The Goldbergs
Values Codes I – E – P
First Generation
Louis Goldberg was born in Koenigsberg, Germany in 1832.
In 1851, Louis Goldberg emigrated to Louisiana.
Texas
Around 1867, Louis Goldberg settled in Texas, where he and his wife settled in the East Texas, steamboat town of Jefferson.
In the 1870s, Goldberg opened a mercantile firm.
Community
In 1873, Goldberg helped found the Hebrew Sinai Congregation in Jefferson.
As the Jews left Jefferson, the synagogue was given to the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club in exchange for the garden clubs perpetual care of the Mt. Sinai Cemetery.
The building is now the Jefferson Playhouse.
Hebrew Sinai Synagogue, now the Jefferson Playhouse, #WS 45/4
Family
Louis Goldberg married Miriam Levy (1837-1916).
Their children were Isaac (1857-1910), Rachel (1866-1910), Jeannette Miriam (1868-1935), and Isaiah (1876-1923).
Louis Goldberg died in 1899 in Jefferson, Texas. He is buried in the Mt. Sinai Cemetery with his family in the Goldberg Mausoleum.
Second Generation
Isaiah Goldberg graduated from the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas. He served as Mayor of Jefferson from 1920-21. Though many Jews, including his sister Jeannette, chose to leave Jefferson when the economy turned, Isaiah remained in the town of his birth for his entire life.
Isaiah was a 32nd degree Mason.
Isaac Goldberg (center) with classmates at Texas A&M, WSJH 45/4
Isaiah Goldberg passed away in 1923 .
He is buried in Jefferson’s Mt. Sinai Cemetery.
Jeannette Miriam Goldberg graduated from Vassar College and Rutgers College.
She was the first Field Secretary of the National Council of Jewish Women.
In 1905, she became the secretary of the Jewish Chautauqua Society.
Later, Jeannette moved to Philadelphia and was an active member of the Pennsylvania Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, as well as the Temple Rodeph Shalom Sisterhood.
Goldberg Family Tomb in Jefferson, Texas, WS 45/4
Source
- Jeff Campbell, “Louis Goldberg & Family: Pioneer Jews of Jefferson, Texas,” Western States Jewish History 45/4.