My Great Great Grandfather, was born 186 years ago today, Monday September 29, 1828. Heres a bit of his fascinating story. MOSES H. LICHTENSTEIN: ADVENTUROUS & ECONOMICALLY MOBILE PIONEER WESTERN JEW OF SAN FRANCISCO & NEVADA, 1828 – 1907 By, Dr. Norton B. Stern Born in the Polish town of Schneidermuhl, province of Posen, in 1828, Moses Harris Lichtenstein came to America in 1842, settling with his parents in St. Louis. In 1850 the lure of the Gold Rush brought him to California. He came via Panama. In 1852 Liehtenstein started an express business between Sacramento and San Francisco, but his love of adventure induced him to join the William Walker Filibustering Expedition, to capture Nicaragua. Moses was one of Walkers Band of 400 Americans who in 1855 were routed in a battle at Rivas, Nicaragua, and he narrowly escaped execution. He made his way back to California along the West Coast of Central America and Mexico on the back of a burro, arriving after suffering many hardships. In San Francisco, Lichtenstein went to work, married, and raised a family. He was a broker in the 1860s. He joined Congregation Sherith Israel, and became an active member and officer of the Chebra Achim Rachmonim (Society of Charitable Brothers), organized in October, 1862. During the 1870s the mining finds in Nevada drew him to the town of Pioche, where luck was with him and he made a fortune of $ 150,000 in the mines. Returning to San Francisco he quickly lost this in stock speculation, then went into the auction business and as a Pawnbroker, recouping his fortune after a number of years. Lichtensteins first wife, Clara, who bore three children, passed away in the late 1860s, and he married Toba Oppenheim, with whom he had six children. One son, Mark, ran the leading jewelry store in Bakersfield, for many years. M.H. Lichtenstein had his pawn brokers and jewelry business at 617 Washington in the 1890s and early years ofthe Twentieth Century. His descendants still have the family seats at Sherith Israel. Moses H. Lichtenstein, one of the most adventurous and economically mobile of our pioneer Westem Jews, died on April 21, 1907, and was interred at Hills of Eternity, Colma.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:30:05 +0000
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