Curiously, this story begins with baseball, a radio station, a transistor radio, a commercial, a Johnsonburg Press news item, and idle conversation.
Rooting for the New York Yankees baseball team in my youth, likely because my grandfather liked Casey Stengel and my neighborhood pal Tommy Bouse liked Mickey Mantle, I often listened to the radio station WKBI in St. Marys, Pennsylvania who in those days carried New York Yankee baseball. (Later they switched to the Pittsburgh Pirates). The Major Leagues played many late afternoon games at that time and while delivering my newspapers during baseball season I would sometimes listen to the New York Yankees broadcast on my transistor radio. Between innings, the Jack Gross Men’s Shop of St. Marys (along with Straub Brewery and Berman’s) would air their commercials. Coincidentally, after reading a small blip in the Johnsonburg Press Year’s Ago column noting Gross’ Clothing Store on Market Street, Johnsonburg, I often wondered if there was any connection. Many decades later when speaking to my friend Joe Scida, who for many years operated the great Patsy’s Clothing emporium in Johnsonburg, I mentioned to Joe about the possible Gross connection and that led to us talking of Friedman’s clothing store and his Jewish roots and the Kay/Racusin store and that led me to wonder if Friedman was a Jewish anomaly in Johnsonburg or a part of something bigger. What I found should pique your interest.
In 1890 the Russian Government decided to enforce the applications of the Russian edict of 1882 against its Jewish citizens. It stated that Jews must live in certain towns, they cannot own land or rent it for agricultural purposes, they are not permitted to own mines or work in them, they are not allowed to enter the army or practice law or medicine or work as engineers. They are disbarred from holding any government posts. The reasoning behind the draconian measures is that the Russian Jewish population is expanding so rapidly that soon the country will be made up of more Jews than Russian Orthodox and the Czar does not want to govern a supposedly foreign people, therefore over 1,000,000 Jews must be deported. Thus began a mass exodus of Russian Jews to Europe and North and South America. For various political reasons Jews from Poland and parts of Austria were also among the exiled. The great movement brought on an epidemic of cholera which hastened the exodus.
Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a Jewish German financier of enormous wealth, devoted much of his prosperity to settle the disenfranchised Jews to other parts of the world; he arranged for agricultural settlements in Argentina, Canada, Palestine, and eventually the United States. In the United States he established benevolent trusts to aid Jewish immigrants with grants and subsidies to establish Jewish communities. Millions upon millions of the Baron’s dollars went to education, health care, and farms for the Jewish exiles. One of his funds, the Jewish Colonization Association, gave loans and grants to Russian Jews that had relocated to crowded east coast cities to resettle in small United States towns. Thus, 70 Russians Jews came to Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania in January 1892.
They were not met with brass bands or parades. The Elk County Democrat newspaper announced that Johnsonburg residents should be cautious because the Jews were carpenters, masons, bricklayers, and other skilled workers who would take their jobs. However, it was found that most were not skilled labor but farmers who needed employment. They were put to work digging ditches for the new Borough’s drainage and sewage systems. Within a month they went on strike for higher wages.
The Bradford Era newspaper reported that some Johnsonburg people did not regard the Baron Hirsch project favorably and attempted to throw cold water on the effort but the Era chastised the Paper Town folks;
“…Johnsonburg is making a mistake. If a colony of Jews can be settled on the hills of Johnsonburg to open up farms, it will be the best accession to her industries that Johnsonburg can get. There is an objection to Jews in some circles, and some of the Jews themselves are responsible for such feelings. But some Jews are not all Jews. Some Jews are foxy in trade and some gentiles are worse. That does not condemn either race. It is a well-known fact that Jews are industrious and thrifty, and they comprise a large portion of the business population of larger towns and cities…..If Johnsonburg does not want the colony let her send them to the Bradford Board of Trade.”
Eventually, the strike was resolved and slowly the Russian Jews began to assimilate into the Johnsonburg environs. No separate colony was ever established but the Russian, and soon Polish, and Austrian Jews went to work in the tannery, the woods, the sawmill, the paper mill, and into business. Before long, other Jewish families followed. It is almost impossible to trace the Jewish migration to and from Johnsonburg but it is possible to identify some of the Jewish businessmen and to elaborate through them Johnsonburg’s Jewish connection.
ISAAC EPSTEIN
Likely, the earliest Johnsonburg Jewish merchant, Isaac Epstein came with his newly-wed wife to the United States in 1870. Born in Wilkowischki, Russia on October 16, 1853 he soon settled in Corry, Pennsylvania where he labored as a peddler. Eventually, he moved the family to Cherry Grove in Warren County, Pennsylvania and then on to Wilcox, Pennsylvania where he opened a clothing enterprise. In 1887 Isaac became a naturalized citizen and about 1888 he established a dry goods and clothing emporium in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania on Centre Street (101). The family, now numbering seven children, lived above the store. Of the eight children that were born to Isaac and Ida; Ella, Sarah, Louis, Lilian, Minnie, Dora, Julia, and Freda, all married spouses that sold clothing or they themselves sold apparel, the apples didn’t fall far from the tree.
Lili Epstein was one of six members of Johnsonburg High School’s first graduating class in 1896. Minnie, Dora, and Julia also graduated from Johnsonburg High in an era when very few students completed high school.
Isaac was an astute businessman who stocked men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, shoes, dry goods, and furnishings. He often undersold his competition and offered customers promotions based upon the money they spent at the store.
In 1906 Isaac’s son Lou had a photo of the Epstein’s storefront window display published in the national “Men’s Wear” trade magazine along with a corresponding narrative describing the straw hat display and an advertising poem posted in the window to encourage hat sales.
Louis Epstein tragically died in February 1909. In the want ads of the September 4, 1909 “Dry Goods Economist,” a national trade magazine, Isaac placed an ad for the sale of his Johnsonburg store:
“FOR SALE-Clothing, furnishings, shoes, dry goods, and ready-to-wear business; 21 years established. A fine manufacturing town in Northwestern Pennsylvania; store for rent; very best location. Must sell quickly; reasons for selling on account of the loss of my son and manager.”
By the end of 1910 Isaac had sold his clothing business in Johnsonburg and retired. Sometime before 1915 Isaac and Ida moved to Rochester, New York where two of his daughters resided and where Isaac and Ida lived out the remainder of their lives. Interestingly, as a widower in 1930 and at age 77, Isaac went back to work as a real estate broker.
Between 1820 and 1870 only 7,550 Russians immigrated to the United States; Isaac and Ida were of that number. Russian immigrants came only for political or economic reasons during that time period. In 1870 there was little political upheaval so they likely came to America for economic reasons or a sense of adventure. They were definitely an American success story of which Johnsonburg played a large part.
ELKAN DEICHES
Elkan Deiches, born in Austria in 1862, immigrated to the United States in 1881 and became a naturalized citizen in New York City in 1886. Although he grew up in Austria his native tongue was Polish, so he apparently was a Polish Jew living in occupied territory (Krakow).
Elkan established his first dry goods and clothing store in Austin, Pennsylvania around 1888. The same year he married Cecilia Tigner of Manhattan so he probably knew her before coming to Austin. In actuality, Elkan probably worked for his brother Saul Deiches, who had entered the United States from Krakow, Austria (Poland) in 1879 and had already established the Buffalo Hardware Store in Austin. Saul also owned clothing stores in Chatham and Olean, New York. Saul had his office in New York City.
Elkan opened his first independent store on Centre Street in Johnsonburg in 1889 as Paper City was beginning to boom. His haberdasher enterprise sold men’s hats, shirts, collars, ties, socks, and other related small wares. He called his establishment the “Boston Clothing Store'' but eventually, the Johnsonburg store became the E. Deiches Clothing Store, selling men’s and women's clothing. Naftali (Ali) Lax (Lachs), married to Elkan’s sister, Regina, managed the Johnsonburg store as well as the Olean store. He was assisted in Johnsonburg by Elkan’s half-brother, Maurice Deiches, David Schaule, and Julius Weinstein. Only Maurice Deiches can be confirmed as having lived for a time in Johnsonburg. Later on Jacob Weiss became the manager of the Johnsonburg store. He resided in Johnsonburg.
In 1890, realizing that Kane, Pennsylvania was also beginning to grow substantially due to its hardwoods logging businesses and chemical factories, Elkan began a successful clothing store there called E. Deiches Clothing Store, naturally. Similar stores in Glen Hazel, Mt. Jewett and St. Marys, Pennsylvania, Wellsville, New York, and Perth Amboy, New Jersey followed. It is difficult to say how many stores Elkan Deiches owned outright or operated with partners. He may have owned a store in Ridgway, Pennsylvania and there is evidence Elkan and his Johnsonburg store manager started a store in Wilcox, Pennsylvania called Deiches & Weiss. Elkan, his nephew Maurice Deiches, and Robert Oppenhein took over the S. Deiches Department Store in Philadelphia, capitalized at $92,000, in 1912 upon the death of Elkan’s brother Saul.
Elkan Deiches never resided in Johnsonburg but he did spend a lot of time there and so it appeared to many that he had a home there. However, his home was on the plush Riverside Drive in New York and the E. Deiches main offices were at 43 West 24th Street in Manhattan. Elkan and Cecilia had five children; Rebecca, Julia, Edythe, Estelle, and Seymour.
Elkan Deiches was a prolific supporter of Johnsonburg sports teams, especially baseball. Roy B. Constable, future owner of Johnsonburg and Kane’s Roy B. Constable Stores, also worked at the E. Deiches store for a time as did Alex Kay, who would later own the Ladies Bazaar clothing store in Johnsonburg.
The Deiches Store in Johnsonburg was managed for many years by Jacob Weiss. In August 1924 E. Deiches and Weiss announced that they were building a new store next to the current store on Centre Street. The new two-story store had a larger layout to display wares, a cozy apartment above for the Weiss family and the old store was to be used for storage. It was expected to be completed by Christmas but did not open for business until the spring of 1925.
The E. Deiches store burnt on January 15, 1929 at a loss of $45,000; frigid weather, frozen water supply, and snowy conditions hampered firefighting. The store was situated on the site of the current Roy B. Constable Store. The fire started between the old Deiches store and a neighboring store, with most of the damage done to the old facility. Fire doors were automatically closed in the new store but many goods were smoke-damaged and the E. Deiches Store would not reopen under that name. Jacob Weiss opened his own store there shortly after several fire sales of the Deiches goods. E. Deiches was a step above a store with much high class merchandise of good quality, especially men’s suits.
The last remaining E. Deiches Clothing Store existed in Kane. Emryed Swanson went to work full-time in the store in 1918 and ran it for 58 years before Anthony Raymondo purchased it in 1976. I believe he changed the name from E. Deiches to Raymondo’s. The store’s slogan was “Everything for the lad and his dad.”
One of E. Deiches’ more interesting promotions in Johnsonburg was that of winning a regular piano or a player piano, held in 1913-14. Customers needed to sign up for the contest which was to last six months. For every cent spent by a customer or in the customer’s name at the store a customer would get a “vote.” Whoever had the most votes at the end of the contest would win the piano, second prize was the player piano. Prizes 3-12 were deep discounts on either a regular or a player piano purchased through the store. Also, weekly, 240 pieces of silverware would be given out to eight contestants who got the most weekly votes. Votes, or coupons, needed to be turned in every month as the votes changed colors from month to month. Votes were transferable so you could help a friend or a society if you wished. The advertising company that developed the promotion guaranteed a certain increase in store profits. The upfront cost to E. Deiches was $1,000. The advertising company was responsible for all advertising and coupons for the contest. Whether or not the contest worked to the benefit of Elkan Deiches is lost to the ages, but he did get cold feet and attempted to get out of the deal.
Before the pianos were delivered, the E. Deiches Company was to begin payment in $150 increments. One piano was shipped but payment was not made and the advertising company sued to get immediate full payment plus $26 interest as per the contract. In New York City Court Elkan Deiches testified that he had not signed the contract, that it had been signed by his store manager, Jacob Weiss, and that Jacob Weiss did not have the authority to indebt the E. Deiches Company. Elkan lost the case, appealed, and lost again in the New York Supreme Court. He could not convince the jury or the judges that Mr. Weiss was not permitted to sign contracts and Elkan would not testify so under oath. Conveniently or not, Jacob Weiss could not come to New York to testify because he was ill. No deposition of Mr. Weiss was brought to the court by the defendant’s lawyers.
I have not been able to locate the customer who won the piano.
Elkan Deiches died in New York City on March 5, 1930. While Elkan and his brother Saul did not come to the United States after Russia enforced its 1882 edict, they did arrive just prior to 1882 as discrimination and Jewish bias was becoming overbearing in various parts of Europe.
JACOB WEISS
Jacob Weiss, born in Austria-Hungary in 1867, arrived in America in 1886. At the time of his marriage in January 1894 to Augusta Hornung (a sister to Elkan Deiches) he was clerking in Johnsonburg, likely at the E. Deiches clothing store. Shortly after, he moved to Kane, Pennsylvania where he also probably worked for the E. Deiches clothing store at that location. In December of 1895 Jacob went out on his own and opened a clothes cleaning and repair service in Warren, Pennsylvania. By 1900 he and Augusta, along with offspring Edward, had moved on to Dunkirk, New York where he listed his occupation as a clothing merchant. Jacob became an American citizen in 1891.
In the early 1900’s Jacob went back to work for Elkan Deiches at the Johnsonburg store. Tragedy struck on February 21, 1903 when Jacob, racing to catch the train, slipped and fell under a passenger car, severing his right arm at the shoulder. This did not seem to hold him back as he accepted his handicap and was a faithful employee of E. Deiches until he opened his own clothing business in Johnsonburg in 1929; “Jacob Weiss, The Reliable Clothier.” Augusta and sons Edward, Marshall, and Norman assisted at the store. Marshall and Norman graduated from Johnsonburg High School.
In the late 1930’s the Weiss family retired from the clothing business and moved to Port Allegany, Pennsylvania to be nearer Augusta’s family. They often wintered in Florida and spent the summers traveling. In 1943 Jacob and Augusta settled in Philadelphia to be near their sons who had settled there. The eldest son, Dr. Edward Weiss, became a famous doctor and instructor at Temple University specializing in psychosomatic medicine, Marshall followed in his father’s footsteps and mended clothing, while Norman was involved in real estate. Augusta died in 1965, but Jacob’s death date is unknown; he was alive into the 1950’s.
The Weiss family moved around a bit until they got a foothold in Johnsonburg and the family clothing establishment was quite successful considering the number of years in business and the number of competitors. There is scant evidence that Elkan Deiches and Jacob Weiss were partners in a clothing store in Wilcox, Pennsylvania.
LOUIS AND REBECCA GROSS
Louis and Rebecca Gross arrived in the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1890 with their three children, John, Jacob, and Rose. They spent some time in Philadelphia and Shamokin, Pennsylvania before settling in Johnsonburg about 1894. In Johnsonburg they opened a clothing store and eventually also a shoe store in the Arcade Building (Brick Block). By this time two other sons had been born, Harry and Mendel. The family initially resides above the store before moving to Third Avenue and then to Bridge Street. Son John follows in his parents footsteps, becoming a salesman at the store at age 15 in 1900 before opening a clothing store in partnership with his father on Erie Avenue in St. Marys, Pennsylvania in July 1910. The Gross Clothing Store in St. Marys will soon become the Jack Gross Men’s Shop which John (Jack) will operate until his death in 1966. His daughter Irene Gross Walter will take over at that time.
Both the clothing and shoe stores flourish in Johnsonburg with Harry and Mendel clerking at the stores when they come of age. Louis Gross becomes a prominent businessman in Johnsonburg but despite the family’s success there are some serious disruptions. On February 9, 1915 Harry Gross robbed the Straessley Hotel at gunpoint and then proceeded to march up to Market Street and shoot three bullets through his father’s clothing store door just missing his father. Harry is arrested without difficulty and is placed in the State Mental Hospital in Warren, Pennsylvania. Mendel Gross served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War I, 1917-1918. Harry is unable to serve due to his hospitalization.
In 1920 both Mendel and Harry are back at the Johnsonburg store operating the clothing section while their father runs the shoe retail. In 1926 Louis Gross died in the Kane, Pennsylvania Hospital, he was 61. Mendel and his mother Rebecca take over the shoe store. Rebecca Gross passed away in Johnsonburg in 1935. Harry Gross, who has become a traveling shoe salesman, dies under mysterious circumstances in Philadelphia in 1939. Mendel Gross was an inmate of the Veteran’s Hospital in Bath, New York in 1940 and beyond. On April 22, 1949 in Johnson City, Tennessee Mendel hung himself in the Hotel Windsor. He had been a patient for one day at the Veterans Administration Mountain Home in Johnson City. His occupation is listed as salesman for the General Shoe Corporation out of Nashville, Tennessee. Mendel leaves several notes; one asking that his death be reported to Mrs. Ellen Seips of Keyport, New Jersey and another willing $5,000 and some diamonds he has in a safe deposit box to his sister, Rose Brandman.
Rose Gross Brandman also worked in the family stores until marrying Edward Brandman, a traveling shoe salesman from New York City, sometime prior to 1918. Rose and Edward made their home in Manhattan, New York until returning to the Gross family homestead on Bridge Street in 1938. They may have taken over the shoe store from Mendel at that time. Edward died in Johnsonburg in 1943 and Rose followed him to the grave in 1955. Both are buried in the Beth Israel Cemetery in Bradford, Pennsylvania along with her parents. Jacob Gross, son and brother, died as a youngster sometime between 1900-1910 in Johnsonburg.
John (Jack), Harry, and Rose were all graduates of Johnsonburg High.
What year the Gross clothing and shoe business ceased operations is uncertain. However, it is certain that they were established as a successful business in Johnsonburg for over 40 years. To my knowledge Mendel and Harry never married and Rose Brandman had no children. Jack Gross continued his father’s success with his store in St. Marys.
I could find no tie-in as to why Mendel Gross wanted Mrs. Ellen Seips informed of his death.
HARRY HALBERSTAM (HALBERSTEIN)
Harry Halberstein arrived in the United States from Austria in 1892. He married Sarah Horowitz in Philadelphia in 1894 and they had two sons Maurice (Morris) (1895) and Charles (1896) in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania before settling in Johnsonburg just prior to 1900. Harry established a gentleman’s furnishing’s store on Centre Street that he successfully operated until moving to Springfield, Massachusetts just before 1920 where he became owner of a lumber company. Sometime between 1900 and 1910 the Halberstein’s Americanized their surname to Halberstam. Five other children were born to Harry and Sarah in Johnsonburg; Bessie (Betty), Eugene, Bertha, Lillian, and Laura. Both the younger girls married after their father’s death, Lillian in 1950 and Laura in 1946. The older girls never married. Morris, despite missing two fingers on his right hand, Charles, and Eugene all served in World War I while the family lived in Johnsonburg. Morris worked as a machinist for the Savage Arms Company in Sharon, PA before the conflict, Charles was a medical student, and Eugene worked as a repairman for the Highland Paper Mill.
By 1930 Harry Halberstam had retired and moved to Torrington, Connecticut where he lived out his life before passing in 1945. All his daughter’s lived with him and worked as stenographers or salesladies until his death. His wife Sarah followed him to the grave in 1949.
Morris lived most of his married life in New York City selling baby carriages and automobiles. He died in 1963. Eugene took on a career as an insurance agent for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. While married in 1926 and working for Metropolitan he contracted tuberculosis. In 1910, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company established a sanatorium in Saratoga, New York for their employees who had contracted the disease. Eugene spent time there in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Metropolitan paid their employees’ medical expenses, room and board, and a partial salary to take care of the patient’s family while they were hospitalized. Tuberculosis was an epidemic in the early 1900’s killing over 100,000 Americans a year. Eugene died in Tucson, Arizona in 1977. Charles Halberstam became a doctor of medicine and fathered two sons, Michael, also a medical doctor, and the famous journalist, David Halberstam. David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for his coverage in the Vietnam War also wrote many best sellers including The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, and The Next Century. Later, he turned to sports and penned October 64, The Breaks of the Game, The Teammates, Playing for Keeps, and the Summer of 49, all top shelf books. He mentioned his ancestors came from Johnsonburg in one of his books; Our America. David Halberstam died in a car accident in 2007. His father, Charles died in 1950.
Bessie died in 1974, Bertha in 1965. Lillian Hirschberg died in 1978 and Laura Rubin in 2006.
Both Charles and Bessie graduated from Johnsonburg High.
While not much is written about Harry Halberstein’s gentleman’s furnishing store in the various annuls of Johnsonburg history, he was in business in the community for about 20 years and he was the grandfather of one of the finest political and sports writers of our times. I find that very interesting.
ISRAEL RICH
Israel Rich became a Johnsonburg citizen in a roundabout way succeeding at a business in which he had no prior experience but setting the stage or should I say, location, for one of Johnsonburg’s most iconic retail establishments; the Johnsonburg Newsstand.
Israel arrived in America from Germany at age 17 in 1867, likely drawn to the United States due to the manpower shortage caused by Civil War casualties and injuries. He settled in Oil City, a booming little oil gushing city in Venango County, Pennsylvania and in 1877 he married Rachel Strauss of nearby Titusville. Moving to Titusville to be near Rachel’s family I am sure, the newlywed established a boots and shoe shop, partnering with Rachel’s 17 year-old brother Benjamin. The partners agreed to disband in 1879 with Benjamin taking responsibility for all accounts receivable and payable. Benjamin could only keep the store open another year, quit the business, and took a position as a clerk in a local liquor store. Meanwhile, Israel and Rachel opened up a new boots and shoe store in Bradford, Pennsylvania. David W. Robinson and his wife Hannah boarded at the Rich’s and David clerked at the store.
Within 10 years David had bought into the business and it was known in 1890 as the Rich & Robinson Boots and Shoe Company. However, the partners moved on to Buffalo in 1892 and partnered with David Sklarsky, an up and coming used iron recycler, to form the D.W.R.D. Sklarsky Co. Sklarsky soon transferred to New York City, where he made a fortune in metal sales and eventually changed his name to Saks (no relation to Saks Fifth Avenue Stores). Israel and David also split up, with Israel remaining in the old metal recycling business and David starting a junk dealer business, mostly rag collecting. Lest you think that Rich and Robinson had come down in the world from boots and shoes to junk, junk dealers were a very profitable enterprise in Buffalo and across the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.
In 1903 Israel and Rachel pulled up stakes and Israel started a junk dealer business in Jamestown, New York, possibly drawn there by Rachel’s brother and Israel’s ex-partner, Benjamin, who now owned his own liquor store there. Jamestown was home to the Rich family until 1906-1907 when Israel and Rachel came to Johnsonburg and opened a newsstand at 547 Market Street. Why Johnsonburg? Why a newsstand?
The first question can be answered rather easily, the second is just an educated guess. Rachel’s sister, Lena, had married Maurice Deiches, a half-brother to and manager of, Elkan Deiches of the well-established E. Deiches clothing store in Johnsonburg. With Israel getting on in years and the junk business being somewhat physical, why not settle in with a newspaper and stationery business. Johnsonburg was booming, people had money to spend on writing materials, postcards, books, cigars, toiletries, magazines, and newspapers; just sit behind the counter and collect the money. So Israel entered into a new venture and kept it prosperous for about ten years, then he sold out and moved to Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
Cambridge Springs was well known at the time for its mineral springs and possibly Israel had some aging affliction that made him want to take advantage of the baths. But, whatever the reason, Israel’s time there was not long; Israel died on April 27, 1918. His remains were removed to Titusville and he is buried at the B’nai Zion Cemetery. A contingent of Johnsonburg friends attended the final services led by Alex Kay and Max Racusin, Johnsonburg businessmen.
Shortly afterward, Rachel Strauss Rich moved to Omaha, Nebraska to be near her other younger sister, Sarah Strauss, who had married Maurice Deiches after his first wife, Lena Strauss, their sister, had died. Rachel passed away in Omaha in 1920.
To tie up loose ends, David W. Robinson, who was 11 years older than Israel, died in Buffalo in 1907. Benjamin Strauss, Israel’s brother-in-law and first partner, died in 1925.
Israel and Rachel started the Johnsonburg Newsstand and the “News Agency”, later operated by George Beaver and Josephine, Evelyn and “Chick” Menniti was a Johnsonburg institution on Market Street into the 1990’s.
WOLF(E) STEIN
One of Johnsonburg’s more mysterious Jewish businessmen was Wolfe Stein; his early years are generally unaccounted for, his name might not have been Wolfe Stein, and his origins are murky, at best.
Some source documents have Wolf born in Reading, Pennsylvania or Lebanon, Pennsylvania while other sources have him born in Germany or Prussia, his date of birth listed as 9-20-1879 or 6-25-1879. So far there are no Federal or state census for Wolf for 1880, 1890, or 1900. The names of his parents are not known and whether or not he had any siblings is unknown. The earliest firm evidence of his life is his marriage to Rebecca Rosette in Philadelphia in 1902.
Rebecca Rosette immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1889. According to the 1900 Federal Census she was living with her mother and brother in Philadelphia at that time and was overseeing a cigar manufacturing company. Quite a challenge for a nineteen year-old girl!
In any case, in July 1909 the Stein’s purchased a “racket store,” in Johnsonburg, a sort of early “five and dime,” from C.W. Richardson on Market Street next to the Post Office. They brought with them two children, Harold and Herman. Both would graduate from Johnsonburg High School. Another son, Rosman (Russell) was born in Johnsonburg in 1916.
The store flourished and with Rebecca’s help Wolf eventually moved the store and purchased a large building at 426 Center Street. He rented the upstairs of the building to tenants and half of the two storefronts to other businessmen. It is often mentioned as the “Stein Building” or the “Stein Block.” In years to come the building would house the Center Street Market Basket grocery company.
The Stein’s made a small fortune during their 15 years in Johnsonburg and in November 1924 Wolf rented his store to Simon Friedman, formerly of Ridgway, Pennsylvania and relocated to Atlantic City, New Jersey to open a ladies clothing store there. Friedman would sell shirts, ties, hosiery, and hats, but be out of business by 1926. The other side of the building in Johnsonburg at the time of the Stein’s departure from Johnsonburg was occupied by Albert Minnick, operating the “Prosperity Grocery Store.”
In January 1926 A.M. Anderson and Fred Carlson purchased the Stein Building from Wolf Stein. The Prosperity Grocery still occupied part of the first floor.
The Stein’s operated their store in Atlantic City well into the 1940’s. Wolf died in New Jersey in 1960. Rebecca died in New Jersey in 1956.
DAVID FRIEDMAN
David Friedman was born in Russia in April 1888 and immigrated to the United States in 1904. His brother Simon had previously immigrated and owned a clothing store in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. David helped his brother and learned the business through 1910 and in 1914 he opened his own store in Johnsonburg at 404 Center Street. When “old-timers” from Johnsonburg used to talk about Johnsonburg businesses of the past they consistently brought up “Friedman’s.” Friedman advertised his enterprise as the “workingman’s store” selling everyday quality items at easy on the wallet prices. If there was a stereotypical “jew” businessman in Johnsonburg, the old-timers would say it was Friedman, shrewd with the dollar and with a reputation of being clever in buying, selling, promotions, and dealing. There is no doubt that Friedman, having been in business in Johnsonburg for over 25 years, was an excellent businessman. One of his simple, but effective selling ploys, was to hire Italian, Polish, or Swedish help; salespeople who could speak a foreign language in addition to English. These assistants would make Johnsonburg’s melting pot of different nationalities comfortable conversing in their native tongue, especially when their English was not as fluent. This of course increased sales.
The great Johnsonburg flood of 1942 wiped out Friedman’s store on Center Street, damaging most of his goods. At first he said he would re-stock but then he thought the better of it and sold the store to pharmacist Harry Bosler who vacated his store across the street and moved his drugstore into Friedman’s. Austin Duffee, of Ridgway, opened the Corner Restaurant where Bosler’s was, and that building, the Florin and Johnson Block, was torn down in 1970 to make way for the new Route 219 expansion. Friedman’s building is still standing as of 2020.
David Friedman married Minnie Feinburg of Altoona, Pennsylvania in 1913. They lived at 510 Penn Street and had two children; Joseph, and Betty Friedman Silverstein. Joseph suffered from infantile paralysis of his left leg and became a podiatrist.
Although David Friedman could see well enough to transact business, he was legally blind in his later years. The family moved to Bradford after selling the store and Friedman died there in February 1948. His wife Minnie, moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania to be near her son and died there in 1959.
MAX RACUSIN AND ALEX KAY
Max arrived in the United States from Russia as a nine-year-old in 1891 settling in Philadelphia with his three brothers, William, Samuel, Maurice, and three sisters, Belle, Fannie, and Sarah. The youngest child Rebecca came along in 1894. Their father ran a dry goods store in the great City of Brotherly Love.
Max, now living in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania and working in his brother William’s women’s clothing store called the “Leader” married Carla Zirndorfer in Philadelphia in August 1914. The newlyweds returned to Mt. Pleasant after the nuptials. William would operate the Leader for 65 years until retiring in 1964. He died in 1969.
Within a year of their marriage Max and Carla opened a ladies fashion shop on Centre Street in Johnsonburg under the name “Ladies Bazaar.” Two sons were born to them, Benjamin (1915) and Norman (1920). The family lived initially upstairs at 442 Centre Street and then at 618 First Avenue. The store was successful, but tragically Max succumbed to colon cancer in January 1923. He is buried in the Tree of Life Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania where his brother William was on the congregation board.
Carla, now a young 29-year-old widow with two small boys and a clothing store, soon married Alexander Kay (Alexander Keh). Alex had arrived in America from Tuchow, Austria in 1911. Alex, related to Elkan Deiches’ sister, Charlotte Deiches Hornung, (Alex’s grandmother) went to work for the E. Deiches Clothing Store in Johnsonburg, and listed himself as manager of the store on his 1918 WWI registration. Alex and Max and Carla Racusin were friends and Alex and Max often went on inventory buying trips together.
A son, Herbert, was born to Alex and Carla in March 1924. On April 4, 1928 a large fire swept through Centre Street and destroyed the stock of the Ladies Bazaar. The building, owned by Joseph Malfara, although having a brick veneer, received serious smoke and fire damage to the interior. The loss to the Kay’s was either $10,000 or $40,000 depending on which newspaper account was true. They had no insurance but were back in business within the year.
Alex and Carla operated the Ladies Bazaar in Johnsonburg at 442 Centre Street until 1939 when they moved the store to Ridgway, Pennsylvania. They still maintained their 618 First Avenue residence in Johnsonburg. By 1950 they had settled in Emporium, Pennsylvania where they had established a Ladies Bazaar shop in the mid 1940’s. Alex operated the Ridgway store and Carla ran the Emporium enterprise.
In 1953 they retired to Sarasota, Florida. Alexander died there in 1961, Carla followed him to the grave in 1970.
Their three offspring were quite successful. Benjamin graduated from Johnsonburg High School and Alfred University and became a teacher in Oswego, New York. During WWII he served as an intelligence officer and after the war he and his wife, Helen Schuler, a former army officer, were CIA operatives working out of Shanghai, China. In 1967, while on vacation, Ben and Helen bought some land on an obscure island in South Carolina named Hilton Head. When they retired in 1971 they built a home there and Ben became Hilton Head’s first mayor. The resort destination has grown considerably since.
Norman Racusin graduated from Johnsonburg High School and Penn State University where he was class valedictorian and star basketball player. He served in the Pacific Theatre in WWII, receiving a Bronze Star, and after the conflict he graduated from Harvard Business School and went to work for RCA in accounting. He became President of RCA Records and pioneered the eight-track tape music system. In 1970 he left RCA and became CEO of Reader’s Digest. Later, he worked for E.F. Hutton.
Herbert Kay, the youngest of the Racusin/Kay family, graduated from Johnsonburg High School and Penn State University and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy in WWII. After the war he completed his Master’s Degree in chemical engineering and eventually went to work for the American Metal Climax, Inc. company where he rose to the position of senior vice-president before retiring.
As an interesting side note, Maurice (Morris) Jay Racusin, younger brother of William and Max Racusin, worked for the New York Times, New York Tribune, and New York Herald. He had attended University of Pennsylvania law school and used what he learned about the legal field to do some astounding work as an undercover reporter revealing widespread fraud in police departments, government, and prohibition enforcement. His first claim to fame as a cub reporter was to get an interview with J.P. Morgan. His editor, as was routine with rookie reporters, assigned young Racusin to the interview, which no-one had ever been able to get due to Morgan’s disdain of the press, and off went young Maurice with senior reporters snickering behind his back. Racusin was gone several days and his workmates thought he had gone on a bender, but the youngster was at the library reading about his interviewee. Racusin had learned that J.P. had concerns about the United States debt caused by the recent WWI conflict. Approaching Morgan’s office with the request to talk with the great financier about the Country’s financial stability, Racusin was immediately given an audience. Several hours later, after he had J.P. Morgan sign his notes, Maurice returned to his editor with an interview and a story. The editor did not believe Racusin and took the notes and story to the finance reporters at the New York Herald and the scribes were suspect. The story was sold to a Chicago paper that printed it and got the scoop when J.P. confirmed his remarks. The story was sold back to the Herald for printing and young Maurice was established. He wrote under the byline M. Jay Racusin for 44 years until his death in New York in 1962. He was affectionately known as the New York Herald’s “ fraud ferret.”
Carla Zirndorfer Racusin/Kay had several sisters, a couple of whom operated stores in Emporium with their husbands.
JOSEPH AND CLARA KOHN
Joseph Kohn was born in Bavaria in 1870 and immigrated to the United States in 1889. Joseph settled in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania and then Morrisdale, Pennsylvania before moving to Johnsonburg around 1905 where he and his new bride, Clara Barman, opened a one price clothing store near Larson’s Hardware. Later that year they moved the store to the brick block. Joseph and Clara sold Clothes, shoes, pants, and white goods. The couple raised four children in Elk County; Celo (1907), Leonard (1909), Irvin (1916), Lester (1919). Around 1915 the family moved their clothing store to St. Marys, Pennsylvania. Joseph died suddenly in 1927 and Clara and son Celo continued to run the clothing store. Sometime after 1930 but before 1935 Clara sold the store and she and her boys Celo, Irvin, and Lester moved to Central Park West, New York City and joined Leonard who worked in New York as a paper salesman. Celo worked as a hotel decorator, Irvin as a teacher, and Lester in the meat-packing business. Clara died in 1972.
SUMMARY
There were many other Jewish merchants established in the early days of Johnsonburg; Alex Steinfeld, B. Rothstein, Penny Rothstein, Joseph Kaplan, Jacob Koblenz, Strauss, David Schaule, Julius Weinstein, and Simon Friedman to name a few. For various reasons they did not stay any substantial length of time.
Most of the original Russian Jews did not stay in Johnsonburg but moved on to Bradford, Titusville, or other communities that had Jewish temples and large Hebrew congregations. No Jewish synagogue was ever established in Johnsonburg. Jewish families in Johnsonburg, including the businessmen noted above, traveled to Bradford or Dubois, stayed with friends or relatives, and worshiped their Sabbath, which was Saturday, at those locations. In those days, Johnsonburg stores were only open a half-day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday.
While there was always antisemitism in the United States, just as there was discrimination throughout the decades against Irish, Chinese, Polish, and Italian immigrants, in the 1920’s with the Ku Klux Klan’s rise in popularity, antisemitism and anticatholic feelings grew in intensity and newspapers like Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent and the pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion blamed Jews for any and all social ills and promoted a hoax that International Jews had a plan for world dominance. This antisemitic sentiment grew larger during the depression of the 1930’s when Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic Priest, with a radio show that reached millions of listeners, began expressing sympathy for fascist policies, blaming the depression on Jewish bankers.
Johnsonburg was likely not oblivious to this antisemitism and we can see through the thinning out of the Johnsonburg Jewish businessmen throughout the 1930’s that not only the lack of business caused by the depression but also the antisemitism in the community caused the Jewish businessmen to close their stores and move away.
Not all Jewish persons who came to Johnsonburg left, some stayed. Of those that remained, some modified their names, married into other faiths, integrated into the community, or just went about earning a livelihood.
There is a debt of respect owed to the Jewish businessmen who came to Johnsonburg in those early days; they saw opportunity in a small developing mill town in the hinterlands of Northwest Pennsylvania, took the risk, were in the most part successful, and provided badly needed commerce and business expertise in the early days of “Burg.” They took part in the community, supporting civic functions, sports teams, schools, and other business enterprises. Their children went to our schools, played on our sports teams, participated in plays and social groups. While they were there the families gave Johnsonburg’s melting pot of nationalities another important ingredient; the determination to succeed.
Kevin “Reg” Barwin
Author: Kevin “Reg” Barwin
Kevin Barwin, a Johnsonburg native, who spent his youth peddling newspapers in Johnsonburg and reading the newsprint, while walking his routes, acquired a taste for the past.
THE PAPER BOY FROM THE PAPER CITY, More on his book: here
