Tag Archives: Mansbach

Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach’s Grandchildren Come of Age: Philadelphia 1910-1920

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The years between 1910 and 1920 were years of growth for the children of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach who were living in the US.  Their children, Sarah and Abraham’s grandchildren, were becoming adults and starting households of their own. This post will cover the Philadelphia siblings, Hannah and Louis, and their brother Julius, who was living in Germany with his family. The Colorado siblings will be discussed in the next post.

The two Philadelphia siblings, Hannah Mansbach Dannenberg and Louis Mansbach, saw their daughters marry in this decade. Hannah’s older daughter Reta married Elmor Alkus in Philadelphia in 1912.1 Elmor was, like Reta, born in Pennsylvania in 1889; his parents were Morris and Henrietta Alkus, both of whom were born in Germany. Elmor’s father Morris was a wool merchant. In 1910, Elmor was a commercial traveler selling notions.2 Reta and Elmor’s first child, Elaine, was born on April 22, 1914, in Philadelphia.3 In 1920, they were all living in Philadelphia, and Elmor was now the owner of a towel supply company. I assume that his father-in-law Gerson Dannenberg had taken him into his business.4

Hannah’s younger daughter Katinka married Sidney Olsho in 1916 in Philadelphia.5 Sidney, the son of Jacob Olshoffsky (later shortened to Olsho) and Louisa Galeski, was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, on January 22, 1879, making him fifteen years older than Katinka. He was 37 when they married, she 22. He was a doctor. His parents were German immigrants, and his father was a dry goods merchant.6 Sidney and Katinka had a son, Edward, born on February 6, 1919, in Philadelphia. In 1920, they were living in Philadelphia where Sidney was practicing as an eye, ear, nose and throat physician (amusingly, it was transcribed as “dye, oat, nas, thead” on Ancestry).

Sidney Olsho and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 8, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1619; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 181
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

Sidney wasn’t the only doctor in Hannah’s family. Her son Arthur Dannenberg was also a physician, according to his World War I draft registration. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical school in 1913 and had trained as a pediatrician:

Arthur Dannenberg, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia; Roll: 1907646; Draft Board: 26
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

University of Pennsylvania alumni directory, Publication Year: 1917
Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935

Arthur served in the US Army from August 10, 1917, until August 1, 1919, and was promoted to a captain in May, 1918. He served primarily at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia in the medical corps and did not serve overseas.7 After the war, Arthur returned home and was living with his parents, Hannah and Gerson Dannenberg, in Philadelphia in 1920.  Arthur was practicing medicine, and his father Gerson was a merchant in the towel business.8

Louis Mansbach’s daughter Rebecca also married in this decade. Rebecca married David Rattin in Philadelphia in 1917.9 David was born on September 10, 1886 or 1887 (records conflict), in Alsace, Germany, to Isadore and Sophia Rattin. They immigrated when David was just a toddler in 1888. David’s father must have died either before they immigrated or shortly thereafter as by 1895, his mother was listed as a widow in the Philadelphia directory.10 So like Rebecca, David had lost a parent when he was a young child.

I believe that this is David, living in the Jewish Home for children in 1900 (line 21):

David Rattin in Jewish Home, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 22, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0512; FHL microfilm: 1241464
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

By 1910, David was reunited with his mother, who was living on her own income, presumably from the boarders who were living in their home:

David Rattin, 1910 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1394; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0359; FHL microfilm: 1375407
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

In 1912, David graduated from the University of Pennsylvania law school, and in 1918, when he registered for the draft, he was working as an attorney.11 Rebecca and David’s first child Ruth was born on April 28, 1919.12 In 1920 they were living in Philadelphia along with David’s mother Sophia, and David was practicing law.13

University of Pennsylvania alumni directory, Publication Year: 1917
Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935

Louis Mansbach was also still living in Philadelphia in 1920 and continued to practice as a veterinarian. He was living with Moses Dannenberg, who although listed as Louis’s cousin was more likely his brother-in-law, brother of Gerson Dannenberg, Hannah Mansbach’s husband, because in 1910, Moses had been living with Gerson and Hannah and listed as Gerson’s brother. 14

Meanwhile, Julius Mansbach and his wife Frieda Bensew and their children Beatrice and Alfred were living in Wunstorf, Germany, in the 1910s. Art Mansbach shared this adorable photograph of  his father Alfred in 1916 when he was six:

Alfred Mansbach, 1916. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

The one very sad note in this decade was the death of Beatrice Mansbach, the daughter of Julius Mansbach and Frieda Bensew. Beatrice died in 1918 from the Spanish influenza, according to her nephew Art Mansbach. She was only fourteen years old. These photographs of Beatrice taken when she was just a little girl help to preserve the memory of this young girl whose beautiful life was cut short.

 

 

  1. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951, Marriage License Number: 289763. ↩
  2. Alkus family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 32, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1403; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0765; FHL microfilm: 1375416. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. ↩
  3.  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN: 191222552. ↩
  4. Elmor and Reta Alkus, 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 42, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1643; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 1578.
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951, Marriage License Number: 350034. ↩
  6. Sidney Olsho death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Box Number: 2408; Certificate Number Range: 099851-102700. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. Olsho family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 28, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1402; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0630; FHL microfilm: 1375415.  Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Series II: Questionnaires: Jews; Record Group Description: (D) Officers-Army (Boxes 11-14); Box #: 11; Folder #: 14; Box Info: (Box 11) D-Deg. Ancestry.com. U.S., WWI Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921 ↩
  8. Dannenberg family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1633; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 969. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951, Marriage License Number: 363508. ↩
  10. David Rattin, naturalization papers, National Archives; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: M1522. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Federal Naturalization Records, 1795-1931. David Rattin, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia; Roll: 1907616; Draft Board: 13, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Philadelphia City directory, 1895, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. ↩
  11. David Rattin, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia; Roll: 1907616; Draft Board: 13. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  12. Issue State: Wisconsin; Issue Date: Before 1951. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014; ↩
  13. David Rattin and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1616; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 471.
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  14. Louis Mansbach, 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1616; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 455.
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩

The Legacy of Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach: Prosperity in America, Roots in Germany 1900-1910

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As seen in the last post, in 1900 six of the surviving children of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach were living in the United States, as was Sarah. Their oldest daughter Breine Mansbach Bensew was still living in Germany, and three children had passed away, as had Abraham in 1889.

The six children living in the US were split between Colorado and Philadelphia. Amelia Mansbach Langer and her family were living in Denver, and her brothers Berthold and Meyer were living in Trinidad, Colorado. Sarah and her other three children—Louis, Julius, and Hannah —were all living in Philadelphia.  All of Sarah’s children except Julius, the youngest, were married by 1900, and she had nine grandchildren born in the United States plus her German-born grandchildren, the children of her daughter Breine Mansbach Bensew. A tenth American grandchild was born when Meyer and Ida (Jaffa) Mansbach had a second child, Edith, on December 15, 1901, in Colorado.1

In 1903, Julius, Sarah’s youngest child, married Frieda Bensew in Wunstorf, Germany.2 Frieda was born on March 6, 1883, in Wunstorf, the daughter of Moses Bensew and Theodora Freudenthal.3 Julius had applied for a passport on August 10, 1903, stating that he was temporarily residing in Wunstorf, Germany, where he had been since July 8, 1903, and that he intended to stay there for two months. I assume this was when he must have married Frieda.

Julius Mansbach, 1903 passport application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 41; Volume #: Volume 075: Germany
Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925

Their grandson Art shared this photograph of Julius and Frieda dated 1903 when they were engaged:

Julius Mansbach and Frieda Bensew, 1903. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Julius and Frieda returned to the United States and settled in Philadelphia where on July 12, 1904, their daughter Beatrice was born.4 In May 1905, Julius, Frieda, and Beatrice sailed to Germany, presumably for Frieda’s family to meet the new baby.

Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1905, p. 35

Here are two beautiful photographs of Frieda and her baby daughter Beatrice, courtesy of my cousin Art Mansbach:

Frieda Bensew Mansbach and her three-month old daughter, Beatrice, 1904. Courtesy of Art Mansbach.

Frieda Bensew Mansbach and daughter Beatrice, c. 1906. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

The year 1907 brought two sad losses to the family.  First, on June 26, 1907, Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach passed away from nephritis at age 88.

Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 059571-063330
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966

Sarah was the oldest child of Seligmann Goldschmidt and Hincka Alexander and had outlived all but three of her younger siblings. Unlike her younger siblings who had immigrated as young adults, Sarah came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia in the 1880s when she was already in her sixties and had grown children. It must have been a hard transition, especially with half her children living half a continent away in Colorado and one daughter still back in Germany. She had survived her husband and three of her children and lived to 88.

She must have been an exceptionally strong woman. That strength and her warmth certainly show in this photograph of Sarah with her granddaughter Beatrice taken shortly before she died:

Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach with granddaughter Beatrice Mansbach, 1907. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

The second loss the family suffered in 1907 came less than two months after Sarah’s death. Cora Eslinger Mansbach, Louis Mansbach’s wife, died from tuberculosis on August 22, 1907; she was only 40 years old and left behind not only her husband, but her eleven-year-old daughter, Rebecca.

Cora Eslinger Mansbach death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 078391-082250
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966

This photograph was taken just eight days before Cora’s death.  It is dated August 14, 1907, and taken in Cape May, New Jersey. The young girl on the left is Cora and Louis Mansbach’s daughter Rebecca, and she is with Julius and Frieda Mansbach and their daughter Beatrice:

Rebecca Mansbach, Beatrice Mansbach, Frieda Bensew Mansbach, and Julius Mansbach. August 14, 1907, Cape May, New Jersey. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Rebecca’s face conveys sadness; her mother must have already been quite ill and had been sick for six months. Perhaps Julius and his family took her to Cape May to distract her from her mother’s illness.

Julius and Frieda Mansbach and their daughter Beatrice moved to Wunstorf, Germany by 1910, where Julius and Frieda’s son Alfred Heinz Mansbach was born on February 10, 1910.5 They did not return to live in the US for another two decades. Thank you again to Art Mansbach for sharing these wonderful photographs of Julius and Frieda and their young children:

Beatrice, Frieda, and Alfred Mansbach, 1911. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Alfred, Frieda, Julius, and Beatrice Mansbach, 1913 in Wunstorf, Germany. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

In 1910 Louis Mansbach, now a widower, was boarding with his thirteen year old daughter Rebecca in the household of the Beutelspacher family. I cannot find any connection between his family and the Beutelspachers.  Louis continued to practice veterinary medicine.6

Hannah Mansbach Dannenberg, the only other sibling still in Philadelphia, was living in 1910 with her husband Gerson and their three children as well as Moses Dannenberg, Gerson’s brother. Gerson and Moses were both merchants and owned a supply house. Hannah and Gerson’s son Arthur was in college.7

As for the three siblings in Colorado, Amelia Mansbach Langer and her family were still living in Denver in 1910. Her husband Henry, now 71, was retired. Their sons were both living with them. Joseph (30) was a newspaper photographer, and Lester (26) was a photographic printer in a portrait gallery.8

In 1910, Berthold Mansbach and his wife Rose and son Alvin (15) were living in Trinidad9. Bert and his brother Meyer, who had been the proprietors of a dry goods store known as Mansbach Brothers, were now in business with John and Barney Tarabino as owners of The Famous Department Store, as listed in the 1910 Trinidad directory. The directory lists Bert as the treasurer and Meyer as the secretary.

Title: Trinidad, Colorado, City Directory, 1910

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

Bert and Rose’s daughter Corinne had married Herbert J Kahn on October 11, 1909, in Trinidad. Herbert was a Trinidad, Colorado native, the son of two German immigrants, Jacob and Rosa Kahn. His father was a dealer in hides and wool.10

Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006

The Denver Rocky Mountain News posted this news item about the wedding on October 12, 1909 (p. 4):

In 1910, Herbert and Corinne were living in Trinidad where Herbert was working as a salesman in a clothing store.11

Berthold’s younger brother Meyer was also living in Trinidad in 1910. He and Ida and their two children Arthur (13) and Edith (8) were living with Ida’s mother Amelia Jaffa, and Meyer was, as described above, the secretary of The Famous Department Store, the store he owned with his brother Berthold and others.12

Thus, in 1910, the family of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach was doing well. Bert and Meyer and their families were living in Trinidad where the brothers were partners in a department store. Amelia and Henry Langer were living in Denver where Henry was retired and their sons were both involved in photography. Hannah Dannenberg was living with her family in Philadelphia and had a child in college already. Louis and his daughter Rebecca were in Philadelphia, moving forward after the death of Cora. In addition, as we will see, six of the children of Breine Mansbach were also in the US by 1910.

The only descendants of Sarah and Abraham still in Germany in 1910 were their oldest child, Breine Mansbach along with her husband Jakob Bensew and their daughter Roschen and her children, and their youngest child, Julius Mansbach and his wife Frieda Bensew and their children Beatrice and Alfred.

 

 

 

 

  1. Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997, Social Security #: 573387763. ↩
  2. As per Julius Mansbach’s grandson, Art Mansbach. ↩
  3. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN: 351248754 ↩
  4. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Births, 1860-1906,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VBYL-HSB : 10 March 2018), Beatrice Mansbach, 12 Jul 1904; citing 18961, Department of Records; FHL microfilm 2,110,929. ↩
  5. Number: 341-03-5638; Issue State: Illinois; Issue Date: Before 1951, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  6. Louis and Rebecca Mansbach, 1910 US Census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1394; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0355; FHL microfilm: 1375407. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Gerson and Hannah Mansberg and family 1910 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1399; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0692; FHL microfilm: 1375412. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census  ↩
  8. Henry and Amelia Langer and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Denver Ward 10, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T624_116; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 0134; FHL microfilm: 1374129. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. Berthold Mansbach and family 1910 US census, Census Place: Trinidad Ward 2, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: T624_122; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0120; FHL microfilm: 1374135. Enumeration District: 0120. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  10. Registration State: Colorado; Registration County: Las Animas; Roll: 1561836, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Kahn family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126.
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  11. Herbert and Corinne Kahn, 1910 US census, Census Place: Trinidad Ward 2, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: T624_122; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0120; FHL microfilm: 1374135. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  12. Meyer Mansbach and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Trinidad Ward 2, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: T624_122; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0115; FHL microfilm: 1374135. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩

Growing in America: The Family of Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach

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As seen in my last post, as of 1882 Sarah Goldschmidt and her husband Abraham Mansbach had immigrated to the United States, as had all but one of their eight surviving children. Three of those seven children had arrived before 1880 and are enumerated on the 1880 census. Amalie and her husband Henry Langer and their two sons were living in Denver, Colorado, where Henry was furrier. Louis was a veterinarian, living with my great-great-grandparents Gerson and Eva (Goldschmidt) Katzenstein in Philadelphia. Berthold was in Trinidad, Colorado, living with and working with his cousin, Abraham Mansbach, in his dry goods business. The rest of the family—Sarah, Abraham, Hannah, Meyer, Kathinka, and Julius—arrived between 1880 and 1882.

The years between 1882 and 1900 were eventful years for Sarah and Abraham and their family—many happy events as well as some sad ones. First, on February 10, 1888, Berthold Mansbach married Rosa Schloss in Philadelphia. Rosa was born in Philadelphia in August 1868, the daughter of Aaron Schloss and Caroline Stein, who were German immigrants. Rosa’s mother Caroline died when Rosa was just nine years old. Her father Aaron was in the jewelry business.1

Berthold Mansbach and Rosa Schloss marriage record, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 792
Organization Name: Congregation Rodeph Shalom
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013

Berthold and Rosa’s first child Corinne was born on February 1, 1889, in Trinidad, Colorado.2 Here is a delightful photograph of Corinne with her grandmother Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach:

Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach and her granddaughter Corinne Mansbach, c. 1892. Courtesy of the Mansbach family

And here are two photographs taken in Trinidad, Colorado of Corinne as a little girl with her uncle Julius Mansbach:

Julius Mansbach and his niece Corinne Mansbach, c. 1892. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Julius Mansbach and niece Corinne Mansbach, c. 1892. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Berthold’s younger sister Hannah was also married in 1888. She married Gerson Dannenberg in Philadelphia.3 Gerson was born in Adelebsen, Germany on July 22, 1862, and had immigrated to the US in 1881. He was the son of Simon Dannenberg and Henrietta Brandes and was a merchant by occupation.4 Hannah and Gerson’s first child, Reta, was born on September 11, 1889.5

Sadly, Abraham Mansbach died not long after the births of these two new grandchildren. He died on October 5, 1889, at the age of 80. (The death certificate has his age as 81 years, nine months, but that is not consistent with other records; I am not sure which is correct.) The cause of death was a lung hemorrhage.

“Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6P3D-C4N?cc=1320976&wc=9FT9-JWL%3A1073324801 : 16 May 2014), 004010398 > image 335 of 1093; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

The next two grandchildren born were presumably named for Abraham.  Arthur Mansbach Dannenberg, son of Hannah Mansbach and Gerson Dannenberg, was born in Philadelphia on January 7, 1891.6  Berthold and Rosa’s second child was also named in memory of Abraham; Alvin Abraham Mansbach was born in Trinidad, Colorado, on December 26, 1894.7

Unfortunately, the family had suffered another loss before the birth of Alvin. On February 3, 1893, Kat(h)inka Mansbach, Sarah and Abraham’s youngest daughter and second youngest child, died from consumption, or tuberculosis, in Trinidad, Colorado. She was only 30 years old. (The death certificate says 27, but that is not consistent with her birth record from Maden.) Her body was transported back to Philadelphia for burial, accompanied by her brother, Louis Mansbach.

Kathinka Mansbach death certificate, “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6353-MYS?cc=1320976&wc=9FR2-929%3A1073252901 : 16 May 2014), 004009761 > image 1367 of 1803; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Katinka’s sister Hannah honored her sister’s memory by naming her third child Katinka Mansbach Dannenberg, born on June 21, 1894, in Philadelphia.8

Louis Mansbach married Cora Eslinger on June 20, 1895 in Philadelphia.9 Cora was born on November 13, 1866 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; her parents were Jacob Eslinger and Rebecca Stein. Cora had experienced many losses by the time she married Louis. Her father had died when she was a very young child—in 1868. A brother William died in 1871 at age four from typhoid fever, her mother died in 1885, and an older brother Solomon died in 1889 at age 26 from heart failure.  Cora had only one member of her immediate family left when she married Louis Mansbach—her older sister Esther.10

Louis and Cora had one child, a daughter, Rebecca, presumably named for Cora’s mother; records conflict as to her date of birth, one is as early as November 1896, another suggests October 28, 1897.11 Since the November 1896 date came from the 1900 census and the other from far later source, it would seem November 1896 may be more reliable. I could not locate a birth record in the Philadelphia birth index.

Meyer Mansbach married Ida Jaffa on January 21, 1896, in Trinidad, Colorado. Ida was born in Trinidad on January 28, 1875, the daughter of Samuel Jaffa and Amelia Sommer. Her parents were both German immigrants, and her father was an important merchant in Trinidad.12

Meyer Mansbach Ida Jaffa mariage record, Ancestry.com. Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006. Original data: Marriage Records. Colorado Marriages. State Archives, Denver, Colorado.

In an earlier post about the Mansbach family, I discussed how Trinidad had experienced huge economic growth in the 1870s, making it an attractive place for merchants to settle to take advantage of the population explosion. Sharon Haimovitz-Civitano of the Branches of our Haimowitz Family Tree and Branches on Civitano Tree blogs alerted me to a page on the website of the Jewish Museum of the American West that describes the Jewish history of Trinidad, Colorado. According to that website, Ida Jaffa’s uncles and father were among the earliest Jews in Trinidad, arriving in the 1870s.  Sam Jaffa, Ida’s father, was the first president of the local B’nai Brith and the first chair of Trinidad Town Council, formed in 1876. The synagogue, Congregation Aaron, was founded in 1883 and named for the Jaffa brothers’ father Aaron.

Meyer and Ida’s first child, Arthur Jaffa Mansbach, was born in Trinidad on November 21, 189613 He also was presumably named for his grandfather Abraham Mansbach.

The only surviving child of Sarah and Abraham who did not marry before 1900 was Julius Mansbach, their youngest child. In 1892 he was in the dry goods business with his brothers Berthold and Meyer in Trinidad, Colorado:

Title: Trinidad, Colorado, City Directory, 1892
Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

Art Mansbach, Julius’s grandson, generously shared this photograph of Julius and his brothers Bert and Meyer in their Trinidad store:

Bert, Meyer, and Julius Mansbach in the Trinidad store. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

Here Julius is depicted with his two Langer nephews, Joseph and Lester, in Denver.  From the ages of the boys, I would estimate that this was taken in about 1888-1889.

Julius Mansbach with Lester Langer and Joseph Langer. Courtesy of Art Mansbach

By 1897, Julius must have moved to Philadelphia as he was listed in the 1897 Philadelphia directory as a salesman, living at the same address as his brother Louis, the veterinarian, 915 North 16th Street.14 In 1900, he was still living with Louis, Cora, their daughter Rebecca, and his mother Sarah in Philadelphia. Julius was working as a milliner and Louis as a veterinarian.

Louis Mansbach and family 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 16, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0313; FHL microfilm: 1241459
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Hannah and her husband Gerson Dannenberg and their three children were also living in Philadelphia in 1900, and Gerson was in the towel supply business. They were just a mile away from Louis and his household.15

In 1900 Amelia (as she is listed here and known as thereafter) and Henry Langer were still living in Denver with their children and with Amelia’s nephew, William Bensew, son of her sister Breine and brother-in-law Jakob Bensew. Henry was still a furrier, and their older son Joseph (20) was a cigar salesman as was his cousin William (28). Amelia and Henry’s younger son Lester (16) was still in school.16

Henry Langer family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1240117
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Berthold Mansbach was living with his wife Rosa and children in Trinidad in 1900, where he continued to be a merchant.  His younger brother Meyer was living right nearby (they are enumerated on the same page of the 1900 census report) with his wife Ida, their son Arthur and Ida’s parents and siblings. He also was a merchant.17

Thus, three of the Mansbach children were living in Philadelphia and three were living in Colorado in 1900. Together, Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach had nine American-born grandchildren living in the United States in 1900.

What would the first decade of the 20th century bring to Sarah’s family?

 

 

  1. Bert Mansbach family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126.
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. Caroline Schloss death, Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803–1915. Schloss family, 1870 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20 District 66, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: M593_1407; Page: 432A; Family History Library Film: 552906.
    Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Corinne Mansbach Kahn death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 057151-059700.  Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩
  3. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951. Original data: “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885–1951.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans’ Court. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia marriage license index, 1885-1951.” Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marriage License Number: 20344. ↩
  4. Gerson Dannenberg death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 020901-023300. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. Passport application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 81; Volume #: Roll 0081 – Certificates: 1621-2520, 02 Apr 1909-15 Apr 1909. Volume: Roll 0081 – Certificates: 1621-2520, 02 Apr 1909-15 Apr 1909. Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 ↩
  5. Reta Dannenberg Alkus death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 076201-078900. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. ↩
  6. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN: 179363551. ↩
  7. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN: 179363551. ↩
  8.  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, SSN: 199369215. ↩
  9.  Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951. Original data: “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885–1951.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009. Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans’ Court. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia marriage license index, 1885-1951.” Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ↩
  10. Cora Eslinger Mansbach death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 078391-082250. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. Translation of Jacob Eslinger’s gravestone. William Eslinger death certificate, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JD1V-VY4 : 8 March 2018), William Eslinger, 16 Jan 1871; citing , Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; FHL microfilm 2,020,733. Rebecca Eslinger death record, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 792. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 Solomon Eslinger death record, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 792. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 ↩
  11. Louis Mansbach and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 16, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0313; FHL microfilm: 1241459. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. Rebecca Esslinger Rattin death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 040001-043000. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩
  12. Sam Jaffa and family, 1880 US census, Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: 92; Page: 66A; Enumeration District: 066. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census. Sam Jaffa and Amelia Sommer marriage record, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 792. Organization Name: Congregation Rodeph Shalom. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013. ↩
  13. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, SSN: 560148581. ↩
  14.  Title: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1897, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  15. Gerson Dannenberg and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0425; FHL microfilm: 1241462. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  16. The Bensew/Bensev family will be discussed in subsequent posts in greater detail. ↩
  17. Berthold Mansbach and family, Meyer Mansbach and family, Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126. Enumeration District: 0064; Description: Trinidad City, Precincts 12, 28 and 32 and 35, Trinidad Ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 5. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩

(Re)introducing Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach and Her Family

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Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach, c. 1899
Courtesy of Art Mansbach

I have already told in two earlier posts the beginning of the story of Sarah Goldschmidt, my three-times great aunt and oldest child of my three-times great-grandparents Seligmann Goldschmidt and Hincka Alexander, but that was almost nine months ago. I had moved away from Sarah to tell the story of her younger siblings who had immigrated to the US thirty or so years before Sarah arrived. Now it is once again Sarah’s turn. But first a brief refresher on those earlier posts. Some of this material is covered in more depth in those earlier posts, and some is newly updated.

Sarah Goldschmidt was born December 1, 1818, in Oberlistingen; she married Abraham Mansbach on October 31, 1843.

Marriage record of Sarah (Sarchen) Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach
Trauregister der Juden von Gudensberg 1825-1900 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 386)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wiesbaden, p. 14

Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach had ten children: Breine (1844), Hewa “Hedwig (1846), Leiser “Louis” (1849), Jacob (1851), Merla “Amalie/Amelia” (1853), Berthold (1856), Hannah (1858), Meyer (1860), Kathinka (1862), and Julius (1865).1

Jacob, the fourth child, born on June 23, 1851, died on September 13, 1853. He was just two years old.

Jacob Mansbach death record
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 387, p. 47

Hedwig was born on November 20, 1846. On February 16, 1875, she married David Rothschild of Zierenberg, Germany. Sadly, Hedwig died nine months to the day later on November 16, 1875.

Hedwig/Hewa Mansbach birth record HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p.43

Death record for Hedwig Mansbach Rothschild
Description: Geburten, Heiraten Tote 1874-1875
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1730-1875

All but one of Sarah and Abraham’s eight other children emigrated to the United States.  The one who remained in Germany was their oldest child, Breine. She was born on September 27, 1844, and she married Jacob Bensew on February 3, 1870; Jacob was born on January 15, 1840, in Malsfeld, Germany, the son of Heinemann Bensew and Roschen Goldberg.

Breine Mansbach birth record
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 39

marriage record for Breine Mansbach and Jacob Bensew
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 386, p. 35

Breine and Jacob had eight children—six sons and two daughters: Roschen (1870), William (1872), Lester (1873), Julius (1875), Siegmund (1877), Heinemann (1879), Max (1882), and Frieda (1886). Siegmund died in 1882 when he was five, but the six of the other seven Bensew children would eventually immigrate to the United States. Breine and Jacob stayed behind, however, and lived the rest of their lives in Germany, as did their daughter Roschen. Breine died in Melsungen, Germany, on May 31, 1922, and her husband Jacob in Kassel, Germany, on April 25, 1925. More on the Bensew family in posts to come. 2

Death record for Breine Mansbach Bensew
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 4684

This post will now focus on the seven children of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach who immigrated to the US: Louis, Amalia/Amelia, Berthold, Hannah, Meyer, Kathinka, and Julius.

Thanks to my cousin Art Mansbach, I have some photographs of Sarah and Abraham and their family.  Here is one of Sarah and Abraham and their youngest child, Julius in about 1870:

Abraham Mansbach, Julius Mansbach, and Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach c. 1870
Courtesy of the Mansbach family

The photograph below is of Sarah with her two youngest sons, Julius and Meyer, taken in about 1874, when Meyer would have been fourteen and Julius nine:

Julius Mansbach, Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach, and Meyer Mansbach c. 1874
Courtesy of the Mansbach family

It was about this time that Abraham and Sarah’s older children began immigrating to the US. Although I was unable to find passenger manifests for all the Mansbach children, the earliest one I could find was for Merla/Amalie/Amelia. She was born December 10, 1853, in Maden, Germany. She (as Amalie) sailed to the US in 1872 with my great-great-uncle Henry Schoenthal and his new wife Helene Lilienfeld, as I discussed here.

Birth record of Merla Mansbach, Archives for the State of Hessen, Jewish records, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 55

Henry Schoenthal and Helene Lilienfeld 1872 ship manifest lines 95 to 98
Year: 1872; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 359; Line: 1; List Number: 484

I have no record of Amalie from the time of her arrival until the 1880 census, but I assume she must have been living in Pennsylvania, probably in Philadelphia, because according to the 1900 census, in 1879, she married Henry Langer. Henry was 22 years older than Amalie, born in 1831 in Austria; he had immigrated to the US in 1856, and in the 1870s he was living in Philadelphia, working as a furrier, according to the Philadelphia directory for 1870 and a newspaper listing in 1877.3

Amalie and Henry relocated to Denver by December 17, 1879, when their first child, Joseph Henry Langer, was born.4 According to the 1880 census, Henry continued to work as a furrier in Denver:

H and A Langer and son 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 88; Page: 116C; Enumeration District: 005

Amalie and Henry’s second child, Lester Sylvester Langer was born in Colorado on January 1, 1884.5

Berthold may have been the next child of Sarah and Abraham to arrive from Germany; he was born on February 23, 1856. Although I cannot find a passenger manifest for him, the 1920 census reports that he immigrated to the US in 1874.6 In 1877, he is listed in the Philadelphia directory working as a clerk.7 But by 1880, he  had relocated to Trinidad, Colorado, where he was living with his cousin, who was also named Abraham Mansbach and was the grandson of Marum Mansbach. Abraham  was a merchant, and Bert was working as a clerk, presumably in his cousin’s store.

Birth record of Berthold Mansbach, Archives for the State of Hessen, Jewish records, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 59

Bert Mansbach 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: 92; Page: 65D; Enumeration District: 066

But not all the Mansbach siblings chose to settle out west. Sarah and Abraham Mansbach’s oldest son Leiser/Louis Mansbach, who was born on March 10, 1849, came to the US on December 16, 1876:

Birth record of Louis “Leser” Mansbach, Archives for the State of Hessen, Jewish records, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 47

(The long note to the left of the birth record is extremely difficult to read, even by those used to reading German script, but thanks to the efforts of Cathy Meder-Dempsey and a man from the German Genealogy Transcriptions group on Facebook, I now believe that it merely says that the date of birth was provided by the synagogue.)

Louis (Lasser) Mansbach ship manifest
Year: 1876; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 406; Line: 1; List Number: 1160
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

In 1880, Louis was living with my great-great-grandparents, Gerson Katzenstein and Eva Goldschmidt; Eva was his aunt, his mother Sarah’s sister. My great-grandmother Hilda, who was then sixteen, was also living at home and thus must have known her first cousin Louis quite well. Louis was 31 years old and was a veterinary surgeon.

Louis Mansbach in the household of Gerson Katzenstein 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1173; Page: 274B; Enumeration District: 219

For Hannah Mansbach, I was unable to locate a birth record, but other records establish that she was born on February 6, 1858. I also have no ship manifest, and census records indicate three different years of arrival: 1880 on the 1900 census, 1881 on the 1920 and 1930 census records, and 1885 on the 1910 census. Usually I’d assume the one closest in time, the 1900 census, would be the most reliable, but at best I can say she arrived sometime between 1880 and 1885.  Since the rest of the family had arrived by 1882, I think 1880-1881 is more likely.8

Census records also conflict regarding the arrival date for Meyer Mansbach. He was born on June 21, 1860. The 1900 census reports that he arrived in 1879, but the 1910 and 1930 census records both report 1882 as his date of arrival.9

Birth record of Meyer Mansbach, Archives for the State of Hessen, Jewish records, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 65

For Julius, who was born on November 7, 1865, I found information about his arrival on his passport applications, of which there were three—in 1900, 1903, and 1908. Although all three provide the same date of arrival (June 12, 1881) and the same port of departure (Bremen), they each have a different name for the ship.10 Julius would have been not yet sixteen when he immigrated, perhaps explaining why he didn’t remember the name of the ship. This photograph of Julius at age 13 may capture how young he was only three years later when he left home by himself:

Julius Mansbach, Age 13, c. 1878
Courtesy of Art Mansbach

It thus seems reasonable to conclude that Hannah, Meyer, and Julius had all arrived by 1881-1882.

On October 23, 1882, they were joined by their parents, my three-times great-aunt Sarah Goldschmidt and her husband Abraham Mansbach, and their youngest sister Kathinka.

Abraham Mansbach II and family on passenger manifest
Year: 1882; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 459; Line: 1; List Number: 1509

Given that all four sons are adults in this photograph, I believe it was taken shortly after Sarah and Abraham had immigrated to the United States:

Abraham Mansbach and his four sons
Courtesy of Art Mansbach

The next post will pick up with the Mansbach siblings and their parents between 1882 and 1900.

 

  1. Sources for births to be provided as I write about each child. ↩
  2. Sources for the children’s births will be provided when I write about each child in later posts. ↩
  3. Henry Langer on the 1900 US Census; Year: 1900; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 117; Page: 2;Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1240117′; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1870,
    Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  4. Joseph Langer, Passport Application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 933; Volume #: Roll 0933 – Certificates: 122000-122249, 27 Sep 1919-28 Sep 1919 ↩
  5. Lester Langer, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Colorado; Registration County: Denver; Roll: 1561841; Draft Board: 5. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  6. Berthold Mansbach, 1920 US Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Albuquerque Ward 3, Bernalillo, New Mexico; Roll: T625_1074; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 18 ↩
  7. Title: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1877. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  8. Hannah Mansbach death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 071201-073500,Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966, Certificate Number 72276. Hannah Mansbach Dannenberg on the 1900-1930 US Census records: Year: 1900; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1463; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0425;FHL microfilm: 1241462; Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1399; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0692; FHL microfilm: 1375412; Year: 1920; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1633; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 969; Year: 1930; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2125; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0778; FHL microfilm: 2341859 ↩
  9. Meyer Mansbach on 1900-1930 US Census records: Year: 1900; Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: 126; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126; Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1399; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0692; FHL microfilm: 1375412; Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 136; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0108; FHL microfilm: 2339871 ↩
  10. Julius Mansbach 1900 passport application
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, 1795-1905; Roll #: 550; Volume #: Roll 550 – 07 May 1900-11 May 1900. Julius Mansbach 1903 passport application
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Emergency Passport Applications (Issued Abroad), 1877-1907; Roll #: 41; Volume #: Volume 075: Germany. Julius Mansbach 1908 passport application
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 74; Volume #: Roll 0074 – Certificates: 64339-65243, 20 Nov 1908-15 Dec 1908. ↩

Where Are Those Missing Manifests? Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach and Family

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By 1870 many members of the Goldschmidt clan had left Germany and settled in Pennsylvania.  My four-times great-uncle Simon Goldschmidt and all his children had emigrated starting in the 1840s and were, for the most part, living in western Pennsylvania by 1870. 1 During this same period six of the eight children of my three-times great-grandparents Seligmann and Hincka (Alexander) Goldschmidt had settled in Philadelphia: Jakob, Levi, my great-great-grandmother Eva, Abraham, Meyer, and Rosa. They were all living in Philadelphia by 1870. Of Seligmann’s family, only Sarah and Bette were still in Germany as of 1870.

Sarah would also eventually join the family in the US, but only after her children had emigrated. In the 1870s and 1880s, all but one of Sarah’s eight surviving children2 came to the United States, and eventually so did Sarah and her husband Abraham Mansbach II. This is their story.

Although I cannot find passenger manifests for all them, it appears that the first to arrive was Merla/Amalie Mansbach, who sailed to the US in 1872 with Henry Schoenthal and his new wife Helene Lilienfeld, as I discussed here.3

Henry Schoenthal and Helene Lilienfeld 1872 ship manifest lines 95 to 98 with Amalie Mansbach
Year: 1872; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 359; Line: 1; List Number: 484

I have no record of Amalie from the time of her arrival until the 1880 census, but I assume she must have been living in Pennsylvania, probably in Philadelphia, because according to the 1900 census, in 1879, she married Henry Langer. Henry was 22 years older than Amelia, born in 1831 in Austria; he had immigrated to the US in 1856, and in the 1870s he was living in Philadelphia, working as a furrier, according to the Philadelphia directory for 1870 and a newspaper listing in 1877.4

 

Amalie and Henry had relocated to Denver by December 17, 1879,5 when their first child, Joseph Henry Langer, was born. According to the 1880 census, Henry continued to work as a furrier in Denver:

H and A Langer and son 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 88; Page: 116C; Enumeration District: 005

I wondered what had drawn them to Denver. I couldn’t find any other Langers living there at that time, but I then discovered that Colorado had drawn other members of Amalie’s extended family, including her brother Berthold.

Berthold may have been the next child of Sarah and Abraham II to arrive from Germany; although I cannot find a passenger manifest for him, the 1920 census reports that he immigrated to the US in 1874.6 In 1877, he is listed in the Philadelphia directory working as a clerk.

Title: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1877
Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

But by 1880, he also had relocated to Trinidad, Colorado, where he was living with his cousin Abraham Mansbach V,  the grandson of Marum Mansbach I. Abraham V was a merchant, and Bert was working as a clerk, presumably in his cousin’s store.

Bert Mansbach 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: 92; Page: 65D; Enumeration District: 066

Abraham V had been living in Colorado for some time, as he was naturalized in Denver in 1873,7 so perhaps that was what had drawn his cousin Amalie and her husband Henry Langer to Denver by 1879.

But what had taken Abraham V to Trinidad, a town about 200 miles south of Denver? Looking at the population statistics for Trinidad, I noticed a huge population explosion between 1870, when there were 562 people residing there, and 1880, when there were 2,226.

According to the website Western Mining History:

Trinidad was incorporated in 1876 and became the supply and transportation center for the region’s coal mines. The coal from these mines was highly prized for its quality in creating coking fuels for Colorado’s smelters. As the mines and smelters of Colorado grew into a major industry, Trinidad prospered and became a wealthy commercial center full of stunning Victorian homes and buildings.

Trinidad, Colorado 1907
By Business_section_of_Trinidad,_Colorado.tif: Arthur Russell Allen derivative work: Ori.livneh (Business_section_of_Trinidad,_Colorado.tif) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Thus, Abraham Mansbach V and his cousin Berthold Mansbach must have chosen Trinidad as a place of great economic opportunity. As they say on that old commercial for Barney’s in New York City, all those people were going to need clothes.

 

UPDATE: Thanks to Sharon Haimovitz-Civitano of the Branches of our Haimowitz Family Tree and Branches on Civitano Tree blogs, I now have additional insights into why the Mansbachs ended up in Trinidad.  Those insights will be discussed in a later post, but in short, there were members of the extended Goldschmidt-Mansbach family living in Trinidad even before Berthold Mansbach and his cousin Abraham Mansbach V arrived.

But not all the Mansbach siblings chose to settle out west. Sarah and Abraham II’s oldest son Leiser/Louis Mansbach came to the US on December 16, 1876:

Louis (Lassor) Mansbach ship manifest
Year: 1876; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 406; Line: 1; List Number: 1160
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

 

In 1880, he was living with my great-great-grandparents, Gerson Katzenstein and Eva Goldschmidt, who was his aunt, his mother Sarah’s sister. My great-grandmother Hilda, who was then sixteen, was also living at home and thus must have known her first cousin Louis quite well. Louis was 31 years old and was a veterinary surgeon.

Louis Mansbach in the household of Gerson Katzenstein 1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1173; Page: 274B; Enumeration District: 219

This is the first veterinarian I’ve found in my family.  Formal education of veterinarians in the US was relatively new at that time as the first public veterinary school in the US wasn’t founded until 1879 in Iowa, and the University of Pennsylvania did not start its veterinary school until 1884. Louis may have arrived at just the right time.

I do not have ship manifests for three of the remaining children of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach II, Hannah, Meyer, and Julius.  I have tried searching on Ancestry and FamilySearch; I tried using stevemorse.org and wild cards and various spellings and different date ranges. Nothing. For Julius, as discussed below, I even had a date of arrival and ship names from his later passport applications, but still—no manifest.  If anyone is willing to try with fresh eyes, I’d be very grateful. But for now I have to rely on other documents to estimate the dates of arrival for Hannah, Meyer, and Julius. Since none of these three appeared on the 1880 census, I am assuming they arrived sometime after the taking of that census in the spring of 1880.

For Hannah Mansbach, census records indicate three different years of arrival: 1880 on the 1900 census, 1881 on the 1920 and 1930 census records, and 1885 on the 1910 census. Usually I’d assume the one closest in time, the 1900 census, would be the most reliable, but at best I can say she arrived sometime between 1880 and 1885.  Since the rest of the family had arrived by 1882, I think 1880-1881 is more likely.8

Census records also conflict regarding the arrival date for Meyer Mansbach. The 1900 census reports that he arrived in 1879, but the 1910 and 1930 census records both report 1882 as his date of arrival.9

For Julius, as noted above, I found information about his arrival on his passport applications, of which there were three—in 1900, 1903, and 1908. All three provide the same date of arrival (June 12, 1881) and the same port of departure (Bremen), but all three have different names for the ship. The 1900 application says he sailed on the Elbe, the 1903 says the Weser, and the 1908 says the Werra.

Julius Mansbach 1900 passport application
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, 1795-1905; Roll #: 550; Volume #: Roll 550 – 07 May 1900-11 May 1900

 

Julius Mansbach 1903 passport application
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Emergency Passport Applications (Issued Abroad), 1877-1907; Roll #: 41; Volume #: Volume 075: Germany

Julius Mansbach 1908 passport application
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 74; Volume #: Roll 0074 – Certificates: 64339-65243, 20 Nov 1908-15 Dec 1908

Julius obviously remembered more or less when he arrived (or maybe departed from Germany), but not the name of his ship. Taking the usual rule that the record made closest in time to an event may be the most reliable, I focused on manifests for the Elbe.

I found a manifest for the Elbe arriving in New York on July 8, 1881, with a passenger named Julius “Halsbach” aged 26 (so ten years older than Julius would have been). That seemed the closest match, and I could not find anything close in date or name on the Weser or the Werra.

Julius Mansbach possible manifest
Year: 1881; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 439; Line: 1; List Number: 914
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957

It thus seems reasonable to conclude that Hannah, Meyer, and Julius had all arrived by 1881. And so by 1881 all Sarah and Abraham’s eight living children except Kathinka had left Germany.

The following year on October 23, 1882, they were joined by their parents, my three-times great-aunt Sarah Goldschmidt and her husband Abraham Mansbach II, and their youngest daughter Kathinka. Also apparently sailing with them was a twelve year old girl named “Kath. Goldschmidt.” I have yet to identify who this was, but I assume she was the child of one of the Goldschmidt cousins still in Germany.

Abraham Mansbach II and family on passenger manifest
Year: 1882; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 459; Line: 1; List Number: 1509

 

With that final arrival, all but one of the eight children and almost all the grandchildren of my three-times great-grandparents Seligmann Goldschmidt and Hincka Alexander were living the US. Only Bette Goldschmidt and her family were still in Germany.10 It must have been hard to leave Bette behind, but the choice to leave Germany was in the long run a fortunate one for the family of Seligmann and Hincka. And for all of us who are their descendants.

(A big thank you to Amberly Peterson Beck of The Genealogy Girl blog for her brilliant post, Tuesday’s Tip: Awesome & Easy Source Citations in WordPress, which explained how to create footnotes for source citations in an easy and quite useful way. This is my first post experimenting with this technique. Thank you, Amberly!)

 

 

 

  1. I will return to Simon’s family at a later time. For now I am focusing on my closest Goldschmidt relatives, the descendants of Seligmann and Hincka. ↩
  2. Two died in Germany, Jakob and Hedwig, as discussed in my earlier post. ↩
  3. There was also a second eighteen year old woman sailing with them with the same name—Amalie Mansbach. I believe the other Amalie was another relative of Abraham Mansbach II; she was the granddaughter of Marum Mansbach I and sister of Abraham Mansbach V. ↩
  4. Henry Langer on the 1900 US Census; Year: 1900; Census Place: Denver, Arapahoe, Colorado; Roll: 117; Page: 2;Enumeration District: 0031; FHL microfilm: 1240117′; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1870,
    Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  5. Joseph Langer, Passport Application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 933; Volume #: Roll 0933 – Certificates: 122000-122249, 27 Sep 1919-28 Sep 1919 ↩
  6. Berthold Mansbach, 1920 US Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Albuquerque Ward 3, Bernalillo, New Mexico; Roll: T625_1074; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 18 ↩
  7. Abraham Mansbach, Naturalization, National Archives at Denver; Broomfield, Colorado; Naturalization Records, Colorado, 1876-1990; ARC Title: Naturalization Cards, 1880 – 1906; NAI Number: 1307044; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004 ↩
  8. Hannah Mansbach on the 1900-1930 US Census records: Year: 1900; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1463; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0425;FHL microfilm: 1241462; Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1399; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0692; FHL microfilm: 1375412; Year: 1920; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1633; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 969; Year: 1930; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2125; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0778; FHL microfilm: 2341859 ↩
  9. Meyer Mansbach on 1900-1930 US Census records: Year: 1900; Census Place: Trinidad, Las Animas, Colorado; Roll: 126; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1240126; Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1399; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0692; FHL microfilm: 1375412; Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 136; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0108; FHL microfilm: 2339871 ↩
  10. As Bette married her first cousin Jakob Goldschmidt (yes, another one), the son of her father’s brother Lehmann, I will return to her story when I discuss the Goldschmidt family members who stayed in Germany, including Lehmann and many of his descendants. ↩

Yet Another Abraham Mansbach: More Twists in the Tree

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As I mentioned in my last post, my three-times great-grandparents Seligmann Goldschmidt and Hincka Alexander had seven children.

Their oldest child was Sarah, born December 1, 1818, in Oberlistingen. Sarah married Abraham Mansbach on October 31, 1843. Abraham Mansbach was a name I’d encountered before when researching my Katzenstein relatives, so I knew I had to dig deeper to see if there was a connection.

Marriage record of Sarah (Sarchen) Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach
Trauregister der Juden von Gudensberg 1825-1900 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 386)AutorHessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wiesbaden, p. 14

Back in November, 2016, I wrote a post entitled “Will the Real Abraham Mansbach Please Stand Up?,” in which I described my attempts to distinguish five different men (all related to each other) named Abraham Mansbach.  The first Abraham Mansbach (Abraham I) died around 1808; the other four included one of his grandsons and three of his great-grandsons.

Abraham I had three sons: Isaac, Leiser, and Marum I.  Leiser in turn had two sons, Abraham II and Marum II, both of whom married into my family. Abraham II married my three-times great-aunt Sarah Goldschmidt, as seen above.

Leiser’s other son, Marum II, married one of my other three-times-great-aunts, Hannchen Katzenstein. Thus, the Mansbachs are related to me both on the Katzenstein side and the Goldschmidt side. (And the Goldschmidts and Katzenstein lines also merged with the marriage of Gerson Katzenstein and Eva Goldschmidt, my great-great-grandparents.)

Marum Mansbach II and Hanchen Katzenstein also had a son named Abraham, whom I labeled Abraham Mansbach III.[1] The fourth and fifth Abraham Mansbachs were other great-grandsons of Abraham I not directly entangled with my relatives.

 

 

Anyway……all you need to know for this post is that Sarah Goldschmidt married Abraham Mansbach II, who was born January 12, 1809, in Maden, Germany.  Sarah and Abraham had ten children: Breine (1844), Hewa “Hedwig (1846), Leiser “Louis” (1849), Jacob (1851), Merla “Amelia” (1853), Berthold (1856), Hannah (1858), Meyer (1860), Kathinka (1862), and Julius (1865). In other words, Sarah gave birth to ten children over a 21 year period. All the children were born in Maden.

Thanks to my recently-found cousin Art Mansbach, a great-grandson of Abraham and Sarah, I have a number of photographs of Abraham and Sarah and their children. This one is of Abraham, Sarah, and their youngest child, Julius, Art’s grandfather. Julius appears to be about five years old in this photograph, so this would have been taken in around 1870:

Abraham Mansbach, Julius Mansbach, and Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach c. 1870
Courtesy of the Mansbach family

Here is one of Sarah with her two youngest sons, Meyer and Juilus. From the ages of the boys, I would estimate that this was taken in the mid-1870s:

Julius Mansbach, Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach, and Meyer Mansbach c. 1874
Courtesy of the Mansbach family

This was the Mansbach home in Maden, Germany:

Home of Abraham and Sarah Goldschmidt Mansbach, Maden, Germany
Courtesy of the Mansbach family

Remarkably, only one of those children did not grow to adulthood.  Jacob, the fourth child, who was born on June 23, 1851, died on September 13, 1853. He was just two years old.

Jacob Mansbach death record
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 387, p. 47

 

Two other children of Sarah and Abraham II predeceased one or both of their parents, but did live to adulthood: Hedwig and Kathinka.  Kathinka died in the US, so her story will come in a later post. But Hedwig died in Germany.

Hedwig was born on November 20, 1846.

Hedwig/Hewa Mansbach birth record HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p.43

 

On February 16, 1875, she married David Rothschild of Zierenberg, Germany.

Hewa Mansbach and David Rothschild marriage record
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 386, p. 40

Sadly, Hedwig died nine months to the day later on November 16, 1875. Had she died in childbirth? I don’t know. She was only 28 years old when she died. If there was a child, I have not found any record of him or her, and I checked all the births and deaths in Zierenberg in 1875.

Death record for Hedwig Mansbach Rothschild
Description: Geburten, Heiraten Tote 1874-1875
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1730-1875

 

Not long after Hedwig’s death, many of her siblings began to leave Germany for the United States. In fact, all but one of the remaining siblings and their parents Sarah and Abraham themselves eventually emigrated. I will continue their stories in subsequent posts.

The only surviving child of Sarah and Abraham who did not emigrate was their first-born child, Breine.

Breine was born on September 27, 1844:

Breine Mansbach birth record
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 384, p. 39

 

She married Jacob Bensew on February 3, 1870; Jacob was born on January 15, 1840, in Malsfeld, Germany, the son of Heinemann Bensew and Roschen Goldberg.

marriage record for Breine Mansbach and Jacob Bensew
HHStAW Fonds 365 No 386, p. 35

 

Breine and Jacob had six children—five sons and one daughter: William (1872), Julius (1875), Siegmund (1877), Heinemann (1879), Max (1882), and Frieda (1886). All six of their children would eventually immigrate to the United States, but Breine and Jacob stayed behind and lived the rest of their lives in Germany.

Breine died in Melsungen, Germany, on May 31, 1922, and her husband Jacob in Kassel, Germany, on April 25, 1925.

Death record for Breine Mansbach Bensew
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 4684

Because so much of the rest of the story of the the family of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach II took place in the US, I will stop here and address the history of the Goldschmidt family’s migration to the US in my next post.

But first one final photograph, this one of Abraham with the four sons who grew to adulthood: Leiser/Louis, Berthold, Meyer, and Julius. I do not know which is which, but all four appear in this photograph with their father. They were all my first cousins, four times removed:

ABraham Mansbach with his four surviving sons: Meyer, Berthold, Louis, and Julius. (Not necessarily in that order.)

 

 

[1] Thus, Abraham II was the uncle of Abraham III, my first cousin-three times removed on my Katzenstein line, and he was the husband of my three-times great-aunt Sarah Goldschmidt.

My Crazy Twisted Tree and My Hessian Cousins

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A detour from my Katzenstein relatives this week to discuss two other interesting discoveries.  First, this one for Women’s History Month:

A year ago in March, 2016, during Women’s History Month, I wrote a post about Rose Mansbach Schoenthal, wife of my great-grandfather’s brother, Simon Schoenthal, and the mother of ten children, nine of whom survived to adulthood.  She came to the US from Germany in 1867 when she was sixteen, apparently alone, as far as I can tell from the ship manifest. She married Simon in 1872 and lived in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Tucson during her life. Simon died when he was only 54, and Rose was left to raise the three children who were still teenagers on her own.

Rose Mansbach Schoenthal

Rose Mansbach Schoenthal

But what I didn’t know when I first posted about Rose was anything about her life before she came to the US or the first five years she was in the US. I didn’t know her background, where she was born, her parents, anything.  One family tree on Ancestry said she was born in Gudensberg in 1850, but cited no records to support that assertion.

Then a month or so ago when I was reviewing the family of Marum Mansbach and Hannchen Katzenstein, David Baron told me about a report of the extended Mansbach family that appears on Hans-Peter Klein’s website, Juden in Nordhessen.  David said that he believed that Roeschen Mansbach, who was listed in this report as the daughter of Lippmann Mansbach and Frederike Kaufman, was the same woman who married Simon Schoenthal.  I was intrigued and wrote to Hans-Peter to see what else he could tell me about Roeschen.

Hans-Peter wrote that Roeschen had had a brother Isaac who had immigrated to the US and settled in Philadelphia, where he became well-known for his glass and bottles. With that additional bit of information, I decided to see what I could learn about Isaac and whether I could tie him to Rose Mansbach Schoenthal.

First, I should explain how Roeschen Mansbach is related to my family.  Her great-grandfather was Abraham Mansbach I, who was the grandfather of Marum Mansbach, husband of my great-great-grandfather Gerson’s half-sister Hannchen Katzenstein. So Roeschen was a second cousin to the three Mansbach children who were Gerson Katzenstein’s nephews and niece: Henrietta Mansbach Gump, Abraham Mansbach, and H.H. Mansbach.  She was not a blood relative of mine, but related only through marriage.

Here is Roeschen’s birth record.  She was born on May 24, 1851 in Maden:

Roeschen Mansbach birth record

Roeschen Mansbach birth record

I decided to start my research into the question of whether Lippmann’s daughter Roeschen was the same woman as the Rose Mansbach who married Simon Schoenthal by reviewing the documents I’d already found for Rose.  None mentioned her father’s name or place of birth (except the one family tree for which there were no sources), but there was one census record from the 1870 census that I had saved long ago because it listed a Rosa Mansbach.  When I’d saved it, I had not been sure it was the same Rose Mansbach so had not included it in my post about Rose back in March, 2016.

The reason I had not been sure it was for the same Rose in my initial search was that this Rosa Mansbach was living in Chicago in 1870.  Although she was the right age (19) and born in Hesse Kassel, as was my Rose, I couldn’t figure out what she was doing in Chicago and why she was living with a family whose name meant nothing to me.  Then.

But now, in January, 2017, when I re-examined it, the name was very familiar.

Rose Mansbach on 1870 census Year: 1870; Census Place: Chicago Ward 10, Cook, Illinois

Rosa Mansbach on 1870 census
Year: 1870; Census Place: Chicago Ward 10, Cook, Illinois

This Rosa Mansbach was living with the family of David Gump, a “merchant tailor” born in Germany, 33 years old. His wife Caroline had been born in Hesse Kassel, and their four children—Ida, Martin, Harry, and Mary—were all born in Pennsylvania. Looking at this census report with fresh eyes, I knew immediately that this Gump family had to be related to the family of Gabriel Gump, who married Henrietta Mansbach, and Eliza Gump, who married Abraham Mansbach.  In fact, as I checked further, I learned that David Gump was the brother of Gabriel and Eliza Gump.

I knew then that this could not be coincidence, that the Rosa Mansbach living with David Gump had to be related to Abraham and Henrietta and H.H. Mansbach, the niece and nephews of my great-great-grandfather Gerson Katzenstein.  Further research revealed that David Gump’s wife’s birth name was Caroline Mansbach.  Although I’ve yet to figure out how she was related to Rose and the other Mansbachs, I have to believe that she also was part of the Mansbach from Maden family.

relationship-rose-to-david-gump-p-1

rose-to-david-p-2

 

Thus, it seemed quite likely that the Rose Mansbach living with David Gump in Chicago in 1870 was somehow connected to the Mansbachs who were related to Gerson Katzenstein. But was this Rose Mansbach the same woman who two years later in 1872 married Simon Schoenthal? That remained the big question.

In 1870, Simon Schoenthal was living in Washington, Pennsylvania.  After marrying Rose, he remained in western Pennsylvania for several years and then they relocated to Philadelphia and eventually to Atlantic City.  Was there any way to tie Simon’s wife Rose Mansbach to the Rose Mansbach who’d been living in Chicago with David Gump? I wasn’t sure.

So I decided to take a different approach.  Hans-Peter believed that Roeschen Mansbach’s brother Isaac had also immigrated to the US and settled in Philadelphia.  Perhaps I could find a way to connect him to the Schoenthals and strengthen the inference that his sister Roeschen married my great-grandfather’s brother Simon.

The earliest document I found for Isaac Mansbach was an 1868 passenger ship manifest for an Isac Mansbach, a merchant from Germany, twenty years old.

Isac Mansbach 1868 ship manifest Year: 1868; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 291; Line: 1; List Number: 155

Isac Mansbach 1868 ship manifest
Year: 1868; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 291; Line: 1; List Number: 155

Then, on the 1870 census I found a twenty year-old Isaac Mansbach, a clothing merchant born in “German Prussia,” living in a hotel in Newport, Pennsylvania. Newport is about 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg, about 120 miles west of Philadelphia.

1870-us-census-isaac-and-lewis-mansbach

Living with him in the hotel was a 45 year old “Lewis Mansbach,” a peddler born in Prussia.  Could this be Lippmann Mansbach, father of Isaac and Roeschen?  Hans-Peter’s research indicated that Lippmann died in Maden, Germany in 1877.  Could he have come to the US for some years and then returned? According to Hans-Peter’s research, Lippmann was born in 1813, so he would have been closer to 55 than 45 in 1870.  And I’ve found no other US record for a Lewis/Louis Mansbach of that age, so I didn’t know with any certainty who this man was. But the fact that Isaac Mansbach named his first child Louis in 1875 made me think that the 45 year old “Lewis” Mansbach living with him in 1870 was his father Lippmann.

So I wrote to Hans-Peter to see if he had any other information about Lippmann Mansbach and specifically about whether he had ever emigrated from Germany.  I was particularly interested in whether he had a death record for Lippmann.  I was delighted when I received a reply that included that death record.  It in fact showed that Lippman (really Liebmann) had died not in 1877, but on October 5, 1874.  That explained why Isaac named his first son Louis in 1875.  It also left open the possibility that although Liebmann died in Maden, he very well could have been living with his son Isaac in Newport, Pennsylvania, in 1870, and then returned to Germany before he died.

liebmann-mansbach-death-1874

Liebmann Mansbach death record

As for Isaac, he married Bertha Schwartz on March 23, 1873, according to the Pennsylvania Marriages 1709-1940 database on familysearch.org. Bertha was born on April 25, 1853, in Germany, but I have not yet been able to find out much more about her background.  However, in 1876, Isaac was in the liquor business with a man named Marks Schwartz; the business was called Schwartz & Mansbach and is listed in several Philadelphia directories. Marks has so far proven to be as elusive as Bertha, but I have to believe they were either father and daughter or brother and sister.

liquor-license-applications-1892-philad

The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1892, p. 7

The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 18, 1892, p. 7

According to a website devoted to cataloging the names of all pre-Prohibition era liquor dealers in the United States, Isaac Mansbach was in business with Marks Schwartz for about twenty years (1876-1896). At that point Isaac went out on his own with his son Louis.  In 1910, he and his wife Bertha were running the business.

isaac-mansbach-ad-in-dc-paper

I found the above advertisement for Isaac’s business in the November 14, 1901, Washington (DC) Evening Times; even more exciting was this invoice for a sale his business made on June 11, 1907, to a J.J. Walsh of Springfield, Massachusetts! (FYI—I live just a few miles outside of Springfield, known today primarily as being the birthplace of basketball).  Obviously Isaac had a successful business as he was engaged in transactions far from Philadelphia.

Hans-Peter had mentioned that he thought that Isaac was in the glass and bottle business, and I think I know why. As a distributor of liquor, the business had bottles made that were marked with the distributor’s name, as depicted below.

They also sold shot glasses embossed with the company’s name:

The pre-Prohibition website went on to report that sometime before 1918, Isaac Mansbach dissolved his own business and in 1919 went into business with a new partner.

That new partner was Harry Schoenthal.  Yes, Harry Schoenthal, the son of Simon Schoenthal and Rose Mansbach. I knew this was the same Harry Schoenthal because I knew that Harry had been in the liquor business in Philadelphia.  As I wrote just about a year ago, in 1910 Harry was living in Philadelphia and listed his occupation as the owner of a “retail saloon,” His sister Hettie’s family shared with me this photograph of “Uncle Harry” and his liquor business. I wonder if one of those other men was Isaac Mansbach.

Uncle Harry's Beer Business Courtesy of the family of Hettie Schoenthal Stein

Uncle Harry’s liquor Business
Courtesy of the family of Hettie Schoenthal Stein

So in 1919, my cousin Harry Schoenthal, the son of Rose Mansbach and Simon Schoenthal, went into business with Isaac Mansbach, his mother’s brother.

I had thus found the missing link that tied Roeschen Mansbach, Isaac’s sister and the cousin of Henrietta, Abraham, and H.H. Mansbach (children of Hannchen Katzenstein), to the Rose Mansbach who married my great-grandfather’s brother Simon Schoenthal.  There was yet another connection between the Schoenthals and the Katzensteins in addition, of course, to that between my great-grandparents, Isidore Schoenthal and Hilda Katzenstein.

I was hoping that finding Rose’s family would somehow lead me to more clues about the mystery of her namesake and granddaughter Rose Mansbach Schoenthal, the child who appeared on the 1930 census and then disappeared.  But alas, I’ve not yet found anything new to help me solve that mystery.

 

 

 

The Gumps and the Business of Alcohol

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Hannchen Katzenstein, my great-great-grandfather’s sister, and Marum Mansbach had three children; I’ve already written about the two sons, H.H. and Abraham. This post will be about their daughter and first child, Henrietta Mansbach.

As I’ve written previously, Henrietta married Gabriel Gump, brother of Eliza Gump, who was married to Henrietta’s brother Abraham.  Like her brother Abraham, Henrietta died relatively young at 61 in 1893.  In addition to her husband Gabriel, she was survived by four sons: Abraham, Louis, Harry, and Joseph.

Henrietta’s children and husband worked together in the family business, a wholesale liquor distributorship, and almost all of them lived their whole lives in Baltimore. Unlike the children of her brother, however, Henrietta’s children lived lives that were not marked by tragedy.

In 1887, Louis Gump, the second son, married Caroline (Carrie) Metzger.  She was the daughter of German immigrants, Aaron Metzger and Teresa Hamburg, and was herself born in Baltimore in 1865.  Her father was a horse dealer.  Louis and Carrie had a daughter Rosalind, on October 1, 1887. In 1894, Louis was working for Gump & Sons, his family’s liquor business. According to the 1900 census, Carrie had had two other babies after Rosalind, but only Rosaline was alive as of 1900.

Louis and Carrie Gump on 1900 census showing only 1 of 3 children alive

Louis and Carrie Gump on 1900 census showing only 1 of 3 children alive Year: 1900; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 615; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615

In December 1894, Abraham, the oldest Gump son married Jennie Hamburger.  She was also the daughter of German immigrants, Lewis and Rosa Hamburger; her father was a clothing merchant.  Jennie was born in Maryland.

Der Deutsche Correspondent December 13, 1894

Der Deutsche Correspondent December 13, 1894, p.4

The announcement reports that Jennie Hamburger married Abraham Gump, that they were married by two rabbis, and that there was a happy wedding celebration afterwards. It also lists some of the guests, including Harry and Joseph Gump, Abraham’s brothers, and Louis Mansbach, H.H. Mansbach’s son and Abraham Gump’s first cousin.

Abraham and Jennie had two daughters, Etta, born in 1895, and Ruth, born in 1899.

On December 27, 1899, the third Gump son, Harry, married Mildred Lewith of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.  Their wedding was described in incredible detail in this news article from the Wilkes-Barre Sunday News of December 31, 1899, p. 7:

jpg-elaborate_wedding_description_for_harry_gump_and_mildred_lewith-page-001

I will transcribe only a small portion of this long and extremely detailed article, but if you want to read an elaborate description of every step in their ceremony, click through to see the full text:

The wedding of Miss Mildred Lewith of this city and Harry Gump of Baltimore took place at the synagogue B’nai B’rith on South Washington Street at 7:30 Wednesday. The affair was the grandest Hebrew social event of the season. Everyone knew it was going to be a grand affair, but none thought it would be such a brilliant and gorgeous one, and surrounded by so much beauty.

[Then follows a lengthy and florid description of the clothing, the ceremony, the decorations at the reception, the orchestra, the gifts, and a list of the out of town guests.]

The bride and groom left on the midnight train for Old Point Comfort and will remain there for a week.  They will go to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and finally will return to this city and take up their residence in handsome apartments at the Sterling Hotel until late next fall, when their home in Baltimore will be ready for them. The fact that the bride will not at once make her home in another city will be good news to her many friends, for she is a deservedly popular young lady and her friends do not want to part with her.

A few observations about this wedding article. First, Mildred must have come from quite a wealthy family.  Mildred was a native of Wilkes-Barre, and her parents, Lewis Lewith and Josephine Freeman, were immigrants from Nepomuk in what is now the Czech Republic, but was then part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. Lewis, like Harry’s father Gabriel Gump, was in the wholesale liquor business in Wilkes-Barre.  I assume that that is how the connection was made between Harry and Mildred. Mildred and Harry did not have any children.

An old bird-eye map (circa 1889) for Wilkes-Ba...

An old bird-eye map (circa 1889) for Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Second, we think that social media today reveals too many intimate details about people’s lives, but even in 1899 the public was fascinated with the private lives of others. I also wonder how those whose marriage announcement followed this one in the Wilkes-Barre paper felt about their relatively meager announcements.

Thirdly, I don’t know what happened to the home being prepared for them in Baltimore, but as far as I can tell, Harry and Mildred never really left Wilkes-Barre, I am sure to the delight of her many friends.

Thus, as of 1900, three of the Gump sons—Abraham, Louis, and Harry— were married.   Their father Gabriel was living in Baltimore with Louis and his family in 1900, and the youngest son Joseph was living with them as well.

Louis Gump and family 1900 census Year: 1900; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 615; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615

Louis Gump and family 1900 census
Year: 1900; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 16, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 615; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0209; FHL microfilm: 1240615

Abraham was living with his wife Jennie and daughters in Baltimore also, and only Harry was living elsewhere—in Wilkes-Barre.

Joseph, the youngest son, married Francella (sometimes called Frances) Kohler sometime before June 25, 1907.  I cannot find any official or unofficial reference to the date of their marriage, but on that date a newspaper item appeared in the Baltimore Sun reporting that “Mrs. Joseph Gump” would spend July at the Blue Mountain House, a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

mrs-joseph-gump-1907-in-baltimore

Baltimore Sun, June 23, 1907, p. 6

I wondered how Joseph Gump met Francella Kohler.  She was born in New York City in 1875 and lived in Brooklyn until she was about five when her parents, David Kohler and Jane Kurtz, moved to Baltimore.  David was a merchant, sometimes selling clothing, sometimes tobacco products, and Francella was one of eight children.  Her mother Jane died in 1880, and at some point her father David remarried, and by 1891 the family had moved to Savannah, Georgia.

So how did Joseph Gump meet Francella if she had moved from Baltimore by the time (and perhaps before) she was sixteen? He was four years older than Francella.  Perhaps they’d met while she and he were both growing up in Baltimore or their families were friendly.  Also, I found two items of social news in the Augusta, Georgia, newspaper, one from 1900 and one from 1902, reporting that Joseph Gump of Baltimore was staying in that city.  Although Augusta is almost 140 miles from Savannah, perhaps there was some event that brought Joseph and Francella together while he was visiting Georgia.

joseph-gump-in-ga-1902 joseph-gump-in-ga-1900

At any rate, Joseph and Francella married by June 1907, and on November 17, 1908, their son George Gump was born in Baltimore.  In 1910, Joseph, Francella, and George were living in Baltimore, and Joseph was working in the family liquor business.  Francella’s father David Kohler, widowed again, was living with them.

Joseph Gump and family 1910 US census Year: 1910; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_558; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0259; FHL microfilm: 1374571

Joseph Gump and family 1910 US census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_558; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0259; FHL microfilm: 1374571

Joseph’s father Gabriel was still living with his son Louis and his family in 1910. Gabriel was retired, but Louis was still working in the liquor business with his brothers.  Abraham also was still in the family liquor business, living in Baltimore with his wife and daughters.  Harry continued to live in Wilkes-Barre with his wife Mildred, and although the entry for him on the 1910 census is not legible, according to the 1910 Wilkes-Barre city directory, he was working as a commercial traveler, i.e., a traveling salesman.

On January 28, 1915, Gabriel Gump died at age 84 in Baltimore.  Although I could not find an obituary in the Baltimore Sun, the Wilkes-Barre Evening News (January 29, 1915, p. 5) ran this notice:

gabriel-gump-death-notice-1915

When Gabriel’s will was probated a month later, the Baltimore Sun published this article about the distribution of Gabriel’s estate:

Baltimore Sun, February 3, 1915, p. 4

Baltimore Sun, February 3, 1915, p. 4

 

Gabriel was survived by his four sons and four grandchildren: Rosalind, Etta, Ruth, and George.  In addition, when Gabriel died, he was already a great-grandfather.  His granddaughter Rosalind, daughter of Louis and Carrie (Metzger) Gump, had married Milton Wertheimer, who was born in New York in 1883, but was living in Baltimore in 1910 with his parents and working in his father’s manufacturing business. Rosalind and Milton had a son, Emanuel, in 1912.  A second son, Milton Wertheimer, Jr., was born just five months after Gabriel’s death in 1915.

Thus, at the time of Gabriel Gump’s death, his four sons and their families were prospering from the family’s wholesale liquor business.  The next decade saw drastic changes

 

 

Bad Luck or Bad Genes: The Sad Legacy of Abraham Mansbach

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As seen in the last post, the family of Abraham Mansbach had prospered despite Abraham’s early death in 1887 at age 52.  Unfortunately, his DNA would cast a long shadow on his children and grandchildren.

The last post ended in 1915 when Abraham’s son Jerome married Ida Herzog. At that time Jerome and his sister Mollie and her family were all living in Baltimore.  Mollie was married to Herman Kerngood, a successful businessman, the owner and president of a button and metal fastening manufacturing business, Alma Manufacturing.  They had two sons, Allen and Morton Kerngood.

The World War I draft registrations for the Mansbach and Kerngood men revealed more details of their lives as of 1917-1918. Jerome Mansbach was living in Baltimore with Ida and working as a traveling salesman for H & S Cohn of New York City.  In 1920, Jerome and Ida were living with Ida’s father Charles and her sister and brother-in-law in Baltimore; Jerome continued to work as a traveling salesman.

Jerome Mansbach World War I draft registration Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore; Roll: 1684239; Draft Board: 4

Jerome Mansbach World War I draft registration
Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore; Roll: 1684239; Draft Board: 4

Jerome’s nephew Allen Kerngood was living in Baltimore with his wife, Myrtle Folb, and one child (a daughter, Marian, born in 1913), and he was working as a superintendent at his father’s company, Alma Manufacturing.

Allen Kerngood World War I draft registration Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore (Independent City); Roll: 1684137; Draft Board: 13

Allen Kerngood World War I draft registration
Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore (Independent City); Roll: 1684137; Draft Board: 13

 

Allen’s younger brother Morton Kerngood was working as an assistant superintendent at Alma Manufacturing and was now married and also living in Baltimore.  He was married to Myra Spandour, a Virginia native.

Morton Kerngood World War I draft registration Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore (Independent City); Roll: 1684137; Draft Board: 13

Morton Kerngood World War I draft registration
Registration State: Maryland; Registration County: Baltimore (Independent City); Roll: 1684137; Draft Board: 13

Meanwhile, the family matriarch Eliza (Gump) Mansbach, Abraham’s widow, relocated to Atlantic City by 1920. Eliza is listed as residing at Gerstel’s Hotel in both the 1920 and 1921 Atlantic City directories. Although Eliza still had one brother, Jacob, and her two children and her grandchildren living in Baltimore, something prompted her to move by herself to Atlantic City. Of course, as I’ve written earlier in my posts about the family of Simon Schoenthal, the 1910s were the heyday of Atlantic City’s popularity.  But it still strikes me as somewhat surprising that Eliza, a widow in her seventies, would have moved away from her children and grandchildren.

As for Eliza’s daughter Mollie and her husband, Herman Kerngood, like Eliza, they seem to have eluded the census enumerator in 1920.  But other reports indicate that Herman was still the owner and president of Alma Manufacturing.  Herman was nominated to serve as a Supervisor for City Charities for the city of Baltimore in June 1921, and after some controversy, was appointed:

Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1921, p.17

Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1921, p.17

Six years later he was named to the Baltimore Board of Pension Trustees:

Baltimore Sun, July 18, 1927, p. 3

Baltimore Sun, July 18, 1927, p. 3

I was able to locate Mollie and Herman’s sons on the 1920 census records.  Their older son Allen and his wife Myrtle were living in Baltimore with their daughter Marian; Allen continued to work at Alma Manufacturing with his father.  Allen and Myrtle would have a second child, Herman (II), in 1922.  Allen’s brother Morton was also working at Alma Manufacturing; he and his wife Myra had a child, Morton, Jr., in 1921.  They were also living in Baltimore.

Thus, it seemed that the family was thriving and that life was treating them all well in the 1920s. But fortunes started to change in 1929.  On September 1 of that year, Eliza Gump Mansbach died at age 86 and was buried with her husband Abraham at Oheb Shalom cemetery in Baltimore; she had outlived him by 42 years.

Eliza Gump Mansbach death notice Baltimore Sun, September 2, 1929 p. 14

Eliza Gump Mansbach death notice
Baltimore Sun, September 2, 1929 p. 14

Her children did not outlive her for as many years. Although her daughter Mollie (Mansbach) Kerngood is listed with her husband Herman in the 1930 Baltimore directory, she is not listed with him on the 1930 census.  He is listed as living at the same address as that listed in the 1930 directory, but Mollie is not included.

On March 21, 1931, the Baltimore Sun reported that Herman Kerngood had been hospitalized after suffering a “breakdown.”

Baltimore Sun, March 21, 1931, p. 3

Baltimore Sun, March 21, 1931, p. 3

Four months later, the newspaper reported that Herman had been “dropped” from the Board of Pension Trustees by the current mayor; the article seemed to suggest that this was for political reasons, as Kerngood was a Republican and the new mayor a Democrat.

Baltimore Sun, July 11, 1931, p. 20

Baltimore Sun, July 11, 1931, p. 20

Then just a month later, on August 11, 1931, Mollie Kerngood died.  She was 64.  There was no obituary, just this short death notice, describing her as the “beloved wife” of Herman Kerngood.

Baltimore Sun, August 12, 1931, p. 19

Baltimore Sun, August 12, 1931, p. 19

 

I can’t quite put all these pieces together, but the timing of all of these events seems to be too odd to be coincidental.  Had Mollie taken ill sometime before April, 1930, when the census was taken? Had Herman’s breakdown been related to his wife’s illness? Had the mayor removed Herman because of this breakdown, not just for political reasons? What would you infer from this series of events? Was it the Depression, not illness, that caused the family’s problems? Some other issue?

The family’s travails did not end there. Herman Kerngood died eleven months after his wife Mollie on July 10, 1932. Despite his prominence as a business leader and public servant in Baltimore, I could not find an obituary for him, only these brief notices of his death and his funeral:

Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1932, p. 18

Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1932, p. 18

Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1932, p. 9

Baltimore Sun, July 12, 1932, p. 9

The funeral notice states that he died suddenly of heart trouble. When his estate was probated a month later, it was valued at $209, 393.  His sons, Allen and Morton, took over the business of Alma Manufacturing.

Baltimore Sun, August 7, 1932, p, 13

Baltimore Sun, August 7, 1932, p, 13

On top of these losses, the family suffered what must have been a terrible shock when Allen Kerngood’s wife Myrtle died in June, 1937, in what was reported to have been an accident.  Her body was found washed ashore on an island off the coast of Maryland after she had disappeared from a steamer traveling from Norfolk, Virginia, to Baltimore:

Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1937, p. 18

Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1937, p. 18

Myrtle was only 47, and her children Marian and Herman were 24 and 15, respectively, when she died.

Two years later Allen Kerngood lost his younger brother Morton when he died from a blood infection at age 49:

Baltimore Sun, May 13, 1939, p. 20

Baltimore Sun, May 13, 1939, p. 20

Morton’s son Morton, Jr. was seventeen when his father died in 1939; he lost his mother, Myra Spandour Kerngood, in 1942, leaving him an orphan at twenty-one years of age.

Thus, the family of Mollie (Mansbach) Kerngood had far more than their fair share of tragedy in the ten years after Mollie died in 1931.  First, Herman died in 1932, and then their son Morton died as well as both of their daughters-in-law.  The only surviving member of the family aside from the three grandchildren was Allen Kerngood, who died on October 5, 1948, when he was only 59.  According to his death notice, he died suddenly.

Baltimore Sun, October 5, 1948, p. 26

Baltimore Sun, October 5, 1948, p. 26

As for the Kerngood family business, its original facility in Baltimore closed in 1940, and the business was sold to the North and Judd Manufacturing Company of New Britain, Connecticut, in 1946.

Meanwhile, Jerome Mansbach, Mollie’s brother and the son of Abraham and Eliza (Gump) Mansbach, had continued to live with his wife Ida in Baltimore.  In 1930, Jerome was still a traveling salesman, but in 1940 when he was 62 he did not list an occupation on the census.  His 1942 World War II draft registration confirms that he was no longer employed.

Jerome Mansbach World War II draft registration The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Fourth Registration for Maryland, 04/27/1942 - 04/27/1942; NAI Number: 563727; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147

Jerome Mansbach World War II draft registration
The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Fourth Registration for Maryland, 04/27/1942 – 04/27/1942; NAI Number: 563727; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147

Jerome died on December 20, 1942; he was 63 or 64 (records conflict as to whether he was born in 1878 or 1879).  Like his nephew Morton and his father Abraham, he died suddenly.

Baltimore Sun, December 21, 1942, p. 18

Baltimore Sun, December 21, 1942, p. 18

His wife Ida died two years later in 1944 when she was 72.  Jerome and Ida had not had any children.

Longevity does not appear to have been in the genes of Abraham Mansbach and his children.  He died at 52; his daughter Mollie and his son Jerome both died when they were 64, and Mollie’s two sons died at even younger ages: Morton was 49, Allen was 59.  Although Eliza Gump Mansbach had lived into her eighties, it appears that neither her children nor her grandsons were as fortunate.

 

 

Finally, A Baseball Legend in the Family… Sort of

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Having finished the story of H.H. Mansbach and his family, I want to return to his two older siblings, Abraham and Henrietta.  As I wrote earlier, Abraham and Henrietta married siblings: Eliza and Gabriel Gump.  Abraham died on November 18, 1887, leaving Eliza with two children, Mollie, who was 21, and Jerome, who was nine.  Then Henrietta died on March 15, 1893, survived by her husband Gabriel and their four sons, Abraham, Louis, Harry, and Joseph. What happened to these surviving spouses and their children?  This post will be about Abraham Mansbach’s family, his wife Eliza, and children Mollie and Jerome.

According to the 1900 census, Mollie Mansbach, Abraham and Eliza’s daughter, married Herman Kerngood in 1886 when she was twenty years old.  Herman was born in Warburg, Germany, in 1859 and had immigrated to the US in the 1870s.  By 1880 he was living in Baltimore with his uncle, William Kerngood, working as a clerk in his uncle’s dry goods business. But Herman did not remain a clerk for long. He established the Alma Button Company (later Alma Manufacturing) in 1887, the same year he married Mollie Mansbach.

It grew to be a very successful business, according to this site about Baltimore’s history:

Founded in 1887 by 28-year-old German immigrant Herman Kerngood, the Alma Manufacturing Company manufactured a wide variety of metal clothing trimmings including buckles, clasps, fasteners and steel buttons. Before Kerngood started his operation, conveniently located alongside the Baltimore & Ohio railroad tracks, textile companies in the United States had imported all their steel buttons from Germany. The firm produced around 35,000 specialized products (the “Superior Pantaloon Button” and “Perfect Trousers’ Hook” to name just a few) and could be found attached to hats, umbrellas, shoes and, of course, clothing produced at factories around the country.

Here is the drawing for one of the many patents obtained by Herman Kerngood for products and machinery used in his business, this one for studs for clasps awarded in 1896:

Another site describes more of Herman Kerngood’s entrepreneurial success:

At the beginning of the 20th century, Herman Kerngood formed a partnership with Moses Hecht, Benjamin F. Hecht, Nathan I. Hecht, S.B. Sonneborn, and Isaac Blum, to establish the American Steel Buckle Company, Inc. with an authorized capital stock of $1000.  The Hechts were of the same family that started Hecht Brothers and the Hecht Company chain of department stores in the Baltimore-Washington region, starting with a used furniture store founded by Samuel Hecht, in 1857.

In 1900, Mollie and Herman Kerngood were living with their two sons, Allen (11) and Morton (10) as well as Mollie’s mother Eliza (who for some reason is identified as Herman’s aunt on the census report).

Herman Kerngood and family 1900 census Year: 1900; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 614; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0191; FHL microfilm: 1240614

Herman Kerngood and family 1900 census
Year: 1900; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: 614; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0191; FHL microfilm: 1240614

I am not sure where Mollie’s brother Jerome was at the time of the 1900 census.  Although he is listed in the 1899 Baltimore directory as residing at the same address as his mother and his sister, 2007 McCulloh Street, he does not appear with them on the 1900 census, and he is missing from the Baltimore directory for the years between 1899 and 1906.  The only references I could find as to his whereabouts were two short news clippings from 1900:

Philadelphia Inquirer, March 25, 1900, p. 29

Philadelphia Inquirer, March 25, 1900, p. 29

On March 25, 1900, he was identified in the Philadelphia Inquirer as being from Baltimore and visiting his first cousin Bertie (Bertha) Mansbach in Cumberland, Maryland.  Bertha was the daughter of H.H. Mansbach, Jerome’s uncle. This is more evidence that despite the fact that H.H. and his brother Abraham served on opposite sides of the Civil War, there was some continuing family relationship afterwards.

The second news clipping about Jerome, from the Baltimore Sun and dated just six days later on March 31, 1900, states that Jerome was formerly from Baltimore and was visiting the city:

Baltimore Sun, March 31, 1900, p.12

Baltimore Sun, March 31, 1900, p.12

So where was Jerome living at that time? I don’t know, but as noted above, he does reappear in the Baltimore city directory in 1906, living at the same address where his sister and her family and his mother were living in 1900, McCulloh Street. In 1907, he is listed as a clerk living at the Hotel Forbes in Baltimore. But he is not listed in the Baltimore directory after 1907 for several years until he reappears in the 1914 edition.  Nor can I find him on the 1910 census.

I also had no luck locating his mother Eliza (Gump) Mansbach on the 1910 census nor in any directory or other record for that year.  The only members of the Abraham Mansbach family I could find on the 1910 census were Mollie (Mansbach) and Herman Kerngood and their two sons. Mollie and Herman were still living in Baltimore with their younger son Morton, who was now twenty. Both Herman and Morton were working in Alma Manufacturing, Morton as a salesman.  Their older son Allen, 21, was living with his uncle, Julius Kerngood, in New York City and working as a “commercial traveller” selling buttons, presumably for his father’s company.

Jerome Mansbach reappears in the 1914 Baltimore directory, listing himself as a commercial traveler, and has the same listing in 1915.  I’ve no idea where Jerome was between 1907 and 1914, but my best guess is that as a traveling salesman, he was on the road so much that he somehow was missed in the 1910 census and wasn’t settled enough to list himself in a city directory for those years.

But on July 15, 1915, Jerome did finally settle down.  He married Ida Herzog, daughter of Charles and Josephine (Schwartz) Herzog of Govans, Maryland, a neighborhood in Baltimore.

jerome-mansbach-engagement-to-ida-herzog-1915

Ida’s father Charles was a Baltimore native, and her mother was born in New Jersey. Charles, the son of a beer brewer, was a lawyer, and Ida’s maternal grandfather, Andrew Schwartz, was a Methodist minister.  I can’t help but wonder how Ida’s grandfather felt about her marrying the son of a Jewish immigrant.

What really caught my eye in the marriage announcement, however, was the statement that Ida was the sister of “Buck” Herzog, “manager of the Cincinnati team.” I’d never heard of him before, but being a big baseball fan, I was curious as to whether the “Cincinnati team” meant the Cincinnati Reds.  Sure enough, it did, and it turns out that Buck Herzog was not only a manager, but a former Major League player who had played in the 1912 World Series and broken the record for most hits in a World Series, a record that stood for over fifty years.

Gabriel Schechter wrote a biography of Buck Herzog for the Society of American Baseball Research, from which this excerpt is taken:

Buck Herzog was one of the most versatile infielders in the history of the major leagues; his 1,493 games were divided almost equally among second base, shortstop, and third base. His motto, “When you get ’em down, choke ’em,” earned him the nickname “Choke ‘Em Charley.” John McGraw signed Herzog for the New York Giants in 1908, beginning a baseball love-hate relationship exceeded perhaps only by George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin. No player better exemplified McGraw’s ferocious fighting spirit than the 5’11”, 160 lb. Herzog, yet the two generally couldn’t stand each other. Over the course of a decade the Giants traded away the aggressive infielder three times and brought him back twice, both times experiencing immediate success when he re-entered the fold. “I hate his guts,” McGraw once said about Herzog, “but I want him on my club.”

Buck Herzog baseball card for the Boston Braves By Issued by: American Tobacco Company [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Buck Herzog baseball card for the Boston Braves
By Issued by: American Tobacco Company [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I realize that the connection is quite attenuated, but I still got a kick out of the fact that a distant cousin of mine married the sister of a genuine American baseball legend!