__
|
_Wigdor _____________|
| (.... - 1812) |
| |__
|
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| | __
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |__
|
|
|--Minna VICTOR
| (1800 - 1865)
| __
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |__
| |
|_____________________|
|
| __
| |
|_____________________|
|
|__
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _+
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920
_Richard Joseph VICTOR _|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1952 |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920
_Larry Dean VICTOR ___|
| |
| | __________________________
| | |
| |_Susanne Elise ALTMAN __|
| (1929 - 1996) m 1952 |
| |__________________________
|
|
|--Monica VICTOR
|
| __________________________
| |
| ________________________|
| | |
| | |__________________________
| |
|_Sandra CHRISTIANSEN _|
|
| __________________________
| |
|________________________|
|
|__________________________
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _+
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920
_Richard Joseph VICTOR _|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1952 |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920
_Larry Dean VICTOR ___|
| |
| | __________________________
| | |
| |_Susanne Elise ALTMAN __|
| (1929 - 1996) m 1952 |
| |__________________________
|
|
|--Neil VICTOR
|
| __________________________
| |
| ________________________|
| | |
| | |__________________________
| |
|_Sandra CHRISTIANSEN _|
|
| __________________________
| |
|________________________|
|
|__________________________
_Walter Moses VICTOR __+
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _|
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920 |
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _+
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892
_Richard Joseph VICTOR ____|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1946 |
| | _______________________
| | |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____|
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920 |
| |_______________________
|
|
|--Pamela Jo VICTOR
| (1946 - 2016)
| _______________________
| |
| __________________________|
| | |
| | |_______________________
| |
|_Phyllis Ellene PILLSBURY _|
(1923 - 1998) m 1946 |
| _______________________
| |
|__________________________|
|
|_______________________
_Wigdor _____________
| (.... - 1812)
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| |_____________________
|
_Victor VICTOR ______|
| (1798 - 1870) m 1829|
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Pauline VICTOR
| (1832 - 1853)
| _____________________
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Liena MEYER ________|
(1800 - 1870) m 1829|
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
_Salomon VICTOR _____+
| (1765 - 1817)
_Michael Salomon VICTOR ________|
| (1794 - 1861) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
_Salomon (or Samuel Salomon) VICTOR _|
| (1825 - 1892) m 1855 |
| | _Leiser PHILIPPI ____
| | | (.... - 1812)
| |_Beile Leise (Bertha) PHILIPPI _|
| (1798 - 1877) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Regina VICTOR
| (1864 - ....)
| _____________________
| |
| ________________________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Minna BRUCK ________________________|
(1832 - 1896) m 1855 |
| _____________________
| |
|________________________________|
|
|_____________________
1950 census: 1218 (apt.?) 11 Westlake North, Seattle, WA: Living alone, age 28, divorced, driver for city transit system. His most recently divorced wife, Phyllis, had already remarried to Fred Starkey and was living with him and her two children Ronald G. Olson and Pamela Jo Victor elsewhere in Seattle.
In June, 1958, he was living in Longview, WA with his wife Susann Altman, noted in birth announcement for their son (Larry Dean Victor) on 27 jun 1958.
_Solomon VICTOR ____________________+
| (1833 - 1900) m 1860
_Walter Moses VICTOR __|
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892 |
| |_Marion (Mary Ann) DANSON __________+
| (1832 - 1916) m 1860
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _|
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920 |
| | _James Jackson Hamilton REEDY ______+
| | | (1853 - 1941) m 1871
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _|
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892 |
| |_Carrie (Candace) Elvira MCDOUGALL _+
| (1851 - 1942) m 1871
|
|--Richard Joseph VICTOR
| (1921 - 2016)
| ____________________________________
| |
| _______________________|
| | |
| | |____________________________________
| |
|_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____|
(1902 - 1951) m 1920 |
| ____________________________________
| |
|_______________________|
|
|____________________________________
In 1928, he was staying with his sister Vervia's family at 2207 Duvall, Los Angeles, and working as a chauffeur. Family records indicate he may have died in Arizona, either in 1990 or 1991.
_Victor VICTOR ________+
| (1798 - 1870) m 1829
_Solomon VICTOR ____________________|
| (1833 - 1900) m 1860 |
| |_Liena MEYER __________
| (1800 - 1870) m 1829
_Walter Moses VICTOR __|
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892 |
| | _John DANSON __________+
| | | (1793 - 1835) m 1818
| |_Marion (Mary Ann) DANSON __________|
| (1832 - 1916) m 1860 |
| |_Catherine POWER ______+
| (1797 - 1834) m 1818
|
|--Richard Melvin VICTOR
| (1908 - 1990)
| _William Mickle REEDY _+
| | (1821 - 1857)
| _James Jackson Hamilton REEDY ______|
| | (1853 - 1941) m 1871 |
| | |_Mary Kerr RANKIN _____+
| | (1824 - 1902)
|_Eulia Rose May REEDY _|
(1877 - 1967) m 1892 |
| _John MCDOUGALL _______+
| | (1810 - 1884)
|_Carrie (Candace) Elvira MCDOUGALL _|
(1851 - 1942) m 1871 |
|_Elvira URAN __________+
(1812 - 1900)
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _+
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920
_Richard Joseph VICTOR _|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1952 |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920
_Robert Henry VICTOR _______________|
| |
| | __________________________
| | |
| |_Susanne Elise ALTMAN __|
| (1929 - 1996) m 1952 |
| |__________________________
|
|
|--Robbie VICTOR
|
| __________________________
| |
| _Onorato Ubaldo CHIODO _|
| | (1921 - 2012) |
| | |__________________________
| |
|_Margherita Bianca (Margie) CHIODO _|
|
| __________________________
| |
|_Giovannina _____ ______|
|
|__________________________
living - details excluded
_Walter Moses VICTOR __+
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _|
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920 |
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _+
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892
_Richard Joseph VICTOR _|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1952 |
| | _______________________
| | |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____|
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920 |
| |_______________________
|
|
|--Robert Henry VICTOR
|
| _______________________
| |
| __________________________|
| | |
| | |_______________________
| |
|_Susanne Elise ALTMAN __|
(1929 - 1996) m 1952 |
| _______________________
| |
|__________________________|
|
|_______________________
World War I draft card dated June 5, 1917 shows his occupation as "Transmission of Mails" (U.S. Government), and his residence as 123 Broadway N., Seattle. He was inducted October 18, 1918, and honorably discharged (demobilization) December 10, 1918, the entire time at Ft. McDowell, CA, status unassigned.
In the 1940 census, he is living at 2214 12th Ave. W. in Seattle, with his wife Shirley age 20, daughter Wilma age 15 (note the age, Wilma is definitely the daughter by his first wife), and daughter Joann, age 1. Also, in 1930, his first wife Myrtle has already remarried to Arnold Hansen, and they have two children, "Victor B." (this is Burton Victor, her son by Robert Victor) age 7, and Helen, age 6/12. That leaves Richard unaccounted for; he might be living with another relative. However, in 1940, the Arnold Hansen household includes, besides Burton and three younger Hansen children, an entry for Richard Victor (absent), age 18, "step-son", but without any indication of his actual location.
1950 census: 203 River St.?, Seattle: Robert Victor, 54, b. Nebraska, services oil burners, wife Shirley, 30, b. "Canada Other", daughter Joann, 11, b. Washington, daughter Sharon, 8, b. Washington.
[4036] Social Security Death Index, #535-01-6717, and family records.
_Victor VICTOR ________+
| (1798 - 1870) m 1829
_Solomon VICTOR ____________________|
| (1833 - 1900) m 1860 |
| |_Liena MEYER __________
| (1800 - 1870) m 1829
_Walter Moses VICTOR __|
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892 |
| | _John DANSON __________+
| | | (1793 - 1835) m 1818
| |_Marion (Mary Ann) DANSON __________|
| (1832 - 1916) m 1860 |
| |_Catherine POWER ______+
| (1797 - 1834) m 1818
|
|--Robert Ingersoll VICTOR
| (1895 - 1984)
| _William Mickle REEDY _+
| | (1821 - 1857)
| _James Jackson Hamilton REEDY ______|
| | (1853 - 1941) m 1871 |
| | |_Mary Kerr RANKIN _____+
| | (1824 - 1902)
|_Eulia Rose May REEDY _|
(1877 - 1967) m 1892 |
| _John MCDOUGALL _______+
| | (1810 - 1884)
|_Carrie (Candace) Elvira MCDOUGALL _|
(1851 - 1942) m 1871 |
|_Elvira URAN __________+
(1812 - 1900)
living - details excluded
_Solomon VICTOR ____________________+
| (1833 - 1900) m 1860
_Walter Moses VICTOR __|
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892 |
| |_Marion (Mary Ann) DANSON __________+
| (1832 - 1916) m 1860
_Richard Melvin VICTOR _|
| (1908 - 1990) |
| | _James Jackson Hamilton REEDY ______+
| | | (1853 - 1941) m 1871
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _|
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892 |
| |_Carrie (Candace) Elvira MCDOUGALL _+
| (1851 - 1942) m 1871
|
|--Roberta Marlene VICTOR
|
| ____________________________________
| |
| _______________________|
| | |
| | |____________________________________
| |
|_Florence Leola CHEEK __|
|
| ____________________________________
| |
|_______________________|
|
|____________________________________
living - details excluded
_Walter Moses VICTOR __+
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _|
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920 |
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _+
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892
_Richard Joseph VICTOR ______|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1942 |
| | _______________________
| | |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____|
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920 |
| |_______________________
|
|
|--Ronald James VICTOR
|
| _______________________
| |
| __________________________|
| | |
| | |_______________________
| |
|_Alda M. ("Sandy") WINELAND _|
(1924 - 2003) m 1942 |
| _______________________
| |
|__________________________|
|
|_______________________
__
|
_Wigdor _____________|
| (.... - 1812) |
| |__
|
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| | __
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |__
|
|
|--Rosalie VICTOR
| (1802 - 1865)
| __
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |__
| |
|_____________________|
|
| __
| |
|_____________________|
|
|__
_Salomon VICTOR _____+
| (1765 - 1817)
_Michael Salomon VICTOR ________|
| (1794 - 1861) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
_Louis VICTOR _______|
| (1825 - 1865) m 1853|
| | _Leiser PHILIPPI ____
| | | (.... - 1812)
| |_Beile Leise (Bertha) PHILIPPI _|
| (1798 - 1877) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Sabina VICTOR
| (1858 - ....)
| _____________________
| |
| ________________________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Jenny REINHARDT ____|
(.... - 1905) m 1853|
| _____________________
| |
|________________________________|
|
|_____________________
_Salomon VICTOR _____+
| (1765 - 1817)
_Michael Salomon VICTOR ________|
| (1794 - 1861) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
_Salomon (or Samuel Salomon) VICTOR _|
| (1825 - 1892) m 1855 |
| | _Leiser PHILIPPI ____
| | | (.... - 1812)
| |_Beile Leise (Bertha) PHILIPPI _|
| (1798 - 1877) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Salome VICTOR
|
| _____________________
| |
| ________________________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Minna BRUCK ________________________|
(1832 - 1896) m 1855 |
| _____________________
| |
|________________________________|
|
|_____________________
As Salomon Wigdor, he took the surname Victor in 1812 (from the list of Jewish surnames adopted in 1812 in Prussia). There are no other Victors on the Prussian surname adoption lists that we have been able to locate so far. The Jewish communities in the area around Pyrzyce were not very large, so it seems virtually certain that this Salomon was the father or grandfather of all of the Victor families who appear in the surviving vital records of the Jewish community of Pyrzyce (1839-1847) and in the household censuses or "Matrikeln" of 1853 and 1865. These include: Victor S. Victor (born about 1798, wife Liena Meier born about 1800, several children born 1831-1842); "M. S." Victor, now known to be Michael Victor (born about 1800, wife Bertha Philipp or Philippi born about 1807); Rosalie (born about 1802, wife of Abraham Maass); and Minna (born about 1800, wife of Abraham Baer). (The middle initial in these names is apparently an optional way of indicating the name of the person's father, in this case Salomon. It is not technically a "middle name" in the modern English sense, although it does seem to be used that way in a secular to context, such as newspaper and business records.)
The "Matrikeln" in the catalogue fo the Family History Library were copied in December, 1958 at the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany, from a microfilm made by "Firma Gatermann, Duisburg-Hamborn" in the winter of 1944/1945, part of a collection of "Matrikel und Personenstandsregister jüdischer Gemeinden in Deutschland", a section labeled "Jüdische Register aus dem Gebeit östlich der Oder-Neisse Linie". Item 266 is dated 22 apr 1853, and item 265 is not explicitly dated, but at the end there is a total ("Summa") for the year 1865, and a comparison with a total from the previous year, 1864. The 1853 list is almost completely legible, but the 1865 list is badly faded and stained. By the time the later list was compiled, both Victor Salomon and M. S. (Michael) Victor had died, their households identified by the presence of their widows, although it is also possible from the way that their presumed widows were identified (Bertha is explicitly called a widow, Liena is not) that Victor S. Victor was simply not present.
Incredibly, a notice of Salomon's death turned up on Google Books in a newspaper from Stettin (Amtsblatt der Regierung in Stettin, 28 oct 1817 (issue 46), separate section called Oeffentlicher Anzeiger issue 38, repeated in the next issue). He died during the night of 18-19 oct 1817, probably after midnight, as the family retired at midnight after an enjoyable evening. He was in his fifty-third year (thus probably born in 1764 or 1765). Unfortunately, the name of his widow was not given, nor were the names of his surviving children. However, this information helps to clarify another interesting reference:
A notice from M. Salomon Victor and his unnamed wife, announcing the betrothal of their daughter Henriette Victor to Adolph Burchardt, held at Pyritz on 24 jan 1849, appeared in a Berlin newspaper (Königlich privilegirte Berlinische Zeitung von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen, 27 jan 1849). The elder Salomon had died in 1817, so this must be a reference to one of his sons. Adolph and Henriette are buried in the Jewish cemetery in Schoenhauser Allee, Berlin: Henriette Burchardt geb. Victor, born at Pyritz 13 dec 1829, died at Berlin 08 mar 1885; Adolph Burchardt, born at Sonnenburg 19 mar 1823, died at Berlin 06 dec 1900. Adolph, and later his sons, ran a "Tapetenfabrik".
Text of the death notice:
Vom 28 October 1817.
No. 38.
Ein harter Schlag traf mich mit meinen Kindern in der Nacht vom 18ten bis zum 19ten dieses Monats. Nach einen sehr vergnügten Abend legen wir uns um 12 Uhr zu Bette, kaum lagen wir 1/4tel Stunde, so hörte ich ein langes Röcheln im Bette meines guten Mannes, des Kaufmann Salomon Victor hieselbst, ich nebst meine Kinder eilten herbei, Ach! und er war nicht mehr, ein Stick- und Schlagfluß endete sein schönes Dasein im 53sten Jahre, zu früh für mich und seinen unversorgten Kindern. Freunde und Bekannte, die ihr den Seeligen kanntet, werden mein und meiner Kinder gerechten Schmerz rechtfertigen. Beruhigen kann uns nur Zeit und die Hoffnung des Wiedersehens.
Die Wittwe und Kinder des Verstorbenen.
Zugleich zeige ich meinen Gönnern und Freunden hiedurch ganz ergebenst an, daß ich die Waaren- und Tuchhandlung, nebst sonstige Geschäfte, welche mein seeliger Mann gehabt hatte, mit Hulfe meiner Kinder ungestört fortsetzen werde. Ich bitte daher ganz ergebenst, mir und meinen Kindern eben das Zutrauen zu schenken, welches der Seelige gehabt hat, ich und meine Kinder werden sich stets bestreben, das alles so prompt zu erfüllen und zu besorgen, wie es bey seinem Leben geschehen ist. Pyritz den 25sten October 1817.
Salomon Victor seeligen Wittwe.
(Other years of the same publication, as late as the 1830's, are on Google Books, digitized, but apparently not indexed. Also, a number of German-language publications from the 19th Century are digitized and indexed, but in such a way that the "tz" glyph was not recognized as such, with the result that place names such as Pyritz were not present in the index. Examples have been found in which it is rendered by the OCR algorithms as a k, thus Pyrik, but in others as a t, Pyrit.)
Likely a different Salomon son of Awigdor lived at Hamburg-Altona, where a burial in the Königstraße 20 oct 1812 concerns Särche, daughter of Schmuel Dehn and wife of Salomon ben Awidgor (German subtitle in the burial register: Sarchen Ehefrau des Salomon Victor). The burial is adjacent to that of Terzche or Telzche, a "Jungfer" who died in the same year, also a daughter of the same Schmuel Dehn (web site with full information, images of the burial registers, etc. www.steinheim-institut.de/cgi-bin/epidat?id=hht&lang=en). However, it is also possible that this is the same Salomon Victor who remarried after the death of his first wife, and in that case Särche Dehn could conceivably have been the mother of the known children of Salomon Victor of Pyritz. For the moment, however, there is no evidence other than the coincidence of names to connect this man from Hamburg with the family at Pyritz.
__
|
__|
| |
| |__
|
_Wigdor _____________|
| (.... - 1812) |
| | __
| | |
| |__|
| |
| |__
|
|
|--Salomon VICTOR
| (1765 - 1817)
| __
| |
| __|
| | |
| | |__
| |
|_____________________|
|
| __
| |
|__|
|
|__
The death records of this Salomon (14 may 1892, Berlin) and of his wife Minna Bruck (30 dec 1896, Berlin) make it clear that he was the son of Michael Victor and Bertha Philippi. He is apparently also the Salomon (?) Victor, Kaufmann, in the household at Strattmerstrasse no. 40 on the list of 1865. There were two Solomons of this generation on the Matrikel of 1853, one the son of Victor S. Victor, the other either the son of "M. S. Victor" (now known to be Michael Victor) or else of another son of the original Solomon Victor. The Solomon who was the son of Victor S. Victor was listed as age 20 in 1853, the other one was listed as age 28, but we realized that the age of the latter Solomon might be in error, because some of the information for his household was altered on the list. If this information is correct, it might be that two Solomons, first cousins, were born in the Victor family around 1832 suggesting that their grandfather, the original Solomon Victor, might have died shortly before they were born.
The name of his wife, Minna, was first found in the marriage record of his daughter "Selma", whose marriage was recorded at Pyritz 03 jun 1876. That record also has his clear signature. In that record, Solomon's age is given as 51, which implies that he was born in 1825 (and that figure also means his age recorded on the 1853 Matrikel was correct, in spite of other alterations made to the Matrikel at that point). His age in the 1865 matrikel is unfortunately not legible, nor even visible.
If the Solomon who married Minna Bruck and who remained in Pyritz were the son of Victor Victor, then our Solomon, who married Marion Danson, would have to be the son of Moses Victor (he is already known not to have been the son of Michael, because the court case of 1870 in Bloomington, Illinois shows that Michael was the uncle of our Solomon), thus eliminating the possibility raised by other evidence that "Moses" was simply a nickname preferred by Victor S. Victor. On the other hand, if the Solomon whose age is shown as 28 in the 1853 Matrikel were the son of Michael (on the theory that he was enumerated immediately after Louis Victor in 1853, and Louis appears to be living in the same house with Michael's widow Bertha Philippi in 1865, thus implying that Louis was probably a son of Michael, and that this Solomon was therefore likely the brother of Louis), then the Solomon who was the son of Victor S. Victor is likely our Solomon, and not the one who married Minna Bruck.
In other words, there are several possible configurations of the family tree: Victor Victor definitely had a son Solomon, as shown on the 1853 Matrikel, and this Solomon could have been the one who ended up in America — and in that case, we have to assume also that Victor Victor used the nickname Moses, there being no apparent reason why our American Solomon would have needed to conceal his father's name. But it is also possible that there was a third brother, Moses, who married a Meyer, perhaps a sister of Liena Meyer, the wife of Victor Victor. In that case, the American Solomon might be the one enumerated next to Louis Victor in 1853, but if that is the case, his age on that list is incorrect. But Louis appears to be a son of Michael Victor and Bertha Philippi (Louis is living in the same house as Bertha in the 1865 Matrikel), and that suggests that the second Solomon in the 1853 list could be instead a son of Michael. Unless more evidence can be found, the most economical solution seems to be to place the American Solomon as the son of a somewhat hypothetical Moses.
There may be some references to this family in records of the Bruck family, and that may be the source of a least one internet mention of him as Shmuel Salomon Victor. Perhaps another example of people using something other than their official secular names, as seems to be the case for our "Moses Victor", who seems to have been Victor, son of Salomon Victor? A likely source for this information is a footnote in Jacob Jacobson, Die Judenbürgerbücher der Stadt Berlin 1809-1851 Band 4 (Quellenwerke, Band 1) (Berlin: de Gruyter,1962), p. 542, to the effect that Minna was a daughter of Bernhard Bruck, and that she married on 04 may 1855 to the Kaufmann Samuel Salomon Victor of (or in?) Pyritz. The text here is highly abbreviated, but there is a reference to "29-22", apparently the ages of the groom and bride at the time of their marriage.
The testimony at the trial of our Solomon Victor in 1870 indicates that there were two contemporary Salomon Victors in Pyritz circa 1850. One was ours, the other must be this Salomon, and it may be that he adopted the name Samuel in order to distinguish himself from his cousin.
_Wigdor _____________
| (.... - 1812)
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| |_____________________
|
_Michael Salomon VICTOR ________|
| (1794 - 1861) m 1823 |
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Salomon (or Samuel Salomon) VICTOR
| (1825 - 1892)
| _____________________
| |
| _Leiser PHILIPPI ____|
| | (.... - 1812) |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Beile Leise (Bertha) PHILIPPI _|
(1798 - 1877) m 1823 |
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
still living - details excluded
_Solomon VICTOR ____________________+
| (1833 - 1900) m 1860
_Walter Moses VICTOR __|
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892 |
| |_Marion (Mary Ann) DANSON __________+
| (1832 - 1916) m 1860
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _|
| (1895 - 1984) m 1937 |
| | _James Jackson Hamilton REEDY ______+
| | | (1853 - 1941) m 1871
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _|
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892 |
| |_Carrie (Candace) Elvira MCDOUGALL _+
| (1851 - 1942) m 1871
|
|--Sharon Sue VICTOR
|
| _Adam Whitfield HILL _______________+
| | (1846 - 1924) m 1869
| _George Maine HILL ____|
| | (1884 - 1976) m 1904 |
| | |_Hannah Blackford MAINE ____________+
| | (1850 - 1886) m 1869
|_Shirley Violet CLARK ____|
(1919 - 1993) m 1937 |
| _Casius Eugene SHERO _______________
| |
|_Grace Maud SHERO _____|
(1890 - 1945) m 1904 |
|_Mahala ROBERTS ____________________
As of 1991, living in Sandy, UT.
_Walter Moses VICTOR __+
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892
_William Clinton VICTOR _|
| (1893 - 1981) m 1925 |
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _+
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892
_Marion Lee VICTOR __|
| |
| | _______________________
| | |
| |_Kathryn Ivera NOONAN ___|
| (1894 - ....) m 1925 |
| |_______________________
|
|
|--Sherry Lynn VICTOR
|
| _______________________
| |
| _________________________|
| | |
| | |_______________________
| |
|_Barbara _____ ______|
|
| _______________________
| |
|_________________________|
|
|_______________________
Solomon Victor was a very difficult ancestor to find! Family lore obtained from his grand-daughters in the 1960's included the following points:
Starting with this very limited information, a few definite records of Solomon have been found, culminating in the discovery of extensive newspaper coverage of a sensational incident in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1870. At this point, it may be helpful to introduce a timeline, before presenting the evidence:
At the time of his marriage, October 31, 1860, Solomon was living at 113 Bury New Road, Strangeways, Manchester. Marion was living at 1 Belgrave Terrace, Higher Broughton, Salford. Notably, the marriage record gives the name of Solomon's father as Moses Victor, not noted as deceased. This is the only document naming Moses as Solomon's father, and it necessasily came from information provided to the registrar by Solomon himself.
The births of his two children were duly registered in England in 1863 and 1865, and we eventually found Solomon and Marion in the 1861 census in England. After searching the 1861 census for Manchester and Salford roll by roll (this was many years before indexes were available), Solomon and Marion were finally located at 128 King Street, ecclesiastical district of St. Stephen's, Trinity ward of Salford, lodging in the household of widow Rachel Piggott. Solomon's occupation was "dealer in smallwares" (i.e., haberdashery trims, bindings, and braids). The most significant fact revealed here is that Marion's birthplace was "Quebec, Lower Canada", presumably meaning in or near the city of Quebec. However, no further record of Solomon was found for many years. It was only in the last few years that some additional bits of information surfaced in digitized newspapers.
A directory of Manchester, England, supposed to be from 1861 (but the title page is lost), is in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. There is a listing for "Moses Victor and Sons, Merchants, 68 Faulkner St., Manchester." However, examination of what appears to be an exhaustive series of notes about foreign businesses in the Manchester area does not mention this firm, so we have come to believe the directory listing reflects only an unsuccessful attempt to start a business; no branch office was actually established in Manchester, but we have to believe that Moses was alive at the time the directory listing was paid for. (Questions: Does an intact copy of the 1861 Manchester directory exist anywhere? Are there any other Manchester directories for the years 1858-1863? (There is a directory for 1863 digitized by the University of Leicester, no Victor listings and they are not at 68 Faulkner St.) Any other mentions of a Solomon Victor elsewhere in English directories during this period?)
Some branches of the Victor family have told us recently that they were told Solomon died in 1875, presumably in Marinette, Wisconsin, but other parts of the family did not recall hearing this story. Because he was not with his family in the 1880 census, we assumed he had already died. However, no record of Solomon could be found in Marinette, and we began to wonder if the fact that Marion identified herself as a widow on the 1880 census was simply a convenient way to explain away the absence of her husband. She might have considered herself what was known at the time as a "grass widow", a woman whose husband had left her.
Since Solomon was supposed to have been the son of a leather merchant in Berlin, we checked the index to the "direct" passenger lists for the port of Hamburg, Germany. There was indeed a Solomon Victor of the right age, born in Pyritz, Prussia (now Pyrzyce, Poland), who was scheduled to sail for New York in 1854. The Hamburg passenger embarkation index for 1854 shows Salomon Victor, occupation Kaufmann (merchant), born in Pyritz, Prussia, is on the embarkation passenger list for the ship "Ludwig August", 05 sep 1854, Capt. C. Plate, sailing for New York. This ship arrived in New York on 26 oct 1854, but Solomon is not shown on the arrival passenger list. Instead, he changed his plans and booked an "indirect passage" on the ship "Falcon", captain Fowler (in 1856, the inventor Samuel F. B. Morse traveled on this same ship), for Hull, on 08 sep 1854 (Hamburg Indirect Passenger Lists, Bd. 1, p. 137). From there, he caught a ship at Liverpool, and arrived in New York on 24 oct 1854 aboard the ship "William Rathbone" from Liverpool. This discovery at least suggested that it might be worth checking for the existence of records from the Jewish community of Pyritz, but if our Solomon was in England in 1860, what was he doing in New York in 1854?
A number of sources for the Jewish community in Berlin have been checked, but we found no mention of this Victor family. It may be that our Moses Victor actually worked in one of the commercial towns outside of Berlin.
When the indexed passenger lists for the port of Quebec City became available, we found Marion Victor and the two children arriving on the St. George in 1868, but Solomon was not with them. Had he remained in England, or perhaps returned to Germany?
More recently, a collection of indexed United States city directories became available on Ancestry.com. (The index is definitely not complete, and it is therefore also necessary to examine the directories themselves.) Listings for one or more men named Solomon Victor that might conceivably be our Solomon were identified:
Are all of these listings the same man? There is still no way to be sure, but the last one, from 1878, turns out to be the same Solomon who arrived in New York in 1854, from Pyritz.
Of course, not everyone used their full names in the directory listings. One pair of listings from the 1872 directory of Chicago, Illinois might be considered: D. Victor, 436 W. Madison, laces and embroideries; and S. Victor, residence 436 W. Madison, no occupation listed. 1874: Alton Rich, moulder, residence 683 Blue Island Avenue (this might be Alston Rich, see below).
The Solomon Victor from Pyritz.
In the naturalization records of the US Circuit Court at Chicago, we found Solomon Victor, 560 Wabash Ave., Chicago, born in Prussia in 1832, arrived in the United States in October, 1854, at New York City, naturalized 30 oct 1890. This is the same Solomon who died in Chicago 20 apr 1900, age listed as 57 (should be 67, from other records), ID #19175. He is also listed in the 1891 Chicago directory, selling real estate, and he appears in the 1888 and 1890 Chicago voter registration lists, in 1890 with the same address, and the interesting notation that he had lived in his precinct 1 year at the time he applied in October, 1890, and had resided in Chicago and in the state of Illinois for the past 19 years. The 1888 list says he had lived in precinct 6, ward 4 for 5 months, and in the state and county for 18 years. That would put his arrival in the area at about 1870-1871. However, he has not been found in the 1880 census. These voter registration lists indicate he was already naturalized, "date not known, court not known". He seems not to be on the 1892 Chicago voters list. There is a Solomon Victor, clerk, address 251 Clark, in the 1888 directory of Chicago. (See below, the supposed residency in Illinois might be explained by his business travel between St. Paul, Minnesota, or other cities, and Chicago, or by his adventure in Bloomington, Illinois late in 1870.)
A marriage record in Cook Co., Illinois, shows Solomon Victor to Louise Feigel (sometimes transcribed as Fiegel), 28 nov 1883, his age given as 40, hers as 23, no other information. Since so many subjects of our research have fibbed about their ages on official documents, I had to consider the possibility that the Solomon who was naturalized, the one embarking at Hamburg, and the one who married Louise Feigel, were all the same man, and since nothing was known of this man between 1854 and 1877, there was no way to prove that he was not our Solomon! In particular, he does not seem to be found on any US census 1860-1880. However, we found Solomon ("S. Victor") and Louise ("Louisa Victor") in the 1885 census of St. Paul, Minnesota, with appropriate demographic data, further confirming our conclusion that the man who married Louise Feigel was the same Solomon Victor who arrived in New York from Pyritz in 1854, made his Declaration of Intention in St. Paul in 1877, and was naturalized in Chicago in 1890. The record at Waldheim cemetery says he was buried 22 apr 1900, the location given as gate 19, lot 900, row 91, grave 886, and his age 57 years. The burial is in the section identified as Gomel Chesed Shel Emes #1, West Side, an area with mainly individual burials, often under charitable circumstances. There is no grave marker, and the cemetery association has no additional information. His widow died 31 aug 1937 at Evanston, Cook Co., Illinois. She was the daughter of Leonard Feigel (death certificate says Feigh) and his wife Catherine, from Germany, born at Oswego, New York on 31 mar 1857, widow of Solomon, burial at Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Cook Co., Illinois, 02 sep 1937.
After the death of this Solomon Victor, the following article appeared in the Chicago Times-Herald (issue of 18 dec 1900, quoted in the Charleston News and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina) on 26 dec 1900 (p. 5): "TO JOIN THE JEWISH CHURCH. Why a Protestant Widow in Chicago Changes her Religion. (From the Chicago Times-Herald. December 18.) Mrs. Louise Victor, 2727 Vincennes avenue, widow of Solomon Victor, and hitherto a believer in the Protestant faith, will become a proselyte in the Jewish belief by open confession next Saturday at the Temple B'nai Sholom, corner of 26th street and Indiana avenue. The admission of Mrs. Victor into the faith of her late husband was for a long time refused by Rabbi Messing of Temple B'nai Sholom, who feared she would suffer from prejudice that might be aroused by her action. Her request was finally granted upon the extraordinary plea that the applicant feared, if she failed to gain admission to his faith, she would be separated from her husband after her death. So great was her love for him, it was represented to the rabbi by her friend, Mrs. Kahn, of 2727 Vincennes avenue, with whom she has her home, that rejection by the rabbi would doom her to perpetual misery in life and the dread of spiritual isolation thereafter. Rabbi Messing decided to give her two months to consider the matter, and, as she still remains firm in her intentions, and is encouraged in them by her mother and sister, the rabbi has at last consented, and will received her into his congregation next Saturday morning at 10 o'clock upon open confession of faith. Mrs. Victor was born in Oswego, N. Y., in 1857, of Lutheran parentage, and came to Chicago in 1880. Three years later she was married to Solomon Victor, belonging to Rabbi Messing's congregation. Her husband died last April." The same story, sometimes in much greater detail, appeared in various newspapers as far away as Charleston, South Carolina and San Francisco, California.
The Chicago naturalization index card was photographed more recently by Ancestry.com, and this time we noticed the back of the card, which indicates that a Declaration of Intention was filed for this Solomon Victor in the District Court of Ramsey County, Minnesota on 20 oct 1877 — thus a possible new source of information. An index of Minnesota naturalization records indicates this is "Reel 7, Vol. M, p. 316", and the web site of the Minnesota Historical Society indicates this volume contains records from November 1871 to January 1880, and the reference is to a collection of 90 reels of microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society, from which a copy of the record has been obtained. Apart from the information noted above (born in Prussia in 1832, arrived at New York City in October, 1854), it shows the clear signature of this Solomon Victor.
The Solomon who landed in New York in 1854 was certainly not born in 1843 (as would be supposed from the death certificate in Chicago, 20 apr 1900) if he were already a merchant (Kaufmann on the emigration passenger lists) in 1854, or a laborer as indicated on the manifest of the William Rathbone. In other words, the passenger lists from 1854, both in Germany and in the United States, as well as the Declaration of Intention and the subsequent naturalization, establish that this man was born about 1832, even though the voter registration lists, the marriage record of 1883, and the death record, all apparently referring to the same man, imply a birth year of about 1842 or 1843. When he married the much younger Louise Feigel, he had simply subtracted 10 years from his age, and maintained that story for the rest of his life.
Pyritz is a town near modern Szczecin, in the region of Pomerania or Hinter Pomern, modern Pyrzyce. Two enumerations (technically, these are "Matrikels") of the Jewish households of this town exist (LDS film #1184446). The first is dated April 22, 1853, the second is for the year 1865. The 1853 enumeration of the Jewish families of Pyritz includes several Victor families. There is a Salomon Victor, 20 years of age, son of Victor S. Victor (age 55) and Liene Meyer (age 53). The same microfilm contains a later enumeration, from 1865, which, although in part stained or faded beyond legibility, lists the widow of Victor S. Victor with two of her daughters, apparently in house number 41, though listed out of order. House number 40 is very faint, but looks like it is Salomon Victor with a wife and a number of children, though the ages are not very legible. But this could just as well be the older Salomon Victor, listed as age 28 in 1853, then living alone but next to Louis Victor, also age 28, who in the later list is living with the widow Victor née Philippi — the latter is found in the 1853 listing as Bertha Philipp (age 46) wife of M. S. Victor (age 53). Thus, while this list supports the idea of a different parentage for the Solomon who traveled to New York in 1854, the possibility remains that Solomon son of Victor S. Victor might have remained in Pyritz, and it is also possible that some of the Victors of Pyritz had already moved out of this town by the time the enumeration was made in 1853. Among other reasons to suspect that the lists are incomplete, at least one of the adult Victors on the later list (Joseph) cannot be identified in the 1853 list. Another issue is that the 1853 entries for Louis and Salomon Victor (listed together, both age 28) appear to have been altered. An apprentice or helper was first listed on the entry for Salomon, then lined out and listed with Louis instead. It might be that there was confusion when these two entries were made, and that the age listed for Salomon might therefore be questioned as well.
On the suggestion of Paul Lipinski of the Polish Genealogical Society, we examined the Lutheran "churchbook duplicates" for Pyritz, and were pleased to discover that lists of births, marriages, and deaths for the Jewish community of Pyritz were included for the years 1840-1847 (see transcript). These lists, and other information recently received from correspondents, show that the Victors of Pyritz originated from a Salomon son of Widgor who took the surname Victor in 1812, when it was required for the resident Jews to do so. The pattern of names from that point forward appears to be that the father's given name is generally used as the second given name for the sons. Thus, it appears that Victor Salomon Victor (born about 1798) is a son of the original Salomon Victor of Pyritz, and the M. S. Victor (born about 1800) who married Bertha Phillipi is another son of the same Salomon. Additional lists for the Jewish community of Pyritz are known in the Polish national archives (1818-1819), and there are still more "churchbook" duplicates for the district of Pyritz that need to be examined to see if any Jewish lists were included.
Unfortunately, we found no mention of Louis Victor in the civil registration lists that survive for Pyritz (1874-1877, FHL microfilm #1199630).
What was this Solomon Victor doing in Ramsey County, Minnesota? A search of directories there shows an entry for Solomon Victor, trader, residing at 37 Franklin, in 1878. There is also a entry in 1885 (agent, residence 600 W. 7th) and another in 1886 (salesman, 417 Wabasha, residence 58 11th). The next known directory entry for this Solomon is in Chicago in 1888 (clerk, 251 Clark). The 1885 Minnesota State Census shows him still in Ramsey County, St. Paul, 4th Ward (p. 430), S. Victor age 40, born in Germany, parents both of foreign birth, and in the same household, Louisa, age 25, born in New York. Evidently, he had returned to St. Paul after marrying Louise Feigel.
Attempted Divorce in Richmond, Indiana, 1869.
Very recently, we spotted a notice of court orders in The Radical, a newspaper published in Richmond, Indiana, dated Thursday, October 14, 1869. Among the cases mentioned was "Marion Victor vs. Solomon Victor, divorce refused". These orders from the Wayne County, Indiana, Court of Common Pleas had been issued the previous week, thus sometime between October 4 and October 8, 1869. We can assume, therefore, that Marion, or Solomon, or both of them, were in Wayne County in 1869. If we add this information to the sequence of directory listings for Solomon Victor, it will be noticed that they form a definite itinerary, starting from Rochester, then heading west to Indiana, then Iowa, then north to St. Paul, Minnesota, and finally southeast to Chicago. Is this the itinerary of our Solomon Victor, or is it a combination of the travels of two or more men of the same name?
Notice of the impending case appeared in the Richmond Weekly Palladium 27 jul 1869, and again on 03, 10, 24, 31 aug, and 07 sep 1869 : "State of Indiana, Wayne County, S.S. Marion Victor vs. Solomon Victor. In the Wayne Common Pleas Court, Sept. Term A. D. '69. Divorce No. 3,8444. Be it known that , on this 24th day of July, 1869, the above named plaintiff by Bliss and Burke, Attorneys, filed in the office of the Clerk of the Wayne Common Pleas Court this complaint against said defendant in the above entitled cause, together with the affidavit of a competent person that said defendant, Solomon Victor, is not a resident of the State of Indiana. Said defendant, Solomon Victor, therefore is hereby notified of the filing and pendency of said complaint against him, and that unless he appears and answer or demur thereto, at the calling of the said cause, on the second day of the next term of said Court, to be begun and held at the Court House in Centerville, on the second Monday of September next, said complaint, and the matters and things therein contained and alleged, will be taken as true, and the said cause will be heard and determined in his absence. Witness, the Clerk and the seal of said Court at Centreville (sic), this 24th day of July, 1869. Wm. W. Dudley, Clerk. Bliss & Burke, Att'ys for Plaintiff."
The staff at the Wayne County, Indiana Courthouse checked their archives, and found only one mention of the case of Victor v. Victor. There was no petition, only the entry in Court Order Book 11, p. 572, dated 29 sep 1869:
SEPTEMBER TERM 1869
MARION VICTOR VS. SOLOMON VICTOR, DIVORCE NO. 3844
The plaintiff by Bliss and Burke her attorney comes and files proof of publication, in these words to wit (insert) And the defendant being three times audibly called comes not but herein wholly makes default. And it is shown to the Court that said defendant was duly served with notice of the filing and pendency of said suit by said publication at least 30 days prior to the 1st day of the present term of this Court. And on motion a rule is granted against the District Attorney to answer on or before the next calling of the cause. Said District Attorney failing and refusing to answer to said complaint, said rule is closed and made absolute. Thereupon the issues being joined by said default and closing of said rule, this cause is submitted to the Court for trial and disposition. Having seen and examined the petition and heard the proof the Court refuses to grant said Divorce.
It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the Court that said Plaintiff recover of said defendant the costs and charges by her her laid out or extended.
John F. Kibby, Judge.
The notices of the pending action mentioned in the court records should have appeared in a newspaper in Richmond, Indiana during the preceding weeks, presumably sometime during the summer of 1869. Who were the attorneys Bliss and Burke? One possibility is that Burke was Bartemus (or Bartemas, later known as "Bart") Burke, who was married in Wayne Co. in May, 1869, and who next appears in Boone Co., Indiana in the 1870 census, occupation attorney. Our thanks to Penny Nugent for the idea of looking for Marion Danson in the same Richmond newspaper, resulting in the discovery of Marion among the lists of letters waiting at the local post office for July 29 (Marion Danson) and October 14 (Mrs. M. Victor), 1869. Perhaps Marion used her maiden name to receive private correspondence under "general delivery" while she was in Richmond, attempting to engineer her divorce. The letter noted on the list of October 14 might be a copy of the court order, or correspondence from her attorneys. The letter of July 29 might coincide with the publication of the official notice of the action, which in order to comply with the requirement of publication 30 days before the first day of the term of the court, should have been published no later than August 2, 1869. We failed to find the Victor family under either name in the 1870 census of Richmond.
The Shooting of Alston Rich, Bloomington, Illinois, 1870.
Among the scattered references to the name Solomon Victor in the digitized newspapers, this one caught our attention: Public Ledger (Memphis, Tennessee), 18 aug 1870 (the same article also appeared in the Philadelphia Daily Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the same date, and in the Pittsburgh Daily Post on the following day, and in a number of other newspapers). In a short column of news from Illinois, we find the following item: "A Seducer Shot. Bloomington, August 18. — Alston Rich, a carpenter residing in this city, was shot this morning by a man named Solomon Victor, a Jew from Cincinnati. Victor claims Rich seduced the affections of his wife and ran away with her from Ohio about a year ago, since which time he has been looking for her without success, until yesterday, when he met her in Springfield." From the way this item was reported, it seems likely that it was picked up from a newspaper in Bloomington, but some of the events could have transpired in Springfield, Illinois. Following up on this story, we found Alston Rich age 49, born in Massachusetts, living in Bloomington, McLean Co., Illinois in the 1870 census. In the same household was Marion Rich, age 39, born in Canada. No one else was listed in this household. As noted below, Solomon's wife had been living in Bloomington with Mr. Rich since about May, 1870. The census enumeration was taken in June, and the shooting was in August. It is clear that the wife of this Solomon was Marion, born about 1831 in Canada, and further, that this couple was indeed our Solomon and Marion! The odds of finding a second Solomon Victor from Prussia, with a wife named Marion from Canada, are simply too remote to admit of any other explanation.
Further reports were found in Springfield:
Daily Illinois State Journal, [Monday] August 22, 1870: A man residing in Bloomington named Rich, was shot three times on Wednesday, by one Solomon Victor, and very dangerously wounded. Victor, who is a Jew and a lace peddler, has been tracing up Rich for about a year. Rich has been living with a woman whom Victor claims as his wife, while Rich states that she had procured a divorce and was legally married to him. It is thought that Rich will recover. Victor was arrested on the spot.
State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, Monday, August 22, 1870: At Bloomington, Ill., on Wednesday, Solomon Victor shot and dangerously wounded one Rich, whom he had been looking after during a year. Victor asserts that Rich has been living with his (Victor's) runaway wife, while on the other hand it is alleged that the woman has a divorce, and she is the lawful wife of Rich.
Daily Illinois State Journal, October 9, 1937: in a column headed "October 9, 1870", we find the statement, "Solomon Victor, on trial at Bloomington, successfully invoked the 'unwritten law', and was acquitted by a jury." This is apparently lifted from an old issue of the same newspaper. While we have not yet found that issue, the same newspaper reported on Tuesday, October 11, 1870 that "Solomon Victor, arrested at Bloomington for shooting one Rich, for alleged seduction of his wife, was acquitted on Friday of last week". That would place the date of the verdict on October 8, 1870. However, we found this item in the Quincy Whig (Quincy, Illinois) on October 5, 1870: "A Frenchman named Victor has been acquitted of the charge of assault with intent to kill one Rich, the seducer of his wife at Bloomington. Rich and the woman have disappeared."
I am indebted to Karen Heinrich (heritagedetectives.com) for recovering newspaper articles and court documents in Bloomington, Illinois. One of the newspaper articles mentions that Solomon Victor had used the name Charles Peppenheim, and that he had recently paid a fine for peddling lace without a license in Bloomington. The name Peppenheim seemed an odd choice if one wished to evade detection. However, I noticed the variant Pappenheim (from a place name), and the German idiom, "ich kenne mein Pappenheimer", which might be loosely translated as "I recognize who is responsible for this mischief!" The strategy of using Peppenheim as a deceptive alias would make sense only for a German in a foreign land where the associations of this name would not be known.
The newspaper accounts and the court records have been transcribed here. The amount of detail is astonishing, but since there is no official transcript of the trial, it is possible that the reporter covering the trial for the Pantagraph might have made errors. The most interesting fact in these stories is that Jacob Krohn, a well-known Jewish merchant then living in Freeport, Illinois, had grown up with Solomon Victor in Pyritz, Prussia. Thus, our Solomon was indeed from Pyritz. Mr. Krohn also noted that he had last met Solomon in New York, about 1856. (A collection of documents from the Krohn family of Pyritz is in the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute. See: https://archive.org/details/krohnfamilyf001. Jacob Krohn, who settled in Freeport, Illinois, was a son of this family. A biographical sketch http://www.accessgenealogy.com/illinois/biography-of-jacob-krohn.htm and other material say that he grew up in Pyritz and left for America late in 1852, arriving in New York in January, 1853 on the ship Gutenberg, sailing from Hamburg. Jacob's brother Moses Krohn eventually settled in the Cincinnati area, where his son Irwin M. Krohn served as parks commissioner for many year, after whom the Irwin M. Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park is named.)
Jacob Krohn also reported on "insanity" in the Victor family. This "evidence" was of course hearsay. The prosecutor objected, but the court was interested enough to allow the argument to be heard. The defense of Solomon Victor on the charge of attempted murder was based (successfully, as it turned out) on the notion of "temporary insanity". According to Krohn, a paternal uncle, Michael Victor, was "insane", as was a maternal uncle, David Meyer. It will be noted at once that this testimony is at variance with some of the information about the Victor family of Pyritz presented above. If David Meyer were, as stated, the brother of the mother of Solomon Victor, he would have to be the son of Victor Solomon Victor and his wife Liena Meyer. But family lore and the 1860 marriage record say that our Solomon was the son of Moses, not of Victor, and if that is correct, and if the "M. S. Victor" of the 1853 Matrikel is in fact our Moses, then the mother of our Solomon would be Bertha Philippi, not Liena Meyer. Here we have to suppose that Jacob was referring to an insane brother of Liena Meyer (who was Solomon's aunt, not his mother), and that the relationship to Solomon was either not clearly stated in his testimony, or that he was confused about the actual parentage of his old friend Solomon Victor, because he had known two of them, probably first cousins, in Pyritz. But the way the relationships were stated in the newspaper article was certainly to the advantage of the defense, because it established that insanity, potentially hereditary, had occurred on both sides of Solomon's pedigree. The defense called several physicians to comment on this point. After a dramatic closing argument by the defense, the jury acquitted Solomon of all charges, and the newspaper reporter observed that, although the verdict might not follow the letter of the law, the public would certainly agree with the result, especially since Mr. Rich and the woman in question had already left town for parts unknown even before the trial had begun. (The possibility that two relatives, Michael Victor and David Meyer, were in "lunatic asylums" in the 1850's and perhaps as late as 1870 is intriguing. At that time, there were several such institutions in Berlin, another at Alt Strelitz, and at least three serving the area around Pyritz, at Griefswald, Stralsund, and Rügenwalde.) What to make of these two "insane" uncles? There is no way to know from this testimony if either of them would have been considered to have any mental problem at all based on today's standards, and there was essentially no treatment available at that period, apart from confinement.
The Story of Alston Rich.
Alston Rich and his family were in Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio in 1860. Alston was still there as late as 20 dec 1867, when he signed a deposition in support of the Civil War pension of Anna, widow of William Grady, who had moved into Butler Co. about 2 years earlier (found on Fold3.com). An 1868 directory shows Alston Rich, carpenter, in Dayton, Montgomery Co., Ohio. By 1871, after being shot by Solomon Victor, he was in Chicago, where he married Maggie Sinnott. In the 1870 census, his first wife Mary (Dyer) Rich, age 49, born in Maine, "insane", was an inmate of the Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum in Dayton. The children, the eldest now 24, were then living in Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio. By 1880, she was living with her son Walter Rich in Hamilton. She died there in 1886. From these facts, we guessed that Mary had been committed to the asylum around 1868, and that her husband moved to Dayton to be nearer to her, leaving the children in Hamilton. Dayton is only about 35 miles from Richmond, Indiana.
The expected divorce of Alston Rich was indeed found in Butler Co., Ohio, but it was Mary who was the plaintiff:
Butler Co., Ohio, Divorces, vol. 11, pp. 44-45.
(Copy provided by the Butler County Records Center and Archives, 123 North Third Street, Hamilton, OH 45011, bcarchives@butlercountyohio.org, 04 feb 2014.)
September Term, 1866
Mary Rich vs. Alston Rich, Petition for Divorce.
This day came the plaintiff[,] and the defendant being in default[,] this cause came on to [be] heard and was by consent submitted to the court and the Court having heard the evidence and being fully advised in the premises does find the allegations in the petition are true and that the said Mary S. Rich is entitles to the relief asked for. It is therefor ordered by the Court that for gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty the said marriage contract between the said Mary S. Rich and Alston Rich be annulled and set aside and that the said Mary S. Rich be divorced from the said Alston Rich, and that she be forever released from the said marriage contract. And it is further ordered that the said Alston Rich pay to the said Mary S. Rich as and by way of alimony the sum of six hundred dollars as follows, One hundred dollars in thirty days, One hundred dollars in six months, two hundred dollars in twelve months, and two hundred dollars in eighteen months, the last three payments to bear interest from this date, and it is further ordered that all said sums be made a lien on the real estate described in the Petition as the property of the said Alston Rich. And it is further ordered that in default of any or all said payments execution issue therefor. And it is with plaintiff's consent further ordered adjudged, that upon the payment of said sums the said Mary S. Rich be forever barred from setting up any claim to dower in any of the real estate heretofore or now owned by said Alston Rich. And it is further ordered that the defendant pay the costs of this proceeding and in default thereof that an execution therefor.
No record of commitment proceedings for Mary Rich was found in Butler County. Records of the "Lunatic Asylum" have not been investigated.
Alston Rich, 337 South Desplaines street, died on 22 jun 1877, according to the notice that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on 26 jun 1877.
Attempted Divorce in DeKalb County, Illinois, 1872.
No sooner had we revised our understanding of Solomon's story as a result of the discoveries in Richmond, Indiana and Bloomington, Illinois, when our friend Penny Nugent turned up a notice of court action in DeKalb County, Illinois, "Marion Victor vs. Solomon Victor", in a report to the Illinois House of Representatives involving case loads in the county courts for the years 1871 and 1872. The entry was located in DeKalb Circuit Court Record, Book L, pp. 35 and 267 (on FamilySearch.org), as follows. However, the initial entry, during the September term of 1870, was not found; the "record" for this period could not be located in this series of Court Record books. The cause number appears to be 6544.
(Circuit Court Record, 4th day February Term, 1871, March 2nd 1871.)
6544 / 41 Marion Victor vs. Solomon Victor } Bill for Divorce.
And now comes the Complainant by her Solicitor and files herein proof of Publication in this cause from which it appears that a notice of the pendency of this suit containing the names of the parties, the title of the Court, and the time and place of the return of the summons issued in this cause has been published in the De Kalb County News, a paper printed and published in the County of De Kalb for the continuous period of Four weeks dating from the day of the first insertion on the 24th of November A.D. 1870; and it further appearing that the defendant has failed to answer said Bill of Complaint as required by the rule of Court heretofore entered, It is ordered by the Court that the default of the defendant for want of answer be and the same is hereby taken and entered of record.
(Circuit Court Record, 17th day of February Term, 1872, March 15th 1872.)
6544 / 25 Marion Victor vs. Solomon Victor } Bill for Divorce.
And now comes the complainant by her solicitor and on her motion it is ordered that this cause be and the same is hereby dismissed.
Solomon Victor in England.
As to Solomon's life in England, there is absolutely no information either before his marriage or after the departure of his wife and children from England. He has not been located on the 1851 or 1871 censuses, there are no death, probate, or divorce notices, and no family lore. There is an "alien registration" record for a Solomon Victor, merchant, who arrived at Leith, Scotland from Hamburg on 02 jan 1858 on the ship Dunedin.
There may be some references to Solomon Victor in the digitized British newspapers. One possible citation is in The Hull Packet and East Riding Times 17 mar 1865, in a section relating to legal matters. The same article also appeared in the Leeds Mercury 14 mar 1865:
The Frauds by a Hull Customs-Officer. On Monday at Bradford Borough Court, Solomon Victor, a foreigner, was brought up on remand charges with having unshipped, or otherwise dealt with 116 pounds of cigars, contrary to the 234th section of the Customs Consolidation Act, whereby he had forfeited a penalty of £100. Mr Beverley appeard on behalf of the Commissioners of Customs, in support of the information. The cigars in question were originally imported by the prisoner at Hull. They were brought from Rotterdam in three boxes, as baggage, and were passed through the Customer house by an officer named Chapman, who acted in collusion with the prisoner, no duty ever being paid upon them. The subsequent dealings of the prisoner and Chapman with the cigars at Bradford were recently detailed. The prisoner pleaded guilty to the charge, and stated that Chapman had persuaded him to smuggle the cigars, the arrangement being that he was first to dispose of them, and then to pay to Chapman the duty. Chapman represented to him that the transaction was perfectly lawful, otherwise he (the prisoner) would not have been concerned in it. The Bench convicted the prisoner in the penalty of £100, but recommended him to the mercy of the Commissioners of Customs.
Another Solomon Victor, about the same age, originally from Breslau, eventually settled in New Zealand. He is thought to have spent some time in England, so it is possible that some of the scattered mentions of a Solomon Victor in English newspaper reports and other records pertain to him, and not to our Solomon. There is even less documentary evidence for this second Solomon in England, but the possibility cannot be ruled out at this time.
Confusion in Pyritz
With the discovery of the marriage of Beile Leise ("Bertha") Philippi in Griefenberg, it is now certain that "M. S. Victor" was Michael, not Moses, and therefore, the testimony about our Solomon's "insane" uncles Michael Victor and David Meyer could really be correct genealogically, if not medically. However, this raises two possibilities about "Moses", our Solomon's father.
The first possibility is that Victor and Michael had a brother Moses who was the father of our Solomon, and that this Moses must also have married a Meyer, perhaps a sister of Victor's wife Liena Meyer. The difficulty with this idea is that we have no documentary evidence of this couple. The name Moses comes to us from family lore (sometimes as Moses Isaac Victor), Solomon's first marriage record in England, and from the Manchester directory listing circa 1861 of the firm "Moses Victor and Sons". The absence of records at Pyritz could be explained by the additional family lore that Moses was a leather merchant in "Berlin", with the added proviso that he must have lived in one of the outlying districts, rather than in the city itself, explaining why he has not yet been found.
The second possibility is that Victor Solomon Victor and his wife Liena Meyer were the actual parents of our Solomon, but that Victor used the name Moses in everyday life. It is not uncommon to find individuals in 19th Century Europe who used names in adult life that were different from their birth names. He might have thought being known as "Victor Victor" was awkward, and in any case, the many people on the Matrikels of Pyritz who had secular names presumably also had been given different Hebrew names at birth. Victor S. Victor was, as required by the family lore, a "Lederhändler" (leather merchant), and his wife was a Meyer, as stated in the testimony of Jacob Krohn. It is not out of the question that Solomon's children might have been told their father was from Berlin, as that was the nearest city that anyone in America would likely recognize by name.
Both of these scenarios require additional assumptions. The second one seems slightly more likely, but there is simply not enough evidence to allow a conclusion at this time. For the moment, we show our Solomon as the son of Moses, and the "other" Solomon as the son of Victor S. Victor.
_Wigdor _____________
| (.... - 1812)
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| |_____________________
|
_Victor VICTOR ______|
| (1798 - 1870) m 1829|
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Solomon VICTOR
| (1833 - 1900)
| _____________________
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Liena MEYER ________|
(1800 - 1870) m 1829|
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
Her age, and indeed her name, are very difficult to read on the matrikel of 1865. Because the year of birth in that record appears to be 1856, and that of the next child is clearly 1857, she is probably the same one listed as Selma Victor, daughter of Salomon Victor and Minna Bruck, in the marriage record of 03 jun 1876.
Apparently a different Sophie Victor, born at Pyritz 23 jul 1857, died at Berlin 25 mar 1941 (Arolsen Archives, miscellaneous records).
_Salomon VICTOR _____+
| (1765 - 1817)
_Michael Salomon VICTOR ________|
| (1794 - 1861) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
_Salomon (or Samuel Salomon) VICTOR _|
| (1825 - 1892) m 1855 |
| | _Leiser PHILIPPI ____
| | | (.... - 1812)
| |_Beile Leise (Bertha) PHILIPPI _|
| (1798 - 1877) m 1823 |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Sophia (Selma?) VICTOR
| (1856 - 1896)
| _____________________
| |
| ________________________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Minna BRUCK ________________________|
(1832 - 1896) m 1855 |
| _____________________
| |
|________________________________|
|
|_____________________
_Walter Moses VICTOR __+
| (1865 - 1933) m 1892
_William Clinton VICTOR _|
| (1893 - 1981) m 1925 |
| |_Eulia Rose May REEDY _+
| (1877 - 1967) m 1892
_Marion Lee VICTOR __|
| |
| | _______________________
| | |
| |_Kathryn Ivera NOONAN ___|
| (1894 - ....) m 1925 |
| |_______________________
|
|
|--Steven Lee VICTOR
|
| _______________________
| |
| _________________________|
| | |
| | |_______________________
| |
|_Barbara _____ ______|
|
| _______________________
| |
|_________________________|
|
|_______________________
Her birth is noted in the register for 1840, with a notation that she was not "registered" until February, 1840. (Source: Family History Library microfilms 1334808, [Lutheran] Church book duplicates, Pyritz, 1832-1842, and 1334809, covering 1843-1850. Filmed at the Staatsarchiv, Greifswald, Germany.) She is listed on the Matrikel of 22 apr 1853, age 13, and she is also on the list of 1865 in the household of her mother. She was still unmarried when she died in 1904.
_Wigdor _____________
| (.... - 1812)
_Salomon VICTOR _____|
| (1765 - 1817) |
| |_____________________
|
_Victor VICTOR ______|
| (1798 - 1870) m 1829|
| | _____________________
| | |
| |_____________________|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Therese VICTOR
| (1839 - 1904)
| _____________________
| |
| _____________________|
| | |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Liena MEYER ________|
(1800 - 1870) m 1829|
| _____________________
| |
|_____________________|
|
|_____________________
living - details excluded
_Robert Ingersoll VICTOR _+
| (1895 - 1984) m 1920
_Richard Joseph VICTOR _|
| (1921 - 2016) m 1952 |
| |_Myrtle Dorothy PAGE _____
| (1902 - 1951) m 1920
_Larry Dean VICTOR ___|
| |
| | __________________________
| | |
| |_Susanne Elise ALTMAN __|
| (1929 - 1996) m 1952 |
| |__________________________
|
|
|--Tracy VICTOR
|
| __________________________
| |
| ________________________|
| | |
| | |__________________________
| |
|_Sandra CHRISTIANSEN _|
|
| __________________________
| |
|________________________|
|
|__________________________