“Cardboard is evil!” At least it is when it’s backing for a framed document from 1878. As a result, when the volunteers who staff the Archive at Ohef Sholom Temple came across a framed document from 1878 that was backed with cardboard, the document was removed from the frame, the cardboard discarded, and one volunteer, Margaret Sawyer, created an archival-quality polyester envelope to keep the document safe. That was the beginning of a fascinating journey through the records that preserve the history of Tidewater’s Jewish community. And it was the teamwork of several volunteers that made it possible.
The document turned out to be a confirmation certificate signed by Rabbi Bernard Eberson. Ohef Sholom’s second ordained rabbi, Eberson served the congregation from 1877 to 1899. However, the name of the confirmand had faded so much that it was difficult to decipher. The first name looked like “Carrie,” and the surname seemed to begin with the letter M or W. Near the end of the surname was a letter with a tail, but the rest of the name was unclear.
The confirmand was surely the daughter of a congregant, so the pages of an early congregational Minute Book were skimmed through. In a July 1878 list of members, the name Metzger was found. It was the only name that matched the pattern. Although there were two congregants with that name, brothers Abraham and Joel, archive volunteer Karen Plotnick used genealogical records to identify Joel Metzger as Carrie’s father. Alex Ball, another volunteer, translated the Hebrew month and day on the certificate, the sixth day of Sivan in the year 5638, or June 7, 1878.
The mystery was solved. The name of the confirmand, the name of the rabbi who confirmed her, and the date of her confirmation were determined. But what else could be learned about Carrie Metzger and her family? And what would that tell about Jewish life in Tidewater in the late 1800’s?
One of the most important items in OST’s archive is the diary of a young boy who grew up in Tidewater in the late 1800s. Benjamin Franklin Metzger was Carrie’s first cousin. His diary, which he kept from the age of 11 in 1885 to the age of 13 in 1887, provides first- hand information about what life was like for a young Jewish boy in Tidewater in that time period. But other than mentioning Carrie’s wedding in 1886, the diary shed little light on the confirmand’s life.
It was one of OST’s archival collections, the William Alan Goldback Family Papers, that provided further insight about the lives of the confirmand and her family. The Goldback collection contains Carrie’s wedding invitation, announcing her marriage to Alfred Kern and substantiating both the diary notation and genealogical data.
Further investigation revealed that Carrie’s brother, Nathan, married Alfred’s sister, Augusta, and the Goldback collection also contains some of Nathan’s letters to her. Letters, like diaries, provide first-hand information about everyday life, and Nathan’s letters, like Benjamin’s diary, are full of interesting and important information about life in the Jewish community in the late 1800s. Nathan Metzger traveled on business, and the collection contains some of his letters. In 1885, Nathan, lonely and lovesick, wrote that he hoped Augusta was still faithful to him. She was, and the collection also contains their wedding invitation.
Other letters followed as Nathan traveled to Baltimore and Philadelphia. He wrote letters to his wife and to their young daughter, Bessie. Genealogical research and examination of other documents in the collection led to finding the wedding invitation for Bessie’s marriage to M. Gustavus Goldback, whose naturalization certificate is also in the collection. It was their son William, known as Billy, whose papers now document their stories and shed new light on the life of this Jewish Tidewater family.
More than 100 years later – a confirmation certificate, a diary, a wedding invitation, and the letters of a Jewish businessman provide a window into Jewish Tidewater’s past and the context for its future.
Alice Titus is an Ohef Sholom Temple Archive volunteer.