Kentucky's Unknown Story of Jewish Silver

Assessment Of A Kentucky Coin Silver Soup Ladle Ca. 1858-1860

 by Solomon Ralph Biesenthal (working 1858-?)

 Louisville, KY

From the private collection of the much esteemed patrons and purveyors of Virginia and early Southern material culture, S & B B of VA.

 by Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar ©gdg 2018 

Little modern scholarship is available to aid us today in better understanding the dichotomy of life and the integral role of Jewish craftsmen in the slave-based economy of the antebellum American South.  But for coastal cities like Charleston & Savannah, where now ancient Hebrew Temples were established at early periods and allowed 18th century congregants to better blend into these old Southern societies of a mostly welcoming Protestant Christian make-up, the majority of Jewish immigrants in the South came in much later 19th century waves of migration to places like Louisville, Atlanta, & Nashville.  In these commercial centers of the upper and middle South they clustered in neighborhoods segregated by faiths, culture, and a brevity of citizenship, denying many a chance to be fully accepted socially, and thus limiting their footprint upon local history.

 Presented here for examination is a handsome and substantial soup ladle by the scantily documented Louisville silversmith S. R. Biesenthal, who with his wife Rosalie Samuelson and young daughter Julia arrived in America from Poland via Germany & New York in or shortly prior to 1850, settling briefly in Cincinnati where a son Raphael was born.  Biesenthal was advertising his shop on Market Street in Louisville, Kentucky by early 1858 according to the local newspapers.  Though fraternal records of the A. O. U. W. (Ancient Order of United Workmen) indicate Biesenthal resided for a time in Newport, KY during the 1870s, he is mostly associated with Louisville where he worked and maintained a shop until nearly the turn of the next century.  He would die in that city 16th June 1903, with burial in the Temple Cemetery of Louisville.

 Despite mid-19th century discrimination against Jews and even Catholics by the prevailing Protestant population, Biesenthal apparently was proud of his chosen home, generally incorporating a LOUISVILLE city mark beneath the silver punch bearing his name.  Life, though, must not have been easy in Louisville.  The Louisville Evening Bulletin for Saturday the 13th of February 1858 reported a hint of the distrust and animosity he and other Jewish merchants surely dealt with on a daily basis from the public at large.  The paper explained that,

  “A man named S. R. Biesenthal, who keeps a jewelry shop on Market street, was arrested yesterday on a charge of felony. It appears that about two weeks ago a Miss Bacon lost a gold locket and chain. A few days ago she called at Biesenthal's establishment and saw her lost articles. He claims to have had the chain a long time and denied that they were Miss B. 's.  She took out a felony warrant against him and he was arrested.”  

 Trying desperately to prove his innocence, on the 19th Solomon posted in the newspaper the following plea:

 “A LADY WHO, about three months ago, traded with me an Accordion for a Gold Chain, would put me under the greatest obligation if she would be kind enough to call at the store No. 590 Market street, between First and Brook.” 

Despite such obstacles, Biesenthal took a positive, passive approach to life, and concentrated his efforts upon establishing and bolstering a growing Jewish community in Louisville.  Two years after the humiliation of false accusation and arrest, Solomon became a founding incorporator of the “Louisville Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society”, later acting in the same leadership capacity in 1865 to establish & incorporate the “Louisville Hebrew Mutual Aid Society (Cheb rah Bikur Cholim Ukedosho)”.

  Sadly, despite his apparent esteem in Jewish social circles of the city, Biesenthal continued to deal with misfortune.  The Memphis Daily Appeal for 29 November 1869 reported the devastating financial loss incurred by, 

  “Solomon R. Biesenthal's Jewelry store, on Market street, near First, was robbed at four o'clock this morning of gold and silver watches, diamond rings and pins to the amount of $6,000 to $8,000. There is no clue to the robbers.”

   Shadows would continue to fall upon the venerable Solomon Ralph Biesenthal.  Slightly over a year after the theft at his store, Biesenthal’s name made the papers across the South once again with the tragic suicide of his father-in-law.  The Daily State Journal ,
 Alexandria, Virginia, Saturday, 4 February 1871 reads, 

SUICIDE IN A CEMETERY


Abraham Samuelson, a well known citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, committed suicide in the Jewish Cemetery at that place on Tuesday last, by shooting himself through the breast with a pistol. He wrote a farewell letter to his wife, full of expressions of affection, and entreated her not to grieve at the act he contemplated committing. Another letter, addressed to "S. R. Biesenthal," was written in Hebrew characters, with the exception of the following closing lines:

"God bless you and my dear wife and children. Don't have me buried in my clothes. Don't take me to my house. I don't want my Carry to see me." Nothing more. 

This family nightmare, surely humiliating to Biesenthal and his family, made the papers as well in Nashville, Memphis, Columbia, SC, and other cities. 

As for the ownership of this particular ladle and its interesting presentation inscription, again,
too many times little history can be gleaned from public records when the modern scholar is seeking data upon a small, sheltered, and often transient Jewish community.  In this case, the engraving would indicate Biesenthal was actually working in Louisville a few years prior to the documented advertisements for him, for Jetta “Gerslet”, per Jefferson County, Kentucky marriage records, was wed to Solomon Schoenfeld in 1854.  The style of the ladle certainly correlates with the middle 19th century, and the engraved sentiment clearly is a loving affection to remind a new bride of her former identity.  Thus far there is no indication the young couple remained in Louisville, possibly removing to New York where a Jetty Schoenfeld died in 1902 in Brooklyn. 

Grave of Solomon Ralph Biesenthal

In most every instance, Solomon gave his year of birth as 1824, in contrast to the later date used on his tomb stone.

For Reference, see:

 United States Census, Jefferson Co. KY 1850-1900, Hamilton Co. OH 1850 

Boultinghouse, Mark, Kentucky Silversmiths, Jewelers, Clock & Watch Makers of Kentucky 1785-1900