Tag Archives: Virginia

Levi Goldsmith’s Family 1920-1930, Part I: More Terrible Losses

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As of 1920, only four of the nine children to whom Levi Goldsmith’s wife Henrietta had given birth were still alive: Eva, the oldest daughter, George, the oldest son, and Helen and Blanche, the two youngest daughters. Estella, Felix, Isadore, and Sylvester had already died, all before they turned fifty (as well as the infant who was born prematurely and not named.) There were also seventeen grandchildren still living as well as several great-grandchildren.  This post will report on the fates of Eva and her family, George, and the descendants of Estella and Felix in the 1920s. The one to follow will cover Helen and Blanche and their families as well as the descendants of Sylvester Goldsmith.

In 1920 Eva Goldsmith Anathan was living with her daughter Helen in Philadelphia. Helen, now forty, continued to work as a probation officer. There was also a lodger living with them, Leo Isenthal, 45, a railroad promoter.

Eva Goldsmith Anathan 1920 US census. Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 32, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1633; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 1067
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

Bessie Anathan was living in Philadelphia with her husband Sim Simon and their two sons, John and Robert, in 1920; Sim was a manufacturer of extracts—of what, I do not know. They were living a quarter mile away from Eva and Helen.

Sim Simon and family 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 32, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1633; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 1068
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

Eva and Helen were still living together in Philadelphia in 1930, and Helen continued to work as a probation officer.1 Bessie and Sim and their children were also still in Philadelphia, and Sim now identified his occupation as a candy manufacturer. 2

Eva Goldsmith Anathan, the oldest child of Levi and Henrietta, died three years later on April 27, 1933, at the age of 77; she died from hypertension and chronic myocarditis.

Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 029001-032000
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates

Estella Goldsmith Rothschild’s widower Solomon and their sons were also living in Philadelphia in 1920. Jerome, her son, was practicing law and was the head of household. His wife Carrie and six-year-old daughter Estelle were living with him as well as his brother Herbert (26) and father Solomon. Herbert was a clerk in a clothing store, and Solomon was the secretary of a Jewish society.

Rothschild family 1920 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 42, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1643; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 1578
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census

On December 30, 1924, Solomon was killed in a horrible train accident:

“Killed by Train,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 31, 1924, p. 3

Estella’s family suffered so unfairly. First, two of her sons died as children; then she died when she was in her forties. And then her husband met his death in such a gruesome and painful way. Their sons Jerome and Herbert had experienced far too many losses by 1924.

Fortunately, Herbert had reason to celebrate when he married Nancy Erber on June 25, 1925, six months after his father’s death.3 Nancy was born in New York on February 28, 1901, to Samuel Erber and Fannie Schusterman, who were both born in the Austrian Empire (possibly Poland) and came to the US in the 1880s. Samuel was a tailor.4 Herbert and Nancy had a child born in 1929, and in 1930 they were living in New York City where Herbert was the vice-president of a clothing factory.5 His brother Jerome continued to live in Philadelphia with his wife and daughter and to practice law.6

And then tragedy struck the family of Estella Goldsmith once again. On January 24, 1931, Nancy Erber Goldsmith died at the age of 29, from retroperitoneal abdominal neoplasm, which appears to have been a form of pancreatic cancer. It also says she was suffering from cachexia, which is defined as “a ‘wasting’ disorder that causes extreme weight loss and muscle wasting, and can include loss of body fat,” and inanition, defined as “Severe weakness and wasting as occurs from lack of food, defect in assimilation, or neoplastic disease.”  She was so terribly young to die in such an awful way. And another Goldschmidt child, not yet two years old, became motherless, and Herbert Goldsmith experienced yet another heartbreaking loss.

Those were not the only losses the extended family suffered in this period. On December 31, 1929, George Goldsmith, Levi and Henrietta’s oldest son, died from cancer of the cecum at age of 68. His wife Leah Abeles died nine years later on May 26, 1938, from pancreatic cancer;7 she was 73, according to her death certificate. George and Leah had not had any children. They are buried at Mt Sinai cemetery in Philadelphia.

That meant that as of 1933, there were only two of Levi and Henrietta’s children still alive: Helen, and Blanche.

Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 114001-117000
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966

Felix Goldsmith’s widow Bertha Umstadter Goldsmith and three of their surviving children, Hortense (32), Lee (26), and Minna (20), were living together in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1920. Hortense was working at the Navy Yard, and Minna was a stenographer for the shipping board. I cannot read what it says for Lee’s occupation on the census record, but the 1922 Norfolk, Virginia directory has him listed as the deputy US Shipping Commissioner.8

Felix and Bertha’s oldest child, Frances, was living in New York City in 1920, working as a social worker for the “National Conference of [?] Social Services.9 But in 1925 Frances was working in a lingerie shop, living in what appears to be a single room occupancy building in New York City.10 In 1930, she was still working in the lingerie business.11 Unfortunately, that was the last record I could locate for Frances, though I know from her mother’s obituary that she was still living in New York City in 1935.

Lee Goldsmith was the next member of Levi Goldsmith’s extended family to die a premature death. He had left Norfolk sometime after 1922 and moved to Los Angeles, where he was the acting US Shipping Commissioner. He had then moved to Panama in 1926, where he was a customs inspector.12 Then on November 12, 1929, he died from acute meningitis at the age of 37:

“At Post in Panama,” The Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1929, p.23

Lee had never married or had children. He was survived by his mother Bertha and his sisters Frances, Hortense, and Minna.

Felix and Bertha’s daughter Hortense also left Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1920s. Although she is listed in the 1922 Norfolk directory, in 1924 she is listed as living in Indianapolis. The 1926 directory lists her as a stenographer for the American Legion in Indianapolis.13 The 1930 census shows her living in Indianapolis and working as an executive for an unnamed national organization.14 From several newspaper articles I learned that Hortense was working for some time for the American Legion, and in 1932 she was described in one newspaper article as the chief stenographer and supervisor of stenographic employment for the American Legion.15

According to one record, Minna Goldsmith, the youngest of Felix and Bertha’s children, married Edwin Rheinstrom Goodman in 1922.16 He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on February 8, 1896, to Leopold Goodman, a German-born immigrant, and Rachel Rheinstrom, who was born in Philadelphia. Leopold was a clothing merchant in Terre Haute.17 In 1920 Edwin had been working as an office manager, living as a boarder in New York City. According to a questionnaire he filled out for the Office of Jewish War Records, he was working for the American Fence Construction Company in New York18. In 1925 Minna and Edwin were living in New York City, and Minna’s mother Bertha was living with them. After all those years living in Norfolk, Virginia, Bertha had relocated at this late point in her life to New York. Edwin was working there as a merchant.

Edwin Goodman household, 1925 NYS census, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 32; Assembly District: 07; City: New York; County: New York; Page: IV
Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1925

By 1930, however, Minna and Edwin and their child as well as Minna’s mother Bertha had relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, where Edwin was a retail merchant selling men’s clothing.19 Minna and Edwin would have a second child the following year.

Bertha died on December 23, 1935, at the age of 75. She was buried back in Norfolk where she had lived almost her entire life and where her husband Felix and son Lee were also buried.20 By that time none of their three surviving children—Frances, Hortense, and Minna—was living in Norfolk.

The more I learned about Levi’s family, the more unfair and heartbreaking it became. The next post will discuss the families of Levi’s children Helen, Blanche, and Sylvester.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Eva G. and Helen Anathan, 1930 US census,  Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0775; FHL microfilm: 2341859. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census  ↩
  2. Simon family, 1930 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 0775; FHL microfilm: 2341859.  Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  3.  New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Volume Number: 7. Ancestry.com. New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-1995. ↩
  4.  New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WV5-C2J : 10 February 2018), Nancy Rothchild, 24 Jan 1931; citing Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 2,058,015. Erber Family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Manhattan Ward 12, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1021; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0531; FHL microfilm: 1375034. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. Herbert Rothschild and family, 1930 US census, Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0429; FHL microfilm: 2341289.  Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Jerome Rothschild and family, 1930 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 1030; FHL microfilm: 2341867. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  7.  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 ↩
  8. Bertha Goldsmith and family, 1920 US census, Census Place: Norfolk Madison Ward, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia; Roll: T625_1902; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 100. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census. 1922 Norfolk, Virginia, City Directory, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. ↩
  9. Frances Goldsmith, 1920 US census, Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 10, New York, New York; Roll: T625_1203; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 735. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  10. Frances Goldsmith, 1925 New York State census, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 42; Assembly District: 10; City: New York; County: New York; Page: 2. Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1925 ↩
  11. Frances Goldsmith, 1930 US census, Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 1199; FHL microfilm: 2341294. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  12. The Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1926, p. 17. ↩
  13. 1922 Norfolk, Virginia city directory, 1924 and 1926 Indianapolis, Indiana city directory, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. ↩
  14. Hortense Goldsmith, 1930 US census, Census Place: Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0091; FHL microfilm: 2340346. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  15. “Barton, Legion Aids to Head West Friday,” The Indianapolis New, September 1, 1932, p. 12. ↩
  16. Edwin and Minna Goodman, 1930 US census, Census Place: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Page: 25A; Enumeration District: 0498; FHL microfilm: 2341513.  Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  17.  Series II: Questionnaires: Jews; Record Group Description: (D) Officers-Army (Boxes 11-14); Box #: 12; Folder #: 6; Box Info: (Box 12) Goldstick-Goodman.  Ancestry.com. U.S., WWI Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921. Leopold Goodman and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Harrison, Vigo, Indiana; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0108; FHL microfilm: 1240409. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  18. Series II: Questionnaires: Jews; Record Group Description: (D) Officers-Army (Boxes 11-14); Box #: 12; Folder #: 6; Box Info: (Box 12) Goldstick-Goodman.  Ancestry.com. U.S., WWI Jewish Servicemen Questionnaires, 1918-1921. ↩
  19. Edwin Goodman and family, 1930 US census, Census Place: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Page: 25A; Enumeration District: 0498; FHL microfilm: 2341513.
    Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  20. Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11423101 ↩

Heartbreak after Heartbreak: Eight Tragic Deaths in Less than Eight Years

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As seen in my earlier posts, by 1900 Levi Goldsmith and his wife Henrietta Lebenbach had both passed away, but they were survived by eight children. Thank you to my cousin Julian Reinheimer for this photograph of the headstones of Levi and Henrietta:

Courtesy of Julian Reinheimer

(I note that Levi’s name is spelled Levy on both stones; records are inconsistent about how he spelled his name, and since I’ve thus far used Levi, I have decided to stick with that spelling for consistency’s sake.)

All of Levi and Henrietta’s children except for their son George were married by 1900, and almost all of those who married had at least one child. Five grandchildren had died very young, but twelve were still living as of 1900. That would not be true in seven years.

The year 1900 saw the births of two more grandchildren. Felix Goldsmith and his wife Bertha Umstadter had their fourth child in Virginia in May 1900, a daughter named Minna.1 And Blanche Goldsmith and her husband Max Greenbaum also had a baby in May of that year, a son named Levis Greenbaum, another grandchild named for Levi Goldsmith.2 He was their third child, but their first two—Ethel and Leah—had died very young.

As of the taking of the 1900 census in June, Eva Goldsmith had separated from her husband Nathan Anathan. On the 1900 census, Eva is listed as a widow, living in Philadelphia with her two daughters, Helen (21) and Bessie (17) and eight boarders. Helen was working as a school teacher, and Bessie was still in school. I assumed that Nathan had died, but then I found him living in Chicago, working as a tobacconist and reporting that his marital status was single. I am quite sure that it is the same Nathan Anathan since he listed his birthplace as Philadelphia, he is the right age, his surname is quite unusual, and he was still in the tobacco business. Further searching revealed that Nathan died (under the name Nathan Nathan) in Chicago on April 9, 1907.3

Eva Goldsmith Anathan and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0710; FHL microfilm: 1241470
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Nathan Anathan, 1900 US census, Census Place: Chicago Ward 1, Cook, Illinois; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1240245
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The 1900 census reported that Estella and her husband Solomon (listed as Samuel here) Rothschild were living in Philadelphia with their three sons, Jerome (16), Leonard (12), and Herbert (6), and two servants.  The boys were all at school, and Solomon reported his occupation as “gentleman.” He is also listed without an occupation in the 1899 Philadelphia directory, though earlier directories list him as being in the millinery business.4

Rothschild family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0711; FHL microfilm: 1241471
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Levi and Henrietta’s oldest son, George Goldsmith, was living in Philadelphia as a lodger and working as a druggist in 1900.5 His younger brother Felix was living with his wife Bertha in Norfolk, Virginia, with their four children Frances (Fannie here, 11), Lee (7), Hortense (2), and the newborn Minna, who was a month old at that time. Bertha reported that she had given birth to six children, four still living, but I have not yet been able to find the other two children, so there must have been two more grandchildren who died very young. Felix was in the clothing business. They also had a nurse and a cook living with them.

Felix Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Norfolk Ward 1, Norfolk City, Virginia; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0086; FHL microfilm: 1241735
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

The third oldest son, Isadore, and his wife Mary were living as boarders in Philadelphia. They had no children. For his occupation, Isadore listed that he “lives on income.” 6 I wondered where that income came from. More on Isadore in my next post.

Isadore’s next youngest sibling was Helen Goldsmith, and she and her husband Harry Loeb were living in Dubois, Pennsylvania, with their two children, Armand (6) and Henriete (4); Harry was working as a lumberman. They had one servant living with them as well.

Harry Loeb and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Blanche, the youngest daughter, was living with her husband Max Greenbaum and her newborn son Levis in Philadelphia, where Max was a dentist. They also had a servant living with them. Although Blanche had lost two children before 1900, she reported that she had only given birth to one child. 7

The youngest Goldsmith sibling, Sylvester, was living in Addison, Indiana, with his wife Ida and their two children Henrietta (4) and Louis (1), as well as Sylvester’s mother-in-law. Sylvester was working as a clothing salesman.8

Unfortunately, during the next seven years the family suffered loss after loss of many of its members including far too many children as well as adults who died too young.

First, on October 30, 1900, just five months after the birth of his daughter Minna, Felix Goldsmith died. He was only 37 years old and left behind not only his infant daughter, but three other young children.

“Mr. Goldsmith’s Funeral,” Norfolk Virginia-Pilot, November 1, 1900, p. 2

According to his obituary in the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot of November 1, 1900 (p. 2), Felix died after being quite ill for two years. The paper described him as a “well-known and highly-esteemed citizen.” It also reported that after high school, Felix had taken “a medical course of study with the intention of being a physician.” Instead he became “an excellent businessman and was quite successful in his enterprises.” What a terrible loss this must have been for his family and his community.

1901 brought two new babies to the extended family in the same week. Harold Goldsmith was born on February 2, 1901, to Sylvester Goldsmith and his wife Ida in Indiana.9 Then six days later Helen Goldsmith Loeb gave birth to her third child, a boy they named Leonard Loeb, presumably for Helen’s father Levi.10

Whatever joy that may have brought to the extended family must have been dashed when little Levis Greenbaum, son of Blanche Goldsmith and Max Greenbaum, died in Philadelphia five months later on July 15, 1901.  According to the death register, he died from toxemic collapse.  With help from my brother and some people in Tracing the Tribe, I’ve determined that Levi most likely died from what today we would call septic shock from a bacterial infection. He was just over a year old when he died. And he was the third child of Blanche and Max to die before reaching age five. I can’t imagine how devastated they must have been.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-65Y7-7PQ?cc=1320976&wc=9FRH-C68%3A1073327701 : 16 May 2014), 004047862 > image 394 of 687; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

 

And then, just seven months after the death of little Levis, his cousin Leonard Levi Rothschild, son of Estella Goldsmith and Solomon Rothschild, died on February 2, 1902. He was only thirteen years old. Within the space of just seven months, two of the namesakes of Levi Goldsmith had died as children. Leonard died from gangrenous stomatitis or noma, which according to Wikipedia is “is a rapidly progressive, polymicrobial, often gangrenous infection of the mouth or genitals.” Today it is associated with malnutrition, poor hygiene, and unsafe drinking water. Given the family’s status on the 1900 census, it is hard to imagine that Leonard was malnourished or had poor hygiene.

Leonard Rothschild death certificate, “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63B7-4Z1?cc=1320976&wc=9F5C-L2S%3A1073221501 : 16 May 2014), 004009533 > image 376 of 1778; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Sylvester Goldsmith and his wife Ida Simms experienced both a tragic loss and the birth of a new child in 1903. On February 15, 1903, their seven-year-old daughter Henrietta died from the measles. She was the eighth grandchild of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith to die as a child.11

And then eight months to the day later, Ida gave birth to a boy they named Blanchard. 12 Was Ida already pregnant when Henrietta died? That must have been a very bittersweet and frightening pregnancy.

Fortunately 1904 brought no deaths to the family (as well as no births), but the heartbreak began again on January 9, 1905, when Estella Goldsmith Rothschild died from mitral regurgitation and pulmonary edema at age 45.She left behind her husband Solomon and her two surviving sons, Jerome (21) and Herbert (11). Had the loss of her two other sons, Stanley and Leonard, affected her health? It certainly is possible.

Estella Goldsmith Rothschild death certificate, “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68KD-GL?cc=1320976&wc=9FRY-W38%3A1073113702 : 16 May 2014), 004008757 > image 316 of 534; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Estella’s memory was honored a year later when her brother Sylvester’s wife Ida gave birth to another child on February 8, 1906 and named her Estella Rothschild Goldsmith.

Estella Rothschild Goldsmith birth certificate, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Box Number: 5; Certificate Number: 14402
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1910

April 1907 started out with good news when Blanche Goldsmith and Max Greenbaum had a new child, Helen Estelle Greenbaum, on April 7, 1907, also named in memory of Estella Goldsmith Rothschild.

Helen Estelle Greenbaum birth certificate, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Box Number: 100; Certificate Number: 104056
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Birth Certificates, 1906-1910

Two days later Nathan Anathan, Eva’s estranged husband, died in Chicago.13 Then Mary Wheeler, Isadore Goldsmith’s wife, died on April 17, 1907, from a stroke; she was 54.14

Six months later on October 11, 1907, Isadore himself died from a cerebral hemorrhage to which acute alcoholism was found to be a contributing factor. He was only 43 years old; from the death certificate it appears that he died after about a day in the Gibbons Sanitarium in Philadelphia. When I saw that, I decided to look further into Isadore’s life. More on that in my next post.

Isidore Goldsmith Death Certificate, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68DJ-WR?cc=1320976&wc=9FRT-N38%3A1073183102 : 16 May 2014), 004008905 > image 483 of 536; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Looking back on what the extended family experienced between 1900 and 1907 is mind-boggling. Three of the children of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith died before their 50th birthdays. Felix was only 37, Estella was 45, and Isadore was 43. In addition, Isadore’s wife Mary and Eva’s estranged husband Nathan died in April 1907.

Even more tragic, three more of their grandchildren died: Levis Greenbaum was only a year old, Leonard Rothschild was thirteen, and Henrietta Goldsmith was seven. That meant that eight of the grandchildren of Levi and Henrietta died as children.

What would the next decade bring for the five children of Levi and Henrietta who remained and for the surviving grandchildren? More to come in a subsequent post.

  1. Minna Goldsmith Goodman, ship manifest, Year: 1932; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 5138; Line: 28; Page Number: 182. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 ↩
  2. Levis Greenbaum, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0710; FHL microfilm: 1241470. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7HF-SQZ : 8 March 2018), Nathan Nathan, 09 Apr 1907; citing , Cook, Illinois, United States, source reference 10463, record number 37, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,239,756. ↩
  4. Philadelphia city directories, 1879, 1881, 1889, 1890, 1894, 1899, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. ↩
  5. George W. Goldsmith, 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0418; FHL microfilm: 1241462. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Isadore Goldsmith. 1900 US census, Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 32, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0808; FHL microfilm: 1241473. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Max Greenbaum and family, 1900 US Census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396.
    Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. Sylvester Goldsmith and family, 1900 US census, Census Place: Addison, Shelby, Indiana; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0104; FHL microfilm: 1240402. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census. ↩
  9.  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. SSN: 288073757. ↩
  10. Leonard Loeb, World War II draft registration, The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1495. Ancestry.com. U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  11. Death record of Henrietta Goldsmith, February 15, 1903, Clearfield County, PA Death Records, 1893 – 1905. PAGE: g-89-1 & g-89-2. NO: 3. Found at http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/vitals/deaths/goldsmith-henrietta.txt ↩
  12.  Number: 138-03-2325; Issue State: New Jersey; Issue Date: Before 1951.
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. (An eerie note: On the 1910 census, Sylvester is listed with four children, and he and Ida did have four living children at that time, but the names listed on the census included Henrietta, who had died, instead of their still-living son Louis. Sylvester Goldsmith and family, 1910 US census, Census Place: Du Bois Ward 1, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1331; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1375344. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  13. See Note 3, above. ↩
  14. Mary Goldsmith death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩

The Many Namesakes of Levi and Henrietta Goldsmith

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As I wrote here, when Levi Goldsmith died on December 29, 1886, he was survived by his wife Henrietta and their eight children. Three of those children were already married, as we already saw.

Their oldest child Eva had married Nathan Anathan in 1875, and they had two daughters, Helen (1879) and Bessie (1883) after losing their first two children, who died as babies. Thank you to Sherri Goldberg of Tracing the Tribe for pointing out that Nathan Anathan was a first cousin to Theresa Anathan, whose daughter Nellie Buxbaum was married to Philip Goldsmith, son of Jacob Goldsmith. 

Their second daughter Estella Goldsmith had married Solomon Rothschild in 1883, and by the time of Levi’s death had two children, Jerome (1884) and Stanley, born on January 29, 1886; Stanley died, however, shortly after his grandfather died; he was a little over a year old when he died on March 30, 1887, from gastroenteritis.  Estella then gave birth to a third son, Leonard Levi Rothschild; he was born in 1888 and presumably was named for his grandfather. A fourth child, Herbert Hirsch Rothschild, was born February 3, 1894, in Philadelphia.1

The next child of Levi and Henrietta who had married before Levi died was Felix Goldsmith. He married Bertha Umstadter in 1886, and their first child, Frances Lee Goldsmith, was born in 1889 and may have been named for Levi. Felix and Bertha had a second child on October 28, 1892, a son named Lee Goldsmith, who was likely named for Levi. 2

The two remaining daughters of Levi and Henrietta were both married in 1893. Helen, the older of the two, married Harry Loeb.3  Harry was born April 28, 1859, in Philadelphia.4 His father, Moses, was born in Germany and was a butcher; his mother Pauline was born in France. In 1880, Harry was working as a clerk in a store in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was boarding.5 Helen and Harry Loeb had their first child, Armand, on April 25, 1894, in Dubois, Pennsylvania, a town located about 270 miles west of Pennsylvania, where Harry and Helen had settled.6

Helen’s younger sister Blanche also married in 1893. She married Max Greenbaum, who was born in either Germany or Austria in about 1868 and immigrated to the US in about 1871.7 His father Philip Greenbaum was a tailor in 1880, and Max, who later became a dentist, was in school.8

Blanche and Max suffered two terrible losses in the early years of their marriage.  Their first child, Ethel, was born in 1894 and died from pneumonia on December 29, 1898. 9 Their second child, Leah, named presumably for Levi, was born on January 19, 1895.10 I have not been able to locate a death record for Leah, but she is not listed with her family on the 1900 census or afterwards. Although Blanche reported on the 1900 census that she’d only had one child, on the 1910 census she reported that she had had four, only one of whom was still living. I have to believe that Leah died sometime between January 19, 1895, and 1900. Thus, the family of Levi Goldsmith suffered the deaths of two more very young children.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DTVH-TC?cc=1320976&wc=9F5N-RM9%3A1073210101 : 16 May 2014), 004009439 > image 1295 of 1741; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

The next sibling to marry was the youngest child of Levi and Henrietta, their son Sylvester. He married Ida Simms on March 21, 1895 in Allen County, Ohio.11 I could not find any definite records for Ida’s life prior to marrying Sylvester, but according to her death certificate,10 she was born in Michigan to John Simms and Sarah Mott on December 21, 1874. According to Sylvester’s obituary,12 she lived in Lima, Ohio, before marrying him.

Three months after Sylvester’s marriage, his mother Henrietta Lebenbach Goldsmith died on July 3, 1895, in Philadelphia from “congestive apoplexy.” She was 60 years old and was survived by eight of the nine children to whom she had given birth. She was buried at Mt Sinai cemetery in Philadelphia where her husband Levi was buried.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JXRJ-MH6 : 8 March 2018), Henrietta Goldsmith, 03 Jul 1895; citing cn 371, Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; FHL microfilm 1,862,809.

Then three months after Henrietta’s death and six months after Sylvester married Ida, Ida gave birth to their first child, whom they named Henrietta. She was born in September 1895 in Lima, Ohio.13 She was not the only baby presumably named for Henrietta Lebenbach Goldsmith. Helen (Goldsmith) and Harry Loeb had a second child in January 1896 named Henriete Loeb,14 and on June 4, 1897, Felix and Bertha Goldsmith had a third child born in Norfolk, Virginia, whom they named Hortense Lee Goldsmith.15 In addition, Sylvester and Ida had a second child born on November 12, 1898, in Shelbyville, Indiana. They named him Louis Sylvester Goldsmith.16 Could he be yet another child named in memory of his grandfather Levi?

Meanwhile, in 1896, Levi and Henrietta’s son Isadore Goldsmith married Mary R. Wheeler.  Strangely, there are two different marriage records for Isadore and Mary. One, dated October 17, 1896, shows they married in Camden, New Jersey. 17 A second shows they married on November 18, 1896, in Washington, DC.18 That story will be told in a later post. Mary was born on December 23, 1852, in Pennsylvania, making her twelve years older than Isadore and 43 when they married. She was the daughter of John and Caroline Wheeler.19

Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, both Levi Goldsmith and his wife Henrietta Lebenbach had passed away and were survived by their eight children and many grandchildren, many of whom were named for either Levi or Henrietta. Tragically, two more grandchildren died as babies, Blanche’s daughters Ethel and Leah. As of 1898, there were twelve surviving grandchildren: Eva’s two surviving daughters, Helen and Bessie Anathan; Estella’s three surviving sons, Jerome, Leonard, and Herbert Rothschild; Felix’s three children Frances, Lee, and Hortense Goldsmith; Helen’s two children, Armand and Henriete Loeb; and Sylvester’s two children, Henrietta and Louis. Levi and Henrietta must have been well-loved to have been so well-honored.

The next decade would bring more births, but far too many tragic deaths.

  1. Herbert Rothschild death certificate, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63B7-4Z1?cc=1320976&wc=9F5C-L2S%3A1073221501 : 16 May 2014), 004009533 > image 376 of 1778; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The sources for the other facts in this paragraph can be found in my earlier post linked above. ↩
  2. Lee Goldsmith World War I draft registration, Registration State: Virginia; Registration County: Norfolk (Independent City); Roll: 1984907; Draft Board: 2. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. See prior post for sources for other facts. ↩
  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. Certificate 59231. ↩
  4. Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 1112. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 ↩
  5. Loeb family, 1860 US Census, Census Place: Bellefonte, Centre, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1090; Page: 307; Family History Library Film: 805090. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census. Harry Loeb, 1880 US Census, Census Place: Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1139; Page: 243B; Enumeration District: 063. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Armand Goldsmith Loeb, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia; Roll: 1907649; Draft Board: 29.
    Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 ↩
  7. Ancestry.com. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage Index, 1885-1951 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. 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. Certificate 65035. ↩
  8. Greenbaum family, 1880 US Census, Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1169; Page: 173A; Enumeration District: 084. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  9.  Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DTVH-TC?cc=1320976&wc=9F5N-RM9%3A1073210101 : 16 May 2014), 004009439 > image 1295 of 1741; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. ↩
  10. Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 114001-116700. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966. Certificate Number: 114311-60 ↩ ↩
  11. Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDW2-5XC : 10 December 2017), Sylvester Goldsmith and Ida J. Simens, 21 Mar 1895; citing Allen, Ohio, United States, reference pg471cn192; county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 901,416. ↩
  12. “Sudden Death of Well Known Citizen of DuBois,” DuBois (PA) Daily Express, Friday, October 9, 1914. ↩
  13. Clearfield County (PA) Death Records, found at http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/vitals/deaths/goldsmith-henrietta.txt ↩
  14. Henriete Loeb, 1900 US census, Census Place: Dubois Ward 2, Clearfield, Pennsylvania; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0071; FHL microfilm: 1241396.  Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  15. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. SSN: 305037627. ↩
  16. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1929-1990; Series Number: Series 2.
    Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777-2012 ↩
  17. Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965. Original data: Marriage Records. New Jersey Marriages. New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, New Jersey. ↩
  18.  Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921.Original data: District of Columbia, Marriages, 1830-1921. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. ↩
  19. Mary Goldsmith death certificate, Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Pennsylvania, USA; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1966; Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Certificate Number Range: 038171-041450. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1966 ↩

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His children carried on his business and his name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

George Mansbach obituary

George Mansbach obituary

 

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

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

charles-mansbach-obit

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

More Weddings, More Funerals: The Mansbach Family 1900-1910

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As we saw in my last post, the years after the Civil War were years of both personal and financial growth for H.H. Mansbach and his family. The first decade of the twentieth century presented many changes and challenges for the Mansbach family, some happy, some not. Here again is a family sheet for H.H.:

family-harry-h-mansbach-page-001

On January 8, 1902, the third daughter Bertha Mansbach married David Loewenstein of New York. David was a German immigrant who was in the clothing business.  From the wedding announcement I am inferring that he had a brother Charles and sister Rose, but I’ve not been able to find out much else about him or his family.

David and Bertha were married in Cumberland followed by an “elaborate supper.”  According to the wedding announcement in the January 9, 1902, Baltimore Sun (p.10), at that time Bertha’s sister Fannie and her husband Daniel Broh were living in Akron, Ohio. The wedding announcement also indicated that Bertha’s sister Hattie and her husband Milton Hirschman were still living in Morgantown, West Virginia, in January, 1902.

bertha-mansbach-david-loewenstein-wedding-announcement-1902

Baltimore Sun, January 9, 1902, p. 10

Missing from this list of guests was Isaac Mansbach, Bertha’s younger brother. By 1902, Isaac Mansbach had joined his parents and sister May in Cumberland, Maryland, where he was practicing law, according to the 1902 Cumberland directory. Why wasn’t he listed at his sister’s wedding? More on that below.

In October, 1903, Charles Milton Mansbach married Regina Rosenbaum in Cumberland. Once again, it appears to have been quite an elaborate occasion.

Baltimore Sun, October 29, 1903, p.10

Baltimore Sun, October 29, 1903, p.10

In 1905 Charles was working as a bookkeeper in the Hirsch family business (his mother’s family) in Cumberland.

In October 1905, George Mansbach married Bessie Frank of Baltimore, Maryland; they settled in Fairmont, West Virginia.

Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1905, p. 7

Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1905, p. 7

That made six weddings for the Mansbach siblings between 1893 and 1905, three of them in the last four years.  Only Isaac and May had not yet married.

In 1907 Fannie (Mansbach) and Daniel Broh were living in Fairmont, West Virginia; according to the 1907 Fairmont directory, Daniel was in the shoe business. George and Bessie were also living in Fairmont, though George was still in business with his brother Louis; perhaps he ran the family store in Fairmont. Thus, in 1907, two of the eight Mansbach children were still in West Virginia.

Two other siblings had moved to Norfolk, Virginia by 1907.  Louis and his wife Clara were in Norfolk in 1907 as were Charles and his wife Regina. Charles and Louis owned a clothing store in Norfolk called The Hub that was in business for many years.

Meanwhile, H.H. and Nannie continued to live in Cumberland, Maryland, with their youngest child, May, in 1907.

I could not locate the whereabouts of three of the eight Mansbach children between 1902 and 1907: Bertha (also known as Bertie) Mansbach Loewenstein, Hattie Mansbach Hirschman, and Isaac Mansbach, the son who had become a lawyer.  I learned where Bertha and Hattie were living in 1907 when I found this sad article:

Cumberland Evening Times, October 11, 1907, p. 1

Cumberland Evening Times, October 11, 1907, p. 1

Mrs. Nannie Mansbach, wife of Mr. H.H. Mansbach, died suddenly this morning at 6 o’clock at the Mansbach residence, No. 8 Park street.

Mrs. Mansbach was slightly indisposed some two weeks ago, but had recovered and was feeling in her usual good health when she retired last evening.

This morning at 5:30 o’clock Mrs. Mansbach aroused her husband, saying that she was suffering considerable misery.  A physician was hastily summoned, but to no avail, as Mrs. Mansbach passed away a few minutes later.  Death was due to heart failure.

Mrs. Mansbach was 60 years of age and was a Miss Hirsch prior to her marriage.

Mrs. Mansbach’s death came as a great blow to her husband, who is almost prostrate from the shock.

The deceased was one of the best known women in Cumberland.  She was of an amiable and charitable disposition, and her sudden death caused a shock to pervade the entire community and surrounding territory, as she had as unusually large acquaintance.

The greatest portion of her life was spent in this city [Cumberland], although some years were spent in Wheeling and Piedmont, while her husband who is a tailor, was engaged in business in those places.  Besides her husband she is survived by the following children: Messrs. Louis and Charles Mansbach, Norfolk, Va.; Mrs. Milton Hirschman, Morgantown; Mrs. Fannie Brode [sic[, and George Mansbach, Fairmont, W.Va.; Mrs. David Lowenstein [sic], New York city, and Miss May Mansbach, who resides at home.  ….

What a terrible loss this must have been for H.H. and all of the Mansbach children.

I found a few things of particular interest in the obituary.  First, the article describes H.H. as a tailor—in the present tense.  Although H.H. may have started out as a tailor, by 1907 he was well-known as a very successful merchant, as the 1893 Piedmont Dispatch profile of him had reported.  Second, the obituary revealed that Bertha and David Loewenstein were living in New York City, that Hattie and Milton Hirschman were living in Morgantown, West Virginia, and also confirmed the residence location of five of the six other children.

But one child is missing from the list of survivors—Isaac, the Mansbach’s youngest son who had become a lawyer. He also had not been listed as a guest at his sister Bertha’s wedding.  Why would he not have been included? The one record I could find for Isaac between the date of the 1900 census and his mother’s death was the listing of him as a lawyer in the 1902 Cumberland directory.  Where had he gone from there?

1902 Cumberland, MD, directory Title : Cumberland, Maryland, City Directory, 1902 Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

1902 Cumberland, MD, directory
Title : Cumberland, Maryland, City Directory, 1902
Source Information
Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

The 1910 census provided updates on most of the family. Four of the eight Mansbach siblings were now in Norfolk, Virginia.  Louis and his wife Clara were living in Norfolk in a lodging house of some sort; Louis was still in the dry goods business with his brother Charles.  Charles and his wife Regina and their four year old daughter Helene were also living in Norfolk. Fannie and her husband Daniel Broh and daughter Doris had now moved from West Virginia to Norfolk; Daniel listed his occupation as the proprietor of a dry goods business. I don’t know whether he was in business with his brothers-in-law, Louis and Charles, or in his own store.

The family patriarch, H.H. Mansbach, and his youngest child, May, who was now 23, were also living in Norfolk in 1910; although I could not locate them on the 1910 census, they were listed as living at 140 Main Street in Norfolk in the 1910 city directory. That is the same address given for Fannie and Daniel Broh on the 1910 census yet H.H. and May were not listed in their household.

The other children were more dispersed.  Hattie and her husband Milton Hirschman and their children were living in New York City where Milton was a real estate broker in 1910.  Bertha (Birdie) and her husband David Loewenstein and their son were also living in New York City where David was working as an underwear salesman.

George Mansbach was harder to find as for some reason he is listed as George W. Harris on the 1910 census, living in Providence, Rhode Island, working as a clothing merchant.  I only concluded this was the right George based on his birth place in the census (West Virginia), his parents’ birthplaces (Germany), his age and occupation, and because I found George W. Mansbach listed in the Providence, Rhode Island, directories for several years starting in 1911.

George Mansbach ("Harris"), 1910 US census Year: 1910; Census Place: Providence Ward 4, Providence, Rhode Island; Roll: T624_1443; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0187; FHL microfilm: 1375456

George Mansbach (“Harris”), 1910 US census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Providence Ward 4, Providence, Rhode Island; Roll: T624_1443; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0187; FHL microfilm: 1375456

That left only Isaac, the son who was missing from the list of those attending his sister’s Bertha’s wedding in 1902 and from the list of surviving children on his mother’s obituary in 1907.  I learned of his whereabouts from the 1910 census; Isaac was a patient at the Springfield State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Sykesville, Maryland.  From later census reports through 1940, it appears that he remained there for the rest of his life.

Springfield State Hospital By Acroterion (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Springfield State Hospital
By Acroterion (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

My further research of the family in 1910 revealed sad news.  On October 28, 1910, Clara Nathan Mansbach, wife of Louis Mansbach, died at age 36.  She died in Clifton Springs, New York, according to this death notice from the October 30, 1910 (p. 6) Baltimore Sun:

clara-nathan-death-notice-1910

Since Louis and Clara had been living in Norfolk at the time of the 1910 census just months before, I was surprised to see this as her place of death.  But research revealed that Clifton Springs was the location of a well-known “water cure” sanitarium.  Clifton Springs was once known as Sulfur Springs and had become a place where people came to recover their health. Although I don’t know what ailment Clara suffered from, she apparently had been ill for some time. Perhaps she had never really recovered from the loss of her baby daughter Frances in 1899.

Clifton Springs Sanitarium By Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States (Clifton Springs, New York) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Clifton Springs Sanitarium
By Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States (Clifton Springs, New York) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Thus, the years 1900 to 1910 brought more weddings and children to the family, but also some losses and difficult challenges.  What would the next decade bring for H.H. Mansbach and his family? More on that in my next post.

 

Those Who Left Western Pennsylvania: The Schoenthals 1880-1900

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Although most of the extended Schoenthal family was located in western Pennsylvania during the 1880s, a few family members had moved further east.  I’ve already written about Julius Schoenthal and his life and his family in Washington, DC.  He was a German and US veteran, a shoemaker, and the father of four children.  In the 1880s he and his wife Minnie were busy raising their family.

What I had not mentioned in my post about Julius was that by 1879, he was joined in Washington, DC, by his younger (by nine years) brother Nathan.  On the 1880 census, Nathan was living in DC, not married, and working as a clerk in a “fancy store.” I am not sure what that is, but according to the Free Dictionary, it is “one where articles of fancy and ornament are sold.”   Nathan and Julius were not living in the same enumeration district, and the 1880 census did not provide street addresses, so I don’t know how close together the brothers were living.  I don’t know why Nathan left Washington, PA, for Washington, DC, but I would assume that having a brother there was a factor.

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 26, 2003) - Aerial vie...

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 26, 2003) – Aerial view of the Washington Monument with the White House in the background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By 1883, however, Nathan had moved again.  He was then living in Richmond, Virginia, working as a salesman, according to the city directory for that year.  He was still in Richmond in 1888.  According to the 1900 census, Nathan married a woman named Alice in 1890.  I have not been able find out very much about Alice except that she was born in South Carolina in 1865.  I don’t know her birth name, I don’t know anything about her family, and I don’t know where she married Nathan.

 

English: Looking east on Main Street, Richmond...

English: Looking east on Main Street, Richmond, Virginia, ca. 1901-1907. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Perhaps Alice had been living in Philadelphia; in 1891 and 1892, Nathan appeared in the Philadelphia city directory, working as a “supt,” which I assume means he was a superintendent.  But of what?

Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylv...

Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, in 1896 Nathan Schoenthal is listed in the directory for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, working as an assistant superintendent for Prudential Insurance Company, so I assume that that is what he was also doing in Philadelphia and perhaps even in Richmond.  He is also listed as an insurance agent in the 1898 Lancaster directory.

English: North Duke Street in Lancaster, Penns...

English: North Duke Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But he was not done moving because in 1900 he and Alice were living in Newport News, Virginia, where Nathan continued to work as an insurance agent.  They had been married for ten years, as mentioned above, and had no children.

A year later they moved once again, this time to Petersburg, Virginia, a city about 24 miles south of Richmond.  According to the 1901 directory for Petersburg, Nathan was now an assistant superintendent for the Insurance Company of Virginia.  He was still in that position there in 1905, but in the 1909 directory for Petersburg he is listed as a solicitor without further description.

Exchange Building (Petersburg, Virginia).(cropped)

Exchange Building (Petersburg, Virginia).(cropped) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

And then in 1910, Nathan Schoenthal is listed in the Baltimore directory as a manager, but I’ve no idea of what.  Is it possible that this is not the same Nathan Schoenthal?  I don’t know.  But this is the last record I have for Nathan.  I cannot find him or Alice on the 1910 census, and in June 1912, an “Alice Shoenthal” married a man named John Alexander Mallory in Petersburg, Virginia.  Had Nathan died? Had their marriage ended?  Had he moved to Baltimore without Alice? Had she finally gotten fed up with moving from place to place? I don’t know.

Nathan Schoenthal wife remarries

 

 

I’ve hit one of those brick walls, and I have no answers.  Nathan Schoenthal, a man who moved from place to place and then disappeared, will be in my “To Be Done” folder for a while.

Yet another brick wall.

Yet another brick wall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The third Schoenthal brother who left western Pennsylvania, in addition to Julius and Nathan, was Simon.  Simon had moved to Philadelphia by 1880, where he continued to work as a bookbinder.  Unlike his brother Nathan, Simon’s life was remarkably stable and consistent.  He was still working as a bookbinder and living in Philadelphia in 1890.

The 1880s were productive years at home for Simon and his wife Rose nee Mansbach.  By 1880, they’d had five children: twins, Ida and Harry, born in 1873; then Gertrude, born in 1875; Louis, born in 1878, and Maurice, born in 1879, all of whom were born in western Pennsylvania.  After that they had five more who were born in Philadelphia: Martin (1881), Jacob (1883), Hettie (1885), Estelle (1888), and Sidney (1891).  Rose had been pregnant nine times, almost every other year over almost twenty years.  Wow.

In 1887, the oldest daughter Ida died from heart disease; she was only fourteen years old.  No matter how many children they had, losing the first born daughter Ida must have been devastating for the family.  It must have been especially hard for Harry, her twin.

Ida Shoenthal death certificate

Ida Shoenthal death certificate “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-12895-183388-90?cc=1320976 : accessed 28 October 2015), 004008625 > image 605 of 612; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

By 1890, Simon and Rose had nine children living with them, ranging in age from Harry, who was seventeen, to Sidney, who was an infant.  Interestingly, around this time Simon changed occupations.  He is listed as selling “segars” in the 1891 and 1892 Philadelphia directories.

By 1898, Simon and Rose had relocated to  Atlantic City, where Simon now owned a “notion and bric-a-brac store” that was destroyed by a fire on February 7 of that year.

Fire in Atl City store of Simon Schoenthal

 

By 1900, however, Simon was back in business in Atlantic City, as reported on the 1900 census.  He was then operating a cigar and stationery store.  Six of their nine children were living with Rose and Simon: Louis was working as a cigar salesman, and Martin and Jacob were working as “laundrymen.”  Hettie, Estelle, and Sidney were also living at home.

There were three children missing from Simon and Rose’s Atlantic City household on the 1900 census:  Harry, Gertrude, and Maurice.  Harry, now 27, was a student at Juniata College in Huntingdon in 1900, as listed on the census.  Juniata was at that time a  relatively new college, founded in 1876 by the Church of the Brethren, a Protestant sect started in Germany.  I would be interested in knowing what drew Harry to Juniata and what classes he took while there. Two years later, Harry was living in Atlantic City where his parents and most of his siblings were living; he was working for Atlantic Wine and Liquor, according to a city directory.

As for Simon and Rose’s daughter Gertrude, she had married a man named Jacob J. Miller in Atlantic City on February 12, 1898, when she was 23.  Jacob was born in Germany on June 6, 1873, and had immigrated to the US sometime in the 1880s.  A year after marrying, Jacob and Gertrude were living in Tucson, Arizona, where Jacob was working for the Crescent Cigar Company, the same industry in which his father-in-law Simon and brother-in-law Louis were engaged.  In 1900, they had an infant daughter Juliette and were living in Pima, Arizona.  Jacob was working as a grocer.  Gertrude and Jacob would have two more children: Harry in 1902 and Sylvester in 1906.

A stunning view of Cluff Ranch Pond near Pima,...

A stunning view of Cluff Ranch Pond near Pima, Arizona. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for Maurice, although I cannot find him with the family or elsewhere on the 1900 census, he and three of his brothers are all listed in the 1904 Atlantic City directory, as seen below:

Atlantic City directory 1904

Atlantic City directory 1904 Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

All four brothers were living at 22 Delaware Avenue in Atlantic City, their mother at 23 Delaware.  It appears that Martin and Jacob were running a laundry called Incomparable Laundry at 1432-1434 Atlantic Avenue and that Louis was running a cigar, tobacco, stationery and sporting goods business at the same location.  Louis also listed a billiards and pool hall on “S Virginia av n Beach.”  Maurice is listed as a manager at “S Virginia av, Ocean end.”  I think that those two addresses are likely the same location and that Maurice was managing the pool hall.

As the listings also reveal, Rose was a widow by the time of the 1904 directory’s publication.  Simon died on March 26, 1904, in Atlantic City; he was buried at Mt. Sinai cemetery in Philadelphia.  He was 55 years old and the first of my great-grandfather’s siblings to die.

I will follow up with what happened to Simon’s children and other descendants in the 20th century in a later post.