Nadene Goldfoot
Portland was incorporated on February 8, 1851, and its destiny lay in the hands of 5 large property owners: Lownsdale, Coffin, Chapman, Couch and Stark of which none were Jews. A local judge described Portland as "a small and beautiful village." The Weekly Oregonian newspaper boasted of its "most homelike aspect." William S. Ladd, not Jewish, arrived and would have seen a 1/2 mile-long tract "literally hewed out of the forest." There were some 120 one-story, roughly constructed, box-like buildings many painted white, that straggled from the river-front inland about 500 feet amid several older log structures. (The 2010 census showed 583,776 residents in the city). I live on Stark Street and there is a Chapman Elementary School.
Jews came to Portland who had gone to California first in the 1850's. They came from Bavaria (Germany). Philip Wasserman and other Bavarian Jews opened small general merchandise store early in the 1850s along Front Street. This was the street facing the Willamette River.
Bavaria , officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a landlocked state of Germany, occupying its southeastern corner. With an area of 70,550.19 square kilometres Bavaria is the largest German state by land area comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. Munich is its capital. In 1850 it was the Kingdom of Bavaria and this lasted until WWI. War had been brewing in Bavaria in 1850. "
In the aftermath of the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly, Prussia and Austria continued to debate over which monarchy had the inherent right to rule Germany. A dispute between Austria and the Prince of Hesse-Kassel was used by Austria and its allies (including Bavaria) to promote the isolation of Prussia in German political affairs. This diplomatic insult almost led to war when Austria, Bavaria, and other allies moved troops through Bavaria towards Hesse-Kassel in 1850. However, Prussia backed down to Austria, and accepted of dual leadership.
The economically depressed Bavaria had the worst situation in the area where in 1813 an edict on the "Status of Jews" was promulgated. It curtailed the size of Jewish families allowing only the oldest son to marry; limited the number of Jewish families in Bavarian towns and the occupations they could pursue; and even prescribed Jewish family names, which were often derived from occupation (hence-Goldschmidt and Silverman)an update
A druggist, Louis Blumauer(b: February 1, 1856-d: May 4, 1906), son of Simon Blumauer, managed in 1853 to build Portland's 2nd brick building, following William S. Ladd's example---brick was seen as a visible symbol of stability and success. Ladd has become a big name in Portland by buying farmland and building homes on it called Ladd's Addition; the neighborhood where my parents bought a modest home and I was brought up in it. Now it has historic status.
In 1876 Blumauer completed a course in the New York College of Pharmacy. In business on his own account, he opened a retail drug store on First street, between Morrison and Yamhill, in 1877. There he successfully conducted his interests for several years and in 1884 organized the Blumauer-Frank Wholesale Drug Company, in association with Emil Frank. He married Dr. Frances Murray.
Louis Blumauer was known as one of the most practical and thorough-going business men in the northwest. All of his commercial transactions were characterized by a high sense of business integrity and enterprise and at all times he held to the most advanced commercial standards. He developed a trade of large proportions as a wholesale drug dealer, his ramifying trade connections covering a wide territory. He continued until the time of his death as president of the Blumauer-Frank Drug Company, the business becoming one of the extensive and profitable mercantile enterprises of the city.
(In the aftermath of the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly, Prussia and Austria continued to debate over which monarchy had the inherent right to rule Germany. A dispute between Austria and the Prince of Hesse-Kassel was used by Austria and its allies (including Bavaria) to promote the isolation of Prussia in German political affairs. This diplomatic insult almost led to war when Austria, Bavaria, and other allies moved troops through Bavaria towards Hesse-Kassel in 1850. However, Prussia backed down to Austria, and accepted of dual leadership.)
The June 15, 1870 in Portland, Oregon census showed that Simon Blumauer, 48 was born in Bavaria, and so was his wife, was a retired merchant, and wife was Malia 38. Son Louis 15 was an apothecary apprentice, and Helen was 10.
The June 2, 1880 in Portland, Oregon census showed that Simon Blumauer, 58 was a retired merchant, and wife was Mary, 48. Their children were Lewis 24, Druggist; Solomon 18 salesman in stove store; Phillip 16, Drug clerk; and Moses 12, attending school. They had a servant, Rosa M, 18. Lewis married Dr. Frances Murray or Gilbert or Carpenter.
Jews such as Wasserman and Blumauer had worked in California mountain towns and San Francisco mercantile houses before going north to Oregon, often stopping along the way , like Reed, to work in country stores.
Philip Wasserman b: 1830 married Sophia Oberdorfer,born 1851 on February 5, 1868 in Portland. They were listed on the June 10, 1870 census in Portland with Philip born in 1828 and was 42, born in Bavaria and an importer of tobacco with Sophia 21, born in Bavaria and Sampson age 1 born in Oregon. Alice was just born in June 1870. They had 3 other people living with them.
They were on the June 3, 1880 census and had listed with them their children, all born 2 years apart-the length most women in those days kept nursing, keeping children spaced this way. Philip was 50 and a wholesale tobacco merchant; This time Philip and Sophia. 29, were born in Germany; Samuel was 12, born in Oregon where the others were also born; Alice 10, Milton 8, James 6, and Getta 4. Their home included 2 borders and 2 servants and Sophia's brother, August Oberdorfer, a wholesale merchant. Edna was listed separately born January 5, 1882 and had married a Chipman fellow.
Edna Wasserman 20 married Rupert J. Chipman 29, born in Nova Scotia, Canada and belonging to the Church of England, both from Portland on March 3, 1902. They went to Los Angeles to get married as Edna had a sister, Getta, living there, and also a Louis Goldsmith and Getta were the witnesses of the Justice of peace marriage. Their son, Philip Chipman, was born in 1903. He died at the age of 39, a soldier and officer candidate in December 20, 1942-while in Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, in an automobile accident. His head and chest had been injured. He had never married.
Social life centered around families and religion, and Jewish activity came to life by 1858, after the Methodists, Congegationalists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians and Baptists.
A 12 member Stock and Exchange Board was set up and belonging were: Failing, McCraken, Ladd, Ainsworth, Henry Green, SB Parrish, Reed, Lewis, Thompson, Dr. JH Chapman, AM Starr and Goldsmith. Two years later, all but Starr and Goldsmith would be Arlington Club founders. Starr had left Portland and Bernard Goldsmith b: 1828 was barred because he was a Jew."
Goldsmith was Portland's 8th wealthiest resident in 1870 and commanded wide public respect, though he had been turned down by the snippy Arlington Club. He was voted in a mayor of Portland from 1869 to 1871. He was from an affluent family, and had made money from a decade of California and Southern Oregon merchandising before arriving in Portland in 1861 at age 33. As a jeweler and assayer, he had to be interested in the gold currency market, which he played with consummate skill in 1865 and 1866 before founding a dry-goods firm with several of his 7 brothers. It soon became a major supplier of frontier troops. He made investments in Wasco County cattle and Willamette Valley wheat production which also drew him into transportation and grain trade.
Others in Portland followed Goldsmith's lead in wheat and then they and their bankers discovered the importance of it, too. They planned to ship it directly to Liverpool and not depend on California. California was also in the wheat export business which cut into Portland's by 40%.
Wasserman was the next mayor and by 1873 he vetoed the council ordinance prohibiting Chinese laborers from being employed on city contracts, arguing that such acts conflicted with federal law and treaties. He could have agreed with the majority of the city council and sustained their discriminatory ordinance. That he did not demonstrates some willingness to protect the civil rights of an unpopular people in a spirit of social stewardship. In fact, the views of mayors Failing, 'Goldsmith and Wasserman, merchants in the upper stratum, generally defended the employment of low-wage Chinese labor. Their attitudes were better than other cities of the West Coast.
Goldsmith and Wasserman's major contributions were in raising funds and getting land for municipal parks.
Jewish fellowship became centered in the B'nai B'rith Oregon Lodge 65, founded in 1866. A 2nd one was founded in 1879. Just a the Masons accepted men of most religious faiths---including Jews---so the B'nai B'rith accepted Jews of all synagogues." There are 3 branches of Jews: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform.
The gentile fraternal lodges like the Arlington Club in most communities contained a select mercantile and professional subgroup which helped formalize a local elite; but, because the Bavarian-German Jews were almost entirely within that subgroup, the B'nai B'rith, at least in its early stage, did not serve a socially selective function within the ethnic enclave. Instead, it integrated young men rather than formalizing social boundaries.
In 1874, wives of young B'nai B'rith members organized the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society to administer relief to the poor, the needy, the sick, and to prepare the dead for interment. At first they were under the direction of en, and the society's leadership passed to the women with Mrs. Bernard Goldsmith's presidency in 1884. She later drew strong praise from Deady a an excellent woman, an admirable woman. She was a woman of a great deal more than ordinary ability.
Portland's Concordia Club was founded in 1879 in which Bernard Goldsmith had something to do with this. The Jewish elite was thought to be emerging. It's membership was comprised of younger clerks and owners of small businesses. Until the 1880s, the older, wealthier Jewish merchants met gentile merchants as equals in Masonic lodges, partisan politics and business partnerships. As a Jewish counterpart to the Arlington Club and an outgrowth of Congregation Beth Israel, the Reform Temple (Synagogue), Concordia attracted younger prominent merchants like Ben Selling, Emil Frank, Edward Ehrman and others with south German family ties.
Resource:
Merchants, Money, & Power, The Portland Establishment 1943-1913 'Family Search
The Jews Of Oregon 1850-1950 by Steven Lowenstein, updated 11/17/20
http://www.onlinebiographies.info/or/blumauer-l.htm
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2677-bavaria
No comments:
Post a Comment