Autobiography of Sarah Friesler

I, Sarah Friesler, widowed since 1946, born in London in 1889, upon request of my three daughters, Lillian, Helen, and Pearl, and my seven grandchildren, David, Herbert, and Benson Green, Michael and Ruthann Stern, and Peter and Steven Stern, to write the autobiography of my Dad Abraham and my mother Leah’s family for the past 3 generations; --

I can well remember when I was very young and growing up the true stories my Dad told us around the warm fireplace, in the living room on the cold winter nights, about his family. How he loved to repeat them, and we all loved to hear him tell about his youth, his family, his brother and sisters, his life in the Russian Military Service, how all males at the age of 18 had to serve for 3 years, also about his education and their home life, etc.

The family name was Lubranetsky. They all lived in the village of Poland called Breslavik on a farm. My Dad’s grandparents had two sons and one daughter, the daughter got married, and left for the U.S.A. They were the Kible family. His oldest son, my Dad’s first cousin, became very successful, how my Dad never told us. He used to love to talk about him —— about the beautiful home on a big Estate, he was a cattlerancher, and house dealer. Somehow my Dad never spoke of his family or his personal life, but he never forgot what happened one night. He was entertaining and giving a big dinner party to some very distinguished guests, and friends, his servants were sent out to pick mushrooms from his farm on his estate for a dinner course. The dinner and the evening was a big success, the guests left, and that night they were all taken violently ill, and had to be hospitalized. It was found that the mushrooms were poisoned ones. Luckily they all recovered, the family all felt terrible; My Dad always warned us to be careful of mushrooms not in season. I never in all my life cared to buy or eat mushrooms, never cared to eat them, as I never forgot that story.

My Dad’s father and mother lived on a farm, had a lovely orchard, grew malt —— made a good living having two sons and two daughters, and made whisky had a tavern and dealt and supplied their neighbors. I cannot remember all their names except my Aunt Esther. My Dad’s two sisters were very pretty. His brother got married and left for the U.S.A. to Buffalo —— I don’t remember anything about him, as my parents never heard from him. It’s too bad, I really must have a beautiful lovely relatives there.

A young handsome man one day came to their village to visit relatives from London, and happened to see and meet my Dad’s older sister, and fell in love with her. He hung around and courted her, and would not leave until he married her. The family were very happy, he was a charming and successful businessman, and so they got married and left for London. They had a lovely home I was told, and they were very happy. When lo and behold, something very tragic happened. She was giving birth to her second child, when something went wrong and she died. My uncle Lewis Cohen became so hysterical he blamed the doctor and in a fit of temper threw the doctor down the flight of stairs.

My Dad always told us the story, for he too was heart-broken. He loved his two sisters. A short time later he sent for his wife’s sister Esther to come to London to take charge of his two children. She came and mothered and loved them —— and took care of the home. Eventually he married her. They were very devoted to each other, and had a son together. The children’s names were my cousins are Leah, Sarah, and Harry. My uncle Lewis Cohen was a very successful clothing manufacturer in the West End of London.

Going back to my Dad, [after] he served his term in the Military he came home, and he missed his two sisters terribly, one dead and the other in London. He was the only one home. He became very restless, and so he decided he wanted to learn a trade, the clothing trade like his sister’s husband. His parents (my grandparents) were recommended to my mother’s brothers who were in the tailoring business in Kutno. His parents had to pay for his keep and apprenticeship. He was very happy, and off he went to Kutno, Poland, the next town. The longer he worked and lived with that family the more he loved them, and they him. He worked for them for about two years.

Now we come to my mother Leah’s autobiography, and her grandparents and parents. They too lived on a farm, and also make their own wine and liquor and also had a tavern in Kutno, Poland, and were very comfortable. My grandmother, whose name was Charna, got married when she was 14 years old, had three children, two boys and one girl. Their names were Sheer, Mosher, Aaron, and Esther Mulka. They were my two uncles and aunt. My grandmother, her children were very young when her husband died, not long after his death, she remarried. His name was Leib Sandman, she was very comfortable. It was rumored around that she was a rich widow that she kept strong-boxes with money under their beds. My mother always told us her mother’s story. She raised her three children very well educated and put them in business. After being married a few years after, she gave birth to my mother, Leah Sandman, who grew up terribly spoilt by her parents and half brothers and sister. They were all disappointed that she did not care for an education. Her excuse was that she found fault with her teachers. Of course they had no schools, so they were educated by Rabbis, and she did not get along with them and kept walking out on them, with one excuse and another with the result that her education was neglected. Her family was terribly disappointed and brokenhearted. She loved beautiful clothes. She was the only girl who wore shoes and hats in town. She was very popular, her brothers and father were very successful in their business, financed by her mother — in the clothing business. Her sister Esther Mulka got married and left for London. My mother Leah fell in love with a young man, a farmer, and wanted to get married, they were relieved she was very young. After two or three years when she did not get pregnant her parents worried. Her mother started taking her to doctors and specialists in different towns, they all said that there was nothing wrong with her, that it must be her husband’s fault. She was a delicate girl and he was a big strong fellow. So after awhile her mother made her get a divorce. That all happened while my Dad was in their employ. They were so crazy about my Dad that her family suggested that he marry her. They promised him anything he wanted if he would. He loved them all very much, he could not refuse. So he told them that if they would finance them a honeymoon to London he would get married. They happily agreed. And so they got married and off they went to London. When they got to the border, Customs they could not spell my father’s name Lubranetsky so they right then and there changed the name to Levy. When they got to London they liked it so much that they decided to remain. My Dad was very happy to see and be with his sister Esther and her family. They were very close. My Dad got a job in the clothing line, and settled down. Then my mother got ill, and the doctors could not diagnose what the trouble was so they put her in the London hospital for tests. While this was going on, the German Queen was visiting in London, and went to visit the London hospital. She was walking through the wards and stopping to talk to the patients, when she stopped at my mother’s bed, looked at her chart and very kindly congratulated her upon her pregnancy. My mother was dumbfounded. It seemed that the doctors did not get around to telling her yet that was the cause of her illness, that she will feel fine. Of course, my Dad and mother were very happy, and within the year I was born Sarah. My Dad always told us the story of how happy they were and how much the loved me. I was their favorite all through my teen years. I was very close to my Dad. We were inseparable. A couple of years later, my mother’s brother Moisha Aaron came to London on a visit. He loved it and wanted to stay and settle in London, too. He wanted to do something, so my parents gave him a few shillings. He went out and bought a few pairs of pants, sold them, and bought more and sold them and right there and then he was in business. Later he brought over from Kutno his wife and children, settled down, and in a few years became a big business man in the clothing line on Petticoat Lane. He too came to London by the name of Levy. He was a very religious man. I remember so well, when he presented a torah to his schul, the parade in the neighborhood of hundreds of people marching with the Torah to the synagogue. Of course that was years later. Going back to the time when my mother after giving birth to my sister Eva two years later, she was very delicate, she wrote to her other brother in Kutno who had six daughters to send her one of his daughters as she needed some help. She promised to care for her and her future. Well he did send her one of his daughters whose name was Minni. She was about eleven years old. She was adorable, and was a big help to my mother. We all loved her, as I was growing up . . . she was my older sister. My parents loved her, and treated her as their own daughter. Some time later, my grandmother Charna widowed was sent for to come to London. She stayed with her daughter, my Aunt, Esther Mulka. I remember her very well, she would come to visit us for a few days. Poor thing she suffered with very sore legs, open wounds, terribly swollen. I remember a nurse would come to our house to dress her legs. She came from the County Council. I watched and got sick, how I remember poor thing. She finally passed away, when my mother gave birth to my brother Aaron. Minnie was getting older. She wanted to learn a trade, so my parents paid for her apprenticeship as she wanted to learn button hole making on men’s clothing line. It was a very fine trade, a profession, and eventually she was a big success, and made lots of money. From then on I had to assist my mother with the care of my brother and sisters. This one incident I must write about. Every morning before I went to school my mother had to go to the market to do her daily shopping with te result that by the time she got home I was late for school, every morning, my teacher got sore, so she kept me in at lunchtime to punish me. I was standing in my principal’s office with some other girls who were being punished for some reason or other, when lo and behold I heard my mother’s voice coming up the stairs, inquiring “where is my daughter Sarah.” I was terribly humiliated when the principal turned to us and asked who she was, my mother saw me standing there, and she sure let teh principal have it. She scolded him for keeping me there at lunchtime when she needed me home to help her with the children and lunchtime. She threatened the principal if they would keep me in again, she would take me out of school. You can bet that I was never kept in again. She used the tactics like when she went to school.

Time was passing, and Minnie my cousin, was very happy. She worked piecework, she was a wizard and so she made lots of money. She banked all her money. My parents took nothing from her. She became very popular, had lots of nice friends and with a friend took her own apartment on the same street, Old Montagne Street. Most of the time she came to have dinner with us, we all still loved her. She grew up to be a beautiful girl, then later she fell in love with a lovely handsome young man, his name was Abram Weiss. He was doing very well, he was a pig sport. It seemed my parents did not approve of him. They found out that he was a gambler playing the houses, and working on Saturdays, that was aa cardinal sin at that era the Jewish people in London were all very religious. But he was working for a very high class firm in the West End of London also he had to ride to work by bus on Saturday. When all this happened I was about 10 years old, so I remember everything very well. I was very close to the family, around that time I remember very well, I was home when a man came and knocked at our door. I went to see what the man wanted. He asked for my Dad. I told him my Dad was still at work. He asked to see my mother. I heard him congratulating my mother. My mother did not know what he was congratulating her for, then he told her that he was the agent who sold him an Jewish Sweepstakes ticket, and his ticket won 1st price. My mother was shocked, as she did not know that my father had bought a ticket. It happened his Dad and his friend bought it partners. It turned out that his share was in American money 50 thousand dollars, can you imagine almost 80 years ago how much that was. Well from then our troubles began. That money was indeed not lucky. First my parents married Minnie off very beautifully. I remember her wedding more so that I remember yours Ruth. I and my sister were Bridesmaids and wore pink and green chiffon dresses and beauty bonnets to match. Minnie’s father came to London from Kutno to attend his daughter’s wedding. They celebrated a Jewish wedding all week for 8 days when the next Saturday came around Abram had to go to work, instead of going to schul as was the custom. His father in law was so enraged at that that he packed up and left London for home. On that same Saturday evening while the family were at our house celebrating, there was a knock on our door and behold a policeman was there with a package under his arm. And asked for Mrs. Weiss. He told us that Mr. Weiss was in a bad accident that morning it was a rainy morning and when Abram was leaving the bus he slipped and fell in the path of another bus. He was run over and he was in the Lo Sharing he was . . . Hospital in the West End. Minnie fainted dead away. I shall never forget that night. Next day they all went to the hospital. I overhead them saying that his father put a curse on him for going to work on the Saturday after the wedding. Abram was in the hospital for about 10 months in the meantime she was pregnant and I used to go to her home and stop and keep her company. I loved her. Then she gave birth to a son, while he was still in the hospital. I was always with her. Abram finally came home with a high Boot and his arm still in a sling. That was the first bad luck for my parents after winning all that money. I begged my parents to buy a piano. I so wanted to learn to play. I used to spend sundays at my Aunt Esther’s house. It was a beautiful home and they had a beautiful piano and my cousins played beautifully and I so envied them but when I begged my parents that I wanted to learn to play I got empty promises, that’s all I got. I sure made it all up with my daughters. I never denied them any thing in the line of education if they so wanted. Well then, now that my parents were rich the first thing they did was to bring over to London my Dad’s mother and father from Brestlavik Poland. They were darling and beautiful grandparents they loved with their daughter and son in law in their beautiful house. I loved them. Not long after my grandmother passed away. My grandfather would come and spend the weekends with us. I loved him. My mother became a society woman, again she was the best dressed woman in our neighborhood. All her clothes and shoes were custom made. Also her millinery when she went to Synagogue on Saturday all the neighbors came out to see what she was wearing that Saturday.

Now that my parents were rich, my Dad wanted to go into business. He refused to go to work for someone else. So with a friend who was in the household business, giving merchandise on credit wanted to go into business for himself, so he and my Dad went into business. I was so close to my Dad that I gave him all the assistance and all my time to help him. I was always at his side. When I was home from school. We lived in a private house. We cleared out the front Parlor and put all the merchandise, all the stock, in there. So even at the age 10 or 11 years old, I was a big help to my Dad. I can assure you I had no yought. First I was my mother’s helper, then my Dad’s right hand. That business did not do go well. Then he went into the Real Estate. He bought 2 houses, then one got empty, the depression was setting in we could not rent it, so we moved in. That was a bad experience. The County Council demanded that we make certain improvements and it was very costly. We lost and gave that up. The best thing about that experience was the schul was on the next block so we all went there. We stayed there about a year. Then my parents bought a cigar store very high class. the best of tobacco and cigarettes, custom made. After school I was in the store with my Dad. We also carried the finest chocolates. That was when I got spoilt. I could only eat the finest all my life. (In the meantime my mother was having her Babies, 7 of us.) Even that business went to pot. It was too much hard work. The depression was setting in. Everybody was going broke. The last reason we moved near my Aunt, my mother’s sister. I was very fond her all of them, especially my cousin Rose. I spent most of my spare time in their home. My aunt and uncle loved me too. My Dad cleared the top floor and made a manufactory shop. He became a contractor. Well here I became useful again. After school I was the shopboy. I had to fetch and carry work home from all the way to the West End of London by Train. The people there could not get over it. That I was so young came with the finished work and carry home new work. I shall never forget they teased me to see how much I could carry. I was so pleased when they gave me a big bundle to carry back. My Dad was so happy when I brought back so much work, he had about 6 people working for him. Many times I had to stay home from school to have to go to the West End. Well things were going very well. When something happened. My Dad made some mistakes in following directions once too often. And lo and behold they stopped giving him more work. So he lost that business too. Maybe it was the bad times. In the meantime, when husband came home from the hospital, he went back to work, and as time went by he too was feeling the depression. He too lost his job. So he left Minnie and the 2 children and left for the USA as he had some friends there. I wrote you how close the our relationship was towards Minnie and my family. Well my Dad was brokenhearted when after a while Minnie and children also left for New York. So wen he lost his last business, my mother got pregnant with my sister Minnie, she was in the 6th month. He got so disgusted and disappointed with everything, and all the money he had won on the lottery was gone. That he up and left us to settle in New York too. At least we had very nice and very comfortable relatives here. My Dad traveled on a cattle boat. That was all he could afford. It took him 6 weeks to get to New York. He arrived here without his luggage as everything was stolen on board the ship. We did not know what happened to him because we did not hear from him in about 2 months. My mother going around crying all the time, she though he committed suicide. He left my mother in a delicate condition with very little money, my darling uncle, mother’s brother, came to our rescue. He was the one my parents gave him his first break when he came to London. He became a very rich man. Well, I shall never forget what he did for us. He sent by messenger every week money for our support. Until my Dad got settled here in the USA, he lived with his Cousin the Kibles who were very comfortable. they were in the fur business. His wife and children loved my Dad and did everything they could to comfort him. They felt so sorry for him.

Then when my Dad was here in NY about 4 months my mother gave birth to Minnie, my youngest sister. In the meantime, my darling uncle paying for her confinement and all other expenses. When Minnie was 6 months old and Rose was 2 years old, all of a sudden my Uncle came to us and told us if we wanted to migrate to the USA, to join my Dad, he would pay all expenses, as the Steamship Companies were striking and their fares were cut very cheap. I shall never forget how we were all excited. I was 15 years old. I wrote to my Dad right away and told him about my uncle’s proposition. He got very excited and told us he was thrilled and to come. That was the story of our leaving London to come to the United States. That was in 1904 when we arrived in the month of May 4th. Of course it was a terrible come down, my Dad had to start all over again, with a wife and 7 children. My father went to work as a tailor, the same way he started when he and my mother went to London on their honeymoon. He took us to an apartment a railroad flat on the East Side. We all hated it. What a comedown from the beautiful house we left in Flabsom’s Cottages to Montgomery Street on the East Side. Of course we were happy to be again reunited with my Dad. But oh my, was I disappointed. My Dad’s cousin took a big liking to me and took me to their factory to work. I learned to sew linings into the beautiful fur coats. But I did not like it so I got a job at Seigel Coopers Department Store as sales lady. The store on 18th Street and 5th Avenue was on the style of B. Altman’s today. So that was that. My salary by the way was 8 dollars a week. It was equivalent to 108 dollars today. My mother gave me 50 cents a week. I gave her my sealed envelope. In the meantime my mother disliked the way we had to live in a crowded apartment on the East Side. The people and neighbors we hated and my Dad working about 12 hours a day, working on Saturdays and holidays. That was the end of mother going to Shul on Saturdays and holidays, she cried all the time. The disappointment of the way we had to live and what we had left in London. It was so hard to keep the apt clean, as she was used to so we moved every 6 months to a clean apat. around the East side.

It was around this time when a cousin of my mothers came to New York from Kutno. His name was Kotlash. He came to find a home for his daughter Pauline who he wanted to send to New York. Also his son Harry. He asked my mother if she would like to take care of her. She was about 17 years old. My mother consented and so Pauline came to live with us in the U.S.A. Believe it or not, we took a great liking to each other right away. it was so funny she could not talk English and I could not talk Jewish but she had such a wonderful sense of humor that we got along beautifully. We slept together and 1/2 the night we laughed at her jokes. We became the best of friends. She was so popular in Kutno her home tow, with the boys, they grew up together, that all the fellows who were here in N.Y. found out where she was living and came to uor house looking for her. They had an organized a club, called the Kutno Young Men’s Organization. They came to our house to welcome her. Every night we had callers. Needless to say, my mother welcomed them. She loved company, especially since she knew their parents in Kutno her home town. When they met me, they took a great liking to me and suggested that Pauline and I organize a Ladies Auxiliary, so I got my friends interested and we were busy, the fellows helping us. We sure had a lot of fun. They were very nice young men, we became life long friends. I am telling and writing this story as this was the way I met Issie Friesler. One evening a knock came to the door. I went to open it and saw a young man standing and looking at me as if he was in shock. After a few seconds he asked if Pauline lived here. I could not understand why he was so shocked at seeing me. I let him in sent him to the living room where Pauline was, then she introduced him to all of us. He was the President of the organization. We talked about organizing a sister-hood. He was all for it. After that evening, he came to our home very often. I said to Pauline that she should try and get serious with him as we all liked him. She turned to me and said he would never go for her but that I would do very well if I tried to make him. I answered her that he was not my type. My parents liked him very much. One night they got to talking about Kutno. My mother asked him who his father was. When he told her, my mother was shocked for he was one of her boyfriends. When she was young. In fact his best friend was my mother’s first husband. After that evening my parents became very close to him. One evening they talked. In the meantime I paid little attention to him, and sometimes I left them to go out with my friends.

One night he called, and in the course of there conversation he told my parents that he was very friendly with the Kible family (my Dad’s cousins) and visited them quite often at their house. When my Dad told him that they were cousins of his he got all excited. He told my Dad to visit them and give them his bet regards. When my Dad did visit his cousins he mentioned Issie Friesler who was a visitor at our home. When they heard that, his cousin said to my Dad that he would be a fine catch for me, Sara, that he would be very happy if Sarah would consider him for marriage. Of course I knew nothing about that conversation. My Dad came home and told my mother what his cousin suggested and she agreed. The next time Issie Friesler came to visit, I still assumed he was calling on Pauline. My mother suggested that he take me for a walk. He asked me if I would. I did and found that he was very polite and attentive and very interesting. After that evening and a few more walks, I found that I liked him very much. He was so kind to me. He talked of his ambitions to go into the real estate business. That he already owned lots in Jamaica L.I. Whenever he left me he put a couple of dollars in my pocket. He knew that I gave my whole salary to my mother. He said to keep it should I need to buy something. I was never spender. He found out that I loved chocolate almonds. He always had a bag of chocolates in his pocket for me. Then one night he came to my house, he asked me to take a walk again. I accepted. We went walking on 2nd Avenue where all young couples went walking. He took me into the ice Cream Parlor, then he started to tell me when he first saw me at the door the first time he came to our house why he was so shocked at seeing me. It seems that one evening he went calling on friends who by the way were friends of mine. When he saw a photograph on the mantelpiece of a girl. When he asked who the girl was they told him that I was a dear friend of their’s. You see I had taken pictures and I gave them one, that I was the girl who was organizing the Ladies Auxiliary. He told me that the more he looked at the photograph, the more he liked me, that he had fallen in love with me. He asked them how he could meet me. Then he found out that Pauline Cotlash was in New York. Found out her address, and wanted to see her. When he came to our home and I came to the door, he recognized me as the girl of the Photo. He really came to our house after to see me and get to know me better. It was not to see Pauline. The more he came and saw me the more he loved me and I knew nothing about it. Then while taking a walk he proposed to me. I really did not take him seriously. I was so surprised at his story. I promised I would talk to my parents and consider his proposal. This was on a Monday night. He promised to call on Wednesday for his answer. When I got home my parents were asleep. Tuesday I went to work. I thought I would talk to them when I got home after dinner. Before I got a chance to talk to them, the door bell rang and who was at the door but him. He could not wait for Wednesday to get my answer. I told him that I did not get a chance to talk to my parents yet. Well he took over right there and then. My parents welcomed and congratulated us, even Pauline was very happy for me. My parents told him that they could not afford a dowery or a wedding. He told them not to worry that he would pay everything. He sure did keep his promise. He was so happy that he right away bought me a diamond locket and chain. Later he gave me a lovely Diamond engagement ring. He took me to meet all his lovely family to show me off. They all liked me very much and invited us to come often to visit them. They all treated me as if I was really somebody and they were very happy for Issie. From then on every week he would give me 5 dollars to start my trousseau so that by the end of 1 1/2 years later being engaged, I had my whole trousseau ready, then he wanted a big wedding for he had a lovely big family. He was so happy to give me everything, not only did he make all the plans for the wedding at his expense, but bought all the wedding cloths for my whole family even paid for my wedding dress which of course was hired. It was a beautiful catered wedding. Where could a girl find a better man. He had promised me that if he could give me the moon he would gladly give it to me. The family had promised us beautiful gifts of furniture for our home, but at the time of our marriage, hard times set in a bad depression. My luck, depression followed me all through my life. Everybody was out of work. So the big wedding presents we were promised we rec3eived small gifts. So we had to furnish our own home, little by little. I forgot to mention that Issie was working as a machinist, in a clothing factory, his cousin Mr. Human was the manager, he had a steady job making good salary of 25 dollars a week, which was very good for those days in 1908. We lived in a neat building on Park Avenue Brooklyn 1 bedroom with a private bathroom which was the newest feature they were building those days. The rent was 18 dollrs a month, which was considered high. I had lovely neighbors, which became lifelong friends. Lillian was born in that apartment, then I got pregnant again. One Sunday Issie took the baby for a walk with the carriage and found an apartment on Floyd Street, a 2 bedroom apartment for 16 dollars a month, so we moved and Helen was born there. Things were going along OK but it seemed we were not getting along money wise. We were receiving letters from Kutno, from Issie’s father, Moisha Hersh, that the military was bothering them about Issie’s leaving the country and not serving the army when he became 21 years old. That they would settle for 300 rubles (150 dollars), so letters came often and his father appealed for help. We both cried after reading those appealing letters as that as soon as we could save a few dollars, we had to send to his father, presumably to pay the government. When that was paid and taken care of we thought we would try and save a little money. We began to receive letters again for help. Issie’s sister was keeping company and wanted to get married but his father could not give her a dowery so again he asked us to give them 300 dollars for a wedding dowery. We had to borrow that sum of money to send to them. We were such good schnooks that was what we thought. Well, his sister got married and again were happy. Issie’s younger sister got married too to Philip Yudkowitz. They had a child Lily too. He was in business in Kutno. We thought they were getting along well. When all of a sudden we got a telegram that Philip was in Ellis Island in New York. He was in trouble and we should come to his aid. When Issie got to Ellis Island, he was otld that due to his bad eyes, they could not let him in the United States. Well knowing that they could be bought with Pull, Issie was referred to the Democratic Club on Fifth Avenue and got help from Al Smith who ran the club. So again it cost us 300 dollars to get im out of Elis Island. He told us that he was fed up with his business, so decided to come to New York. He was supposed to have gone to Warsaw to buy goods, instead he boarded a ship, he said nothing to his wife nor family who found that out later. Well after we got him home and cleaned him up, we took him to my mother’s apartment and they took care of him as a boarder. Later he finally got a job. I shall never forget when he came to our home we had a beautiful ice box in the kitchen. When he saw us taking food out and putting food in he was surprised. His wife’s name is Sadie and his daughter’s name is Lenore. We have lost touch of them, since I am in California. In New York I saw her, Lenore and her mother Sadie. She lives in New Jersey. That was about 10 years ago.

When Issie and I were married about 8 years he became very restless and wanted to go into business, although he had a steady job and we made a good living, then came a clothing strike and he was out of work a few weeks. Issie’s cousin Joe Fast who was married to my sister Eva had a cleaning store in Flatbush, and doing very well. I had a neighbor a lovely girl just married, who worked in a cleaning store, very high class, also on Flatbush Avenue for many years. She told us that the people she worked for wanted to retire, if we were interested she would put in a good word for us. Well we sure were interested, and to make a long story short, we were in business. The store had a very fine reputation, catered to a theatrical trade. I had 3 children. Pearl was 9 months old. I sure had a lot of nerve, I had to be in the store, while Issie had to be on the outside collecting work. I got myself a good maid who took care of the cooking and cleaning and the children. Our living quarters were upstairs and downstairs. Helen was 5 years old and Lillian was 7 years old. Together Issie and I worked up a very good business, made good money. It was during the 1st World War and so the cleaning and dyeing business was very good. It was the beginning of Issie’s dream of going into the real estate business. We sure worked hard together. And in a couple of years we made our first real estate investment. We bought 2 private houses cheap, remodeled them up to date and in 6 months he sold them and made 7 thousand dollars profit. That was his 1st investment, then with a good friend they bought large apartment house partners in the Bronx. We had the store for 6 years. Now that we were in the real estate business and I was very tired, we gave our cleaning store to Issie’s brother Philip, although we were offered $5,000 for it. But before then, while wer were in the store, Issie’s brother Aaron wrote to us that he wanted to come to the USA, so we sent him a steamship ticket, and he came, got a job and later together with us they sent for Philip to come here too. So now they were 3 brothers and a brother-in-law, they all chipped in and sent for their brother in law’s wife and their sister Rachel and child Lily to the states too. At one time we were still in the cleaning store, they were all out of work, slack times so what do you think Issie did, with a partner he went into business of contracting clothing, so as to give the family work. He also thought that maybe they would get along well and work together and take over the factory. But it did not work out that way. They complained they worked too hard so Issie was forced to close up shop. It was a shame. Was there anything else he could do for his family, well again while we were still in the cleaning store, Issie’s father in Kutno wrote and wanted to come to America too. Issie’s mother died when Issie was 15 years old, his mother died after giving birth to her 7th child, she was a lovely lady and very smart. He and her husband were running a big tailoring shop. She and Issie her oldest son were inseparable together. Every Sunday they both hitched a wagon with clothing to market regardless of weather miles away. So that when she died her son Issie was brokenhearted. Then his father married a single girl who was willing to marry him and take care of his children. hey also had a grandmother whom they all loved. She lived with them taking care of the children. Well his stepmother gave birth also to 3 children, so by now they were 10 children. Well Issie could not see what was going on so one day he wrote to his uncle here in New York to please send him a steamship ticket. He was thrilled and so he left his family. He was such a good business fellow that on the way over, on the ship, when they docked, he went aboard in the town and bought some clothes he thought the immigrants needed and sold them to the passengers and made quite a bit of money. When he arrived he had so much money, he asked his uncle what he should do with it. He wanted to give it to his uncle, but his uncle told him to send it to his father, which he did. Issie lived with his Aunt and Uncle in West Farms in the Bronx. He loved them and they loved him, he got his job right away with his cousin who was the manager of that clothing factory, and that was his first and last job, until we went into the cleaning store business. So as we made money we after some years and Issie’s brothers, when his father wanted to come to America with his family we all chipped in and so his father and his stepmother her 3 children Issie’s 3 sisters, all came to New York. I shall never forget I had to go to Ellis Island, to bring them all off the ship. We had an apartment ready for them, and so they whole Friesler family were here and reunited. When we gave up the cleaning store we gave it to Philip and his wife Leah, although we could have gotten a few thousand dollars for it. We gave it to them for nothing. He was not Issie and Sarah, they did not do as well as we did. Anyway, we got out and moved to the Bronx, Issie prospered buying and selling real estate, then he became a builder of big apartment houses. He was very enterprising. He was the first builder who built breakfast rooms off the kitchen, he was also the first builder who built garden apartments and large closets. He was written up in the newspapers. I shall never forget he and his partner Mr. Lessler found out that the poor jews in New York who had no home and were alone had to go to Welfare Island, would you believe it, he got in touch with a lot of prominent Jews and organized to build a Hebrew Home for the Aged so they got busy, bought land int eh east Bronx, Issie and his partner gave their time, money, and services, and when they were ready to go ahead, the mayor of New York came one Sunday to break land. He was Mayor Walker. Of course, I did my bit, as we organized a ladies’ auxiliary and I was Vice President. Those were very happy times when the Home was built. They took all the Jewish people from Welfare Iland and brought them to their Home. It was a kosher place and it was run beautifully. As time when on Issie got richer and we got a wonderful reputation. I had a chauffeur at my disposal and a maid. Lillian went to private school. Issie’s sisters one after another came to live with us and finally we married them off.

Coming back to where everything was going very smoothly, Issie met some westerners who took a great liking to him, and proposed taking him into their god mining project in California. At that time Issie was at the height of his success. Their gold mine went on Wall Street and went sky high. Issie could have cashed in and become a millionaire. Then came the Wall Street crash. That was the beginning of the end for us. What dreams we had before the crash. It took about 7 years to touch bottom. Many of our friends could not take it so they committed suicide. I begged Issie not to do anything foolish, that things would eventually take a turn. The same thing happened to my Dad in London. But unlike my Dad, Issie started all over again. He became a real estate agent and made commissions and I moved from the high class apartment to a rented apartment. From 8 rooms to 5 then to 4 then to 3-1/2. Lil and Murray were lucky. They got married right before the crash. I had to resign from all my social life span. It was terrible. Many times my telephone and lights were turned off and we owed rent. Lucky the landlord did not press for rent. Then my Dad died and my mother came to live with me in my small apartment. She came the time when Helen met Jack and wanted to get married. At her wedding Pearl met Julius, Jack’s cousin. He fell in love with her, she was Helen’s bride’s maid so the next few months they too got married. We had to borrow money for that wedding. Then we had to move into a studio apartment on the Concourse paying 5 dollars a month rent. Then the 2nd war was upon us. Issie was still in real estate. He started to buy and sell lots. He still had a wonderful reputation, and the Banks backed him. He had good friends and partners and they started buying land, with the result that when the war was over, he intended to build again. In the meantime he was making money buying and selling. Just when he was on the way of becoming a rich man again he got a heart attack and died at the age of 61 years old. Before he died he bought 2 buildings 10 story and penthouse. He intended I should move into the 78th Street house. When he bought it he said to me that he bought the house for me because it was an English built house and he wanted me to live in it. In fact when he bought it, he served notice to the tenant. It was not to be. He lived long enough to keep his promise to me. When I first met him and married him that he will always provide the best for me, that he would give me secuiryt for the rest of my life, and so he did keep his word. He always kept me on a pedestal, never allowed me to do housework. I always had a maid if not steady then part time. When he died, he had the biggest funeral the Riverside on Broadway had. He was so beloved. Bankers, lawyers, mortgage people, tenants, and friends attended. Before he died he told me just what to do if he died. He even suggested that I should not be alone. That I should remarry and that is what I did. I think that saved my life because when he did die I did not want to live and got very ill. So I remarried and was contented. Louis Gersh was very good to me too. Too bad he died after 6 years. Now I am alone in a strange country California, with no friends, and very lonely. And what will happen I don’t know. Just living from day to day.

Dear Ruth,

I hope you will enjoy reading my life story and my good life with your Grandfather. I remember everything I wrote about as my Dad had always talked about the family Roots.

Your loving Grandmother,

Sara Friesler.

I would appreciate it if you would give a typed copy to your Brother Michael.

A very happy healthy New Year to you all. Thank you for the fruit.