To get
a picture of Jefferson, Texas in its heyday think of Edna Ferber’s
classic, Showboat. The town was a wealthy bustling inland port
of gorgeous antebellum homes in the 1850’s, a place where
one would have seen as many as 15 steamboats lined up at the docks
of Big Cypress Bayou on any given day. During those halcyon days
it was the largest port between St. Louis and New Orleans, and
was reported to have a population of over 30,000 by the 1870’s.
The Jewish population swelled accordingly along with the town.
Jacob Sterne (1826-1872), a McKinney, TX merchant
married a Swiss Jewish girl, Ernestine, and they settled in Jefferson
in 1855. Not only did he establish men’s clothing stores
in Jefferson and Marshall but he was the postmaster. Even though
it is reported that they lived in a small house with their two
slaves, it is believed that Jacob was opposed to slavery, as indicated
in a book written later by his daughter Eva. The Sternes
also took in boarders, including six single Jewish men who lived
there in 1860.
During the Civil War, Confederate suppliers included Sterne, who
was a quartermaster, and a J. Nussbaum who made soap and candles.
By 1862, under Sterne’s leadership, the
Hebrew Benevolent Association founded the Mount Sinai Cemetery.
After the Civil War many Jews settled in Jefferson and in 1873
they chartered Hebrew Sinai Congregation, affiliated with the
Reform movement. Early records show there may have been as many
as several hundred Jews living in Jefferson during these boom
years. The congregation purchased a building in 1875 to use as
their synagogue. The wooden clapboard structure had been designed
by an architect and built in 1869, housing a convent for the Sisters
of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In 1876 the congregation added
another section to the building to be used as the social hall.
The Jewish community could not have suspected
that the death knell was about to toll for Jefferson’s source
of commercial prosperity. During this same time period the U.S.
Government decided to remove the natural log dam that created
the waters deep enough to make steamboat travel possible on Big
Cypress Bayou. It wasn’t long before the water level began
to drop and the town’s population did likewise as the economy
rapidly declined. Most of the Jews left long before the turn of
the century.
A remarkable true story of this time period is that of the mysterious
Diamond Bessie Murder Trials. Abe Rothschild was the son of a
wealthy Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is said that he
was married to a woman named Anne Stone Moore, but known as Diamond
Bessie because she was bedecked in diamonds. On January 19th,
1877 Abe Rothschild and his wife arrived in Jefferson, registering
at the Brooks House Hotel as “A. Monroe and wife”.
Her trunk bore the name “Annie Moore, New Orleans”.
One day they were overheard arguing in their room.
The next Sunday they went on a picnic in the woods. He returned
later without her but wearing her two diamond rings. When asked
about her whereabouts he said she was visiting friends. Two weeks
later her body was found in the woods and Rothschild was arrested
for the murder. Though he had previously been disowned by his
family because of his reputation as a gambler, the family hired
the finest attorney to defend him.
Through extraditions, change of venue, an overturn
in appellate court, and a suicide attempt by Rothschild, he was
finally acquitted after nearly four years and two trials.
He left the same night, returning to Cincinnati by train with
his parents. The murder was never solved though many legends have
been passed down over the years.
The Eldridges, a Jewish family who had arrived
in Jefferson around 1867 lived next door to the synagogue. When
it closed they became the custodians of its records and ritual
objects. The eternal light (ner tamid) is now on display in the
Jefferson Museum. The synagogue was maintained for many years
through the endowment from an old Jefferson family. As the years
wore on the building became quite shabby and run down. A gentile
man who grew up in Jefferson recalled to me how he and his boyhood
friends would sneak into the lower level through the missing windows
to play “ghost” in the 1940’s and early 50’s.
In the 1950’s a wonderful arrangement was
made with the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club, whose membership
owns and maintains several important historic structures in the
town. The building was given to them in exchange for their perpetual
care of the Jewish cemetery. Since then the Garden Club has completely
restored the building, reincarnating it as the Jefferson Playhouse.
Most intriguing is that during the tourist season the Playhouse
features as its theatrical fare the very popular “Diamond
Bessie Murder trial”.
Jefferson
today has a population of just 2200 full-time residents. Those
who live there take great pride in the heritage of the once-thriving
port. Many of the beautiful 19thcentury mansions and some smaller
homes have been perfectly restored. Some of these may be toured
and at least 25 of them offer Bed and Breakfast accommodations.
More than 30 structures bear State Historical Medallions, including
Hebrew Sinai Synagogue. In addition, one can tour railroad mogul
Jay Gould’s private railroad car “Atalanta”
to see how yesterday’s multimillionaires would have traveled
in style and luxury. Hebrew Sinai Congregation/Jefferson Playhouse
is on the historic walking tour, but be sure to detour to see
the Mt. Sinai cemetery too. And many continuing thanks to the
Jessie Allen White Garden Club for preserving the town’s
unique Jewish history.
Sources for this article: “Deep In
The Heart” by Ruthe Wingarten and Cathy Schecter; Texas
State Travel Guide; Texas Almanac; American Jewish Landmarks by
Postal and Koppman; Texas Jewish Historical Society newsletter;
Texas Historical Association.
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