Abe and Sarah Tepper

Sarah and Abe Tepper 1966

     Another of Meier David and Lena Tepper's children who came to the US was Awram, or, as he became, Abraham.  On November 8, 1906, his brother-in-law, Elcon Grosser opened an account at the Rosenbaum Bank for a ticket for him, listing c/o Dowid Tepper , Baranowka, Novograd Wolinsky as the passenger's address.  The ticket cost $31.50, and Elcon paid it in three installments.[1]  Awram was booked on the SS Haverford arriving in Philadelphia on January 28, 1907 from Liverpool England.  He is described as single, a barber, standing 5'7" with a fresh complexion and blue eyes.  The manifest says he was going to his brother-in-law, Kune Grosser (Kune is the nickname for Elkunah, Elcon's yiddish name) and he was met by his sister at the dock on arrival.[2]
     In April 1910, the census showed Abe living with his parents and five of his siblings at 312 Rear South Front Street.  He was employed as a blacksmith at a wagon works.[3]  By late 1912 he had moved to 2226 S. 7th Street and was employed as a plumber.  In October of that year he had married Sarah Stine (Sternman)[4]  They quickly had two children, Rubin and Bertha, and by the time he registered for the WWI draft, they lived at 938 Jackson Street, where they lived for about ten more years. [5]  He and Sarah applied for naturalization in 1914, and were naturalized in 1921.[6]  He was briefly unemployed during the depression, so they moved to a rented house at 4924 N. 17th Street[7], but by 1940 he was listed as the manager of a plumbing supply place.  They were still living in the same house, along with their daughter Bertha who was working as a bookkeeper for an apartment building, and his widowed mother Lena,[8] Rubin having married in 1937.
     Abe was remembered by his granddaughter Evie as someone who could build or fix anything.  He was quiet and liked to play checkers with his friends.  Sarah was remembered as a great cook who kept a kosher house and could make the most delicious food, gedempt, stuffed helzel, roast chicken, cookies (mun and orange), honey cake, blintzes, kugels, etc. They continued to live on 17th street until Abe had a stroke in 1963.  Then they moved to the York House, an assisted living facility, and later he moved to the Philadelphia Geriatric Center after Sarah died in 1970.  Abe died in 1978[9].

The photo above was taken in 1966 at the annual anniversary celebration for Elcon and Jennie Grosser.  Sarah and Abe always attended these gatherings as well as many other Grosser family get-togethers.

1.  Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage Records.  Rosenbaum Bank Book #18 1906-1907 accessed at Paley Library, Temple University.
2.  Ancestry. com.  Philadelphia Passenger Lists  Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1963 [database on-line] Roll: T840_55; Line: 30. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Record for Awram Tepper.
3.Database online. Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 11, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1390; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 159; Image: 13. Record for David Japper.  Accessed from Ancestry.com
4.  Affidavit of Applicant for Marriage License No. 286484 Abraham Tepper and Sarah Stine, filed Oct 10, 1912 with Duplicate certificate Filed Oct 16, 1912 citing Marriage of Abraham Tepper and Sarah Stine on 14th day of October, 1912.  Accessed at Philadelphia City Archives
5.  Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. record for Abraham Tepper.
6.  Pennsylvania, U.S. Naturalization Originals National Archives; Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Petitions for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1795-1930; Series: M1522; Roll: 197; Record Type: (Roll 197) Petition Nos. 43391-43750 Accessed through Ancestry.com Record for Abraham Tepper
7. U.S. Federal Census.Year: 1930; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2136; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 1077; Image: 182.0; FHL microfilm: 2341870. Accessed form Ancestry.com Record for Sarah Tepper. 
8.  U.S. Federal Census Year: 1940; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T627_3752; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 51-2120 Accessed from Ancestry.com record for Abraham Tepper.
9.  Comments from Evie Wartell Brezo on records for Abraham and Sarah Tepper in Tepper and Grosser Family Tree on Ancestry.com on 28 Nov. 2010.