Samuel Kessler, aka Shulim, Shulem, Sem, Sam, was born to Tsvi (Hirsch) and Hudi (Judith) Kessel in Austria/Poland in August of 1864. The name Kessler derives from Kistler. A Kistler was a seller of copper pots and pans. Sam starting using Kessler once he was in the United States. We do not know much, if anything, about his early life, except that his surname was Kessel and his father was a grocer. His secular name was probably Shulem based on the birth certificate of his first child, Herman.
In 1886, he married Bertha (Chaya Breindel) Charipper in Austria/Poland and we learn a lot from Herman’s birth record about their marriage. We learn that Samuel and Bertha were married in a religious ceremony but not in a civil one. Back then civil marriages were very expensive and not everyone could afford one. However, If you were not married in a civil ceremony, the government considered your children to be illegitimate and that is why on this birth certificate, Samuel had to verify that he was indeed the child’s father. We also learn that Samuel was a tailor.
They had a son, Lipman, who was born circa 1887. Then in 1891, they had another little boy they named Herman. Herman, was born on July 4, 1891, in Lviv, in Galicia. Samuel and Bertha were then living at 15 Bernadyńska St. where their son’s circumcision also took place.
Sadly, Herman’s death is also record and the little boy died on August 5, 1894 in Brody.
According to his grandson, George, Samuel worked as a bootblack for Emperor Franz Joseph, who was emperor of Austria-Hungary from 1848 – 1916. That means Samuel would have polished boots and shoes. However, I can find no record of him ever living in Vienna so I think that Samuel embellished his early years for his family. This was a common practice among immigrants.
Samuel arrived in New York on August 17, 1893, leaving behind his wife and sons Lipman and Herman. Herman would not die until the following year. On the ship manifest, he is listed as a tailor. He sailed from Bremen Austria, on the steamship Munchen. He traveled without any luggage, just the clothes on his back. He listed his age as 33. (His record is the 6th one down.) He probably travelled in Steerage which was how most of the immigrants travelled.
The S.S. Munchen was built in 1889 and was operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) which was one of Germany’s premier transatlantic shipping lines in the late 19th century. The steamship was a combination of steam power and sails. They voyage took between 8 to 10 days on rocky seas . The trip from Brody to Bremen is over 850 miles, so a big question is how did Samuel, and later on, Bertha and Lipman, get to the port? If they had extra money they might have taken a series of trains. This method would have taken between 2 to 4 days of travelling. If they could not afford the train, they may have taken a cart and or walked part of the way. Those methods, of course, would have taken longer to reach the port. To see what the port area of Bremen looked like in the late 1890s, click here.
Upon arriving in the United States, he settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This was a highly dense area of immigrants.
In March of 1895, Bertha arrived with 5 year old Lipman. The family was finally back together. Note that on both his and on Bertha’s ship manifests, they still went by Kessel.
In 1896, the area was so packed with immigrants, that a terrible heat lasting for over 10 days killed almost 1500 people.
When his son Abe was born, they was living at 167 Allen Street on the Lower East Side.
One year later, his daughter, Edith, was born.
In 1900, Sam and his family lived at 22 Hicks Street in Brooklyn, NY. It was there he applied for his naturalization papers which were finalized in 1902. They were still living on Hicks Street in 1905. It was here that his son, Morris, was born. Also, before Morris, Sam and Bertha had 3 other sons, twins Benjamin and Israel, and Frederick all of whom died before their second birthdays.
Hicks Street, named after 17th century ferry operators, John and Jacob Hicks, is in Brooklyn Heights. Today it is known as an affluent residential area. Originally is was called Brooklyn Village and was known for its brownstone row houses. This area began to develop when Robert Fulton’s New York and Brooklyn Steam Ferry Boat Company began regularly scheduled ferry service in 1814. When the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, this opened up the area to even more development. Mansions were divided into apartment houses and boarding houses.
In 1907, he bought a house which was put in his wife’s Bertha’s name. It was a row house at 1107 Herkimer Street. The new home was a cold-water flat, typical of the day. That means it had no running hot water for cooking or baths.
Herkimer Street is in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. After 1907, with the completion of the Williamsburg Bridge, Jews and Italians settled in this area. It was known as a working-class to middle class neighborhood where people worked in downtown Brooklyn and in Manhattan. The homes were mainly Brownstone row houses.
In 1908, an unspeakable tragedy struck his household. His oldest son, Lippman, now about 20 years old, shot himself to death in a murder suicide.
The 1910 census showed that Samuel took in borders, named Annie and James Kenny, probably to help pay the mortgage. He also had his own business as a merchant tailor. A merchant tailor is a tailor who owns the business and supplies the fabric he uses to his customers.
He was active in his synagogue and became the president. The Schul was within walking distance from his Herkimer Street home. When he walked there, he always wore his usual top hat. In winter, the neighborhood boys would try to throw snowballs at it to try to knock it off of his head.
In 1917, his son Abe married Anna Feldman who was seven months pregnant. Would this bring more shame to the family? Maybe because of that, Abe and Anna gave the baby up for adoption.
It appears that Samuel and his wife did not complete the 1920 Census. However, he appears on the registered voter list in 1924. His daughter, Edith, now married, and her husband, Morris, were living down the street from him and were also registered voters.
By the 1925 Census, only his son, Morris, and his wife Bertha lived in the house with him.
By 1930, the home was valued at $7000, but he did not own a radio. Samuel was now 64 years old and retired. After 1930, the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn became home to a large African American population.
Sam and Bertha had 8 children with only 3, Abe, Morris and Edith, surviving to adulthood.
Samuel died at age 66 from pneumonia on February 27, 1932, and is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Queens, NY. His grave is located in the Linenthal Society Section (MICHAEL LINENTHAL LODGE), Path 32 R, Gate Road, Grave 0003, Map 314.
His tombstone is inscribed with Samuel: “[abbreviation] Here lies buried/ our dear father/ Shalom son of Mr. Tzvi/ died 22 Adar I 5692/ [abbreviation] May his soul be bound in the bond of life.”
Sources:
Stories from Stuart and George Kessler, Art Cronson
- Birth record of Herman Kessel, 1891,
- S.S. Munchen Steamship Information
- Hicks Street
- Google Maps
- Herkimer Street
- http://www.mountzioncemetery.com/societies.asp
- Note: The Linenthal Society at Mt. Zion is from a Jewish community organization rather than a Landmanshatften group which is people from a specific area of the Old World. https://jgsny.org/searchable-databases/indexes-to-jewish-organizations/jewish-communal-register
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/merchant%20tailor
- The Heat Wave of 1896 And The Rise Of Roosevelt https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129127924
- Bootblack https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bootblack
- Franz Joseph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria
- Census Records from Ancestry.com