Group of letters 1905-1906 from Leib Salmon in Beaver Falls PA to his cousin & future wife Bertha Quint in NYC, plus additional family letters from the 1930s-1940s
A remarkable group of 13 letters from Leib or Leybe Salmon (1869-1955, b. in either Lithuania or Poland), a Jewish merchant of dry goods, sundries, shoes, glass and silver -- M. Salmon & Son, Beaver Falls -- to his cousin Bertha Quint in the Lower East Side of New York City, wooing and courting her, and arranging to marry her. Their son Jacob was born in 1907 (J. Quint Salmon would serve as Judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Beaver County from 1970-1979). These are supplemented by letters to Bertha Quint Salmon from other family members, including their son. For the first several years, the couple and their child lived with Leib's parents, Mayer and Rebekah, before getting a place of their own. The letters offer a window into Jewish traditions in western Pennsylvania and into the close-knit ties of family and kinship among immigrant Jews. We will give a short summary of the contents of each of the 13 letters from Leib to Bertha and a general summation of the rest of the letters. Each has its original envelope with clearly legible postmarks and Salmon was a good writer. Although according to censuses Yiddish was their primary language, all but one of these letters is in English. 1) Dec. 5, 1905. 3 pp. "I am very glad that you got your suit and that you are so pleased with it, and trust you look so well in it but you know a good looking girl looks good in anything she wears and that is what I think of you. I only wish I could see you now. I think I can arrange for your furs so you will get a nice set. I wish you would look around and write me what style you would like..." He concludes with sincere expressions of affection. 2) Dec. 27, 1905. 3 pp. Salmon reports he's working hard, up to midnight each night and that in regards to the furs, "I don't believe in selecting wearing apparel of that kind for you without you seeing it, and have you pleased." He suggests that Bertha go to Lipman & Myers, on E. 11th St. and select what would suit her best and that they would treat her right if she presented a letter of introduction from him. "I think that a throw over is a good style so you get it in a nice fur, don't get a cheap one, and if he has none to suit you don't get any." He expresses sorrow in hearing how hard she is working and hope that it will be better in the future. In a postscript he suggests besides fur Tibet lamb or astrakhan in black, "for grays are worn to death." 3) Jan. 28, 1906. Leybe is happy she is well pleased with her furs but "In reading your letter between the lines you seem to take it as an imposition from myself on you that you had to get them yourself, but I can't see it that way." He recounts going to the theater to see "Hop" Ward in "The Grafter," and that he thought of her all evening as the last time he had been to a play it had been with her, and hopes the next time he sees a play it will be with her, and "don't forget all the nice things you have to tell me when I come to New York for it may be 3 to 4 weeks before I come." 4) Feb. 22, 1906. 2 1/2 pp. He writes of his happiness at the family news she passes on. "Bertha, the reason I did not answer your letter before this is, I was ready to leave for New York on the 11th but the weather got cold and business revived so I had to postpone my trip, and now if nothing happens I intent to leave Sunday March 4th." 5) April 1, 1906. 3 pp. He expresses happiness with the letter she wrote him. "Your anxious question in regard to what my folks had to say is quite natural. I assure you that there never has been the least question between my folks and my self in regards to you. the only hint that they gave me was that I should make the wedding in B. F. [Beaver Falls] and as much as I would like to have them all at our wedding it would be an imposition on me to ask you to do it in as much I am opposed to it my self. Dear Bertha I want you to know that it was not that Wednesday night that I made my mind up, it was a settled question with me for a long time: it was absolutely you and you only and when you said yes I was the happiest baby boy and the more I think of you the more happier I am." He concludes with some remarks regarding his cousins Julius and Sadie, etc. 6) May 10, 1906. 2 1/2 pp. He opens with some remarks about Sadie and her folks and that his mother is recovering from an illness, corrects a false impression she might have had of a remark he made about good taste. "Dearest Bertha you want to know my idea if absence makes the heart grow fonder. I would say it does, if the love is of the fervid passion nature. I assure you my dear that I am not in that class of lovers. My love for you is pure and honest and I have the greatest faith in you and it makes very little difference to me whether it is in absence or in presence." At the end in a postscript, he grouses that she omitted the traditional "xxx" at the end of her last letter and wonders about its significance. 7) June 17, 1906. 2 1/2 pp. He expresses happiness that Bertha has left her employment, presumably to get ready for the move to Beaver Falls, but is defensive about her response to his questions concerning the financial feasibility: "Bertha Dear I don't want an itemized statement of what you are getting, it is not my disposition at all, I was only trying to make it as easy and light for you as possible, neither was I trying to give you lessons on economy, it was only to save you a lot of hostling [?] and worry as I know what it means for a girl to get ready for an occasion of that kind..." 8) June 28, 1906. 6 pp. In this letter he makes plans for the wedding, including printing invitations and a possible wedding date -- August 6 -- but begins with a touching sentiment: "My Dear Bertha, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar last Sunday was 22 years since we arrived in New York, it is just about that time I saw you first, you was running around in a little skirt, but I had no idea then that in 22 years later will be so near our wedding and I believe you were also ignorant of the fact at that time." It appears that the wedding will not be in Beaver Falls after all: later in the letter he writes, "Dearest you also question me in regards to my folks whether they are coming to our wedding. I am very sorry to say that I don't think they will. Father told me some time ago that it is too much for him, as he is so unused to traveling and it would be so much harder for Mother to undertake it, but don't let this worry you 'dear' I assure you of their anxiety to be at our wedding." 9) July 8, 1906. 4 pp. In response to a letter from Bertha he found "full of arguments," Leib defends his choice of August 6th as a wedding date; "I will say the only reason I have for fixing the date on the 15th day of Ab, which is the 6th of August is, in as much as I don't pause to be pious, but I like to observe anything in religion which don't cause me much inconvenience." He then discusses the Hebrew law regarding fasting on a wedding day and the possibility if she wants of the wedding to be held on Sunday August 12th, which would probably result in a larger crowd but would also create more work for her and her helper, Mary. 10) July 15, 1906. 3 1/2 pp. It would appear that Bertha got her wish to change the wedding date to the 12th of August, but Leib in this letter informs her that's not going to work, either, that would be the "21st day of Ab, in the Jewish month. Father objects to have it on the old "chodesh" he says it's not right. So the first Sunday in 'Ellul' is 26th of August and I think it's the best we can do now..." He reports that the clerks from the store will all be back from their annual vacation by the 10th of August and he will leave after that. He also cautions her against sending any invitations to his side of the family, "as it will cause bad feelings for the rest and also look bad for outsiders as I want to be clear of it, so I can say I did not invite anybody. When you get them printed 'dear' send me 3 or 4 of them." 11) July 29, 1906. 3 pp. Leib refuses a suggestion from Bertha to change his name from Leybe to Louis. "I regret very much that I can't and will not consent to that request, as I think Leybe is a much prettier name than Louis. In the Jewish Encyclopedia it is spelled Leib, I have thought some time to spell it that way but will not have Louis." He does ask his wife to make some suggestions as to what he should wear at the wedding and also laments that she is shopping for goods for their life together when his dry goods store has all that they would need. 12) August 6, 1906. 3 pp. Leybe assures Bertha that he's not angry with her for suggesting a name change, but that he has a simple reason -- everyone knows him as Leybe and changing his name would be "silly." He also can't believe six months have passed since their last parting kiss on a railway platform and that in two weeks they would be married. 13) August 13, 1906. 3 pp. Leybe has received the printed invitations he's requested but remarks that the date given for the wedding is JUNE 26th, not August, and that she can correct this before sending out the invitations. He has also implored her a number of times, regarding the wedding, not to make "a fuss" about it and to keep it simple; on hearing that she's going to have music at the wedding, he remarks that music is something he can do without. It's just "common sense, " he says. And that's the last letter he wrote before departing for New York on the 15th. The rest of the letters are from the mid-to-late 1930s to 1941: most are from a favorite niece of Bertha's in Brooklyn named Ruth, who writes newsy letters about her family and Bertha's, with several snapshots enclosed in one of them. A few are from their son Jacob, including one written in his late twenties as he's visiting friends in the Boston area, remarking on how impressed he was with Harvard's Law Library and its statue of Cardozo (seeing it was quite a thrill for him) and full portrait of Holmes. A rather longer letter from 1941, by which time he's married, expresses concern about his father's health. There is also a letter in Yiddish to Bertha from a Mrs. Nathan Goldfarb dated 1933 from the Cincinnati area. The personalities of Leybe and Jacob come through in these letters: Leybe seems old before his time, stuffy and prickly, but with an admirable sincerity and a strong capacity to love; Jacob comes across equally sincere and a devoted and caring sort with a fine character. Beaver Falls, for a small western Pennsylvania town, had a fairly established Jewish population by the turn of the century, and by the end of the 1920s the town had at least four synagogues supporting a several-hundred strong community of Jews in the Beaver Valley. Very good. Item #H27660
Price: $650.00