cook were caught under the wrecked engine and cannot be extricated for several hours.  The tracks are completely torn up, and traffic over the road cannot be entirely resumed for at least a day.

Nearly all the passengers in the smoker were bound for Philadelphia. Many of them were to take passage on an ocean liner on Saturday for the old country. Not one of these escaped alive.

[Lists of the known dead and injured followed the text of the article, with Edison Goldsmith being among those listed as dead.]

Edison’s funeral was held on December 25, 1903. The newspaper described him as “a popular young man” and said that “an immense concourse attended the services.”1

Edison’s parents, Henry and Sarah, sued the railroad for $20,000 for negligently causing the death of their son. A jury awarded them $3,345, after being instructed by the judge that they should put a reasonable limit on the award. The judge told the jury, “The young man might or might not come up to the expectations of his parents had he not been killed. That should be determined by you in fixing a value on his life.” The news article also noted that an appeal would probably be taken from the verdict, but I could not find any reports of further legal proceedings.2

Losing another son must have broken Henry and Sarah’s hearts. In Sarah’s case, perhaps in a more literal way. She died of heart failure on October 25, 1907, just six days after her 56th birthday.

Sarah Jaffa Goldsmith death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1965; Certificate Number Range: 093741-097660, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966

But fortunately, there was also some good news for Henry and his eight surviving children in the first decade of the 20th century. More on that in my next post.

 

  1. “Railroad to Aid City in Giving All A Burial,” The Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle, December 26, 1903, p. 1. ↩
  2. “Verdict of $3,345 In Goldsmith Case,” The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, November 30, 1905, p, 5. ↩

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part XI: Tributes to His Father Abraham

Posted on by
27

This is Part X of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V,  Part VI, Part VII , Part VIII,  Part IX and Part X at the links.

The next two pages in Milton Goldsmith’s family album focus on his father Abraham. The first of those two pages consists of newspaper articles about Abraham.

Unfortunately I do not know the actual papers from which these articles were clipped, but this obituary was dated within the week after Abraham’s death on January 27, 1902, in Philadelphia:

Abraham was certainly active in his community.  How he had the time while raising all those children and earning a living is bewildering.

The next article that appears on this page relates to a tribute paid to Abraham by United Hebrew Charities at the time of his death:

The next article must have been published while Abraham was still alive. It relates to a resolution adopted by United Hebrew Charities to honor Abraham at the time he resigned from his position as secretary of that organization. Unfortunately the clipping is not in good condition and some of the words are not legible.

The second page of Milton’s tributes to his father Abraham has some items that are more personal.

This biography appears on that page. Again, Milton did not indicate where or when this was published:

This note written by Abraham when his wife Cecelia died seems almost journalistic in tone except for the opening and the last sentence:

My dear Cecilia died on Nov 8th 1874 after a short illness.

She complained of not feeling well on Monday evening the 2nd [?] but did not get [?] sick until the 5th in the PM. 

She was buried on Thursday the 12th November 11 o’clk am at Mount Sinai Cemetery.

Peace to her asked.

To the left and under Abraham’s note about his wife’s death, there is a poem by Milton written sometime in the 1890s, long after his mother died:

I assume this poem was somehow inspired by Milton’s experience losing his mother when he was just thirteen.

Under the poem he pasted this note written by his father Abraham in 1877:

My son Milton left from New York for Europe on the City of Richmond on Saturday morning Sept [?] 11:25

I do wonder whether there is some connection between the poem and the note. Anyone have any ideas?

The remaining two notes are in German.  I turned to the German Genealogy group for help.

The first note is dated around the same time as the note about Milton’s trip to Europe, September 1877:

The members of the German Genealogy group transcribed this as follows, “Gott sei mit dir! Der liebe Gott behüte und beschütze dich und gebe dir seinen Segen. Amen”

And translated it as, “May God be with you! May the good God keep and protect you and give you His blessing. From your father, Abr(aham) Goldsmith.”

Alfred, Abraham’s first child with Francis, his second wife, was born on August 11, 1877, just 20 days before Abraham wrote this note. I assume this was a prayer for his newborn son. I wonder where it had been kept that Milton found it and preserved it for posterity.

And then finally there is this note:

This one was transcribed by a German Genealogy group member as, “Auf Alle deiner Wegen, bleib Tugendhaft und rein; dann wird der himmlische Segen, stets deine Begleiter sein. Dein Papa, Abr. Goldsmith”

That translates to, “In all your ways, remain virtuous and pure, then heavenly blessings will always be your companions. Your papa, Abr. Goldsmith.”

As this one is dated 1880, I think Abraham wrote this blessing for his daughter Alice, who was born on August 29, 1880.

I wonder whether Abraham wrote these notes of blessing for each of his many children and if so, why only these two have survived. And where did he keep them that Milton found them and preserved them so that they could be read on the internet almost 140 years later?

My Double-Cousin Henry Goldsmith, Part I

Posted on by
24

Having completed the stories of my four times great-uncle Simon Goldsmith’s two oldest children, Jacob and Lena, I will now turn to the stories of his two youngest children, Henry and Hannah, who were born to Simon’s second wife, Fradchen Schoenthal, the sister of my great-great-grandfather Levi Schoenthal.

As I’ve discussed earlier, Henry (1847) and Hannah (1848), who were thus my double cousins, were born in Baltimore after Simon and Fradchen had immigrated to the US.  They lost their mother Fradchen (also known as Fanny) in 1850 when they were both very young—Henry was three, Hannah was two. Simon then lived with his oldest child Jacob in Washington, Pennsylvania, so that he would have support to raise these two young motherless children. This set of posts will focus on Henry and his adulthood.

By 1870 when he was 23, Henry had moved to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where his older half-sister Lena had been living, and in 1871, he married Sarah Jaffe, whose brother Solomon would later marry Henry’s niece Leonora. Henry was a clothing merchant. Between 1871 and 1889, Sarah gave birth to ten children: Jacob W. Goldsmith (1871), Benjamin (1873), Milton (1877), Samuel (1879), Edison (1880), Walter (1881), Florence (1883), Albert (1884), Oliver (1887), and Helen (1889). In total, Henry and Sarah had eight boys and two girls. All were born in Connellsville.

The family suffered a tragic loss when little Albert, just six years old, died on June 4, 1891, from spinal meningitis.

The surviving nine children were growing up in the 1890s. The oldest child, Jacob, known as J.W. (perhaps to prevent confusion with his uncle Jacob Goldsmith and cousin Jacob Goldsmith) at one point went to Trinidad, Colorado, to work for Sol Jaffa,  his mother’s brother.

The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, September 9, 1892, p. 5

But J.W. returned to Connellsville, and on August 16, 1899, he married Jennie Clark Grant, the daughter of Scottish immigrants, William Grant and Jessy Russell.1 Jennie was born in Pittsburgh on May 17, 1873, and in 1880, she and her parents were living in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where her father was an iron peddler.2 According to their marriage record, Jennie was residing in Connellsville at the time of their marriage, and J.W. was working as a merchant:

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania County Marriages, 1852-1973; County: Allegheny; Year Range: 1899; Roll Number: 549736
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, County Marriage Records, 1845-1963

They settled in Connellsville where J.W. continued to work as a merchant.3

Milton Goldsmith, the third oldest child of Henry and Sarah (Jaffa) Goldsmith, was a star student. (This Milton Goldsmith, born in 1877, should not be confused with the Milton Goldsmith, the author, who was his older cousin and the son of Abraham Goldsmith, not Henry Goldsmith.) He was tied for number one in his class at the Connellsville high school in 1895 with a 98 2/5 grade point average4 and was praised in the local paper for his speech at commencement. The words the newspaper quoted from his speech hold just as true today and are needed even more so- that they were in 1895:

“Just so surely as the Press demands some needed reform, so certainly will it expose some proposed fraud. Take its freedom and our doom is certain. Foster and maintain it, and we move onward, ever onward.”

"Commencement Last Night," The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, May 24, 1895, p. 1.

“Commencement Last Night,” The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, May 24, 1895, p. 1.

Milton then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated seventh in his class in 1899. He then commenced a residency at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.5

Milton’s younger brother Samuel also must have been a good student. In 1899 he was studying law at the University of Michigan.6

Meanwhile, Henry Goldsmith had changed careers by the 1890s. As seen in numerous ads that ran regularly in the Connellsville newspaper, The Weekly Courier, Henry Goldsmith had gone into the business of selling fire insurance in the 1890s:

The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, October 15, 1897, p. 4

The 1900 census found eight of Henry and Sarah’s surviving nine children living at home. Benjamin (27) was working as a clothing merchant, Milton (23) was a physician, Samuel (21) was in school, Edison (20) was a clerk in the insurance office, and Walter (18) was a shoe salesman. The youngest three children were still in school: Florence (17), Oliver (13), and Helen (9). In addition, Sarah’s niece Lena Katz, daughter of her sister Juetel Jaffa Katz, was also living with Henry and Sarah and their children.  The only child not still living at home was J.W., but he and his wife Jennie were living close by in Connellsville, where J.W. was working as a merchant.7

Henry Goldsmith and family, 1900 US census,Census Place: Connellsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0007; FHL microfilm: 1241409
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The first decade of the 20th century would bring some terrible heartache to the family, but also some great joy.

  1. Jessy Russell and William Grant, 1870 census, Census Place: Allegheny Ward 4, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: M593_1291; Page: 398A; Family History Library Film: 552790, Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Grant family, 1880 US census, Census Place: Allegheny, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1087; Page: 409C; Enumeration District: 015, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. JW Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Connellsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0008; FHL microfilm: 1241409,
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. “Commencement Last Night,” The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, May 24, 1895, p. 1. ↩
  5. The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, June 30, 1899, p. 7; The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, August 24, 1900, p. 6. ↩
  6. The Connellsville (PA) Weekly Courier, December 15, 1899, p. 28.# ↩
  7. JW Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Connellsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0008; FHL microfilm: 1241409, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩

Lena Goldsmith Basch, Final Chapter: Joseph Basch’s Twins

Posted on by
19

In 1930, Joseph Basch and his wife Ida Steinhauser were living in Columbus, Ohio, with their twin children, Elene, a Smith College graduate, and Joseph, Jr., a graduate of Ohio State University. Joseph, Sr., continued to work in the tobacco business with his brother Joel.

Elene Basch married Robert Weiler on October 14, 1931, in Columbus. Robert, the son of Adolph Weiler and Blanche Kahn, was born on December 31, 1902, in Hartford, Indiana.1 His father was born in Germany, and his mother was born in Indiana. By 1910, the family had moved to Columbus, where Adolph Weiler was a clothing merchant.2 Robert graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and in 1930 was living in Marion, Ohio, working in real estate sales.3

Ancestry.com. Ohio, County Marriage Records, 1774-1993

Elene and Robert settled in Bexley, Ohio, and had two children during the 1930s. In 1940, they were still living in Bexley, and Robert was working as an insurance broker.4 Elene’s parents Joseph and Ida were living in Columbus, and Joseph continued to own Levy Mendel, the tobacco business.5

Elene’s twin, Joseph, Jr., had moved to Highland Park, Michigan, by 1930, where he was working as a taxi driver and lodging with a family.6 (He was enumerated twice in 1930, once with his parents in Columbus and once in Highland Park.7) By 1935 he was living in Detroit and was still there in 1940, working as a parking lot attendant.8

I was able to get more insight about Joseph, Jr., and his mother Ida from these excerpts from the oral history interview conducted by the Columbus Jewish Historical Society with Alan Weiler on April 8, 2008.

Weiler: … My uncle Joseph moved to Detroit, Michigan where he lived an unusual life. He worked for General Motors on the assembly line, married a woman, but never had nerve enough to tell his mom that he was married. When she went up to visit him he introduced her as his maid. … He lived on Second Avenue in downtown Detroit where it was unlikely to have a maid. My grandmother thought that her son had a maid rather than a wife.

Interviewer: Why was he afraid to tell her? If he were married, he thought she wouldn’t approve?

Weiler: Exactly. My Uncle Joseph was a stutterer. His mother, my grandmother Ida Basch, was a very domineering woman. After he finished Ohio State he just wanted to get out of town and he ended up living in Detroit, I think became an alcoholic, really lived a very unusual life. The lady he married, Winola, was a lovely lady. ….

I found Joseph Basch, Jr. traveling with a woman named Lola Basch in 1958; I assume this was the woman Alan Weiler remembered as Winola.

The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels and Airplanes Arriving at Miami, Florida.; NAI Number: 2771998; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85,  Ancestry.com. Florida, Passenger Lists, 1898-1963

She was born Lola Brown, daughter of James Brown and Lisa Sparks, on October 31, 1916, in Ivyton, Kentucky.9 In 1940, she was working as a servant in a household in Johnson County, Kentucky. So maybe in some sense Joseph did not lie to his mother—Lola had been at one time a maid, although in someone else’s home.10

Joseph Basch, Sr., died June 17, 1953,11 and his wife Ida died two years later on March 3, 1955.12 They were survived by their two children and two grandchildren. Their daughter Elene died in Columbus on November 25, 1973,13 followed just two months later by her husband Robert Weiler on January 28, 1974.14  For more about Elene and Robert and their lives, I highly recommend the oral interview done with their son Alan in 2008, which you can find here.

Joseph Basch, Jr., died on December 31, 1988, at the age of 82.15 I found this intriguing death notice in the January 2, 1989 Detroit News (p. 26):

“Basch,” Detroit News, January 2, 1989, p. 26.

Who are these stepchildren? Is “Lois” really Lola? The only seemingly relevant link I could locate was to Charles Fryman. I found a Charles W. Fryman born in Perry, Kentucky, on November 27, 1943, on the Kentucky Birth Index listed with a mother named Lola Ball.16  The Social Security Applications and Claims Index lists Charles Willie Fryman born November 27, 1941, with parents Charlie I Fryman and Lola Brown.17 I could not find any marriage record for Lola Brown and/or Charlie Fryman, however, so perhaps Charles W. Fryman was born outside of wedlock. He is listed on the Social Security Death Index with a birth date of November 27, 1942, and a date of death of July 15, 2000.18 He certainly appears to have been Lola Brown’s son. I could not find any connections to Lee Compton or Lucy Jacobs, however.

At any rate, although Joseph Basch, Jr., may never have had children with Lola, he certainly seemed to have a large family of stepchildren and step-grandchildren in his life.

With this post, I close another chapter in the family of my four-times great-uncle Simon Goldsmith and his children with his first wife Eveline Katzenstein and specifically the story of their daughter Lena. Lena Goldsmith Basch seems to have been a strong and smart woman, a woman who not only raised her children and cared for her husband Gustavus, but who ran a business and helped to support her family financially. She and her children left their mark on their long-time home of Columbus, Ohio.

Now I will turn back to and complete the stories of Simon’s children with his second wife, my three-times great-aunt Fradchen Schoenthal—my double cousins Henry and Hannah Goldsmith.

  1.  National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 2481; Volume #: Roll 2481 – Certificates: 397850-398349, 21 Apr 1924-22 Apr 1924,
    Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 ↩
  2. Adolph Weiler and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Columbus Ward 4, Franklin, Ohio; Roll: T624_1181; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1375194, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Columbus (OH) Dispatch, October 26, 1930, p. 39; Robert Weiler, 1930 US census, Census Place: Marion, Franklin, Ohio; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0191; FHL microfilm: 2341527, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. Robert Weiler and family, 1940 US census, Census Place: Bexley, Franklin, Ohio; Roll: m-t0627-03068; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 25-4, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census  ↩
  5. Joseph and Ida Basch, 1940 US census, Census Place: Columbus, Franklin, Ohio; Roll: m-t0627-03242; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 93-55, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Joseph Basch, Jr., 1930 US census, Census Place: Highland Park, Wayne, Michigan; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0994; FHL microfilm: 2340809,
    Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Basch family, 1930 US census, Census Place: Columbus, Franklin, Ohio; Page: 22A; Enumeration District: 0029; FHL microfilm: 2341529, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. Joseph Basch, Jr., 1940 US census, Census Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: m-t0627-01844; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 84-158, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. SSN: 400363565, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  10. Lola Brown, 1940 US census, Census Place: Johnson, Kentucky; Roll: m-t0627-01322; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 58-13, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  11. SSN 297323868, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  12. “Mrs. Ida Basch,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, March 4, 1955, p. 48. Ancestry.com. Web: Columbus, Ohio, Green Lawn Cemetery Index, 1780-2010 ↩
  13.  Certificate: 085726; Volume: 21489, Ancestry.com and Ohio Department of Health. Ohio, Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2007 ↩
  14.  Certificate: 002636; Volume: 21563, Ancestry.com and Ohio Department of Health. Ohio, Death Records, 1908-1932, 1938-2007 ↩
  15. SSN: 365167257, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  16. Volume Number: 058, Certificate Number: 28711, Volume Year: 1945, Ancestry.com. Kentucky, Birth Index, 1911-1999 ↩
  17. SSN: 405567939, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  18.  Number: 405-56-7939; Issue State: Kentucky; Issue Date: 1959, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part X: A Son’s Loving Tribute to His Mother

Posted on by
31

This is Part X of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V,  Part VI, Part VII , Part VIII,  and Part IX at the links.

This is by far the sweetest and saddest page in Milton Goldsmith’s album, a page dedicated to his beloved mother, Cecelia Adler Goldsmith, who died in 1874 when Milton was thirteen years old:

It reads:

Our beloved Mother, who alas, passed away too early and whose death brought not only sorrow, but all kinds of misfortune.

She was the only child of Samuel and Sarah Adler, was born in Germany, but arrived in Philadelphia at the age of one year.  She grew to womanhood, a very beautiful girl;- rather short in stature, round in figure, a head of brown ringlets, – a belle among the Jewesses of her day and circle. She had many admirers.  Father proposed to her over a plate of ice-cream on “Simchas Torah”, a Jewish holiday.  It was in every way a “Love-match” which was only terminated at her death.  She died of peritonitis, which to-day would be called Apendicitis [sic]. A perfect wife, – a wonderful mother, – A woman whose children call her blessed.

She died Nov. 8th 1874, at the age of 35 years. I was 13 at the time of her death, the oldest of six children.

It’s interesting to read what Milton thought was the cause of his mother’s death, which conflicts with her death certificate. According to the death certificate, she died from apoplexia nervosa:

“Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-69HW-K75?cc=1320976&wc=9F52-L29%3A1073307201 : 16 May 2014), 004010206 > image 874 of 1214; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

In the upper left corner, Milton inserted a piece of Cecelia’s wedding veil:

In the lower right corner, he inserted a piece of fabric from one of her ball gowns.

What a sweet and sentimental thing for a son to do. How devastated he and his father and siblings must have been when Cecelia died.

 

Happy Passover and Happy Easter

Posted on by
36

This year the lunar calendar has aligned Passover and Easter perfectly.  The first seder takes place on the evening of Good Friday, so this weekend Jews and Christians (except Eastern Orthodox Christians) will all be celebrating an important holiday. At least in my part of the world, it is also spring. My lawn is green, the daffodils are blooming, and there are buds on the trees about to burst into flower. It should be a joyous time. After all, Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jews from slavery, and Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ. I hope that for all who celebrate (and for those who don’t) this weekend brings lots of joy.

For me, this year Passover is tinged with sadness. This is the first year my father will not be with us. It’s just two months since he died, but somehow it feels so much longer. So for today’s post, I want to ponder Passovers past and my father’s role in them.

When we first celebrated Passover, it was at my Aunt Elaine’s house. Her husband, my Uncle Phil, had grown up in a more traditional home than my mother and her sister or than my father. Uncle Phil could read Hebrew, and he knew the traditional songs and the blessings. So, of course, he led the seder. We used the Haggadah for the American Family—almost all in English, except for the blessings, the four questions, and some other passages. It was perfect for our assimilated, non-affiliated, non-religious family.  I was enchanted by the whole experience. It was my first and for the longest time only exposure to Judaism, and I loved the story, the music, the rituals, and, of course, searching for the afikomen.

Uncle Phil and Aunt Elaine

After the first couple of years, my mother must have decided that she also wanted to have seders at our home, and so we began to have one seder at my aunt and uncle’s house and one at our house. At our house, my father took over the leader’s role (with my uncle helping on all the Hebrew and the songs). Given that my father was not at all religious, it was perhaps an uncomfortable role for him to assume, but he certainly wasn’t going to let another man lead the seder in his house. If he was uncomfortable, he certainly did not show it. He always did a great job, and I can still hear his voice, reading the English text, admonishing us to be quiet and listen, and then giving up and moving on to the next page.

When my aunt and uncle moved to Florida, my father was all on his own as the leader. By then I was an adult and married with children, and we did one seder with my husband’s family, one with mine. My husband’s family’s seders were far more traditional and educational, but also always warm and filled with love. The seders at my parents’ house continued to be somewhat chaotic—too many people talking, too many people getting up and down, chasing the children, helping with the food and the dishes. My father continued to lead the seder, and we all read from the Haggadah and said the blessings and sang the songs. Our children read the four questions.  And in the midst of all the noise and chaos, the seders continued to be cherished by us all.

Then I became a grandmother. And we wanted our grandchildren to experience Passover at our home. Now my grandsons read the four questions. Now my husband and I hide the afikomen. And now my husband leads the seder.

Passover, 2016.

My father graciously moved out of the leader’s chair. I wonder whether that was hard for him—recognizing that another generation was taking over and that his time as the leader after over fifty years in that role was over. If so, he never showed it. He seemed to relish the opportunity to watch over the younger generations without having to worry about keeping the seder rolling along.

My dad, Passover 2016

This year there will be a missing chair at the table, a missing voice adding to the chaos, a missing mouth to feed. That missing chair, that missing voice, that missing mouth will be noticed and felt by us all. When we open the door for Elijah and wait for him to sip the wine, I will be watching for my father instead. Not, of course, literally. I don’t believe in ghosts. But I know that his spirit will be there inside each and every one of us as we hear, once again, the words of the Haggadah.

 

Final Chapter for Joel Basch and His Family: Tragedy and Generosity

Posted on by
14

In 1930, Joel Basch was still in the tobacco business and living with his wife Jeanette and sons Sidney and Gustavus in Columbus, Ohio. Sidney was working as a clerk in a finance company and Gustavus as a salesman in a furniture store.

Joel Basch, 1930 US census, Census Place: Columbus, Franklin, Ohio; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0042; FHL microfilm: 2341530
Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census

In the 1930s, Gustavus moved to Miami. In 1940, he was still living in Miami, where he was the manager of a tourist camp.1 I wondered what that meant and searched for Gustavus in the newspaper databases and found this advertisement from the December 6, 1936, Miami Herald (p. 72):

Apparently a “tourist camp” was a place for tourists to stay while vacationing in Miami—a place to park a trailer or rent a cottage. As indicated in the advertisement as well as on Gustavus’ World War II draft registration, this was his own business.

His parents, Joel and Jeanette, were listed right above him on the 1940 census, but they were enumerated twice in 1940—once in Columbus living with their older son Sidney, once in Miami with their younger son Gustavus. The Columbus enumeration was done on April 11, 1940, and the Miami enumeration was done on April 30, 1940. The Columbus enumeration reported that Joel, now 73, was retired, and that Sidney, 43, was a clerk at an insurance company.

Joel and Jeanette Basch, 1940 US census, Census Place: Columbus, Franklin, Ohio; Roll: m-t0627-03243; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 93-77
Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

Joel and Jeanette Basch and Gustavus Basch, 1940 US census, Census Place: Dade, Florida; Roll: m-t0627-00580; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 13-22
Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

Gustavus enlisted into the US Army on August 11, 1942,2 when he was 38 years old. He was serving as the “chief of the radio nets for his fighter squadron in 1943.” According to Wikipedia, a radio net is “essentially a moderated conference call conducted over two-way radio…. A net manager is the person who supervises the creation and operation of a net over multiple sessions. This person will specify the format, date, time, participants, and the net control script.”

“Visits Parents,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, October 8, 1943, p. 14

The family suffered a terrible loss on January 10, 1945, when Sidney Basch had a cerebral hemorrhage and died in the family’s garage in Columbus.  According to his death certificate, his body was not discovered until ten hours later. The newspaper reported that a neighbor found Sidney’s body, lying between the garage door and the rear bumper of his car; the paper also reported that Sidney had a history of heart attacks. He was 48 years old when he died.3

Sidney Basch, death certificate, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DH64-VL8?cc=1307272&wc=MD96-DTP%3A287601701%2C287601302 : 21 May 2014), 1945 > 00001-03300 > image 1423 of 3510.

His brother Gustavus was serving in Europe at the time of Sidney’s death, but must have been discharged not long afterwards. He spent several months with his parents in Columbus after his discharge before returning to Florida in October of 1945.4

Two years later Jeanette Mendel Basch died on December 26, 1947. According to her obituary, she had been ill for a year. Jeanette had outlived two of her sons—Robert, who’d died as a young child, and Sidney. She was survived by her husband Joel and son Gustavus.5

But Joel only outlived Jeanette by three years. He died on December 8, 1950, from a heart attack and arteriosclerosis. He was 87.

Joel Basch, death certificate, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6Q67-VC2?cc=1307272&wc=MD9N-9P8%3A287599801%2C294723701 : 21 May 2014), 1950 > 74601-76700 > image 303 of 2329.

Gustavus, who according to Joel’s obituary 6 was the secretary-treasurer of Tourist City Corporation in Miami when his father died in 1950, continued to live in Florida for the rest of his life. He died on November 13, 1989, in Miami, at age 85. Gustavus had not married or had children.7

An article that ran in numerous Florida newspapers revealed that Gustavus had died a wealthy man. In his early years he had invested in real estate in Miami that he sold after World War II; he had successfully invested his profits in the stock market and died with an estate worth five million dollars. He left two million dollars to the Miami Metrozoo and smaller amounts to his alma mater, Ohio State University, the United Negro College Fund, and South Miami Hospital. I found it ironic that Gustavus had done so well “gambling” on the stock market, given that his father Joel had lost his business as a young man due to gambling debts.8

As neither of Joel and Jeanette’s sons had children, there are no living descendants of Joel and Jeanette (Mendel) Basch. But their stories are not forgotten.

  1. Gustavus Basch, 1940 US census, Census Place: Dade, Florida; Roll: m-t0627-00580; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 13-22, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946. ↩
  3. “Solicitor’s Body Found in Garage,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, January 10, 1945, p. 1. ↩
  4. “To Miami,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, October 2, 1945, p. 12. ↩
  5. “Mrs. Jeannette Basch,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, December 27, 1947, p. 3. ↩
  6. “Joel Basch,” Columbus (OH) Dispatch, December 9, 1950, p. 11. ↩
  7. SSN: 265019585, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  8. “Frugal Man Leaves $2 Million to Zoo,” The Tampa Tribune, 25 Nov 1990, p. 29. ↩

Milton Goldsmith’s Family Album, Part IX: The Missing Babies

Posted on by
31

This is Part IX of an ongoing series of posts based on the family album of Milton Goldsmith, so generously shared with me by his granddaughter Sue. See Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V,  Part VI, Part VII,  and Part VIII at the links.

After reading last week’s post about the birth records found in her grandfather’s family album and the speculation as to why only five of Abraham Goldsmith’s ten children were listed, my cousin Sue went back to the album and realized that she could remove the page with the birth records. On the back were not only birth records for Abraham’s other five children; there was also a sad entry for the death of his first wife Cecelia:

All of the birth entries again confirmed what I’d found in the official records, and once again Abraham entered not only the dates, but the times the babies were born.

For Estella, who often was referred to in records as Estelle, he introduced her as “our sixth baby.”

Then there is the heartbreaking entry for Cecelia:

My beloved wife Cecelia Goldsmith died on Sunday the 8th day of November 1874 at 6 o’clock PM after an illness of 6 days. Hebrew date [inserted in Hebrew]

May she rest in peace.

Abr.Goldsmith

Abraham’s signature here confirmed my hunch that he was the one who wrote all these entries (except the dates of death that occurred after his own death).

The next entry is for Alfred, who was Abraham’s first child with his second wife, Frances Spanier, But there is no break in the record to reflect that Alfred had a different mother from the first six children. He is introduced as “Our seventh boy” [emphasis added], despite the fact that he is the first child of Frances. You may notice that Alfred is the only one on this page who has a date of death.  That’s because those dates were entered by Milton, and the other four on this page—Estella, Bertha, Alice, and Louis—all outlived Milton.

Similarly Bertha is introduced as “Our Baby Bertha.” Then Abraham records the birth of “Baby Alice,” and finally the last child, Louis Seligman. At the end of the entry for Louis, Abraham wrote, “Louis Spanier his [?].”

Can anyone decipher what that says? From a later page in the album I learned who Louis Spanier was—Frances Spanier’s uncle—so Louis Goldsmith’s great-uncle. But that does not say “great-uncle” or “namesake” as far as I can tell.

And I got quite a kick out of the last word on this page: Finished. I don’t know whether Abraham wrote that to indicate the records were now completed or to emphasize that he was ready to be done having children after Number 10!