I am leaving
this exchange in my blog as what the Fargotstein family may consider
interesting tidbits about the history of the family. I may have some of the
history wrong, and I am sure that someone will correct me, but this is better
than nothing. Shep
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Letter from
a University of North Carolina Graduate Student studying history of Jews in the
South received by Shep Fargotstein on 05/27, 2015. He found the family through
Molly via Facebook. (Josh.parshall@gmail.com)
Shep,
Thanks so
much for getting back to me. I only have a couple questions right now, but more
might come up as the project moves forward.
All of the
below would be very helpful to know:
1. The
hometown of Sam Fargotstein in E. Europe
2. Why/how
the Fargotstein's initially settled in Galveston
3. When/why
the Fargotstein's moved to Memphis (some stayed in TX, right?)
4. Whether
members of the Fargotstein family were ever involved with the Memphis Workmen's
Circle
In the text
I was looking at last week, by a woman named Frieda Weiner, Sam Fargotstein is
listed as a significant leader of the Galveston Workmen's Circle/Arbiter Ring:
"My branch, 307 of Galveston, was the second [in the state] when it was
founded in March 1912 by two intellectuals, Sam Fargotstein of Galveston and
his friend Joseph Keeper from the nearby city of Houston." Weiner goes on
to describe how Fargotstein was instrumental in helping the Weiner family move
to Galveston after Frieda’s husband, Isaac was laid off from his job following
a lengthy illness.
Really, any
information on the family history and the various professional/social/religious
paths of Sam's descendants would be interesting to know.
Best,
Josh
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May 27, 2015
Dear
Josh:
The
Fargotstein family came from Warsaw, Poland. Many of our family members are
buried there in the Jewish Cemetery (Sec 59 row 12 plot 38 + section 74 row 23
plot 7). The name in Poland was Fargotstein, then Fargutzstajn. The story goes
that my great, great, great grandfather – Mordechai Fargotshteyn – a grocery
merchant - was killed by thugs one day simply for wearing a beard and Yarmulke.
At the time he was married and had one son – Shalom, who married a woman named
Perla. Shalom and Perla had 5 sons – David (my great grandfather a cigarette
merchant) was one of the 5. The 5 sons left Poland, not sure when, but it was
in the late 1800s. Here it gets a little fuzzy. My understanding is that they
ended up in Mexico City hoping to make their way to the USA where they had
connections that would help them get settled - everyone had a connection, even
if it was a friend of a friend, and nobody entered illegally. After a period of
time, they got antsy and one brother went to Argentina. One brother went to
Australia. My grandfather, David and Shepsel his brother made it to the states
eventually with them both settling in Galveston which geographically is near
Mexico and had a port where they probably came on a ship legally.
The other brother made settled in New York state.
Shepsel
was a watchmaker and evidently he was close to my great-grandfather. I was told
that once the boys (Sam and all) were old enough, David went back to Poland and
died there. They owened a pawnshop in Galveston and my grandfather, Sam, ended
up running and owning the store. Sam eventually married Sally, my grandmother
–and they had 3 sons and a daughter. One of the sons was my father, Max. The
others were Jack, Eddie and Becky. Sam had an opportunity in the early 1900s to
move to Memphis to buy a watch parts company call J.H. Mednikow & Sons. He
also had sinus issues and heard that Memphis didn’t have a lot of pollen and
thought it would be healthier for him (we have lots of pollen). Eddie ended up
staying in Galveston and ran the pawnshop until shortly before his
death in the 1970s.
My
father Max and Becky ended up running the family business that was renamed S.
Fargotstein & Sons in Memphis for close to 50 years. It was extremely
successful as a wholesale watch parts and then jewelry business. The company
had a national customer base and was the first company in the jewelry/watch
parts business to put in a toll-free 800 watts line. It would be the equivalent
to being the first to market with a website. The business was sold around 1985,
right before the wholesale industry nationwide went sour. The success of
wholesalers was because they had the regional business cornered. Once the
highway system was built their reach was extended and they made tons of money,
but when businesses went nationwide in the 80s it harkened a new day. Federal
Express and overnight mail made regional wholesalers obsolete. The Internet
either killed the rest off or enabled them to prosper.
It
was not a surprise to me that Sam was considered an intellectual and a
socialist/communist in his younger days. I had heard that before, but
never knew he was a leader in the Galveston Workman’s circle. With that
said, he morphed into a capitalist in Memphis and became a reform Jew. To the
best of my knowledge he was not involved in the Memphis Workman’s circle but I
am going to ask the Temple archivist to check out the organization and see if
the can come up with something. Sam is buried at Temple Israel Cemetery in
Memphis along with his son – my father – Max Fargotstein.
I
have a family tree on the Geni website. If you can get onto it you will see
most of this. If you can’t access it I will give you my email and password but
you have to keep it to yourself.
Shep
Fargotstein
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