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.