MATHIAS AND HANNAH GITA COLEMAN--A FAMILY HISTORY
Early in the month of November 1876, in the town of Kroz, located in the Lithuanian part of the Pale of Jewish Settlement of the Czarist Russian Empire, Mathias Coleman, age 20, a peddler by trade, married Hannah Gita Alexander, age 17. This union produced 12 children, 27 natural grandchildren, one adopted grandchild, 50 great-grandchildren, 32 (at last count) great-great-grandchildren and an uncounted number of children of later generations.
Today the town of Kroz is located in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and is called by the Lithuanian name, Kraziai, but in 1876 it was a Jewish shtetl, located about 30 miles from the Prussian (German) border. Mathias and his young bride established a home in Kroz and by the year 1890 they had seven children; Benjamin (1877), Sarah (1879)- Herman (1881), Cecelia (1883), Ida (1885), Zelda (1888) and Lewis (1890).
As an itinerant peddler, Mathias traveled around the outlying countryside and into neighboring Prussia, and although be was fairly prosperous, life was not easy for Jews in Czarist Russia. His brother Harris had left a few years earlier for America and had settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Harris wrote to his brother Mathias and urged him to join him in America. In 1890 Mathias left his wife and seven children, including two month old Lewis, and set out for ‘der goldene Land” of America.
The journey took him from Kroz to Hamburg, Germany where he boarded a ship for New York. The ship docked at the immigration center at Castle Garden – Ellis Island was not opened as an immigration center until two years later and, after being processed as an immigrant, he took the train to Bethlehem, where he was reunited with his brother Harris. He resumed his old trade of itinerant peddling but within a year he had established himself in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, whereupon he arranged to have his wife and children join him as a united family.
How Hannah Gita managed with her seven children during the year or so that her husband was in America we do not know, but those of us who remember our strong willed grandmother have no doubts that she managed well. When the letter arrived from Mathias she sold the house and whatever household goods she could not take with her, packed up what she was taking with her, which included a brass samovar, copper cooking utensils and other household articles, and with seven children, ages 1 to 14, set out on a five thousand mile journey to join her husband in a strange land where they spoke a strange language.
The reunited family quickly settled into their new life in Catasauqua, and by the year 1900 Mathias not only had established a successful clothing store in nearby Northampton, his family now included five more children, A. Edward (1892), Anna (1893), Noah (1895), Edith (1898) and Max (1900). Mathias had become a naturalized citizen on June 18, 1893, having declared his intention formally on August 4, 1890, just a few months after his arrival.
In 1910, just ten years after his arrival in the United States Mathias, at the age of 44 years, had become a successful merchant and, as the result of wise investments in real estate, a fairly wealthy man. Five years later, at the age of 49, he turned the clothing store over to his eldest son, Benjamin, and moved the family to Allentown. Sarah and. Benjamin were now married and had children of their own, but the new house on Ninth Street was large enough for the parents and the remaining ten children.
In 1910, Cecelia, while visiting her Aunt Eva Harris in Wilkes-Barre, met a young merchant, Oscar Brisker. On July 19 of that year they were married in her parents’ home on Ninth Street. In that same year, Herman, who was an electrical engineer, married Faye Reiner and settled in Allentown. There were now eight single children in the Coleman household.
1914, the year of the start of World War I, saw more changes in the Coleman family. The family oved to Fourth Street and Zelda married Joseph Abrams of Atlantic City, N.J. whose mother, Fannie Salsburg Abrams, was a cousin of Oscar Brisker. When the United States entered the war, Noah joined the Army Ambulance Corps and Lewis the Marines.
After the war, the family moved to Easton, Pa. where Lewis had a shoe store, Max attended Lafayette College (now University) where he learned to play the saxophone, and the “girls”, together with their Mother, spent their time in charity organizations. Hannah Gita was one of the early members of the Hadassah organization and her work in this and other charitable organizations brought her national recognition.
When the family moved to Easton, Noah and Edward, who was now an attorney, having attended Dickinson Law School, remained in Allentown where their sister Sarah and brothers Benjamin and Herman were living. In fact, Noah and Edward lived with their sister Sarah until they got married. Cecelia, who was married to Oscar Brisker, was living in Northampton, Pa. and in 1923 moved with her family to Bethlehem. Zelda, after her marriage to Joe Abrams, had settled in Atlantic City.
Around 1921, Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey where they bought a house at 613 Oriental Avenue, one/half block east of New Jersey Avenue and just one block north of the boardwalk, in the heart of the “Monopoly” section of Atlantic City. The household now consisted of Mathias and Hannah Gita and their three single daughters, Ida, Anna and Edith. Lewis and Max had remained in Allentown. Within five years, the three girls became married, although Edith’s marriage lasted less than a year and she resumed her maiden name. As for the remaining single sons, Max married Rosalie Frank in 1923, Lewis married Dottie Shultz in 1927 and Edward married Beatrice Krapp in 1932.
In the fall of 1924 the invitations were mailed for a reception in honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the marriage of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman, two years short of the actual date of their Fiftieth Anniversary. The reception was cancelled because Mathias had taken ill. He died the following June 16 in Philadelphia and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Pleasantville, N.J. at the age of 69 years.
After the death of her husband, Hannah Gita continued to live her active life, contributing her energies to her many charitable organizations with particular emphasis on the work of her favorite organization, Hadassah. In 1930 she traveled to Palestine, stopping off in Egypt long enough to visit the Pyramids and to have her photograph taken astride a camel. She died a quiet death on May 12, 1932, in Atlantic City at the age of 73 and was buried alongside her husband, Mathias.
Of the twelve Coleman children, except Edith whose short marriage had ended in divorce, and Anna, whose marriage to Harry Kaufman produced no children, and Ida, who had a step-daughter, Gladys, from her husband, Ike Goldmann, all had married and had children of their own. It is from the descendants of these nine Colemans that the family tree of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman continues to grow. Like the twelve tribes of Israel, the branches of this tree are identified by the names of the children of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman — Benjamin, Sarah, Herman, Cecelia, Ida, Zelda, Lewis, A. Edward, Anna, Noah, Edith, and Max.
Benjamin married Rae Cohen and had three children, Fred, Florence, and Irving.
Sarah married Eli Getz and had nine children, Louise, Esther, Harold, Theodore (Ted), Pay, Mildred, Beatrice (Bessie), Evelyn, and Barbara (Bobbi).
Herman married Faye Reiner and had one son, Baron.
Cecelia married Oscar Brisker and had four children, Dorothy, Sydney, Nathaniel, and Bernice (Betty).
Ida married Ike Goldmann, a widower with a young daughter, Gladys, whom Ida adopted.
Zelda (Jennie) married Joseph Abrams and had two sons, Philip (Bud), and William (Bill).
Lewis married Dottie Shultz and had two sons, Mathew and Simon.
A. Edward married Beatrice Krapp and had two sons, Mathias and Harris.
Anna married Harry Kaufman. No Children.
Noah married Goldie Abrams and had two children, Marjorie and Edward. Goldie died in 1943, Noah remarried Sarah Singer Wolfson.
Edith married Benno Berg, a marriage which lasted less than one year. After the divorce she resumed her maiden name, Coleman.
Max married Rosalie Frank and had two daughters, Anita and Marilyn.
This, then, is a short accounting of the children and grandchildren of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman. Our genealogy will continue with an accounting of the descendants from each of the branches of the Coleman family tree.
Today the town of Kroz is located in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and is called by the Lithuanian name, Kraziai, but in 1876 it was a Jewish shtetl, located about 30 miles from the Prussian (German) border. Mathias and his young bride established a home in Kroz and by the year 1890 they had seven children; Benjamin (1877), Sarah (1879)- Herman (1881), Cecelia (1883), Ida (1885), Zelda (1888) and Lewis (1890).
As an itinerant peddler, Mathias traveled around the outlying countryside and into neighboring Prussia, and although be was fairly prosperous, life was not easy for Jews in Czarist Russia. His brother Harris had left a few years earlier for America and had settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Harris wrote to his brother Mathias and urged him to join him in America. In 1890 Mathias left his wife and seven children, including two month old Lewis, and set out for ‘der goldene Land” of America.
The journey took him from Kroz to Hamburg, Germany where he boarded a ship for New York. The ship docked at the immigration center at Castle Garden – Ellis Island was not opened as an immigration center until two years later and, after being processed as an immigrant, he took the train to Bethlehem, where he was reunited with his brother Harris. He resumed his old trade of itinerant peddling but within a year he had established himself in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, whereupon he arranged to have his wife and children join him as a united family.
How Hannah Gita managed with her seven children during the year or so that her husband was in America we do not know, but those of us who remember our strong willed grandmother have no doubts that she managed well. When the letter arrived from Mathias she sold the house and whatever household goods she could not take with her, packed up what she was taking with her, which included a brass samovar, copper cooking utensils and other household articles, and with seven children, ages 1 to 14, set out on a five thousand mile journey to join her husband in a strange land where they spoke a strange language.
The reunited family quickly settled into their new life in Catasauqua, and by the year 1900 Mathias not only had established a successful clothing store in nearby Northampton, his family now included five more children, A. Edward (1892), Anna (1893), Noah (1895), Edith (1898) and Max (1900). Mathias had become a naturalized citizen on June 18, 1893, having declared his intention formally on August 4, 1890, just a few months after his arrival.
In 1910, just ten years after his arrival in the United States Mathias, at the age of 44 years, had become a successful merchant and, as the result of wise investments in real estate, a fairly wealthy man. Five years later, at the age of 49, he turned the clothing store over to his eldest son, Benjamin, and moved the family to Allentown. Sarah and. Benjamin were now married and had children of their own, but the new house on Ninth Street was large enough for the parents and the remaining ten children.
In 1910, Cecelia, while visiting her Aunt Eva Harris in Wilkes-Barre, met a young merchant, Oscar Brisker. On July 19 of that year they were married in her parents’ home on Ninth Street. In that same year, Herman, who was an electrical engineer, married Faye Reiner and settled in Allentown. There were now eight single children in the Coleman household.
1914, the year of the start of World War I, saw more changes in the Coleman family. The family oved to Fourth Street and Zelda married Joseph Abrams of Atlantic City, N.J. whose mother, Fannie Salsburg Abrams, was a cousin of Oscar Brisker. When the United States entered the war, Noah joined the Army Ambulance Corps and Lewis the Marines.
After the war, the family moved to Easton, Pa. where Lewis had a shoe store, Max attended Lafayette College (now University) where he learned to play the saxophone, and the “girls”, together with their Mother, spent their time in charity organizations. Hannah Gita was one of the early members of the Hadassah organization and her work in this and other charitable organizations brought her national recognition.
When the family moved to Easton, Noah and Edward, who was now an attorney, having attended Dickinson Law School, remained in Allentown where their sister Sarah and brothers Benjamin and Herman were living. In fact, Noah and Edward lived with their sister Sarah until they got married. Cecelia, who was married to Oscar Brisker, was living in Northampton, Pa. and in 1923 moved with her family to Bethlehem. Zelda, after her marriage to Joe Abrams, had settled in Atlantic City.
Around 1921, Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey where they bought a house at 613 Oriental Avenue, one/half block east of New Jersey Avenue and just one block north of the boardwalk, in the heart of the “Monopoly” section of Atlantic City. The household now consisted of Mathias and Hannah Gita and their three single daughters, Ida, Anna and Edith. Lewis and Max had remained in Allentown. Within five years, the three girls became married, although Edith’s marriage lasted less than a year and she resumed her maiden name. As for the remaining single sons, Max married Rosalie Frank in 1923, Lewis married Dottie Shultz in 1927 and Edward married Beatrice Krapp in 1932.
In the fall of 1924 the invitations were mailed for a reception in honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the marriage of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman, two years short of the actual date of their Fiftieth Anniversary. The reception was cancelled because Mathias had taken ill. He died the following June 16 in Philadelphia and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Pleasantville, N.J. at the age of 69 years.
After the death of her husband, Hannah Gita continued to live her active life, contributing her energies to her many charitable organizations with particular emphasis on the work of her favorite organization, Hadassah. In 1930 she traveled to Palestine, stopping off in Egypt long enough to visit the Pyramids and to have her photograph taken astride a camel. She died a quiet death on May 12, 1932, in Atlantic City at the age of 73 and was buried alongside her husband, Mathias.
Of the twelve Coleman children, except Edith whose short marriage had ended in divorce, and Anna, whose marriage to Harry Kaufman produced no children, and Ida, who had a step-daughter, Gladys, from her husband, Ike Goldmann, all had married and had children of their own. It is from the descendants of these nine Colemans that the family tree of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman continues to grow. Like the twelve tribes of Israel, the branches of this tree are identified by the names of the children of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman — Benjamin, Sarah, Herman, Cecelia, Ida, Zelda, Lewis, A. Edward, Anna, Noah, Edith, and Max.
Benjamin married Rae Cohen and had three children, Fred, Florence, and Irving.
Sarah married Eli Getz and had nine children, Louise, Esther, Harold, Theodore (Ted), Pay, Mildred, Beatrice (Bessie), Evelyn, and Barbara (Bobbi).
Herman married Faye Reiner and had one son, Baron.
Cecelia married Oscar Brisker and had four children, Dorothy, Sydney, Nathaniel, and Bernice (Betty).
Ida married Ike Goldmann, a widower with a young daughter, Gladys, whom Ida adopted.
Zelda (Jennie) married Joseph Abrams and had two sons, Philip (Bud), and William (Bill).
Lewis married Dottie Shultz and had two sons, Mathew and Simon.
A. Edward married Beatrice Krapp and had two sons, Mathias and Harris.
Anna married Harry Kaufman. No Children.
Noah married Goldie Abrams and had two children, Marjorie and Edward. Goldie died in 1943, Noah remarried Sarah Singer Wolfson.
Edith married Benno Berg, a marriage which lasted less than one year. After the divorce she resumed her maiden name, Coleman.
Max married Rosalie Frank and had two daughters, Anita and Marilyn.
This, then, is a short accounting of the children and grandchildren of Mathias and Hannah Gita Coleman. Our genealogy will continue with an accounting of the descendants from each of the branches of the Coleman family tree.