Abraham Levy – Man of Mystery and History

The Tenement Museum has been created in the area to commemorate what is now history. There is even nearby a preserved small tenement of the type Emilie would have lived in which doubled up as a tailoring workshop. I can picture Emilie and the family living and perhaps working in a similar overcrowded home. By 1873 they moved a few streets away to 18 Essex Street right next to Delancey Street. I recalled that people would say “ you’re crossing Delancey Street “  to a Jew leaving the community behind and going snobbishly upmarket. Later generations almost all made that move upmarket.

Emilie never did and in the late 70s could be found living at 179  Division Street followed by 152  East Broadway both in the same vicinity. For a time Emilie lived in Boston but later returned to New York to live the remainder of her life with her sons,  Louis and Phillip.

On Emilie’s gravestone in the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery in East Boston USA, she is described as  “daughter of Simcha HaCohen, wife of Boruch son of Menachem”. This is how I came to her know her father in law was called Menachem in the USA. One of her daughters in a still recalled conversation with one of her granddaughters mentioned the first name he had previously used as being “Manus”. This was his officially registered first name in Poland. Polish Jews also had their religious ceremonial name and a Yiddish name used within the Jewish community. When they emigrated from Poland they could not wait to drop the official name. Spelling was never consistent. All very confusing to the researcher!

Abraham’s wealth grows still further. He moves into a new home in Mount Pleasant, North Tarrytown where he continues to build up his property interests. The entire area can in no way still be described as a backwater with the wealthy beginning to move in. By the 1880s these new residents include Orthodox Jews, particularly Litvaks mostly from New York who for a time are the dominant part of the Jewish community.

Emilie’s many surviving children Harris  Barnard, Phillip Barnard, William Barnard, Augusta Cohen, Esther Jacobs, and Rosa Frank continue living in the Lower East Side apart from Augusta who for a time lives in Providence,  Rhode Island. Two of their descendants are Gertrude Barber and Minnie Cowen who feature in an article entitled “the Sister who indexed New York”  and whose indexing contributed to this section of my family history.

Ann has continued on working in England maintaining Pedlars licenses in 1871,1872 and 1873.  Elizabeth Bessy has returned from the USA and in September 1873 marries Walter Lazarus Phillips, a mohel- a surgeon qualified to perform circumcisions. From his past behavior, I had to wonder whether or not  Abraham attended her wedding.

The newly married couple set up home in London‘s East End which like the Lower East Side of Manhattan is a prime magnet for Jewish community. They are to have a substantial family- Jacob Jack born in 1876,  who is in 1901 a stockbrokers clerk and who emigrated to South Africa to eventually be called – if an aunt of mine is to believed – the father of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, David born in 1878,  Aubrey/ Abraham born 31st May 1879 who also emigrated to South Africa, Manny/Emanuel, Louis born 1881 a  cabinet makers apprentice in 1901, Frederick born 1882  a Commercial Clerk in 1901 Queenie/Hannah born in  1886 a  Dressmakers Apprentice in  1901 who emigrated to USA,   Julia born 21 Sep1886,   my grandma Dolly born 1888  who married Moses with whom she spent some 20 years in Brazil, Esther Leah born in 1893. Having such a large family warranted in 1901 a household staff of three.

I had not found any record of Abraham or Ann traversing the Atlantic to see the other during those decades of Abraham’s life in Tarrytown. Then came another surprise. After I originally had this article ready for publication it emerged that at the time of the 1880 census in North Tarrytown Ann was living there with Abraham and ‘Himan’.

How had this come to pass? I now believe that Abraham attended his daughter’s wedding and whilst there he and Ann had decided to live again as a couple. This explained why Ann did not renew her pedlar’s license in 1774. After their daughter’s marriage, she went to the USA possibly with Abraham to her new home in Tarrytown.

The telephone had not yet been invented so that reunion at the wedding would surely have been strange to observe. What on earth were the first words they said to each other?  Hopefully, they then had some good times to share after those years apart. They would eventually have another family wedding to celebrate. Abraham’s son, Hyman,  married  Hannah T Hoffman of Rockland County in 1888.

Abraham decided to retire,  leave the USA which hopefully was after his son’s wedding and he and Ann returned to live in England. Where did they set up home in England where they would spend the rest of their days. Would it be in London reasonably close to their daughter, Esther and her expanding family?  They were living in the then Jewish East End bustling with life. The population was expanding with the addition of more and more immigrants fleeing Russia for good reason. On 1st March 1881 Tsar Alexander ll had been assassinated and without the slightest shadow of evidence of any involvement Jews were attributed blame. In the 34  years following this assassination, almost 3 million Jews depart their ancestral homes in Eastern Europe including  2 million from  Russia and Poland. The USA was their prime destination and many relocated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan but 150,000 did come to England – many to settle in the East End.

The choice is not the East End. They choose Edgbaston in Warwickshire  120 miles away for their new home rather than the East End. This time however  it is Ann’s decision. She prefers to live near her sister who has a home there rather than near her daughter and grandchildren.