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Dor to Door SOCIETY GREATER HOUSTON JEWISH GENEALOGICAL Dor to Door SOCIETY Summer 2017 HOUSTON, TEXAS Joseph M. Sam, One-Term Houston City Attorney & Philanthropist Inside this issue: He was born on 23 December 1865, Travis, Austin Co., TX Officers / Meeting 2 and was the son of Samuel Sam and Caroline Stern. His Dates / Dues siblings were: Henrietta Sam (Miss), Simon L. Sam, Jacob W. Sam, Nathan Sam, Levi Sam and Sarah Ann Sam Sam Facebook & Website 2 (Mrs. Jake H. Sam). Texas Jewish His- 3 On 14 June 1900, Houston, Harris Co., TX, he married torical Soc Meeting Idaho Zorkowsky. There were no children. On 22 April 1920 Suggested Reading 3 in Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, Idaho married Max Wile. She died on 8 Feb 1957 in New York and was buried Houston Handbook 3 with her second husband in the Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buf- falo, Erie Co., NY. Longview Jewish 4 Cemetery & HTCD Joe died on 14 Feb 1915 in Houston of pneumonia and chronic asthma. He was buried in the Beth Israel Cemetery (West Dallas), Houston. On the day of Restoration of Fort 5 his funeral, the bell at the Old City Hall tolled all afternoon and the courts were Worth WWI Memo- rial closed in his honor. At an early age Sam "read for the law" in the offices of William Paschal "W. Houston WWII Vets 5 P." Hamblen who would serve as Judge, 55th District Court, Harris County from Military Awards 1902 until his death in 1911. Three Brothers Bak- 6 At the time of Sam's death, he was the senior member of the law firm of Sam, ery - Treasured Bradley & Fogle. Texas Business Award On 1 Apr 1900, the Houston Municipal Elections were held and Joe Sam's op- ponent for the Office of City Attorney was, W. M. Holland. The final vote tally for Henry Seeligson 7-8 City Attorney was 4,397 for Joe Sam and 3,971 for Holland. Sam served during Jake "Jakie" Freed- 9 the administration of Mayor Samuel Houston "Sam" Brashear. In 1902, Sam man & Family did not seek re-election. WWII Gold Star Vets 10 Shortly after taking office, Sam stated that he intended to enforce the law in regards to payment of city taxes, but he hoped owners would settle their ac- Isaac "Ike" Klotz 11- counts so the city would not have to proceed to public sale of their property. He Murder 12 said, "I don't want to see any man lose his home." WWII Rabbis 13 In 1901, Sam took on the slot machine operators in Houston and had 21 own- Newspaper Clips 14 ers served with arrest warrants. However, when the owners were brought before the Corporation Court most charges were dismissed and only a few received Houston Israelite 15 Ladies - War Be- small fines. tween the States One of the important matters Sam undertook in 1901 were negotiations with the Estate of Charlotte Baldwin Allen (Mrs. Augustus C.) related to the owner- Newspaper Clips 16 ship rights to the land where the original City Hall located at the Old Market Square bounded by Milam, Preston, Travis and Congress. He was able to nego- tiate a settlement with the Estate. [cont. p. 15 - Joe Sam] Page 2 Dor to Door President Quarterly Newsletter Officers Published - Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall Evan Snyder Vice President & Webmaster Max Heffler Secretary/Treasurer/Publicity Milton Gugenheim Newsletter Editor Lynna Kay Shuffield Mailing address: 5231 Jason Houston, Texas 77096-1320 Meeting Dates - 2016-2017 Dates: Location: Thursday - 1 June 2017 Board Room Thursday - 7 September 2017 Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Thursday - 7 December 2017 6200 North Braeswood Blvd. Thursday - 4 January 2018 Houston, Texas Time: 6:45 p.m. Membership Dues Individual: $18 per year Family: $20 per year If you reside over 100 miles from Houston, membership is $12 per year. Libraries & societies, membership dues are $12 per year. Checks payable: GHJGS Mailed to: Milton Gugenheim (address above) Visit Us on Facebook < https://goo.gl/8H9yry > Visit Our Website < http://ghjgs.iajgs.org/ > Newsletter back issues available on website. Join Our Mailing List < https://goo.gl/ISx4eg > Abbreviation use in newsletter: FAG = Find-a-Grave Summer 2017 Page 3 Annual Meeting of the Texas Jewish Historical Society < http://www.txjhs.org/ > The Annual Gathering of the Texas Jewish Historical Society will be on 21- 23 Apr 2017, at the Omni Hotel (9821 Colonnade Blvd.), San Antonio, Texas. Everyone is invited to attend. Suggested Reading Warner, H. T. (ed.), Texans and Their State: A Newspaper Reference Work (Houston, TX: Texas Bio- graphical Assoc., ca. 1918). This biographical resource is free online at: < https://archive.org/details/texanstheirstate00warn > = = = = = History of Texas World War Heroes (Dallas, TX: Army & Navy History Co., 1919). This biographical resources for Texas World War I veterans is free online and can be downloaded in .pdf format: < goo.gl/VApKkY > This book is also available at the Texas Room, Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Julia Ideson Building, Smith & Lamar, across the plaza from the Jesse Jones Downtown Library. Handbook of Houston The Handbook of Houston is part of the Texas Historical Assoc. (TSHA) statewide resource, the Handbook of Texas Online. This new local resource is looking for entries related to Houston history. < https://www.houstonhistoryalliance.org/about/the-handbook-of-houston-history/ > The above URL has the rules for submitting entries. They include: 1) must be within the Houston city limits; 2) if a person, they must be deceased, impactful and important; and, 3) if an event or build- ing, it must be historic. The list of suggested topics only includes one topic related to Jewish history, Congregation Beth Israel. Lynna Kay Shuffield is preparing a submission related to Joseph M. “Joe” Sam who served as the Houston City Attorney, 1900-1902. (See is biographical sketch on p. 1) Page 4 Dor to Door Longview’s Temple Emanu-El Cemetery - Harrison Co., TX Temple Emanu-El Cemetery is located within the Memorial Park Cemetery in Longview, Harrison Co., TX. It is immedi- ately to the right-side of the cemetery road- way. The cemetery is found at the intersec- tion of US Highway 80 (locally known as Marshall Ave.) and US Highway 259 (or Eastman Rd.). This cemetery contains approx. 63 graves, the oldest known burial in 1958. This cemetery is active. In 2016, the Historic Texas Cemetery Designation was awarded by the Texas Historical Commission. An additional Jewish cemetery in Longview is the Marshall Hebrew Cemetery located on Herndon St. and Evans St. In 1881, the cemetery was established by the Marshall Hebrew Cemetery Trust. It was later operated by the now-defunct Congregation Moses Montefiore which closed in 1971. This Congregation started about 1892 and built its first building in 1900. The approx. 5-acres land for this cemetery contains approx. 200+ graves and it is now mostly inac- tive. The oldest graves are the 1873 deaths of David May, his wife, Teresa and, his son, Abraham. In 1881, the family was reinterred from the City Cemetery. To date, there is no Historic Texas Cemetery Designation for this cemetery. A large, inoperable iron gate with a Mogen David faces Herndon St. with small pedestrian entrances on either side. The cemetery has iron-spike fencing along Herndon St., chain link along Wall St. and Speed St., and board fencing along the southern boundary. About one-third of this cemetery remains unused. Texas Jewish Cemeteries with Historic Texas Cemetery Designations Adath Emeth Cemetery - Harris County Jewish Cemetery - Milam County Adath Israel Cemetery - Harris County Jewish Cemetery - Gonzales County Beth Israel Cemetery - W. Dallas - Harris County Temple Emanu-El Cemetery - Longview, Beth Yeshurun Cemetery - Allen Parkway - Harris County Harrison County Beth Yeshurun Cemetery - Post Oak - Harris County LaGrange Jewish Cemetery - LaGrange, Fayette County You can find a list of burials at Find-a-Grave - - - < http://goo.gl/0W2Oub > Summer 2017 Page 5 Restoration of Forth Worth's WWI Jewish War Memorial In 2016, Hollace Ava Weiner, Board Mem- ber of the Texas Jewish Historical Soc., began a project related to researching the history of the Fort Worth WWI Jewish War Memorial. With assistance from Lynna Kay Shuffield, who researched the biographical background of the soldiers and sailors, Hollace was able to develop and recoup the forgotten history of these men in time for the WWI Centennial, 2017-2018 as well as several local exhibits. The memorial was originally placed in the lobby of the Hebrew Institute on the grounds of Congregation Ahavath Sholom. In 1951, the Institute closed and the tablets were placed in storage where, in time, they were forgotten. In 1980, when the Congregation moved to a new building, the memorial tablets were in- stalled in a landscaped area at its entrance. In 2017, the tablets were restored by Bob Sumien, Air Force veteran and professional landscaper. Hollace has written a journal article on this WWI memorial that has been submitted to the Southern Jewish History. The title of the article: Monuments and Memory: Fort Worth's WWI 'Tribute to Our Boys'. What is Houston Honoring Jewish WWI Vets? What is Houston doing to honor Jewish WWI Vets in observance of the Centennial of the World War? Well, so far, nothing! Anyone with information about upcoming events, please let us know. Houston WWII Vets - Military Awards Bloom, William Alfred, Jr., Houston, First Lieutenant, Army Air Corps, Purple Heart, European Area; Pilot, B-26 Marauder "Boogie Woogie", 439th Bomber Squadron 319 Bomber Group [FAG 56642450] Note: Shot down by a Messerschmitt Me 109 fighter; killed-in-action Feigenbaum, Jacob Cohen "Jack", Houston, Lieutenant, Army
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