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Weinhouse - Weinstock Family Tree, organized by GENI.
Original Issue:
July 28, 2011 Norm W.
On the Cutler (my mother's) side, I also did not have much contact with my cousins when we were young. I was about 8 years old when my mother died. It was only when I moved to Los Angeles that I had close contact with them.
Most of my aunts and uncles along with their offspring lived in Chicago. I mention this because I have had little contact with them since I was 18 years old. I have not lived in Chicago since I went into the army in 1943.
There are probably errors and omissions of essential facts for which I apologize. If there are, I invite corrections or clarification. There may be comments about some people that may appear to some as offensive. I invite all comments.
Harvey Kabaker (a nephew and son of my sister Pearl) is the founder and manager of the tree. It has grown from what Harvey started as the offspring of Ida and Morris Weinhouse to what I consider an explosion of family members. There are major Weinhouse branches (huge) from Morris's brothers (Issac and Menachem) and of my Daughter-in-Law Michele's family.
During this explosion Harvey kept saying "The more the merrier". However, as indicated above, I will limit the discussion here.
Origin of the surname Weinhouse is questionable. It is known that Eastern European Jews did not have surnames. They were known as ----, son of ----.
It is said, that many surnames of those Jews were given by the immigration agents based on the occupation of the arrival. I always thought the name Weinhouse meant "wine maker" because Morris used to make wine. The issue here is clouded, and I will not elaborate. Suffice to say, as far as I know it has always been Weinhouse.
Only one person named Jerachmiel has been identified. I do not remember any one in the family ever mentioning this person. He was found by Harvey on the gravestone of my grandfather Morris Weinhouse.
There is a story that the parents of my grandmother Ida were wealthy and as a dowry they said that Morris need not work as long as they were alive. His job was to study Torah and be a Jewish scholar. This story seems to have an element of credibility since it appears that Morris never had a day "job". More about Morris and Ida will be given later.
As far as the great-grandparents on my mother's side, no one has yet found any reference to them.
Here is a story told to me by my father. I don't have verification but Harry was very clear despite a few shots of his favorite schnapps. He said that he was the first one in his immediate family in the U.S. He left his home in Bessarabia (then a province of Romania and now part of Moldova) at the age of 12 to avoid conscription in the army. He bummed his way across Europe where he spent 3 years mostly in Germany and England working as a servant. With the help of an uncle already here, he came to the U.S. through Canada and arrived in Chicago in 1895. (Can anyone in this day and age imagine a child of 12 doing this?) He then said he brought his parents and his 4 sisters to the US. I don't know how long it took to get them all here.
I have no knowledge of the migration to the US of my mother's family. My mother Dora was born in Kiev, Russia. She died when I was about 8 years old at the age of 54. See paragraph 7B for new information on the arrival of Anna and Nathan Cutler.
My earliest memories were that they operated a Boarding house for Jewish immigrants in the 1910's and 20's. I seem to remember a Grey Stone house on Turner Street. I also remember that they had one permanent boarder named Shlmo Palmer who was like a member of the family and he ran a Funeral Parlor. Ida ran the place and did all the cooking and cleaning. Morris was the "shamus" at the shul of old time Chasidim. I remember there was a lot of singing and dancing at the shul and in the house. Morris made the wine for the house. I was probably 4 or 5 years old when I loved to squeeze the grapes before he put them in a hand cranked wine press.
They were in their 90's when they came to live with my family (I was about 7 years old) in an apartment at 66th and Washtenaw. Morris was a most handsome man with a beautiful white beard. It is charitable to say Ida was plain. She was ugly; this probably explains the diversity of looks in this branch of the Weinhouse clan. They died about a month apart in 1934.
I know nothing about these grandparents. They were gone before I was born. In fact I was named after Nathan. I have checked with my living cousins and they have no recollection either. However, thanks to research by Dianne Woodman she found these facts:
1. Nuchem Kotlarsky (Nathan Cutler) was born in 1856 and arrived in the United States on July 25, 1899. With him came two daughters- Mundel (Minnie) age 21 and Dobe (Dora) age 19. In the 1990 census he is listed as a boarder living with his cousin Meyer Singer, and he was a peddler of dry goods. Minnie is listed as a Boarder living with a neighbor in the same building.
2. Hinde (Anna) Kotlar (born about 1858) arrived in Baltimore on June 22, 1900. With her she brought Maria (Mary) age 10, Chaim (Irwin) age 5, and Josef (Larry) age 7 months. In the 1930 census, Anna is living with Daughter Minnie and Minnie’s husband Joe Blucher.
Dianna Woodman is the daughter in law of my cousin Don Woodman and wife of Don's son Lloyd.
I have already told the story how my father Harry came to the U.S. He also told me that his first job in the U.S. was as a cigar maker in his uncle's shop. Harvey found a newspaper article indicating that Weinhouse Brothers Cigar Co. ran a "sweat shop" and were cited for unfair labor practices. This may be the reason why despite the fact that Harry owned his own business for almost all of his life, he was a supporter of the "working man" and a member of the Socialist ARBITER RING (workers circle). He loved the US and hated Europe. His favorite saying was "God Bless America". He read the Yiddish version of the Jewish Daily Forward, but would not allow Yiddish spoken in our house. I remember him telling his friends "God dammit, speak English you are in America" (in a Yiddish accent).
Harry Weinhouse and Dora Cutler were married in 1906. They had five children: Myron (1907), Sidney (1909), Pearl (1912), Edith (1918) and Norman (1925). I am not sure when or how Harry started in the newspaper home delivery (carrier) business. It was in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. I believe all of their kids were born there, and we lived in a bungalow at 26th and Emerald Avenue. Bridgeport was a tough neighborhood of mostly Italian and Irish "greenhorns".
In 1928 Harry bought a grocery store in the suburb of Oak Park. He lost the store and went broke in the crash of 1929. The great depression was hard on most Americans and our family was no exception. Harry went back to the newspaper home delivery business in the southwest neighborhood of Chicago Lawn (Lawn Manor) with his brother-in Law Sam Stern (Sister Sarah's husband) as a partner.
There was a terrible parting of the partnership that resulted in a feud between the families that lasted for at least 2 generations. The Stern's refused to come to my wedding and my Aunt Sarah refused to allow her granddaughter Genevieve to invite us to her wedding. I do not know what caused the feud but to my knowledge, Harry and Sarah never spoke to each other again. My sisters became friendly with our Stern cousins and I have recently become friendly with Genevieve (Al's daughter).
Life was not awfully kind to Harry. The newspaper route was a tough grind. He was up at 2:00 AM to prepare the papers for delivery at 5: AM. Sometime he would deliver them if a kid was sick. He would come home, make breakfast for all and then take a short nap. He would then collect the money trudging through the harsh Chicago weather, etc. I don't recall if he ever took a real vacation. Even after he turned the business over to a young manager, he still did the collecting. Our neighborhood had a lot of civil servants (policemen, firemen, teachers) living there. Chicago was broke and paid employees with scrip (IOU's) which was used as money.
My mother died when I was 8 Years old. She was only 51 years old. I remember her as a beautiful heavyset woman although earlier photos showed her as slim. I remember her as a lovely person devoted to her family. She died of Cancer and I believe that was the reason that my brother Sidney devoted his life to research for a cure. Edith and I were the only kids living at home at the time of her death, and Harry had his hands full. Edith was a spoiled brat of 15 or 16 and Harry did the shopping, cooking, and cleaning. I remember eating almost nothing but a Romanian dish called "mammaligin" that consisted of a cornmeal cake with cottage cheese and lots of butter.
Harry married Rose Pressman a year after Dora died (1935). Rose was a handsome widow with 2 grown children Florence and Leonard, who came to live with us. She was the only mother that I have a clear memory of. She was very devoted to her own children, which was an irritant to my sister Edith who was 16 years old. She went to live with my sister Pearl. I was treated well and felt that she loved me as much as her own kids. She was a strong woman and adored my father.
Harry left the Newspaper Delivery Business in about 1958. I believe that he enjoyed his life after that with Rose taking good care of him. He and Rose visited us in Dallas when we lived there. That trip was a disaster for Rochelle. We lived in a rural area just outside the city limits. There were no sidewalks and virtually no traffic. This made Rose very lonely with nothing to do. She asked Rochelle if she could bake a few of her famous Banana Cakes. Well, that started an orgy of cake making. It took months to clear the kitchen of flour. Our Temple loved us, They had enough banana cake for about a year of kiddish. They came to visit Los Angeles on the occasion of our daughter Donna's Bat Mitzvah. His health was on a downward trend. We think he had a minor stroke.
He spent many years living around the corner of the Lawn Manor synagogue. He enjoyed meeting people there, reading, studying, and filling a need when they needed a minion. Whenever I travelled, I would visit with him and bring his favorite bourbon. It was at one of those sessions that he told me the story of leaving his home at age 12 and getting to the US. I understand that he spent a short time in a home for the aged. He died in 1972 (93 years old). Rose lived until 1988 and died within two days of the death of her daughter Florence.
I have already mentioned that Rose had two grown children Florence and Leonard when she married Harry. I remember Florence as a very attractive young woman and within two years got married to Myer Redman in 1937. A daughter Harriet was born in 1938 and all three lived in our house until 1940.
Harriet's birth occurred on the same day of my Bar Mitzvah so that Rose who was the only mother that I really knew could not attend. I remember Florence as being very devoted to her husband and daughter.
Meyer took over the Newspaper delivery route in about 1942 that was run by Sam Stern. He sold the business in 1967 and worked for the State of Illinois in the Streets & Sanitation department. He retired in about 1979 and passed away in 1994.
I thought Meyer was a great guy. He was a gambler and he took me to a lot of sporting events where he taught me the ropes when I was 13 to 15 years old. He taught me how to read the Racing Form. He took me to all the locations where the action was. For baseball, it was behind 3rd base. For Hockey and Basketball, it was in the Warren Street mezzanine in the old Chicago Stadium. For Horse Racing it was at the Paddock. Myer made a lot of money in one season at the Race Tracks. He came to Florence and said he was going to sell his paper route and become a bookie. Florence convinced him that he should hire a manager and keep the business. It was a good thing he did because he was cleaned out in the next baseball season. Of course he was gambling rather than being a bookie.
Leonard Pressman was going to college studying accounting when he lived with us. He was a very tall and slim man. I remember him as a very studious, quiet fellow. He graduated and was married to Bonnie in 1939. Leonard had his own CPA business. They lived on Marine Drive and Melrose in Chicago, and later moved to Skokie. They had one child, a son named Lloyd. Leonard died in 1968, and Bonnie died in 1976.
My brother Myron was the oldest of the offspring of Harry and Dora Weinhouse, and probably the most interesting and colorful one. He was 19 years older than me, so I had very limited contact with him. In fact, I was 21 years old when we first met in Chicago. It was 1946, and we were both out of the Army. We spent a good deal of time together and related our lives to each other.
I pointed out earlier that we were born in a tough part of Chicago. Apparently the tough part rubbed onto Myron. He told me he ran with guys that were on the wrong side of the law. He worked for a few years for the Chicago Tribune circulation department. It is well known that the Tribune obtained its' dominant position using a "strong arm" process. He left Chicago at age 20 and ended up in Los Angeles. He was a partner in a tobacco stand in a large downtown building that was also a bookie operation. He got word that the place was going to get busted so he left town in a hurry, and changed his name to Harry Miller.
He ended up in Seattle and got a job with the Seattle Times circulation department, and eventually he became the Eastern Area Circulation Manager located in Yakima Washington. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1942, and became a staff sergeant. He never told me what his duties were, but he did say that he was stationed at that fictional and mysterious place called Shangra-La. where the initial bombings of Japan were launched.
He also told me he made a ton of money in the service. His means for making all this money was to select country boys and to teach them how to play card games especially poker. He was not that lucky, he made up the rules. We took a ride out to visit a company called Mills Mfg. Co. who was the largest makers of slot machines in the country. He placed a tentative order for 5,000 slot machines. He got word from some source that the government was going to build a large dam in the State of Oregon. He obtained a tentative deal to purchase a large plot of land close to the site. His plan was to build a hotel with a casino, and cat-house. The government decided not to build the dam, so the plan went down the drain.
He went back to Eastern Washington to his pre war job in Yakima. I did not hear from him again until early in 1961. He called and told me that he opened a furniture store in the town of Pasco Washington, and he was on a buying trip in Los Angeles. We had just moved into our house, and we had a real nice visit for a few hours. I spoke about my family and work. He spoke about his store and the success it was having. He looked at the crappy carpet that the builder installed and promised to give us a gift of new good stuff. Sure enough, in a few weeks we heard from a carpet contractor who came out to measure. In about two more weeks it was installed. We did not hear from him until we got word of his death in 1965.
At his funeral my Sister Pearl, Brother Sidney, and I met a sweet and attractive woman named Virginia Chinowith who was clearly grieving. She said that she and Myron were lovers. She said that there was a period where Myron (Harry) became a heavy drinker. He married another drinker named Clarabelle. When he sobered up, he left her and lived with Virginia. He did not divorce Clarabelle. Washington is a common law State; therefore his entire estate went to Clarabelle.
Myron became a model citizen in the tri-cities area. Here are some excerpts from his obituary in the local newspaper:
Harry Miller, of Pasco, a Tri-City civic and business leader died Friday. Mr. Miller came to the Tri-Cities seven years ago. He was owner-manager of Goddard's, Inc., store in Kennewick.
He belonged to the Pasco Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, and Elks Lodge. He was active in the Republican Party, and was a veteran of WW2. He is survived by. . . . .
My brother Sidney was 16 years older than me. Therefore, I didn't have the kind of relationship that my brother Myron or my sisters Pearl and Edith might have had with him when they were kids. I think it is interesting to note that Sidney and Brother Myron were only 3 years apart in age, had the same home and external environment and yet followed a far different life style.
Sid had a profound impact on my life. One of my earliest recollections is when I was about 4 or 5 years old, Sid helped teach me to read (the funny page). I have been an avid reader ever since, and it indicates his innate ability to teach throughout his entire life.
He more than any person influenced my entire adult life. He got me a job at the University of Chicago in a physics lab that was involved in electronics work. My job was a menial one wiring chassis that were used in Geiger Counters to monitor radiation from the "pile" where atomic research took place. That job stimulated my interest in electronics and radio that led to radio repair work when I was in the Army in WW2. I went on to get an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Illinois.
Sidney earned his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1936. It was the same year that he married Sylvia Kravitz. They had 3 children, Doris, Barbara and James. Sylvia died in 1957, and Sid remarried in 1969.
Sid's professional life was an extremely productive one. His accomplishments and awards were far too many to list here. A "GOOGLE" of Doctor Sidney Weinhouse will yield lengthy obituaries in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Enquirer, and the Chicago Tribune. It will also yield 61 pages (about 100) articles either written by Sidney or articles that reference his work.
Sid was not what could be called a religious person but he never forgot his roots and gave his children religious training. He lived a moral life and he made the world a much better place through his medical research and teaching.
I have chosen to include my sisters together in this discussion. It is not because they were identical at all. They were opposite in almost every way; looks, personality, etc. I thought that Edith was beautiful and Pearl rather plain looking when they were young. Pearl was athletic and Edith was the more feminine. Pearl was the most outgoing person I ever knew. Every one in the Lawn Manor Community knew and loved Pearl. In fact, I used to (half jokingly) say that I left Chicago because I had no identity. I was known as Pearl's kid brother. Edith was a bit shy and retiring. However they seemed to be connected at the hip in most other ways. I believe that they truly loved each other, even though they had a few spats over the years. At the end, Edith went downhill fast after Pearl died. Edith told me she really missed her sister
Pearl was 13 years and Edith 7 years older than me. Pearl claims that she took over the job of taking care of me as an infant (changing diapers etc.). She was married when I was about 5 years old. I remember the wedding party very well. It was held in the basement of our apartment at 60th and Rockwell (who had money for a wedding hall). I was caught and punished for stealing candy and handing it out to my friends through a window. Seymour was a college graduate and I remember that in my family they considered him a prize catch. I remember one other thing when I was about 7 years old and Pearl had a job at the Chicago World Fair in 1933. Nearby the booth that she worked at was a tent where Sally Rand a famous striptease (fan) dancer did her thing. I snuck under the tent. All I remember was there were a lot of bald heads watching the show. A cop saw me sneak in and pulled me out by my ear.
I have already said that Edith went to live with Pearl after Harry married Rose. It is ironic to note that the same Edith was the one that was most considerate of Rose late in Rose's life. Irving Kanter was Edith's teenage boyfriend and it was no surprise when they got married at a young age.
Pearl and Seymour lived in a typical bungalow for the area on Whipple Street near 64th street. They had 4 kids that were born and raised there; Ray, Don, Harvey and Andria (Joy). I am not sure when they bought a Condo in Skokie, but it was well after the kids left the nest, and the Jews of Lawn Manor moved north. Edith and Irv had a modern bungalow (built after WW2) on Albany Ave. near 67th. They had just one child - Debbie. Edith and Irv followed the migration to Skokie, and had a very nice house on Kostner Ave. near Church Street.
Pearl and Seymour travelled a lot especially to Los Angeles where Seymour had two brothers and Pearl had me. They came to virtually every Simcha (Bar-Bat Mitsva, Wedding) on both sides. They stayed with us, and we travelled extensively throughout California. Our kids loved them.
Edith was the exact opposite on travelling. One of her phobias was fear of flying. Therefore they would not travel anywhere that took more than 2 days of driving. They had a beautiful Condo in Florida for many years and went down there in the winter. Irv told me that he would like to come to California. One time I tried to get Edith to just step in a giant 747, she refused.
As far as I know, Seymour had the same job for more than 60 years. He was the accountant for a large scrap iron company named Kaplan. He made a decent living, raising his kids and getting them educated. He was a meticulous man in virtually everything. He was the world champion of slow eaters. Harvey or Joy told me that when they moved from the Condo, they found the spare bedroom filled with boxes upon boxes of stuff. They found receipts of everything dating back 50 years or more. Apparently, he never threw anything out including shoes and clothes. He was the financial man of their Condo. Pearl and Seymour lived a few more years in a very nice assisted living place. Seymour and Pearl were about 90 years old when they passed.
Irv and his brother Norton owned an automobile parts store on the south side of Chicago. It was in a large building where they did auto repairs and Truck inspections to Illinois standards. As I recall, they later took their brother Eugene in as a partner and leased out the repair and inspection business.
Edith and Irv lived out their lives in the Skokie house. Edith had one other terrible phobia. That was a fear of doctors and dentists. I won't elaborate because I don't know the details.
I am of course the youngest of the Harry and Dora Weinhouse children. Some of my early memories are given above and are not too remarkable. I was a tough kid because I had to learn to use my fists when the Irish and Italian kids called me Kike and Christ Killer. It was the way to get respect. I was fair in sports and went to City level in Golden Glove Boxing where a black kid whipped me.
My career in the army included training as a Medic, an Infantry man (BAR), and ultimately a radio repair man. My rank was a lofty Tech5 - lowest rank corporal. I was discharged in 1946 and then went to University of Illinois to study Electrical Engineering. While I was not a good student in high school, I really worked hard, was an A student and was elected to the Engineering Honor Society.
I graduated in February and Rochelle graduated in June. We were married in September.
My first job was with Motorola in Chicago. I was offered better jobs but I was to be married soon and did not want to leave Chicago. In retrospect, it was a good career move. My job was as a designer of components and systems for the relatively new field of Microwave Communications. I really liked working in microwave technology with distributed constants and field theory rather than lumped constant technology. We moved to Dallas Texas in 1953 to work at Collins Radio where I rose to systems manager for a successful new product line.
We also had 3 children in less than 3 years, Donna, Steve, and Larry. We had our 4th kid Michael 7 years later when we lived in Los Angeles. At the time of this writing we have 5 grandchildren and 6 great - grandchildren.
We left Texas for Los Angeles in 1960 where I initially worked at a small company called Rantec for 7 years. I then joined my old Collins boss in1968 to develop a microwave communications product for Hughes Aircraft Company. That did not work out but I moved to a division at Hughes dealing with both the satellites and the Earth Stations used for Commercial communications.
I must have been a pretty good engineer because I was a Lab manager and product line manager for satellite earth stations. I made a pretty good living, but any financial success is due to a working wife. Rochelle taught elementary school in Chicago for one year. In Dallas she worked at the Jewish Community Center. In L.A. she was a Junior high school teacher for 22 years. She retired in 1991 with a nice pension and a hefty annuity.
In 1984 I retired from Hughes and established my own engineering consulting firm. I had many clients and trained several thousand engineers and technicians to be certified satellite uplink operators. I sold the rights to these seminars and the textbook used in 2008. I continued to work until 2010 because I had a couple of clients that would not let me quit.
Before getting started, I thought that this photo would be of interest to my cousins on the Cutler side. The occasion was at the wedding of my son Michael.
Minnie was the oldest of my mother's siblings. I remember her as a very pleasant person, short in stature and very family oriented. Her husband Joe Blutcher was a big guy and very pleasant. He was in the newspaper home delivery business like my father Harry.
They had an adopted son named Louis. Louis was the cousin that was closest to my age than any other (about 2 years older). When the family got together which was not too often, he was the one that I played with. Louis had a slight mental handicap, but he was a nice guy. He and I were pen pals when we were both in the army. I lost track of him after I went to college.
Mary was younger than my mother. I remember her as a very tall and handsome person. Her husband Sam Feldstein was not friendly to kids. Perhaps this was due to the fact that they did not have any kids of their own. Sam was also in the newspaper delivery business. His route included the Chicago Stock Yards. Now, anyone who lived when those Stock Yards were active knows how bad the smell was. As a result, Sam had no sense of smell.
My uncle Irwin is someone that I have no recollection of ever seeing. He left Chicago shortly after he became a Physician. He ended up permanently in Louisville Kentucky where he and his wife Eva had a happy life. He had one son Buddy who is married to Carol and has two daughters Alice and Rachel. I finally met Buddy and his family a few years ago when he came to California. He is an attorney that specializes in Labor Law. He has been to California a few more times to visit his younger daughter in the entertainment business.
My uncle Larry is the one that I feel I know best of all. When I moved to L.A., he was already established here for many years. We shared many holidays and simchas over the years. Larry was an entrepreneur and always in business for himself. He told me that his first business was a gas station in Chicago. I don't know how he went from a gas station to a large Beauty Salon in Highland Park Illinois, but I remember that it was successful and he had a beautiful home on a large lot in Highland Park. WW2 killed the business because the woman who did the work got bigger wages as Rosie the riveter in war industries. He then moved back to Chicago and owned a "Chicago Pharmacy" (no prescription drugs). Before leaving Chicago, he owned an ice cream business.
In Los Angeles Larry bought and ran two Laundromats. He ultimately bought a large building that contained a rug cleaning operation. He brought his son Norman in as a partner. The business did well. Norman took on another partner Freddie Shapiro, and expanded the business to selling and installing new and used carpet. Later, Eugene joined Norman and Freddie in the rug biz.
Larry's wife Ann was a really sweet woman, and they had three boys: Norman, Bernie and Eugene.
Aunt Ann passed away and Larry married a buxom widow named Annabelle. They moved to an apartment high in the hills above Hollywood. Annabelle used say how beautiful the lights of the city would TVINCKEL (not misspelled).
I played golf with the three cousins for several years. I don't remember what broke up the foursome. It might have been Norm's frustration. I remember that he once threw a club and it landed in a tree. He threw two more and they also stayed in the tree. It seemed like a half hour before we finally got them all out of the tree.
Norman was married to Loraine and they had two children Jeffry and Barbara. Jeff is an attorney dealing with Labor Law, and has been married a couple of times and has children with both wives. Barbara is married to David Wechter, who is a movie writer and the son of Julius Wecter of the Baja Marimba Band fame. Norm went through a nasty divorce with Loraine. He later married Lila a pretty woman who made him happy.
Bernie studied Architecture in college and I believe that he worked in the entertainment business his entire career. He was an Art Director in both movies and television. He was a success and had relatively steady work in a business that is either feast or famine. Bernie was awarded an Emmy for his work in television. He is an honorary member of the motion picture arts and sciences. His career was capped with a steady job for many years as Art Manager of the back lot at Warner Brother's studio in Burbank.
In his personal life he was married to Barbara and had 3 kids Lorna, Lloyd and Keith. The marriage ended in divorce, after the kids left the nest. He married a wonderful woman from England named Deirdre who also had grown kids out of the nest. Deidre worked in the Los Angeles school system for many years. They are currently enjoying a retired life.
Lorna is a super Gal. She is a Marketing Vice President for a Mexican auto parts company. She manages to stay in L.A. most of the time and direct salesmen stationed around the world. In addition, she is the brains behind her husband Willy's Business. That business appears to be a multi-million dollar one of importing and delivery to retail stores of Latin American food. Keith lives in Seattle Washington and is in the construction business.
Eugene was the youngest of Larry's sons. He was a great guy in my judgment. He was well read and a great conversationalist on almost any topic. He never married. He worked for most of his life as an insurance adjuster. When Larry passed away Eugene inherited a part of the carpet business where he worked as his last job.
Aunt Ann passed away in 1968.Uncle Larry in 1972, Norman in 1977, and Eugene in2004.
My Aunt Sarah was the youngest of the offspring of Nathan and Anna Cutler. She was born in the US. She contacted Polio as a child and was handicapped with what was in those days called a clubbed foot. She married fairly late in life to Abe Woodman who himself had grown children.
Sarah was without a doubt the sweetest person, and Abe was a spry man even in his old age. I saw him do a Russian Kazatsky with a glass of wine on his head when he was about 70 years old. They had 3 kids in a short period of time. They were Marshall, and twins Donald and Mitzie.
Abe was a master tailor specializing in police and fireman uniforms. I think that a Woodman uniform was a badge of honor to Lieutenant and higher. They were expensive uniforms. His shop was on the South Side of Chicago, not far from where I lived. After Abe passed away, Sarah came to California often to visit her brother and she usually stayed with us. She was a delight and very devoted to her kids.
Abe passed away in 1966 and Sarah in .
Marshall worked in the pressroom of the Chicago Tribune newspaper for many years. The printing process was automated and his Job was eliminated. His union negotiated a settlement such that he gets compensation for life. He and wife Betty moved to Arizona in around 1989 and are living near his younger brother Don who moved there in 1987. He and Betty are currently in good health and retired near Phoenix Arizona. They had 3 children; Janice, Steven and Kenny.
Donald owned and operated a high quality print shop near downtown Chicago. I believe that he did very well financially. I further believe that he recognized that the printing business as he knew it was being taken over by computer technology. He sold the business and moved to Arizona. In Arizona he worked in print shops owned by others until he died at age in Don and wife Rochelle had 4 children; Malinda, Lloyd, Alan and Tony.
Mitzie was married to big (fat) Al Tolsky and had 3 children; David, Marci, and Gail. In Chicago, she was a super Tupperware salesperson. She worked her way up to be the Queen of Tupperware with an army of others reporting to her. Big Al helped her in the Tupperware business. She divorced big Al and married Toney Traverse who had grown children of his own. Mitzie and Toney moved to near Dan Diego California to be close to where Toney's daughter lived and where his son was stationed in the navy.
They bought a small condo and lived in it for many years. Mitzie worked at a department store and Toney had various driver delivery jobs. They split up for some reason and Toney went to live with his daughter and Mitzie bought a mobile home in the same community as her brothers. In the past few years it has been on & off with Toney. At the time of this writing (July 2011), she is planning to move near Houston Texas to be with her two daughters.
My Aunt Frieda was the oldest of my father's siblings and the family Matriarch. She was married to Israel Millstein and had two sons with him. They were Jack Millstein and Max who took the name Millstone. I only have a faint memory of her and that is of a pretty, very old woman with a sense of humor and a thick Yiddish accent. I recall that my sister Pearl had some stories about her. By the time I was born, Israel was gone and she was married to - Siegel. She died in 1952.
My oldest cousin was Jack Millstein. He was born in 1893, 32 years older than me. He was married to Bessie and had three children; Pauline, Irving and Herbert. Jack was a great family man. I remember that he organized and was the leader of the IDA AND MORRIS WEINHOUSE COUSINS CLUB. The club met about every three months at different member homes. Rochelle and I attended several until we moved to Dallas. I remember one meeting. It was at my Aunt Sarah's house, and she served the Romanian dish (Mamaliga) that I mentioned previously. The thing that I most remember is that all of the cousins of my generation were in line and drooling. Those that married in were standing against the back wall wondering what the hell was going on. A few years after we moved to Los Angeles, Jack, Bessie, Pauline and her husband Sam Skorton also moved to LA. We met a few times and Jack wanted to start another COUSINS CLUB. We had very little in common and lost track of them.
Jack and his brother Max were Furriers in their own shop near downtown Chicago. Max was 8 years younger than Jack and they had entirely different personalities. Max was married to Betty and had two children; Stuart and Lenore He was a handsome dude and a ladies man. He was a gambler and an all around great guy. I did not know Max very well but that was his reputation according to my sisters.
Frieda passed away in 1952, Jack in 1984 and Max in 1971.
2. Aunt Sarah/Sam Stern and cousins; Abe, Leo, Birdye and Ruth.I mentioned that there was a nasty split with my father Harry and his sister Sarah and her husband Sam Stern. I have no idea what caused it but both parties were very stubborn. As a result, my contact with the Sterns was almost non existent. In later years my sisters had a relationship with cousins Birdie and Ruth. In the last 3 or 4 years, Abe's daughter Genevieve and I have found each other. She is a pretty widow that spends half a year in Chicago and the other half in Palm Springs CA. She has homes in both places. She also has a daughter living only about 8 miles from me. Genevieve says that Sarah tried to reconcile with Harry and he refused. My Aunt Sarah Stern was the second child of Ida and Morris Weinhouse, having been born in 1884 (5 years later than Harry). She was married to Sam Stern in 1901 and they had 4 children; Abe 1904, Birdye 1908, Ruth 1909 and Leo in 1912.
I have no personal recollection as to what Sam's work or occupation was prior to his partnership with my father. however, I came across a CD interview with my brother Sid where he talked about a Dairy Farm owned by Sam. I assume that he lost the farm in the great depression similar to the way my father lost the grocery store.
Sam and his oldest son Abe established another newspaper delivery route west of the one with Harry. According to Genevieve, it was a huge area to cover, and it was a killer to Abe. Sam passed away 1954.
Abe sold the paper route and owned a grocery store and an appliance store before he passed away in 1980. He was married to Adele and they had two children Genevieve and Murray. Adele was a very nice person devoted to her kids. She died in 1979.
Cousin Birdye was a very pleasant person and not too attractive. She got married at the ripe age of 40 years old to Fred Solomon. Like the other Stern cousins I did not have much contact with her. They moved to Florida in retirement. Birdye and Fred did not have any children.
According to Genevieve, both of my cousins Ruth and Leo suffered from ALS or commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease. Ruth was married to Al Novak. I believe that they had a Condo in the same building as my sister Pearl. As a result, I managed to see her occasionally.
Leo was married to Beebe and they had one daughter named Arlene. He was a dentist. Leo was the first of my Stern cousins to die. It was in 1978.
3. Aunt Mary & Uncle Barney Goldberg, and cousins Arthur, Bea, & MortonMy Aunt Mary Goldberg was, by far, the favorite of all my Aunts and Uncles. She and Barney were in the Jewish Deli business in 14 locations in and around Chicago according to a Grandson Barry Demovsky.
I can only remember 2 locations; one as a pre teenager in Hyde Park, the second one where I worked for them on the South Side. I remember the Hyde Park place as a large store with many tables, and a huge take out counter. I worked for them 2 summers when I was 15 and 16 years old. It's my understanding that they were hit hard in the depression after making a lot of money in the 1920's.
Barney was a short wiry person. He did most of the physical labor around the store. Mary was the brains of the business and ran it with a strong hand. She was stout in stature but incredibly agile. Barney cooked the corned beef (it had to be done at the proper temperature for some exact amount of time, and colored with just the proper amount of paprika) as if it was a trade secret. Mary cooked everything else; soup, potato salad, coleslaw, etc. It was a tough life and they were not young people at the time. The hours were killers From 8 AM to 10 or 11PM. I recall that my routine started at 7:00 AM with a 1 hour streetcar ride with 2 transfers to get to the store. Barney was having breakfast when I arrived. He always had the same breakfast that consisted of 2 eggs, potatoes, toast and coffee.
I learned a lot at the Deli. I learned how to sharpen a knife, how to slice meat (against the grain), how to slice Lox with a thin sharp Lox knife. I also learned how to deal with the public who could be a pain in the ass. “I wanted belly Lox not the tail” which was a typical complaint. Of course, I had the crappy jobs like mopping, washing counters, and stocking shelves. I was the one who had to dig into the pickle barrels and the schmaltz herring barrel. Aunt Mary loved it when I called her BOSS.
Barney died in 1947 and Mary married a man named Joseph Henry. I never saw he or my Aunt after Barney passed away and I have no idea of her life with him. Mary passed away at age 94, which says something about the Weinhouse genes. Mary and Barney had three children: Arthur, Bea, and Morton.
Arthur was the oldest of Mary and Barney's kids. I did not have much contact with him, and the few times we did, I felt that he was quite aloof. He was a Dentist, was married to Diana, and had 2 children; daughter Lois and son Larry.
Beatrice (always called Bea) the second child of Mary and Barney, was a delightful person. She was born 1909 and got married to Isadore Demovsky in 1930. He was known by everyone in the Family as Demo. They were a great couple to me. Demo appeared to me to be a very successful Dentist with a practice in the South Shore section of Chicago.I remember being very impressed with Demo's hobby of still and motion photography. That was an expensive hobby in the-early 1930s. Bea and Demo had 3 sons: Sidney born in 1938, Barry born in 1942, and Ronald. Bea died in 1989 and Demo passed away in1991.
Mary and Barney's third child was Morton. I do not remember ever having seen that cousin, and I never heard what he did for a living.That was true until very recently when I got a letter from Barry Demovsky. Mort was married at a very young age to Marion (Leaf) of Birmingham Alabama and that he had 2 children Robert and Joan. He went to work for Marion's father in the meat packing business. After a few years, he started his own company, Morton's Provisions that became a prosperous enterprise.
I can't say much about her. I never saw her nor do I know anyone living that has. This much appears to be fact: a) she was a socialist, communist, or something and, b) she left Chicago to join some sort of Commune. There was speculation or rumor that she married an Italian man and lived on a chicken farm in Petaluma California.
In the mid 1960's while visiting in San Francisco, I spent a whole day in Petaluma trying to find something about her. I could not find anything. Either she changed her first name or she might not have lived there. There was no Trace of a Bessie, Bess, or a Bes with an Italian surname or without an Italian surname. There was no trace of the name of Weinhouse.
Norman Weinhouse, July 29, 2011
5211 Jumilla Ave.
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Phone: (818) 348 2077
Email: norman@weinhouse.com
