Moshe and Chaya Sura Groiskopf

Mosche and Chaya Sura (Kurman) Groiskopf
Labun, Ukraine abt 1925

     Mosche Groiskopf was born about 1880 in Labun, a small town near Polonnoye, in what is now Ukraine.  He was the fourth child (that I know about) of Chaim and Chaya Groiskopf.  Like his father and brothers, Mosche grew up to be a blacksmith.  He married Chaya Sura Kurman, daughter of David and Miriam Kurman of Labun in about 1900, when he was about 20 and she was a few years younger.  They quickly had two children, David, in July 1902, and Alexandra (Shivka) in about 1905.
    As I have mentioned before, times were hard in that area of Ukraine, so in 1907 Mosche decided to go to America where his older brother Elkunah (Elcon Grosser) was living and where he was quite successful.  Leaving his family behind, Mosche made his way to Liverpool, England, where on July 8, 1902 he boarded the RMS Lake Megantic [1], newly refurbished to carry immigrants to Halifax and St John, Canada [2].  He arrived in Quebec on July 17 listing Philadelphia as his final destination.[3]   He crossed into the U.S. by train, declaring that he was a smith, and that he was going to his brother (Cohn Grosser) in Philadelphia[4].   

Brothers Elcon, Joe and Mosche Grosser
Philadelphia, abt 1907

     Some time between 1902 and 1906 he returned to Labun, perhaps to try to convince Chaya Sura to return to the U.S. with him.  He returned to the U.S. alone in February 1907, this time traveling through Hamburg [5] and arriving in New York City aboard the Graf Waldersee on February 16 [6].  He listed his last residence as Tadeushpol, a small village about 4 miles from Labun, and again said that he was going to his brother Elcon Grosser in Philadelphia.
     Within a few years, he had accumulated some money, and, missing his family, returned again to Labun.  According to his grandson who often visited Mosche and Chaya Sura in Labun as a child, he built three brick "American style" houses in Labun.  His family lived in one of them, his brother Zise, also a blacksmith, lived in one, and Chaya Sura's brother, also called Zisye, lived in the third.   Mosche worked as a blacksmith, having a forge set off from the house, and also repaired tractors for the local farmers.  One of the houses had a garage, but since none of them had a car, they used it for the animals.
     After the 1917 Russian Revolution conditions got worse in the Ukrainian countryside, especially for Jews.  Civil war, and invasion by German, Russian and Polish forces between 1917 and 1922 devastated the area as various groups fought for control of Ukraine. [7] There were pogroms in the area of Labun.  The family sent their son, David to the United States in 1921[8].  Mosche, Chaya Sura and Shivka tried to follow him, going to Riga, Latvia for about a year in about 1922, but because the U.S. had passed restrictive immigration laws by then, they were unable to get visas, despite strong efforts by family already in the U.S.  They returned to Labun.  The wars ended after the area was incorporated into the Soviet Union, in 1922, but they were followed in the 1930s by a man-induced famine, the Holodomor, resulting in the deaths of millions across Ukraine[9].
       The farms in Labun were collectivized.  Because Mosche was skilled with iron work and fixing tractors, he worked for the agricultural commune as a blacksmith.  They and most of their relatives were still living in Labun when the Nazis arrived in 1943. (Shivka had married and moved to Kiev). They, along with the rest of the Jews in the town, were all murdered in the woods near the town.  There is now a small memorial in the woods for those who were murdered there[10].      
     

1. Ancestry.com, UK Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc 2012) Ancestry.com. Record for Mosche Grosskopf
2. http://www.theshipslist.com Record for ARAWA / COLON / LAKE MEGANTIC / PORT HENDERSON / ANAPO / PORTO SAID 1884 , accessed April 16, 2016.
3.  Ancestry.com, Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010) Ancestry.com, Record for Marche Groeskoff
4.  Ancestry.com, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S.1895-1956 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010) The National Archives at Washington, DC; Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports1895-1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: M1464 Roll: 13; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number 85. Record for Mosche Groiskopf.
5. Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburg Passenger Lists 1850-1934 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008) www.ancestry.comStaatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Microfilm No.: K_1798. Record for Moische Groiskopf
6.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010) Ancestry.com, Year: 1907; Arival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0830; Line 25; Page Number 22. Record for Meiskke Greiskopf
7  Wikipedia.org Ukrainian War of Independence. .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_War_of_Independence
8.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) www. ancestry.com, database online. Year: 1921; Arrival:, Microfilm serial: T715; Microfilm roll: T715_2938; Line 23 Record for David Grojskop
9.  Wikipedia.org, loc.cit.
10. Blog: Going the Extra Yad: Labun (home at last) 14 June 2013 .http://extrayad.blogspot.com/2013/06/labun-home-at-last-14-june-2013.html

Elcon Grosser - Part 1

 

Elcon Grosser about 1902

   When I was deciding who to feature in my first real post, my great-grandfather, Elcon Grosser, immediately came to mind.  He was a larger-than-life figure to me, all during my childhood until he died when I was 25 years old.  He and his wife Jennie were the centers around whom the extended family revolved.  Their passing began the process of our drifting apart.  He was 103 when he died, and his life has so many stories that I will have to come back to him several times.

    Elcon was born in August 1870 in the town of Labun, Volhinya Gubernia, Zaslav District, Russia[1].   This town is now called Yurovschina, Ukraine.  His name at that time was Elkunah Groiskop.  He had at least three brothers, Zise, Moishe, and Jossel, and a sister Perl.  Elkunah was not tall, but he was sturdily built and known for his strength, a trait that lasted throughout his life.

    Labun was a small town in the so-called Pale of Jewish Settlement, in a predominantly agricultural area, but with a significant Jewish population.  In 1897 the nearby town of Polonoye, where the railway station was, had a Jewish population of nearly 8,000, nearly half of the town.  Jews were artisans, specializing in printing, porcelain, and parquet flooring.  All of the Groiskop brothers described themselves as blacksmiths or ironworkers.

    Elkunah served in the Russian army, probably from 1891 to 1894.  Although many Jews tried to avoid conscription, Elkunah was always proud of his service.  He was in the cavalry, probably serving as a smith.  According to the various stories recalled by grandchildren and great grandchildren, he attained the rank of Sergeant, and received a medal for killing an enemy officer in battle.

    When his service was over, Elkunah moved from Labun to the larger nearby town of Baranivka.  Possibly this move was because Labun was too small to support three blacksmiths.  Baranivka had a large Jewish population since the 17th century, and in the 19th century the Jewish population was nearly 2,000, to form a majority of the town.  Here Elkunah found the love of his life, the tall, blond, blue-eyed, Czerna Tepper.

    Elcon described the meeting in a newspaper article in 1970.

       " I had an honorable discharge", he said, 'and in those years when a young man finished the army, he was a valuable piece of property because he had lived through the danger and had the promise of a future.  When I came out it was September, and on Rosh Hashanah I went to the synagogue and my friend showed me a picture of my lovely wife....I went in myself to see her - without a matchmaker, " he bragged, "I gave her my picture and she accepted it...and that's when I began to court my lovely wife."[2]

      They were married in August 1896 in a ceremony in her home. Elkunah worked as a blacksmith in Baranivka, and the couple soon had two children, Chaija born in 1898, and Chaim born in April 1900.

      Shortly after Chaim was born, Elkunah left Baranivka for America.  He joined the stream of emigrants traveling across Europe to Liverpool, England.  In Liverpool he boarded the S.S. Pennland on July 4, 1900, and on Tuesday, July 17, he arrived in Philadelphia,  He listed his occupation on the manifest as "smith".[3]  At that time, Philadelphia was an industrial giant.  "Pennsylvania in general established itself as ...the center of heavy industry, of iron and steel, coal and oil, America's foundry.  Philadelphia became its...chief port for the foundry, nerve center of transportation, producer of finished goods of an enormous variety but particularly of steam engines and steamships."[4]    As Elkunah described it, he arrived in Philadelphia on a Tuesday and by Thursday he had a job paying $6 per week at the Baldwin Locomotive Works.[5]  He began saving to bring the rest of his family to Philadelphia.

[1]  The date of 1890 was reported by him in various documents, census records, naturalization papers, and in many newspaper articles in the Philadelphia Bulletin, Inquirer, and Jewish Exponent.  He generally cited the date of August 16 when a date was specified.

[2]  Jewish Exponent, August 14, 1970. "Couple Will Mark 74th Anniversary, His 100th Birthday at Sunday Fete." copy held by Mary-Jane Roth

[3] Ancestry.com, Philadelphia Passenger LIsts, 1900-1945, (Provo, Utah, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2006) Database on-line. Roll T840_32, line:5,  record for Elkan Groskopf .

[4] Russell F. Weigley, editor, Philadelphia: A 300-Year History (New York: W.W. Norton and Company,1982), 471.

[5] "Couple Married 74 Years invite 300 to Celebrate"  Unattributed newspaper clipping in collection of Jennie Grosser, now in possession of Mary-Jane Roth.