Who was Samuel Solow?

Samuel Solow

Born in Bielsk, in the Russian Empire (now Poland) in April 1849. [From his US Passport application].

His parents were Lipman Solow and Sarah Bisco, both Jewish.

Actually there are now several places named "Bielsk" in this area of Poland, but I'm pretty sure the most likely is Bielsk Podlaski in Bielsk County, Poland.

Bielsk has a rich Jewish history (which was wiped out in the Holocaust). 

In 1897 Bielsk was 55% Jewish-speaking LINK.  (Yiddish).

The thousand-year long history of the Ashkenazi Jewish migration from the middle east to Germany, France, and then eastern Europe is fascinating.  LINK

In 1873 Samuel Solow (24) married Cecilia Moseson (22).

Cecilia Moseson 
Russia (Poland) circa 1873

Her full name was Cecilia Rebecca "Zipke" Moseson.   She was also born in the Russian empire.  They had 6 kids and they must have moved around because Sophie always said she was from Riga, Russia (now Latvia) and  David was born in Moscow.  Mollie Solow died at the age of one (1882).

Here is Cecilia's timeline [MyHeritage.com]

Samuel (43) and Cecilia (41) and their 5 children emigrated from Riga, Russia (Latvia) to New York City in 1892.  Sophie was 15 and was going to school at a gymnasium in Moscow.

Sophie Solow

Samuel ran a business making shirts in the Bronx.  Several of their children worked there.

Six years after arriving in New York  Sophie (21) married Barnett Epstein (24), who had emigrated to NYC from Russia in 1891.

Barnett Epstein

Their daughter Adele Epstein is Howard Stein's mother, and J Zac's grandmother!

Adele Epstein
NYC, 1910

Cecilia Solow passed away in 1910, and Samuel married Ida Lieberman (born Stein) in 1911.  Ida already had 6 kids from her first husband, Harris Lieberman.  Ida and Harris had emigrated from Russia in 1895.

In 1921 Samuel Solow applied for a US passport to visit Palestine and Egypt.

"Passport Application on March 30, 1921 for Samuel Solow, born in Bielsk, Russia (Poland) April, 1849.  Emigrated to USA on Nov 7 1892.  Resided in NYC from 1892 to 1921.

Naturalized on May 9, 1904.  Residence 935 E 163rd St. NYC.  “I follow the occupation of Shirt Manufacturing."  Plan to visit Palestine, Egypt, and other countries for travel & recreation. (Education crossed out). Intend to leave New York on May 10, 1921.  Will return within 6 months."

The Passenger arrival list of the SS Aquitania, Sailing from Southampton on 16 July 1921, arriving at Port of New York on 23 July 1921 lists Samuel Solow, returning from Palestine.   He arrived alone, his (second) wife Ida is not on the list.   It shows his address to be 47 Walker Street, New York.

Here is a Google Map screenshot of 935 E 163rd St. Bronx, NYC.  This was his address in 1921.



Here is 1110 Jackson Avenue, also in the Bronx.  This is where Sophie, Barnett and Adele Epstein lived.

Howard's comments:

Al

Good finds.  First, I actually recognize his signature.  I have it in an old family bible.  

Second, he was a shirt maker.  He was known to be quite an intellectual, and very interested in numerology (peculiar, somewhat mystical relationships between the order of a letter in the alphabet and a number, the addition of which forecast something of importance, a prophecy).  He was also known for the fact that several of his children worked for him in his shirt business and one day, in his old age, he just sold his business leaving them all high and dry and went to Palestine where he (eventually) died. I believe he is buried there. He was also known for saying that he could make a shirt for any price just like a butcher could make hamburger for any price;  it just depended on what went into it.  

Third, the address on East 163rd Street seems probable.  At some time in my mother's childhood they lived at 1110 Jackson Avenue, which was between 165th and 166th Street in that neighborhood.  Twice, the second time maybe about 1970, my mother drove me past 1110 Jackson and said that she was pleased that every house/apartment she had ever lived in was still standing.  Many of my mother's family and friends had ties to that neighborhood from the turn of the century, which was an area of private one family brownstone five story homes and very suburban back in those days.   By the 1970s that area of the prosperous Bronx was the notorious South Bronx and while in general that was a libel, my recollection is that hers was about the only house still occupied on that block across from Morris High School (Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, namesake of the Morrisania section of The Bronx, and scion of the lawyers my father used, Morris & McVeigh).

Why does it appear from your research that all these people were applying for passports, usually their first and only, in the early 1920s?  It must be because the war was over and they could travel to Europe (and Palestine) safely and were interested in family or whatever in Europe.  We have seen part of Austria (the Empire) become Poland and now Ukraine;  so my father was born in Austria as was presumably his parentage.  My mother's family said, insistently, they came from Russia and in this document Russia seems to have been revised to Poland.  My grandmother Sophie always said she came from Riga, which is Latvia, which makes sense since Samuel came to the U.S.  in 1892, but we have never been able to connect the dots to figure out how she met my grandfather Barnett in Moscow when she was attending the gymnasium there, which would be a very unusual thing for a Latvian young woman of any ethnicity.

We still haven't figured out who was using Grandma Beka's passport!!!!  If you can establish that Grandma Stein was an African-Austrian that would certainly be exciting news.

howard

1920 Census lists Samuel Solow's second wife Ida (Lieberman/Stein)

"Place of birth: Russia.  Mother Language at birth: Yiddish.  Father's place of birth: Russia.  Father's Mother language: Yiddish.  Mothers place of birth: Russia.  Mother's mother language: Yiddish.

Occupation: Shirt manufacturer.  Employer or wage earner: Employer."

Samuel Solow died at the age of 90 in Tel Aviv in 1939.  His burial is at "The Old Cemetery" (Trumpeldor) in Tel Aviv, Israel.