Harry and Bessie Tepper Nitt

Bessie Tepper and Harry Nitt, about 1917

     Rebecca, or Bessie as she was commonly known, was one of the children of Meier David and Lena Tepper about whom I have posted off and on over the past year.  Bessie was born in Miropol, Ukraine, around 1892.  She moved with the family to Baranivka, then travelled with her parents and many of her siblings to the U.S.,through Libau, Latvia,  arriving in New York on December 22, 1907 aboard the SS Lituania[1].  The family then travelled by train to Philadelphia to join the siblings already established in that city.  
     By 1910, Bessie was working in a shirt factory in Philadelphia, and living with her parents at 312R Front Street[2].  On February 1, 1914, 22 year old Bessie married Joseph Stanley Blender[3].  Joseph was also born in Russia, had come to the US in about 1902, and had served in the US Coast Artillery from December 1909 until May 13, 1912, when he was discharged for disability[4].  The marriage did not last long, and by the time he registered for the draft for WWI in 1917, he listed himself as single and living with his parents[5].
     I'm not sure what Bessie did for the next few years as I haven't been able to find her 1920 census record, but by 1924 she had met the love of her life, Harry Nitt, and on August 6, 1924 Bessie and Harry had travelled to York (Toronto), Ontario, Canada, where they were married[6].  Harry was tall, rangy and handsome, He was somewhat exotic as well, a Lutheran, raised in the American West, and a bit of a rolling stone.
     Rhinehalt Gustav "Harry" Nitt was the son of a German immigrant, Pauline Mampel, and her husband Gustave Nitt a first generation American.  Pauline came to the US in 1885 destined for Detroit, MI[7].  She worked as a domestic[8]. S  In August 1889 she married Gustave Nitt, a blacksmith[9]. A son, Rheinhalt Gustav, was either born in June 1889 or in June 1890 according to various records.  By 1894,  Gustave had moved to the town of Denver Colorado where he continued to work as a blacksmith[10]. Denver had benefited from a "silver boom" and was growing rapidly, attracting workers to support new industries.  The boom ended suddenly in 1893 with a financial panic, leaving Denver and the country in the grip of a severe depression.  Denver did not begin to recover until 1897.  Gustave had died in Denver in 1896, leaving his young wife and son[11]. In the 1900 census of Denver, Pauline is listed as a widow, and 9 year old Harry is still in school[12].  Sometime around 1909, Harry married a woman named Hildred Josepha (last name unknown.)  They are listed in the 1910 census as living in Sterling, Colorado where Harry worked as a cement worker[13].  In the 1911-1912 Business directory for Sterling, Hildred is listed as working for the New Method Laundry and living at 528 Walnut St[14].  There is no mention of Harry.
     When Harry registered for the WWI draft on June 5, 1917, he was living in Salem, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia, and working as a munitions worker at the DuPont Powder Company.  He declared himself to be married, although I have found no record of Hildred at that time in New Jersey or elsewhere[15].  Based on the clothing from the photo above, it is likely that Harry and Bessie met at about this time.
     I have not been able to find either Bessie or Harry in US or Canadian records until August 6, 1924, when Rhinehalt Gustav Harry Nitt, 34, a salesman, son of Pauline Mampel, and Bessie Rose Tepper, 32, daughter of David Tepper and Lena Zelbsman signed a marriage record in Toronto, Canada.  They both listed themselves as widowed, although I don't believe that their ex spouses were dead, but this designation was not unusual at a time when divorce was not approved of in many places[16]. (I have spent some time trying to determine the fates of Hildred and Joseph with no success so far.)
     Although Harry and Bessie had no children, they were welcoming to Bessie's nieces and nephews.  They moved to San Luis Obispo, California, sometime in the 1920s.  There is a family story that Bessie's nephew Hy Cohen (of whom more in another post) took has Bar Mitzvah money and travelled from Philadelphia to California in about 1925 to live with Bessie and Harry there.   Another of Bessie's great nieces told me that her mother and baby brother lived with Bessie and Harry during WWII when her husband was stationed on the West Coast.
     By 1930 Harry was a clothing salesman[17].  By 1935 they had moved to Santa Monica, where they rented various homes near the Santa Monica Pier[18] and took in boarders, one of whom was a friend of the (then little known) Desi Arnaz, who used to call the house often.  Harry was still a salesman, and Bessie had a concession on the pier[19].  Bessie's great niece told me that Bessie was a nurse during the war.  Harry had gone gray, and standing at 6' 1/2" 225 pounds was no longer rangy by the time he registered in the "Old Man's draft" in 1942.  He still worked "In and around Santa Monica"[20].  Harry died on July 17, 1953[21].
     Sometime after Harry's death, Bessie moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey,[22] where her sister Jennie lived.  According to one of her great-nieces, she worked as a "shill" at an auction house on the boardwalk.  Later, after the death of her sister-in-law Ida Tepper in 1963, she moved to Miami, Florida, to help her brother.  She continued close contact with her family in Philadelphia area, visiting often for family occasions, anniversaries, Bar Mitzvah's and the like, and entertaining family who visited Miami.  I remember her as warm and funny.  Bessie died in Miami in August, 1966[23].

1.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010),Ancestry.com, Year:1907; Arrival: New York; Microfilm serial : T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: 1064; Line 15, Page 133, Record for Riwke Teper.
2.  Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2006) www.ancestry.com, database online. Year 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 11, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll T6254_1390; Page 6B; Enumeration District 159; Image:13. Record for David Japper.
3.  Philadelphia City Archives. Philadelphia, PA. Marriage Record for Joseph Stanley Blender and Bessie Tepper. Filed Jan 8, 1914.  License No. 306833 copy held by Mary-Jane Roth
4.  Ancestry.com.  U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2007), Ancestry.com. Database on-line.  Record for Joseph S. Blender
5.  Ancestry.com, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2005). Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County; Philadelphia; roll: 1907647; Draft board 27. Record for Joseph Stanley Blender.
6.  Ancestry.com and Genealogical Research Library (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1926 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010) www.ancestry.com. Database online.  Record for Rhinehalt Gustav Harry Nitt.
7.  Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006), www.ancestry.com, Database online. Year:1885; Arrival :New York, United States; Microfilm serial: M237; Microfilm roll: M237_490; Line:29; List Number: 1241. Record for Pauline Mampel.
8.  Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011) Ancestry.com, Record for Pauline Mampel. Detroit, 1888.
9.  Ancestry.com, Michigan Marriage Records, 1867-1952 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015) Ancestry. com, Record for H.H. Gustav Nitt.
10.  Ancestry.com, Ballenger & Richards twenty-second annual Denver city directory containing a complete list of the inhabitants, institutions, (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005). Ancestry.com. Record for <No Name>.  Gustave Nitt
11.  Ancestry.com, U.S. Find a Grave Index, 1600-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com,  Record for Gustave Nitt.
12.  Ancestry.com, 1900 Unitred States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004), www.ancestry.com, Year: 1900; Census place: Denver, Arapahoe , Colorado; Roll:119; Page:10B; Enumeration District: 0102; FHL Microfilm: 1240119. Record for Pauline Nil.
13.  Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) www.ancestry.com, Database online. Year:1910; Census Place: Sterling Ward 3, Logan, Colorado; Roll;; Page; Enumeration District: Iname: Record for Hildred Joseh Nitt.
14. Ancestry.com. Hoffhine's Sterling Colorado directory for 1911-1912 containing an alphabetical arranged list of business firms and prove (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005).  Ancestry.com, Record for <no name> Hildred Nitt.
15.  Ancestry.com, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005), Ancestry.com, Database online.  Registration Location: Salem county, New Jersey; Roll: 1754437; Draft Board: 1; Record for Harry Rhineholt Gustave Nitt.
16.  Ancestry.com and Genealogical Research Library (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), Ontarion, Canada Marriages, 1801-1926 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010) www.ancestry.com, database online.  Record for Rhinehalt Gustav Harry Nitt.
17.  Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census (Provo, Ut, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002) www.amcestry.com. Database online. Year: 1930; Census place: San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, California; Roll: 213; Page: 8A; Enumeration District:21; Image: 364.0; Record for Rhinehalt G. Nitt.
18.  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012) www.ancestry.com. Year: 1940; Census Place: Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T627_256; Page 1B; Enumeration District: 19-761. Record for Harry G. Nitt.
19.  Ancestry.com. California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 (Provo, Ut. USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008). Ancestry.com Database online.
20.  Ancestry.com. U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010). Ancestry.com.  World Wat II Draft Cards (4th Registration) for the Sate of California; State Headquarters: California; Microfilm Roll: 603155.  Record for Rhinehalt Gustav Nitt.
21. Ancestry.com. U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index. 1936-2007) (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015). Ancestry.com. Record for Rhinehalt G. Nitt.  And Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940-1997. (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2000). www.ancestry.com. Database Online. Place: Los Angeles; Date 17 Jul 1953: Social Security: XXXXXXX Record for Harry Gustav Nitt.
22.  Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1922-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2011), Ancestry.com. Record for Mrs. Bessie Nitt.
23.  Ancestry.com.  Social Security Death Index (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009). www.ancestry.com. Database online. Number XXXXXXXXXX; Issue State: California; Issue Date: Before 1951. Record for Bessie Nitt.
   

Sam and Ida Tepper

Sam and Ida Tepper

     I mentioned in my post of March 8 this year that Meier David and Leie Tepper arrived in New York City on December 22, 1907 aboard the SS Lituania with several of their children[1].  Among those was Schlome, age 18, whose occupation was listed as "smith".  The family travelled to Philadelphia and by 1910 Schlome, now Sam, was living with his family, speaking English, and working an ironer in a tailor shop [2].
     Sometime between 1910 and June of 1917 Sam had met and married Ida Karzen.  He registered for the draft on June 5, 1917 describing himself as a fruit salesman, employed by J.M. Biedler.  He was tall, of medium build, with brown eyes and blond hair and he lived at 1519 N. Franklin Street in Philadelphia  with his wife[3].   I have no idea how Sam and Ida met, since Ida was from Cincinnati.
     Ida was born on August 3, 1892 in Cincinnati to Lewis Karzensky and Eda (Edith) Ostrovsky Karzensky [4]  who had arrived in the US in that year[5].  According to City Directories of the time, Louis worked as a presser until about 1914 when he entered the poultry business.  In 1914 the City Directory for Cincinnati shows Ida working as a stenographer in a bank building.  Both Ida and Louis are shown as living at 5305 Brotherton Rd[6].  The 1916 Directory shows Ida as still employed at the bank building.  Eda (or Edith as she was then known) died sometime in late 1916 or 1917.  She had written a will in March of 1914 which was probated on November 7, 1917, and in which she left her estate to her husband and then to her children, Ida and Samuel Karzen[7].
     In 1918 the Cincinnati City Directory shows Samuel D. Tepper living at 5308 Brotherton Rd, just down the street from Louis, who was now going by Karzen. Sam was working as a blacksmith.  Sam and Ida's first child had been born in January, 1918, and was named Edgar for his grandmother[8].  The 1920 census shows the family still living at the Brotherton Rd address, which they owned free of mortgage.  The census shows that the family did not own a radio, an item that was growing in popularity and the the Bureau was tracking as a proxy for urban and rural prosperity.  By this time, Lewis, now seventy-five, was living with them. Sam had gotten work as a tailor of women's garments[9].  Ida was pregnant with their second child, Florence, who was born in June of that year.  The third child, Robert Lee (Bobby), was born in 1924.
     The depression hit starting in 1929, and in 1930 the census found the family still in the Brotherton Rd. house, but now Sam was unemployed.  He had a wife, three small children and his aged father-in-law living with him[10].  By 1931 he had opened a service station at 5314 Brotherton Road, and a grocery at 5312 Brotherton[11].  By 1940, according to the census, Edgar was working as an attendant at the service station owned by his father, and Florence was a clerk[12].  The 1940 and 1942 City Directories show Sam still operating the service station in Cincinnati, but there is no mention of the grocery.  Edgar had enlisted in the armed forces in October, 1940 and Bobby followed in October 1942.
     For some reason, between 1942 and 1945, the family moved to Miami, Florida.  Perhaps it was the cold winters in Ohio, or perhaps it was because Sam's sister Rose and widowed sister-in-law/cousin Celia Zimmerman Tepper were already there (the tangled relationships among the Teppers and Zimmermans will be the subject of another post).  In 1945 Sam, Ida, and Florence lived at 4510 N.W. 10th St in Miami.  Sam was again in the produce business, and Florence was working as a case worker for Traveller's Aid[13].  World War II was still being fought, and Edgar, who had married Norma Abenschon in 1944, and Bobby were both still serving in the armed forces.  Florence married Manuel Mayerson in 1947 and moved back to Ohio.  In 1950, Bobby married Carolyn Dresser.
     The end of the war, and the desire of many of the thousands of servicemen who had trained there to become permanent residents made for a boom in Miami.  The Tepper produce business grew along with the city.  Meanwhile, according to his family, the pickles that Sam had made in his garage for a select few had grown into a business of its own.  According to the family story he would go to nearby Cuba and buy cucumbers in bulk and have them shipped into the port in Palm Beach County.  The 1958 Miami City Directory shows that Tepper's Wholesale Produce was being run by Edgar, while Sam was president of T&P Pickle Products, Inc, with Vivian (Zimmerman) Plasky (another Zimmerman cousin) as the vice-president, and Bobby as the secretary-treasurer[14].  The overthrow of the Cuban government in 1959 would have ended the forays to Cuba for cucumbers.
     Ida died in 1963[15].  Sam's widowed sister Bessie moved to Florida to help him, but in September, 1967, Sam married the recently widowed Pauline Kaufman (nee Stern)[16] and they moved to a duplex at 1176 Marseille Drive in Miami Beach.  Pauline died in 1979[17].  Sam continued to be very engaged with family, children, grandchildren, sisters and brothers.  He regularly came north to attend the annual anniversary parties for his sister Jennie Grosser and her husband Elcon.  He died on March 10, 1987[18], and was buried in Mt Nebo Cemetery.

1.  Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010) Ancestry.com, Year: 1907; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 1064; Line: 9; Page Number: 133  Record for Meier Tepper.
2.   Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006), www.ancestry.com, 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.
3.  Ancestry.com, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005), www.ancestry.com. Database online. Registration Location: Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1907616; Draft Board: 13. Record for Samuel Tepper.
4.  Ancestry.com, U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index 1936-2007 (Provo UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2015). Record for Ida Tepper.
5.  Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) www.ancestry.com, Database online.Year: 1910; Census Place: Dayton Ward 4, Campbell, Kentucky; Roll: T624_467; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 47; Image: 414. Record for Louis Karzensky.
6.  Ancestry.com, US City Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2011, Ancestry.com Records for Ida Karzen.
7.  Ancestry.com, Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015), Ancestry.com, Will Records 1792-1918; Probate Place: Hamilton, Ohio. Record for Edith Karzensky.
8.  Ancestry.com, U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com operations, Inc., 2015) Record for Edgar Karzen Tepper.
9.   Ancestry.com, 1920 United States Federal census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009) www.ancestry.com, Database online,Year: 1920; Census Place: Cincinnati Ward 2, Hamilton, Ohio; Roll: T625_1388; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 34; Image: . Record for Sam Tepper.
10.  Ancestry.com 1930 United States Federal Census( Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2002) www.ancestry.com, Database online. Year: 1930; Census Place: Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio; Roll: 1806; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 408; Image: 459.0.Record for Samuel Tepper.
11.  Ancestry.com, U.S. city Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2011) Ancestry.com. Record for Samuel D. Tepper.
12.  Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012) www.ancestry.com, Database online. Year: 1940; Census Place: Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio; Roll: T627_3187; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 91-19. Record for Samuel Tepper.
13. Ancestry.com, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry. com operations, Inc., 2011) Ancestry.com, Record for Samuel D. Tepper.
14. Ibid.
15.  Ohio, The American Israelite, Cincinnati, Obituary Feb 14 1963. 
16.  Ancestry.com, Florida Marriage Indexes 1822-1875 and 1927-2001 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006) Ancestry.com, Record for Samuel D. Tepper.
17.  Ancestry.com, Florida Death Index, 1877-1998 (Provo, UT, USA, The Generations Network, Inc., 2004) www.ancestry.com, Database online. Record for Pauline G. Tepper.
18.  Ibid.  Record for Samuel Tepper.