My Russian Jewish ancestors had the all-American last name of Davis. My Great-Grandma Bess (sitting in the middle of this family picture from c.1910) told me that her family raised Sammy Davis Jr., and that's why he converted to Judaism... but somehow I doubt that story.Bess's father Paul, the man seated on the right, appeared on his Ellis Island immigration record, to my disbelief, as "Peisach Dawis." Family lore distantly recalled the original last name as "Davinsky" or "Davisky," and the place of origin as Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine), but there were no other details. This branch of my Jewish family seemed to have truly buried its past.
Then, in March 2022, I found the true history. The original family surname was "Divinskiy" ("Дивинский"), probably named after the village of Dyvyn (Дивин), Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. The original hometown was Bila Tserkva (Belaya Tserkov), Ukraine, 45 miles southeast of Dyvyn, which in Tsarist times was part of a larger Russian province, Kiev Gubernia. This makes sense why the Davis descendants would simply say they came from Kiev. Yet because this Russian history was lost for generations, I will save the full story of my most distant Divinskiy ancestors for the very end of this webpage.
Most of the wonderful old family photos on this page were collected and preserved by Betty Davis (1906-1994) and her daughter-in-law Arlene Davis (1930-2022). Their descendants carry on the dedication to preserving family history.
I will start this family history the way the Davis family told it, starting with how my great-great-great-grandmother Esther Davis (c.1834-1910) and six of her children, Joe Davis, Ruben Davis, Ike Davis, Louis Davis, Paul Davis, and Ella Axelrod, immigrated to the United States in the 1880s and 1890s and settled from sea to shining sea: Brooklyn and Bronx, NY; Montana and Spokane, WA; and San Francisco, CA.
Left: Russia's Pale of Settlement (LegacyTree.com), Right: Kiev Gubernia (JewishGen.org)
Bila Tserkva / Belaya Tserkov on the banks of the Ros River, c.1919 (rtrfoundation.org)
From 1795 through 1850, my direct ancestors are listed as living in Bila Tserkva (Belaya Tserkov). The immigration record for Ike Davis's wife and children says they came from Cherkassy, a town 98 miles southeast of Kiev on the banks of the Dnieper River. Immigration records for Ruben Davis and his cousin Freda Krakowitz say they came from Korsun, a town 76 miles southeast of Kiev and 40 miles west of Cherkassy, on the banks of the Ros River, a tributary of the Dnieper River. Louis Davis and his wife, Minnie (Chudnovsky) Davis, are buried in a section of Montefiore Cemetery in Queens reserved for former residents of Korsun. So perhaps the Davis siblings who immigrated considered Korsun to be their hometown.
Korsun's original Jewish population that settled in the early 1600s died or fled due to Cossack violence associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648-1657) and the anti-Polish Haidamaks' revolts in the early 1700s. The Jewish population of Korsun slowly grew back from only 1 Jew in 1737, to 185 Jews in 1765, to 1,456 Jews in 1847, to 3,799 Jews in 1897 (about 45% of the town population). My Divinskiy family contributed to the late 19th century population growth.
To quote archivist Klavdiya Kolesnikova, "During the 19th-early 20th centuries, local Jews [in Korsun] owned brick and sugar plants, breweries, hulling mills and flour mills, cinemas, print shops, mineral water production companies and weaving mills. In the early 20th century there were nine water mills in Korsun and eight of them were rented out by the Jews." In immigration records, Louis Davis was listed as a weaver, Ruben Davis was listed as a workman, Isaac Davis was listed as a tailor, and Peisach (Paul) Davis was listed as a merchant.
The father of the Davis siblings, Zus Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (c.1833-c.1877), Hebrew name Yekutiel Zusman ben Chaim Moshe, was probably a merchant and probably born in Bila Tserkva (Belaya Tserkov in Russian), a town 65 miles northwest of Korsun with a very similar Jewish history. Jews initially settled in Bila Tserkva in the late 1500s but the community was wiped out during the Khmelnytsky Uprising and suffered again under the Haidamaks' revolt and another Cossack pogrom in 1768. The town's Jewish population climbed back from 1,077 in 1787 to 6,665 in 1847, as grain and sugar trade spurred economic growth.
Zus married Esther Saslowsky, daughter of Moshko Zaslavskiy and Sara Cohen, probably in the early 1850s. Esther Davis's maiden name of Saslowsky derives from the city of Zaslow (now Izyaslav, Ukraine). Esther's obituary gave her birthdate as April 10, 1834. Her death certificate says she was born in 1837, and her parents are listed as "Sussman Davis" (actually her late husband's name) and "Sara Cohen." In the 1900 and 1910 census, Esther claimed to have birthed 13 children, with only 6 surviving, which gives the smallest hint of how tough life was in Russia. Zusman also died young, and Esther survived her husband by more than 30 years.
Esther Davis, maybe c.1900 (From Arlene Davis's collection)
Esther Davis's obituary in the Spokane Spokesman-Review (1910)
The American Brotherly Aid Association's plot in Washington Cemetery, Brooklyn. Esther Davis's grave is among the row of small, worn headstones.
The exact circumstances of why the Davis family left Russia are unknown, but Kiev was an epicenter of anti-Semitic violence following the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881. Kiev's 1881 pogrom beget larger and deadlier pogroms in 1905 and 1919. All the Davis siblings lived in the United States by 1893, but if any extended Divinskiy relatives remained in Kiev, they may have been among nearly 34,000 Jews shot by Nazis just outside the city during the infamous Babi Yar massacre of September 29-30, 1941.
Etching of Jews corralled in Kiev's arsenal during the 1881 pogrom.
In Korsun, there were 7 pogroms from 1919 to 1920 that killed 75 people. The Soviet interwar period saw the flourishing of Jewish schools, Jewish agricultural communes, and a Jewish ethnic council, but the closing of the town synagogues in 1931 "at the request of the workers." Nazis occupied the town in July 1941, set up a Jewish ghetto, and then shot over 1,000 Jews of Korsun between September 1941 and the spring of 1942. Archivist Klavdiya Kolesnikova says "whole families were murdered."
Among the victims shot in 1941 in the Kushchaevka Yar tract outside Korsun are 6 Jews with the last name Chudnovskiy, who were relatives of Minnie (Chudnovsky) Davis, Louis's wife. Yad Vashem has pages of testimony for an entire Divinskiy family from Korsun: Avraam Divinskiy (born c.1876), his wife Perl (c.1891), and their daughters Riva (c.1918), Basya (c.1920), and Fira (c.1926) were all murdered in 1941. A son, Peysya Divinski (c.1915), was a Russian soldier who became missing in action in October 1941, and presumed dead.
Yad Vashem also quotes a haunting 1944 Soviet report about Nazi atrocities in Korsun:
"First they [the Jews] were driven into one house on Korolenko Street, forced to sew white patches onto their chests, kept under guard in a stinking [room], and starved. They were harnessed to carts and forced to transport water and all sorts of filth. They were forced…to graze [like animals] and were subjected to many other brutal torments. Afterwards, satisfied with these "civilized" entertainments, they [the Germans] shot them [the Jews] in groups, in the middle of the day. The hellish torments…to which the miserable Jewish population were subjected…cannot be compared to anything! The cries of the totally innocent girls; the cries of mothers bidding farewell to their nursing babies; the crying of the nursing babies; the whistling of the whips and of the bullets; the machine-gun volleys; the heaving of the earth over the buried bodies; and then monstrous mugs [i.e., faces] of the policemen returning from Kushchaevka - the place of the executions - who were carrying blood-stained clothes in their bloody claws, fighting among themselves about how to divide them [the clothes] - those were the terrible scenes that Korsun's residents preserved in their hearts for all eternity…"
After World War II the bodies in Korsun's mass graves were exhumed and reburied in Korsun's new Jewish cemetery, where a monument marks their burial plot.
Bila Tserkva's Jews similarly suffered: pogroms in 1905 and 1919-1920, and a mass shooting of 4,000 to 5,000 of the town's Jews by Nazis in August 1941. Ninety Jewish children and a few women who survived were shot a couple days later, on August 22, 1941. Four Wehrmacht chaplains took the unusual step of asking that the surviving children be set free, but their protests were too little, too late. Historian Doris Bergen noted "all four chaplains involved in the protest were aware that Jewish adults were being killed and protested only when they learned that children were to be shot." Historian Saul Friedländer quoted an eyewitness of the children's massacre:
"The children were taken down from the tractor. They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable. I shall never forget the scene throughout my life. I find it very hard to bear. I particulary [sic] remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand. She too was shot later.... The grave was near some woods. It was not near the rifle-range. The execution must have taken place in the afternoon at about 3:30 or 4:00. It took place the day after the discussions at the Feldkommandanten.... Many children were hit four or five times before they died."
About another 500 Jews from nearly towns and children from mixed Jewish families were killed in Bila Tserkva in spring 1942.
Bila Tserkva's memorial to local children killed in the Holocaust (Source)
Jewish survivors came back to Bila Tserkva after the war, but Soviet authorities cracked down on the practice of Judaism, closing the synagogue in 1962 and arresting participants in a private High Holidays service in 1965. Bila Tserkva's Jews mostly joined the exodus of Soviet Jews to Israel, USA, and Germany, sending the town's Jewish population from 10,000 in 1994 to about 150 in 2001, and only reaching about 700 by 2012, according to Jewua.org.
Now I will describe the history of the Davis siblings who escaped Russia way back in the 1880s and 1890s and made a new home in the United States.
Joe Davis, c.1900
Back in Russia, Joe married Rebecca Rabanow and had a daughter named Chaya in 1879. When Chaya (renamed Ida) married in 1899 in Spokane, a local newspaper called her "the daughter of a lady who was one of the noble families of Russia," which sounds like Joe flattering Rebecca's memory.
Around 1882, Joe emigrated from Russia, and it's likely he first came to Winnipeg, Canada, as part of a group of 340 Russian Jewish refugees sponsored by British authorities. A criminal defendant in 1891 claimed to have known Joe Davis, a witness for the prosecution, from Canada. The defendant further called Joe's character into question by saying he was a bigamist who had abandoned his first wife, who was living at the time in Chicago, and then abandoned his second wife in Montana.
Amazingly, I have tentatively identified both wives: Anna Berliant (c.1860-c.1903?) probably married Joe Davis in Russia and had two children: Alex Davis (c.1880) in Russia and Mayme Davis Dean (1884-1962) in Winnipeg, Canada. Anna lived in Chicago with her second partner, a Russian Jewish man named Brodsky, by 1888.
Around 1882, Joe married Bettie Benedict (c.1867-1935), a Galitzianer from Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (now L'viv, Ukraine), whose parents were Adolph Goldberg and Sadie Heiman. Joe and Bettie Davis had two daughters in the United States: Rosie, who was born in 1884 in Spokane Falls, WA, and Sade, who was born in 1885 in Butte, MT.
Mayme and Rosie Davis were born in June 1884 over 1,100 miles apart, giving a rough timeline for when Joe ended his marriage with Anna. Mayme contacted Spokane detectives in 1913 to try to locate her father Joe and brother Alex, saying she last heard from them in 1896 when they were traveling from Cripple Creek, CO to Spokane. My "Uncle Joe" also lived in Cripple Creek in 1896, as I'll elaborate further on.
I may not know exactly why Joe went so far west, but it's clear how Joe got there: the Northern Pacific Railway, a transcontinental train route from St. Paul, MN to Seattle, WA that includes Spokane Falls, was completed in 1883. Gold also happened to be discovered near Coeur d'Alene, ID in 1883, so Spokane Falls at the time was a boom town full of prospectors. For roughly 20 years, Joe Davis was a "traveling man," living and moving between many western locations like Spokane, WA; Missoula, MT; Butte, MT; Billings, MT; Livingston, MT; Portland, OR; Cripple Creek, CO; and San Francisco. His occupations included jeweler, pawnbroker, junk peddler, auctioneer, and owner of a "three-ball palace" (a kind of billiard hall). Police suspected him of grand larceny, buying and selling stolen goods, running a pawnshop without a license, loitering, and fraternizing with thieves.
Two family accounts, while maybe not completely accurate, show how Joe Davis was resourceful, hardworking, and willing to find customers among society's seedy underbelly:
"Joe was a jeweler and his habit was to go to a town and hang a watch in the window and start a jewelry business. He would be successful and leave town, leave everything to his woman and start over again."
"Uncle Joe (my great uncle) worked in a men's clothing store in San Francisco, then called a haberdashery. ... My uncle was a hard worker and saved his money. The owner eventually sold the store to him. The store did a brisk business in outfitting miners on their way to the gold mines. Where you have miners living far from home, you also have hookers. Uncle Joe capitalized on that opportunity by selling risque outfits and lingerie to the hookers. That turned out to be a significant source of income for Uncle Joe."
Joe claimed on California voter rolls in the 1920s that he was naturalized on May 22, 1888 in Spokane. He was in Missoula, MT by the spring of 1889, when he got a pawnbroker's license, and later that year held at least two auctions of "unredeemed" goods in Missoula.
Joe Davis advertises his auction in The Missoulian, December 1889.
Between May to November 1890 the Missoula newspapers reported that Joe Davis, "who runs a pawn shop and junk shop at the corner of Main and Stevens streets," was:
Arrested after a stolen hat worth $4 was sold to him for 50 cents, then gave a bond of $100.
Fined $25 for not keeping proper business records.
Fined $50 for trying to sell "a pair of pants stolen from the Missoula Mercantile company.”
The Missoula city council was petitioned to revoke Joe's pawnshop license.
Joe reportedly gave $2.50 for pawned plumbers’ tools from a man who died soon after.
The Missoula Weekly Gazette published a menacing one-line item: “Recent events seem to show that Joe Davis pants for notoriety.”
"A number of leading citizens" of Missoula gathered on May 30, 1890 to discuss the "many petty steals" in the city and called pawnshops "an evil that ought to be suppressed." One attendee specifically said of Joe, "That man Joe Davis was run out of Butte and Helena and our authorities ought not allow him to carry on his nefarious calling in this city. The fellow runs nothing more or less than a fence [selling stolen goods] for thieves, he takes in soak [pawns] everything from a shoe-string to a threshing machine and in many cases certainly knows, or ought to know, that many of the articles taken in by him are stolen goods. Run him out, say I for one."
Then on December 18, 1890, the Missoula public was informed of all hell breaking loose in Joe Davis's personal life: the previous day, "Joseph Devinsky, better known among English-speaking people as 'Jo Davis,' has agreed with his spouse, in a quiet, mannerly kind of way, to discontinue the nuptial relation that for eight long years, now past, has existed between them."
The paper continued, "Joseph says the trouble was caused by his wife's unreasonably objecting to the presence of his mother and his sister and his brother, recently over from Russia, in the midst of the family circle. Unseemly strife threatened to ensue when he insisted on the doors being thrown open to receive them.... Mrs. Davis seemed to prefer such strife to a filial, sisterly reception of the relatives in question...." The article later shared Bettie Davis's side of the story: "the separation was not caused by any anti-mother-in-law feeling on her part, but that other and darker reasons compelled it." Given Joe Davis's later alleged domestic violence, Bettie's "darker reasons" sound more convincing.
The mention of Joseph's "mother and his sister and his brother, recently over from Russia" is a valuable clue. The immigration records of Esther Davis and her daughter Ella have not yet been located, but two of Joseph's brothers likely immigrated in late 1890: Itzig Dewinsky (likely Ike) arrived in New York in September and Ruwon Duwinsky (likely Ruben) arrived in New York in December.
Ella Davis's grandson, Mark Axelrod, heard a different story of Ella immigrating with her female cousin to America (which I will describe later), but the details of Missoula sound like an arrival in December 1890: “They got off the train in a remote, wilderness type of a place in the dead of winter. My grandmother then saw a sight she remembered all through her life. What she saw on a bitter, bone chillingly cold day were American Indians sitting around the station all wrapped up in brightly colored blankets and 4 smoking pipes."
In January 1891, police arrested Joe Davis in Spokane Falls, on charges of taking two diamond rings from his ex-wife. The paper described him as an auctioneer with "large, gray eyes" who "carried a valise full of cheap jewelry." Joe signed his hotel register with the alias “I. Schlossberg,” and fibbed to the police that this name was Hebrew for “a jeweler, my occupation, you know.” The article mentioned “Several months ago Joe, then under a different name, ran a three-ball palace [billiard hall] in Spokane Falls, and worked up an unenviable reputation for himself as well as a good business.” Joe was later released from jail, police said they arrested the wrong Davis, Joe sued the cities of Spokane Falls and Missoula for false imprisonment, and his suits were dismissed within days.
The same day that Joe's lawsuits were reported, The Missoula Gazette took the amazing step of publishing an editorial to celebrate his leaving town: "DEVINSKY DAVIS DISAPPEARS. Another Chapter from the Life of a Money Making Misinformed Citizen."
The article reads in part: "Joseph Devinsky, he of the unsavory repute and anglicized name of Joe Davis, is no longer a resident of the thriving metropolis of Missoula. He is in Spokane. So also are two valuable diamond rings, this property of his whilom better half [former spouse], if the latter's tale is to be credited..."
The article concludes: "Mr. Davis' past record is not the brightest. In Butte and afterwards in Helena he is known to have come under the notice of the police. At Butte he was arrested and heavily fined for conducting a 'fence.' [buying and selling stolen goods.] The Garden City, as a rule, deplores the departure of her citizens, but if her loss in this instance has resulted to the gain of her sister city Spokane, she submits with what grace is possible. Joseph, adieu."
By September 1892, Joe had returned to Missoula and was "erecting a shack" to work and live. Bettie and Joe returned to court in September 1892, filed papers of separation again in February 1894, and finally divorced in August 1895. Bettie got custody of their daughters Rosie and Sadie and most of the contents of their pawnshop, "in the rear of which the family keeps house": "39 men's coats, a number of men's vests, 12 pairs of suspenders, together with sundry bedsteads, mattresses, quilts and other miscellaneous articles." Joseph received visitation rights with his daughters and "some other bedsteads and appurtenances, to a collection of watches and chains and to two horses and a colt and a town lot" and $100 in cash. Bettie remarried in August 1895 in Great Falls, MT, days after her divorce, to Joseph Weinberger (born 1863 in Hungary; died 1916 in Los Angeles), and she died in Los Angeles in 1935.
Colorized photo of Cripple Creek, Colorado on July 4, 1893. (WesternMiningHistory.com)
By 1896 Joe was in Cripple Creek, Colorado, the site of one of the last great Wild West gold rushes. A September 1896 article described him as "a well known character upon Myers avenue [the town's red light district].... Joe, so Dame Rumor whispers, is a 'gay boy' and is prone to mixing up with the opposite sex in an undue degree." The article described how a judge dismissed charges a "discarded housekeeper" brought against Joe. Angered, the housekeeper "let dive with her dainty little fist and Joe's eye at once assumed a sable tint."
Joe had gotten rid of this nameless housekeeper as he married a 19-year-old Missouri-born woman named Margaret Ann McDonald the previous month, across the border in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The "discarded housekeeper" could be another wife: the Cripple Creek Weekly Journal reported on April 4, 1896 of the "impressive Jewish ceremony" as "Mr. Joe Davis, a well-known gentleman of this city, was married to Miss Jessie Ritchie, a charming and very popular young lady." Within five months, had Joe replaced a Jewish wife with a gentile wife?
Joe had gotten rid of this nameless housekeeper as he married a 19-year-old Missouri-born woman named Margaret Ann McDonald the previous month, across the border in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The "discarded housekeeper" could be another wife: the Cripple Creek Weekly Journal reported on April 4, 1896 of the "impressive Jewish ceremony" as "Mr. Joe Davis, a well-known gentleman of this city, was married to Miss Jessie Ritchie, a charming and very popular young lady." Within five months, had Joe replaced a Jewish wife with a gentile wife?
Joe and Margaret's only child, Reuben, was born in January 1898 near Seattle, Washington. In August 1899, Joe and his brother Isaac were arrested in Spokane for running an unlicensed pawn shop, but they still stayed in the town. In the 1900 census (dated June), Joe said he had a "confectionary store" and incredibly claimed to be born in Ohio. By August 1900, Joe owned a jewelry shop called The Diamond Palace, which advertised jewelry with "Ural Diamonds," a Russian “quartz” that is most likely phenakite, and he spent his leisure time playing competitive checkers. My grandmother owned a gold watch made by "Uncle Joe," which may date from this time.
The Diamond Palace's newspaper ad copy, written at the height of the patent medicine era, is hilarious and may give insight to Joe Davis's gift of gab: Ural Diamonds are called "the only stone that can not be detected from diamonds. Truly it may be said that the Ural Diamond is 'the poor man's diamond and the rich man's substitute.' Every stone is guaranteed to hold its brilliancy, remember that."
1900 newspaper ad for Joe Davis's jewelry store, praising "The Genuine Russian Ural Diamond"
Then, Joe's life quickly devolved. Joe and Margaret got divorced in August 1900, and the following March, Joe left Spokane over a debt and his store closed down. In an article from May 1901, ex-wife Margaret said that Joe had not paid his $15 monthly alimony for the last two months. Joe insisted on custody of their son Reuben, but she said that he was “unfit” to raise or even see Reuben, as he was “a man of violent temper and ugly disposition” and “a man of immoral habits, he is dishonest, untruthful, unreliable and has no standing whatsoever.”
Margaret said as a divorcee she was forced to work as a domestic for a local Jewish businessman, Isadore M. Cuschner, and they both said that Joe would see her at all times of the day and night in the Cuschner home, threatened to kill her if she did not marry him again, and said he would abduct Reuben. Saying she wanted the equivalent of a modern restraining order, Margaret also wanted Joe to pay railway fare from Spokane to a different city.
Cuschner and two other local Jewish men gave the shameful allegation that Joe thought “that the decree of divorce was not binding upon him, that he was a Jew and did not consider the orders of this court legal or binding.”
The next Spokane newspaper account, from October 1901, gave an update on what they termed the "Sad Fate of Joe Davis." Fleeing to Portland, Oregon, Joe became obsessed with playing checker games for money, and after a particularly large loss tried to accuse his opponent of theft. The following February, it was reported that Joe's former jewelry business partner also fled to Portland and was accused of being a bigamist.
Cuschner and two other local Jewish men gave the shameful allegation that Joe thought “that the decree of divorce was not binding upon him, that he was a Jew and did not consider the orders of this court legal or binding.”
The next Spokane newspaper account, from October 1901, gave an update on what they termed the "Sad Fate of Joe Davis." Fleeing to Portland, Oregon, Joe became obsessed with playing checker games for money, and after a particularly large loss tried to accuse his opponent of theft. The following February, it was reported that Joe's former jewelry business partner also fled to Portland and was accused of being a bigamist.
Despite these clouds of scandal, the 1903 Spokane directory indicates that Joe returned to Spokane reopened his jewelry store in the exact same spot. By the following year, he was gone. It's possible that Joe moved to Milwaukee, since my Grandma said her grandfather Paul "joined a brother" there at the same time.
Eventually Joe moved to San Francisco, and while the family story is that Joe died in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he actually married a fourth wife, a Swedish-American hairdresser born in Michigan named Emma O. Hedberg (1878-1963), and their daughter Jeanette Betty Davis was born in San Francisco in 1913.
Eventually Joe moved to San Francisco, and while the family story is that Joe died in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he actually married a fourth wife, a Swedish-American hairdresser born in Michigan named Emma O. Hedberg (1878-1963), and their daughter Jeanette Betty Davis was born in San Francisco in 1913.
A 1920 news article from Spokane said Ike Davis visited San Francisco to meet his brother Joe for the first time in 20 years. It was a well-timed reconciliation, as Ike died in a car accident the next year.
The 1920 census listed "Joseph Davisky," age 68, living at the same address as his second-hand store at 1004 Golden Gate Avenue with his 33-year-old wife Emma and 6-year-old daughter Jeanette. Interestingly, Joe said he owned a "music store," and one can imagine second-hand instruments throughout his store. His daughter Jeanette became a talented violinist, perhaps through the influence of Joe, and performed at functions around San Francisco from 1920 to 1931.
Jeanette B. Davis, left, performs in the Community Music Center string quartet in 1926. (Source)
Joe divorced for a third time in 1925, as Emma accused him of "desertion." and he spent his last days in San Francisco's Hebrew Home for Aged, where family lore says he played chess with visiting Hollywood stars. He died there on July 27, 1934, and is buried in Eternal Home Jewish Cemetery in Colma, CA. His daughters Ida Epstein, Rosie Weinberger, Sade Frank, and Jeanette B. Vanoss also lived out their days in California. Jeanette is in the same burial ground as her father, Colma's Eternal Home Jewish Cemetery.
Joe's ex-wife Margaret also settled in California, married three more times, and raised Reuben with her second husband's last name. Reuben Irvin became a successful bank executive and lived into his 90s. It wasn't until 2011 that Reuben's descendants learned the backstory of their Wild West ancestor Joe Davis, thanks to this blog.
Ruben and Rose Davis, c.1930
Ruben Davis (c.1855-1934), sometimes spelled "Reuben" and "Rubin," first married Ida Mostrofsky, who died young around 1880, and then married his second wife, Rose Brodsky [Rachel Basilevsky], shortly thereafter.
Ruben said in his naturalization records that he came to New York in December 1890. He is likely listed in immigration records as Ruwon Duwinsky, a 35-year-old workman from Korsun, Russia who arrived in New York on December 1, 1890 aboard the steamship Suevia from Hamburg, Germany. He was accompanied by his 14-year-old daughter Mirel [probably Mary Davis], and a 15-year-old named Marian [could this be Alta Miriam Davinsky, Ruben’s younger sister?] Ruben's wife Rosie and children probably immigrated the following year.
Ruben settled and stayed in Brooklyn, and various records listed his occupation as tailor (1897), shirtmaker (1900), fruit store owner (1905), storekeeper (1906), fish dealer (1910), none (1920), retired operator (1930). Family lore says Ruben "was legendary for being able to calculate at great speed the cost of fish."
In 1920, Ruben Davis and his family helped found the East Flatbush Jewish Community Center, a Reform Jewish temple in Brooklyn. Ruben served as a trustee, and his wife Rose Davis, son Philip Davis, and son-in-law Abraham Leibowitz were founding charter members. Another son-in-law, Abraham Marshall, headed the building committee to select a site. By 1929, the center was located at 661 Linden Boulevard, Brooklyn, and Ruben's other son, Arthur Davis, served as its president during the 1940s. The East Flatbush Jewish Community Center has since closed and the building now houses a Christian school.
The former East Flatbush Jewish Community Center, from photographer Tom Roma's book "On Three Pillars" (2007)
It seems Ruben and Rose had the longest marriage of the Davis siblings, lasting at least 50 years. Ruben died on May 9, 1934, his widow Rose died in 1941, and they are buried together in Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, NY.
Ike Davis, c.1900
Ike [Isaac/Yitzhak] Davis (c.1857-1921) is probably listed in immigration records as Itzig Dewinsky, a 32-year-old tailor from Kiev who took the S.S. Wieland from Hamburg, Germany and landed in New York City on September 26, 1890.
The family story is that Ike traveled by train to join his brother Joe in California, but the train broke down in Spokane, WA. Ike liked the town and decided to stay. In reality, Ike migrated to Missoula, MT, where his brother Joe ran a pawnshop, by December 1890. Ike first appeared in the Missoula papers on January 20, 1891, receiving a fine: "Ike Davis, brother of the notorious Joe, who runs Joe’s old lodging house, was relieved of $11.25 for maintaining a nuisance."
Ike's wife, Rebecca Kuklen, was probably listed in immigration records as 28-year-old Rifke Davis, who came from “Tscherkess” [Cherkasy], Russia and arrived in New York City on August 10, 1891 aboard the RMS Aurania from Liverpool, England. Rifke was accompanied by her 8-year-old daughter Susse [was this her son Alex, going by Zissel?], 3-year-old son Moses [Morris], 1-year-old daughter Soni [Sadie], 3-month-old son Jankel [Jacob], and 19-year-old Ester Davis, of unknown relation. Anna, the youngest sibling, was born in Missoula in 1894.
As a "one-horse peddler," Ike traveled throughout Montana from his home of Missoula. The Ravalli Republican in Stevensville, MT ran a bizarre, anti-Semitic "news item" on October 20, 1897, quoting Ike Davis talking about prices of goods in a thick accent:
"Everybody knows Ike Davis, the Jew peddler. Ike was in town yesterday and talking with John Dowling. John asked him about business, and Ike answered, 'Business no good. Farmers all around, forty miles away, all crazy and talk 'Stevensville, Stevensville,' all the time. You people sell 'em too cheap, too cheap. Forty cents for eggs! No business for me.' And Ike is about right. Goods are selling so cheap here that a peddler has no show."
While Joe comes off in newspaper articles as a cunning hustler, Ike seems more like a hapless peddler, who was fined multiple times for selling without a license, although he also appeared in the papers multiple times for paying for a peddler's license. In early 1897, Ike told authorities that his business partner, another Russian Jew named Harry Harris, had stolen his "team and buggy and also a large stock of jewelry" before leaving town.
As with Joe, police suspected Ike of seedy business dealings. One article said Ike "had in his possession a quantity of fake silverware which he was palming off as genuine on overcredulous people." Another article said Ike "is believed by the police to be a spotter for
burglars, but... they had no evidence to warrant a more serious charge."
By August 1899, Ike and Joe had relocated to Spokane, where police arrested them for running a pawnshop without a license. Ike got his house robbed in November, and the paper mentioned him as the owner of a clothing store, Davis Bros. at 509 Main Avenue, which he ran with Joe. The businessman Isadore M. Cuschner bought out Joe Davis in March 1900 and helped run Ike's store for "clothing, boots, and shoes." For another 20 years, Ike would run clothing stories in Spokane.
Rebecca died of tuberculosis in 1904, and Ike remarried around 1905 to Lena Prager (originally Podajetsky, who came from Katerinopol, Ukraine). Ike and Lena had another three children: Betty (1906-1994), Max (1910-1910), and Leo Davis (born 1911). In 1906, Ike paid $5,000 for a "thoroughly modern" house on Fourth Avenue, as described by the Spokesman-Review.
Ike became one of the founders of Keneseth Israel, Spokane’s Orthodox Jewish congregation, in 1901. Judaism clearly mattered to Ike, as in his will he left Keneseth Israel's Board of Trustees $400, of which $100 was for "the betterment of their Jewish Temple," and $300 was for "five (5) yearly installments toward the TALMUD TORAH," or religious school program.
One can imagine Ike's shock when his daughter Anna, a registered nurse in a Catholic hospital, converted to Christianity and then took vows as a nun in 1916. Ike never again spoke to his daughter, who now went by the name Sister Mary Mercedes Davis, and tersely wrote in his will: "To my daughter Anna I give and bequeath the sum of One ($1.00) Dollar and no more." In sharp contrast, Ike left his son Alex $1,000 and his other adult children got $500 each.
Yet by 1921, Alex had already been married to a gentile woman, and Morris and Jack later wedded gentile women and most likely converted to Christianity. I wonder what tension there may have been between Ike and his increasingly Americanized children.
Ike died in a car accident outside of Spokane on March 27, 1921. First Betty moved to Brooklyn in April 1925, she got engaged to her first cousin Phil Davis shortly thereafter, and her mother Lena and brother Leo followed to Brooklyn later that year. Ike's oldest son Alex stayed in Spokane, but the other children spread across the country: Morris went to Montana, Sadie went to Los Angeles, Jack went to Chicago and then Detroit, and Sister Mercedes Davis lived in Washington and Oregon. Betty went to St. Paul, MN and Leo settled in Chicago.
Grave of Isaac Davis, z"l, Mount Nebo Cemetery in Spokane, WA.
Louis and Minnie Davis and their children and in-laws, c.1910.
Back row (left to right): Abraham Davis, Samuel Davis, Hyman Weinstein, Ida (Davis) Weinstein, probably Ruben Davis? (Louis's brother), Pincus Needle, Beattie Davis. Lower Row (left to right): Rae Davis, Rae's first husband Sam Lewis, Anna Davis, Minnie Davis, Hyman Davis, Louis Davis, Fannie (Davis) Needle. Children: Bella Davis, Lillian Needle (Louis's oldest grandchild).
Back row (left to right): Abraham Davis, Samuel Davis, Hyman Weinstein, Ida (Davis) Weinstein, probably Ruben Davis? (Louis's brother), Pincus Needle, Beattie Davis. Lower Row (left to right): Rae Davis, Rae's first husband Sam Lewis, Anna Davis, Minnie Davis, Hyman Davis, Louis Davis, Fannie (Davis) Needle. Children: Bella Davis, Lillian Needle (Louis's oldest grandchild).
Louis Davis (c.1862-1944) married Minnie Chudnoff aka Mindel Chudnovsky (1862-1930) in Russia. He appeared in immigration records as Leiser Dewinsky, a 30-year-old weaver from Kiev, Russia. Leiser, his 29-year-old wife Mindel, 6-year-old daughter Chaje, 5-year-old daughter Frimme, and 2-year-old daughter Rochel came on the steamship Italia from Hamburg, Germany and docked in New York City on September 3, 1891.
Louis stayed in Lower Manhattan and became a fish dealer, and he and Minnie had a total of nine children. Louis's sons Sam and Abraham Davis also worked in the Fulton Fish Market in Lower Manhattan.
Ira Davis, the late son of Abraham and grandson of Louis, briefly experienced the life of the "fish guys," as he called them. In the summer of 1948, 16-year-old Ira accompanied his father and worked as a fill-in bookkeeper for the Empire State Fish Co. at 40 Peck Slip, Manhattan. The "fish guys" stayed on a bungalow on the Rockaways and got up at 1-2am, while Ira could "sleep in" until 2:30am. They piled into one car to arrive at the fish market around 3am, and the customers flooded in around 5-6am. The morning's fish were sold by 7:30-8am, the "fish guys" returned to their Rockaway bungalow, then drove back to the market for the afternoon fish arriving by rail or ship. In the evening, Ira tried to hang out at night with the "crowd of boys and girls" on the Rockaway boardwalk, but he had to leave around 9-9:30pm for the next hard day's work. Ira remembered "by the end of two weeks, it took me two years to recover." He also remembered how the "fish guys" had no social life, with the exception of Saturday nights when they played pinochle on the front porch of their Rockaway bungalow.
Graves of Louis Davis and Minnie Davis, z"l, Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, NY. Both markers have overgrown bushes in front of them.
Paul Davis, c.1910
Paul [Peisach] Davis landed in New York with his first wife Gittel aboard the S.S. Werkendam on June 23, 1893, and their daughter Jennie was born two months later. Gittel died of tuberculosis in 1896, and Paul soon married Fannie Scher (who immigrated from Lodz, Poland). The story goes that Fannie met two-year Jennie Davis, "fell in love with her," and raised Jennie as one of her own children. Paul was a housepainter, but the exposure to lead paint ruined his health, and doctors advised him to leave New York and go west. Paul took a train to Milwaukee, WI in 1903 and his wife and children followed in his tracks in 1904, using tickets provided by the Industrial Removal Office.
Milwaukee directories show Paul continued to work as a house painter, but around 1909 he lost his leg. My Grandma told me that Paul first had his leg amputated at the knee and then the hip, and thought it was due to lead poisoning. He got some compensation from the Progressive Order of the West, a Jewish fraternal workers' organization. The Jewish Voice on July 29, 1910 reported that the Progressive Order had in the past year "paid thirty-four death claims, amounting to $17,000, and one disability claim for $500 to Paul Davis, of B'nai Israel Lodge, No. 153, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the loss of a leg." Perhaps the money helped Paul relocate from Milwaukee to Spokane, WA in late 1909 or early 1910. A Spokane article from 1912 covered Paul and Fannie Davis getting thrown from their buggy by an "unbroken horse" and the reporter mentioned, perhaps with ableist surprise, that Paul was "a one-legged man."
Milwaukee directories show Paul continued to work as a house painter, but around 1909 he lost his leg. My Grandma told me that Paul first had his leg amputated at the knee and then the hip, and thought it was due to lead poisoning. He got some compensation from the Progressive Order of the West, a Jewish fraternal workers' organization. The Jewish Voice on July 29, 1910 reported that the Progressive Order had in the past year "paid thirty-four death claims, amounting to $17,000, and one disability claim for $500 to Paul Davis, of B'nai Israel Lodge, No. 153, of Milwaukee, Wis., for the loss of a leg." Perhaps the money helped Paul relocate from Milwaukee to Spokane, WA in late 1909 or early 1910. A Spokane article from 1912 covered Paul and Fannie Davis getting thrown from their buggy by an "unbroken horse" and the reporter mentioned, perhaps with ableist surprise, that Paul was "a one-legged man."
Once Paul settled in Spokane, he opened a clothing store. One 1925 newspaper ad for Paul's store talks of how "$17,000.00 Stock of Men's Shoes, Hats, Work Clothes and Furnishings Must Be Sold." Fannie became prominent in local Jewish affairs and charity organizations. Her obituary says she was "an early member of Keneseth Israel synagogue and a charter member of its Sisterhood of America," and belonged to B'nai B'rith, Hadassah, Helping Hand society (which assisted with Jewish burials), Jewish Consumptive Relief society, Royal Neighbors, and Rebekah Lodge.
Fannie Davis's published Rosh Hashanah greetings, 1930
I give Paul and Fannie Davis credit, since at least two of their daughters eloped, three of their children divorced, and two of their children married gentiles, but "Pa" and "Ma" Davis did not break ties with their children like Ike did with Sister Mercedes.
Paul died in Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane on March 7, 1926. Fannie clearly loved Paul; she never remarried and claimed to have conversations with Paul's ghost at night. She also helped raise several of her grandchildren, including my Grandma, in Spokane in the 1920s and 1930s. Fannie Davis moved to Miami, FL in 1952, died there in her daughter Bess's house on December 19, 1956, and her body was flown back to Spokane to be buried next to Paul.
Grave of Paul and Fannie Davis, z"l, Mount Nebo Cemetery in Spokane, WA
Ella Axelrod, c.1930s
Ella [Alta Miriam] Davis (c.1876-1960), the youngest sibling and only sister, probably survived a serious illness at a young age, and then received the Yiddish first name "Alta" (Elder) as a segulah (spiritually protective act) in hopes of a long life. It paid off, as Ella outlived her siblings by decades.
Ella came to the United States as a teenager with a female cousin. According to Ella's grandson Mark, the two women went by train from Russia to France, took a ferry to England, then another train to Southampton to get on a boat to New York. Weeks later, instead of seeing a large city, they docked in Charleston, SC. Somehow they had boarded the wrong ship! Luckily, someone in the train station who spoke Yiddish explained what happened and the two immigrants bought two tickets to New York. Many days later, in the dead of winter, the train pulled into a wilderness town and Ella saw "American Indians sitting around the station all wrapped up in brightly-colored blankets and smoking pipes." Somehow, Ella and her cousin ended up 2,000 miles east of New York, in Missoula, Montana! By a miracle, the women found another Yiddish speaker, and the almost-penniless immigrants wired Joe Davis in San Francisco. Joe was able to wire money to his sister and cousin, and they were able to arrive at long last in New York.
As mentioned above, there is a newspaper article suggesting that Ella arrived in Missoula around December 1890, shortly before Joe Davis first tried to divorce his wife Bettie. One could imagine Ella and her mother Esther moving back east following such a traumatic family fight.
Ella lived with her mother on the Lower East Side until 1900, when she married Benjamin [Benzion] Axelrod, a Russian-born ladies' tailor who in later life resembled Churchill. Benjamin's father, Wolf Axelrod, founded the Axelrod dairy products company in 1896, and Benjamin's brother and nephew later ran the company. Ben and Ella Axelrod moved to Brooklyn in 1905, where they spent most of the rest of their lives. They are buried in Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens.
Ella lived with her mother on the Lower East Side until 1900, when she married Benjamin [Benzion] Axelrod, a Russian-born ladies' tailor who in later life resembled Churchill. Benjamin's father, Wolf Axelrod, founded the Axelrod dairy products company in 1896, and Benjamin's brother and nephew later ran the company. Ben and Ella Axelrod moved to Brooklyn in 1905, where they spent most of the rest of their lives. They are buried in Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens.
Grave of Ben and Ella Axelrod, z"l, Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens, NY.
DAVIS FAMILY TREE
Davis family tree and hypothetical Saslowsky tree. Click for larger view.
Zus Chaim-Moshkov (Yekutiel Zusman) Divinskiy (born c.1833 in Russia; died c.1877 in Russia) and Esther Saslowsky (born c.1834 in Russia; died 1910 in Brooklyn, NY) had 13 children, but only 6 survived and immigrated to the United States:
A. Joseph Davis (b. c.1852 in Russia; died 1934 in San Francisco, CA) was first married to Rebecca Rabanow in Russia. They had at least one daughter:
A1. Ida A. Davis (born 1879 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1949 in Oakland, CA), who married Joseph Epstein in 1899 in Spokane, WA and was divorced by 1930. The Epsteins lived in Milwaukee, then Montana, and then settled in San Francisco in the 1910s. Ida Epstein worked as a buyer for a mercantile company and had at least two business trips to China and Japan between 1918 and 1920. Here is a separate blog entry about Ida Epstein's life. Ida and Joseph Epstein had one son:
A1. Ida A. Davis (born 1879 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1949 in Oakland, CA), who married Joseph Epstein in 1899 in Spokane, WA and was divorced by 1930. The Epsteins lived in Milwaukee, then Montana, and then settled in San Francisco in the 1910s. Ida Epstein worked as a buyer for a mercantile company and had at least two business trips to China and Japan between 1918 and 1920. Here is a separate blog entry about Ida Epstein's life. Ida and Joseph Epstein had one son:
A1a. Sidney Epstein (born 1901 in Milwaukee; died 1970 in Oakland, CA)
Joe Davis likely immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in 1882, and it's possible he was married to Anna Berliant (born c.1860) and had two children, Alex Davis (born c.1880) and Mayme (Davis) Dean (born 1884 in Winnipeg; died 1962 in Los Angeles). It seems Anna split with Joe around 1884 and lived in Chicago by 1888. I've written separately about this possible abandoned family.
Ida Epstein's passport application photo (1918)
Joe Davis likely immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in 1882, and it's possible he was married to Anna Berliant (born c.1860) and had two children, Alex Davis (born c.1880) and Mayme (Davis) Dean (born 1884 in Winnipeg; died 1962 in Los Angeles). It seems Anna split with Joe around 1884 and lived in Chicago by 1888. I've written separately about this possible abandoned family.
Joe married Bettie Benedict (born c.1867 in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary; died 1935 in Los Angeles) around 1882, and separated twice, in 1890 and 1894 in Missoula, MT, before divorcing in 1895 in Great Falls, MT. They had two daughters:
A2. Rosie (Davis) Weinberger Buky (born 1884 in Spokane Falls, WA; died 1973 in Mountain View, CA), who first married Henry Weinberger (born c.1877 in Hungary) in c.1906, a man who possibly died in 1934 in Los Angeles. Rose then married another man named Henry Weinberger (born 1880 in Czechoslovakia; died 1956 in San Diego, CA), of unknown relation to his namesake, in 1947 in Los Angeles, and then married a third time in January 1958 in San Francisco to Joseph Buky (1880-1958), a Russian-born jeweler who died in Idaho Falls, Idaho that June.
A3. Sade (Davis) Frank (born 1885 in Butte, MT; died 1923 in San Francisco), who had the unfortunate luck of being married and divorced three times to John Frank, an abusive husband and shady businessman, between 1916 to 1922. In September 1921, John Frank fled his creditors in Great Falls, MT and emigrated to Romania. Sade's third filing for divorce claimed among the abuses "Frank assaulted his wife and did not cease until he had torn her dress into shreds." Sade died barely two years after her husband fled.
Joe then married Margaret Ann McDonald (born 1877 in Missouri; died 1961 in California) in 1896 in Cheyenne, WY, and they got divorced in Spokane in 1900. Joe and Margaret had one son:
Joe ended up in San Francisco by 1913, where he married his fourth wife, Emma O. Hedberg (1878-1963) and they divorced in 1925. Joe and Emma had one daughter:
A5. Jeanette Betty Davis (born 1913 in San Francisco; died 2004), who married Edward Vanoss (1894-1969) in 1965 in Fresno, CA.
A sweet picture of Ruben and Rose Davis, c.1930s.
Wedding photo of Dick and Arlene Davis, 1951. Seated: Phil Davis (Ruben's son), newlyweds Arlene and Dick Davis (Phil's son), Betty Davis (Ike's daughter and Phil's wife), Lena Davis (Betty's mother). Standing: Bob Davis (Phil's son), Arthur Davis (Ruben's son) and wife Helen Davis, Gertie Davis, Eddie Davis (Leo's son), Leo Davis (Ike's son).
B. Ruben Davis (born c.1855 in Russia; died 1934 in New York) first married c.1875 to Ida [Chaya] Mostrofsky, who probably died in Russia. Two of at least four children survived to adulthood:
B1. Mary Davis (born 1876 in Russia; died 1965 in New York City) married the storekeeper Sam Prigerson (born 1874 in Russia; died 1960) in 1899 in Manhattan and they had three children:
B1. Mary Davis (born 1876 in Russia; died 1965 in New York City) married the storekeeper Sam Prigerson (born 1874 in Russia; died 1960) in 1899 in Manhattan and they had three children:
B1a. Henry Prigerson (1900-1958)
B1b. Harriet Mintz (1904-1983)
B1b. Harriet Mintz (1904-1983)
B1c. Irving Prigerson (1908-1937)
B2. Zisl Divinskiy (born c.1876 in Russia), a daughter who appears in a Korsun revision list in 1879 and probably died young.
B3. Moshko Shlomo Divinskiy (born c.1878 in Russia), a son who appears in a Korsun revision list in 1879 and probably died young.
B4. Jennie Davis (born 1879 in Russia; died 1921 in Brooklyn) married Julius Litkoff [Jacob Litkowsky] (c.1880-1967) in 1904 in Manhattan. They had two children:
B4. Jennie Davis (born 1879 in Russia; died 1921 in Brooklyn) married Julius Litkoff [Jacob Litkowsky] (c.1880-1967) in 1904 in Manhattan. They had two children:
B4a. Harold Litkoff (1905-1946)
B4b. Norman [Irving] Litkoff (1909-1987)
Ruben, at some point before 1885, married Rosa Brodsky [Rachel Basilevsky] (born 1864 in Russia; died 1941 in Brooklyn; daughter of Nathan and Leah Brodsky). Ruben had another four children with Rose:
B5. Lena Davis (born 1885 in Russia; died 1965 in Brooklyn) married Abe Leibowitz (1886-1982) in 1914 in Brooklyn, and they had four children:
Ruben, at some point before 1885, married Rosa Brodsky [Rachel Basilevsky] (born 1864 in Russia; died 1941 in Brooklyn; daughter of Nathan and Leah Brodsky). Ruben had another four children with Rose:
B5. Lena Davis (born 1885 in Russia; died 1965 in Brooklyn) married Abe Leibowitz (1886-1982) in 1914 in Brooklyn, and they had four children:
B5a. Norman Leeb (1914-2011)
B5b. Howard Leeb (1916-2002)
B5c. Elinor Lowe (1921)
B5d. Jane Pollack (1927-1989)
B6. Anna Davis (born 1889 in Russia; died 1984 in Los Angeles), a suffragette who married Abraham Marshall (1884-1955), a builder and union painter, in 1907 in Brooklyn. They moved to Los Angeles in their later years, where Anna took up painting. Anna and Abraham Marshall had four children:
B6. Anna Davis (born 1889 in Russia; died 1984 in Los Angeles), a suffragette who married Abraham Marshall (1884-1955), a builder and union painter, in 1907 in Brooklyn. They moved to Los Angeles in their later years, where Anna took up painting. Anna and Abraham Marshall had four children:
B6a. Gladys Shepard Salit (1908-1969), a social worker, who was the mother of pioneer American mime Richmond Shepard (1929-2019) and the grandmother of pop singer Vonda Shepard.
Richmond Shepard, who called himself in later years "The World's Oldest Mime."
Vonda Shepard, singer-songwriter and daughter of Richmond Shepard (Facebook)
B6b. Irving Marshall (1911-1971)
B6c. Elinor Marshall Glenn (1915-2013), the first woman hired as an organizer by the SEIU union, who helped lead a 1966 strike of Los Angeles hospital workers, leading to the "first collective bargaining for public workers." See union obituaries for Elinor here and here.
Elinor Marshall Glenn organizing public hospital workers in Los Angeles.
B6d. Norman Marshall (1918-1939)
B7. Pesach Davis (born July? 1891 in Russia; died October 18, 1891 in Manhattan, age 3 months), who was a newborn when he accompanied his mother and siblings to America, and died of bronchitis soon afterwards.
B8. Max / Ike Davis (born October 5, 1892 in Manhattan; died November 21, 1893 in Manhattan), who is listed as "Max" on his birth record and "Ike" on his death record.
B9. Arthur [Otto] Davis (born 1895 in Manhattan; died 1972 in Brooklyn), who as a youth played piano in a silent movie theater and later ran a meat factory, married Helen Uhler (1899-1988) in 1920 and they had two daughters:
B9. Arthur [Otto] Davis (born 1895 in Manhattan; died 1972 in Brooklyn), who as a youth played piano in a silent movie theater and later ran a meat factory, married Helen Uhler (1899-1988) in 1920 and they had two daughters:
B9a. Jane Davis (1921-1942)
B9b. Mary Davis (1925)
B10. Philip Davis (born 1897 in Manhattan; died 1974 in St. Paul, MN) was a meat broker and then a liquor broker, who in 1926 married his first cousin Betty Davis (1906-1994, Ike's daughter, see below) in Brooklyn and they had two sons:
B10. Philip Davis (born 1897 in Manhattan; died 1974 in St. Paul, MN) was a meat broker and then a liquor broker, who in 1926 married his first cousin Betty Davis (1906-1994, Ike's daughter, see below) in Brooklyn and they had two sons:
B10a. Richard "Dick" Davis (1930-2002), whose widow Arlene Davis (1930-2022) preserved many of the old photos on this webpage. Dick and Arlene Davis had four children, including Dr. Lawrence Davis, a chiropractor who has run a music recording facility in Sparks, Nevada since 1980. A platinum record was recorded in his studio, the massive 1981 hit "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.
B10b. Robert "Bob" Davis (1936)
Lawrence Davis's self-titled double album "Davis" and his platinum record, "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.
Ike Davis's family, c.1905. Seated: Ike Davis, daughter Annie Davis. Standing: Ike's son Jack Davis, second wife Lena (Prager) Davis, daughter Sadie Davis.
C. Isaac Davis (born 1857 in Russia; died 1921 in Spokane, WA) first married c.1881 to Rebecca Kukler (born c.1862 in Russia; died 1904 in Spokane, WA), the daughter of Abraham and Anna Sarah Kukler. Their surviving children were:
C1. Alex Davis (born 1881 in Russia; died 1978 in Spokane), a clothes salesman, first married Angie St. Holt (1879-1915), a gentile woman born in Wisconsin, and they had at least one child:
C1a. A daughter, who is unnamed in Angie Davis's obituary.
Within six months of his first wife's death, Alex then married Elizabeth Markowitz (1892-1932) in 1915 in Spokane and had a son and daughter:
C1b. Private First Class Robert Davis of the Army Air Force (1917-1944), who was a POW aboard the Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru and died when it sank on October 24, 1944. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Air Medal, and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. He is listed on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
PFC Robert R. Davis
C1c. Zelda Taitch (1919-1968), who married the pawnbroker Eudell Taitch (1915-2005)
Alex then married Daisy L. Moore (nee Mitchell, 1910-1990) in 1945 in Thompson Falls, MT and had another daughter:
C1d. Roberta Greer
C2. Morris "Curley" Davis (born 1885 in Russia; died 1968 in Montana), who claimed he was born in Odessa, lived as a saloon/pool hall worker in Western towns. First he married Kathryn "Kate" Greene Shortridge (1882-1917), a divorcee, in 1914 in Great Falls, MT. Kathryn was first married in 1901 to Charles G. Shortridge (1864-1927), a son of Populist North Dakota Governor Eli C. D. Shortridge (1830-1908). Kathryn and Charles had a son, Lyman (1901-1976), but Morris never raised him. In February 1917, Kathryn committed suicide in her home in Lewistown, MT by ingesting strychnine. In September 1917, seven months after his first wife's death, Morris married Aritia Correll (1896-1974) in Cascade County, MT, and they stayed in Lewistown.
C2. Morris "Curley" Davis (born 1885 in Russia; died 1968 in Montana), who claimed he was born in Odessa, lived as a saloon/pool hall worker in Western towns. First he married Kathryn "Kate" Greene Shortridge (1882-1917), a divorcee, in 1914 in Great Falls, MT. Kathryn was first married in 1901 to Charles G. Shortridge (1864-1927), a son of Populist North Dakota Governor Eli C. D. Shortridge (1830-1908). Kathryn and Charles had a son, Lyman (1901-1976), but Morris never raised him. In February 1917, Kathryn committed suicide in her home in Lewistown, MT by ingesting strychnine. In September 1917, seven months after his first wife's death, Morris married Aritia Correll (1896-1974) in Cascade County, MT, and they stayed in Lewistown.
Morris then joined the U.S. Army in October 1917, serving in World War I as a wagoner for the supply company of the 362nd Infantry Division, part of the larger 91st Division, called the "Wild West Division." He relocated to France in July 1918 and the division fought in France and Belgium before the armistice on November 11, 1918.
Brothers Morris Davis and Jack Davis were featured in the Spokesman-Review in a 1919 article on Spokane men who served in the World War.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review published excerpts from two letters Morris Davis wrote to his family. The first one, published in September 1918, said in part, "The Americans are surely the best of them all. We chased the Huns over a front of 30 miles and captured thousands of prisoners and guns and we still have them on the run." His second letter, published in February 1919, commented on the death of another Spokane Jewish war veteran, David Cohn, in the Meuse–Argonne offensive the previous November, calling his "a good man [who] made a great sacrifice for his country and his people... After reading about all the crimes committed against humanity by the Huns I must say that there never was a time that I was afraid to die for a just cause like this. Now that the war is over I can look a man straight in the eye and say that I did my little bit for my country."
After the war, Morris Davis returned to Lewistown and ran a cigar store, but he clearly disobeyed Prohibition. In 1932, a federal grand jury charged Morris with possession of liquor. Morris, or Curley Davis as he was better known, then worked as a bartender in the Lacoma Club in Missoula, before opening his own Missoula bar, Curley's Tavern, in 1946. A later owner, Bill Jones, described Curley's Tavern as "a workingman's bar, a one-room bar at the edge of town." Curley married one more time in 1957 in Hamilton, MT to Mary Inman (1892-1973, maiden name Schanck). Morris "Curley" Davis died in 1968 from a massive heart attack while driving on US Highway 10, and his funeral featured an honor guard of World War I veterans. Bill and Gloria Jones bought Curley's Tavern in 1973, and the bar kept its original name until its closing in 2015.
The gravesite of Morris "Curley" Davis (FindAGrave.com)
C3. Sadie [Sonya] Cassell (born 1889 in Russia; died 1982 in Los Angeles) married in 1909 David Bennett Cassell (born 1882 in Arkansas; died 1965 in Los Angeles), who worked for a construction company. They had four children, and Sadie outlived three of them:
C3a. Daniel Cassell (1910-1914)
C3b. Benjamin Cassell (1912-1978)
C3c. Betty Cassell (1913-1968)
C3d. Jane Lapota (1915-1996)
C4. Jack Merton [Jacob] Davis (born 1891 in Russia; died 1958 in Saginaw, Michigan) lived a life that was hard to piece together, even using Ancestry.com's formidable search engines, but he used a consistent birthdate (March 6, 1890/1891) and his widow's application for his military headstone give matching military service dates. His 1900 and 1910 census entries in Spokane say he was born in Russia and immigrated as an infant. Jack went by "Jake M. Davis" in his 1917 World War I draft registration and subsequent military record and claimed he was a natural-born citizen originally from New York City. He served in the Army from July 19, 1918 to December 31, 1918, at the Medical Officers' Training Camp in Fort Riley, Kansas. Jack attained the ranks of Private first class, lance corporal, and wagoner, and his widow claimed he even became a sergeant.
After the war, Jack left Spokane, and lived in Chicago at the time of his father's death in 1921. Ike Davis left Jack an inheritance, suggesting that they were not estranged, but he would have certainly disproved of Jack's marriage in 1928 in Detroit, MI to a gentile woman named Irene M. Cardinal (1898-1969). In the marriage record, Jack said he was born in Montana, which he repeated in later documents, and Americanized his parents' names as "Ira Davis" and "Rose Fellman." The 1930 census listed Jack and Irene as living in Grosse Point Park, MI, where Jack worked as a real estate agent.
Jack's obituary in The Bismarck Tribune focused on his last decade of life, when he was president of the Cardinal Oil Company (clearly named after Irene), “dealing primarily in minerals and oil and gas leases. He operated exclusively in Illinois, Michigan and the mid-continent area generally.” He first scoped out potential oil fields in Bismarck, ND around 1948, and then moved to Bismarck from Olney, IL in 1952, the year after North Dakota's first discovery of petroleum. Rebecca Clarren's excellent book The Cost of Free Land touches on the mid-century oil industry in the Dakotas, and quotes Roger Fragua: "The history of energy extraction has been one of legal theft with the industry and the United States government in collusion." In 1955, Jack moved to Denver, CO, and finally he lived and died in Saginaw, MI, where Irene Davis's family was located. Jack's obituary said, “Mr. Davis leaves only his widow,” suggesting he was estranged from his six siblings. He also had no children. Jack's tombstone lists his military service and is topped with a cross, just like his brother Morris's tombstone.
The headline and lede of Jack M. Davis's obituary in The Bismarck Tribune, 1958.
Sister Mary Mercedes Davis, second from the right, celebrates the 50th anniversary of taking her vows in 1966. (WashingtonDigitalNewspapers.org)
Ike and Lena Davis and their children, Leo and Betty Davis, c.1911
Isaac remarried c.1905 in Spokane to Lena Prager [Podajetsky] (born c.1876 in Katerinopol, Ukraine; died in New York; daughter of Itzig/Isaac Podajetsky and Miriam Feinberg), and they had the following children:
C6. Betty [Rebecca] Davis (born 1906 in Spokane; died 1994 in St. Paul, MN), who dated Bing Crosby in Spokane before she went to New York City, married in 1926 in Brooklyn her first cousin Phil Davis (1897-1974, Ruben's son, see above) and had two sons.
C7. Max [Mordechai] Davis (born 1910 in Spokane; died 1910 in Spokane)
C8. Leo Davis (born 1911 in Spokane; died 1996 in Farmington Hills, MI) married Gertrude Lees (born 1914 in New York; died 1984 in Chicago) in Brooklyn in 1934 and they later lived in Chicago. Leo's second wife was Lauren Chiprin Kalt Meyers (1913-2008). Leo and Gertrude had one son:
C8a. Eddie Davis
D. Louis Davis (born 1862 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1944 in Manhattan) immigrated in 1891 under the name Leiser Dewinsky with his wife, Minnie Chudnoff [Mindel Chudnofsky] (1862-1930), and three oldest children. He became a fish dealer in Manhattan. Louis and Minnie Davis buried in the "Ahavas Achim Anshe Corsom" section of Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, implying that they came from the town of Korsun, Ukraine.
Five of Louis Davis's daughters, 1949: Fannie Needle, Rae Albert, Beattie Horowitz, Anna Rothenberg, Bella Rosenson.
D. Louis Davis (born 1862 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1944 in Manhattan) immigrated in 1891 under the name Leiser Dewinsky with his wife, Minnie Chudnoff [Mindel Chudnofsky] (1862-1930), and three oldest children. He became a fish dealer in Manhattan. Louis and Minnie Davis buried in the "Ahavas Achim Anshe Corsom" section of Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, implying that they came from the town of Korsun, Ukraine.
Louis and Minnie Davis had nine children:
D1. Ida [Chaje] Davis (born 1884 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1936 in New York City), who may be named after Ruben's first wife, married in 1910 Hyman Weinstein (born 1885 in Odessa, Ukraine), a lithographer. Ida died relatively early of diabetes. She and Hyman had two children:
D1. Ida [Chaje] Davis (born 1884 in Kiev, Ukraine; died 1936 in New York City), who may be named after Ruben's first wife, married in 1910 Hyman Weinstein (born 1885 in Odessa, Ukraine), a lithographer. Ida died relatively early of diabetes. She and Hyman had two children:
D1a. Martha Tockar (1917-1966)
D1b. Shirley Weinstein (c.1922)
D2. Fannie [Frimme] Davis (born 1885 in Russia; died 1956 in Norwalk, CT) married Pincus Needle (c.1885-1950) in 1907 and had five children:
D2a. Lillian Needle (c.1908)
D2b. Esther Sokoloff (c.1912)
D2c. Sylvia Needle (c.1919)
D2d. Bernard Needle (c.1921)
D2e. Stanley Needle (c.1928-2015)
D3. Rae [Rachael] Davis (born c.1886 in Russia) first married Samuel Lewis, a professional gambler, in 1904. They lived in San Francisco at the time of the 1906 earthquake. When Rae's sister-in-law suggested she go to a 50th anniversary gathering of 1906 earthquake survivors, Rae said she did not want to go, since she would have to explain where she was doing at the time of the quake. In Rae's words, "I was in a whorehouse while my husband was playing cards!" Sam Lewis was listed in the 1910 census as a bartender and in the 1920 census as a speculator of stocks.
After Rae and Sam divorced in the 1920s, she married in 1927 William Albert (c.1891-1968), a manufacturer who ran the Hofstadter and Albert Millinery Corporation, and they lived comfortably on Manhattan's Riverside Drive. Rae had no children.
D4. Samuel Davis (born 1893 in New York; died 1979) fought in France during World War I and worked in Fulton Fish Market. He married Hannah Standowitz (1899-1986) in 1919, at a double wedding with his brother Abraham and Jennie Berman, and had two children:
D4a. Stanley Davis (1920-1988)
D4b. Harriet Dubofsky (1925-2002)
D5. Beattie [Beatrice / Rebecca] Davis (born 1896 in New York) is remembered as a kind person and excellent cook who made Sunday meals for extended family gatherings in her apartment on the Bronx's Grand Concourse. She married Jacob Horowitz in 1919 and had two children:
D5a. Arthur Davis (1921)
D5b. Charlotte Heller (1926)
D6. Abraham Davis (born 1898 in New York, NY; died 1957 in Bronx, NY) worked in the Fulton Fish Market. He married Jennie Berman (1897-1997) in 1919, at a double wedding with his brother Sam and Hannah Standowitz, and had three children:
D6a. Ethel Davis (c.1921)
D6b. Thelma Davis (c.1925)
D6c. Ira Davis (1932-2020)
D7. Anna Davis (born 1900 in New York; died 1995 in Los Angeles) married George Rothenberg in 1919, divorced in the 1930s, and had one son:
D7a. Arthur Rothenberg (c.1920)
D8. Henry [Hyman] Davis (born 1902 in New York) married Selma Engelman in 1926 and had two children:
D8a. Sheldon Davis (c.1930)
D8b. Marvin Davis (c.1933)
D9. Bella [Beckie] Davis (born 1904 in New York; died 1987 in New York), who may be named after Isaac's first wife, married Louis Rosenson (1902-1991) in 1925 and had one daughter:
D9a. Shirley Futterman (c.1926)
E. Paul Davis (born c.1867 in Russia; died 1926 in Spokane, WA) first married Gittel Abelov (born 1873 in Russia; died 1896 in Montefiore Home in Manhattan). Their only surviving child was:
E1. Jennie Davis (born 1893 in Manhattan; died 1984 in Portland, OR), who lived in San Francisco for nearly two years before marrying in 1919 the chiropractor Herman Wexler (c.1894-1962; son of Morris Wexler and Jennie Abrams). Herman and Jennie Wexler lived for many years in Portland, OR before divorcing in 1944. They had two children:
Fannie Davis poses with (left) her daughters, Dorothy Berg, Bessie Karasov, Florence Fraser, Jennie Wexler, and Esther Kaplan, and (right) with her sons, Jack Davis and Moe Davis, 1938. Fannie's family reunited in Spokane for Decoration Day (now Memorial Day).
E. Paul Davis (born c.1867 in Russia; died 1926 in Spokane, WA) first married Gittel Abelov (born 1873 in Russia; died 1896 in Montefiore Home in Manhattan). Their only surviving child was:
E1. Jennie Davis (born 1893 in Manhattan; died 1984 in Portland, OR), who lived in San Francisco for nearly two years before marrying in 1919 the chiropractor Herman Wexler (c.1894-1962; son of Morris Wexler and Jennie Abrams). Herman and Jennie Wexler lived for many years in Portland, OR before divorcing in 1944. They had two children:
E1a. Myrtle Marsha Williams (1920-1995), who married Paul J. Williams (1916-1990) and lived in Oregon, then southern California.
E1b. Paul Wexler (1929-1979), who was a Hollywood actor. Paul in turn had a son with his first wife who became a high-ranking Hare Krishna, Bhaktividya Purna Swami Maharaja. Here is more on the relationship between Paul Wexler and his son. Unfortunately, Bhaktividya Purna Swami has been accused of child abuse at his boarding schools in Mayapur, India.
Left: Paul Wexler, starring in the 1955 "Death Valley Days" TV episode "The Homeliest Man in Nevada." Right: Bhaktividya Purna Swami.
Paul remarried in 1896 to Fannie [Feige] Scher (born c.1876 in Poland; died 1956 in Miami, FL), and they had the following children:
E2. Jack [Samuel] Davis (born 1896 in Manhattan; died 1951 in Spokane, WA), a World War I veteran who served as a landsman in the U.S. Navy from June 1918 to January 1919. Jack moved to Bend, OR by the 1920s, where he worked as an insurance salesman and real estate agent, commanded the local American Legion, and among many civic duties helped organize and lead Deschutes County's World War II draft board. Jack Davis first married Genevieve Perkins (1890-1946; daughter of Hugh and Frances E. Nelson) in 1927, and then married Gladys Bedwell York (1900-1958) in 1948, but had no children. He died while visiting his mother in Spokane.
Ad for Jack Davis's failed 1930 run for Deschutes County Commissioner
3a. Eleanor Capeloto (c.1933)
3b. Paul Davis (c.1937)
E4. Bessie Lillian [Rebecca] Davis (born 1900 in Manhattan; died 1995 in Miami, FL) was an outspoken saleswoman with a sarcastic wit, who eloped and married Nathaniel Karasov (1895-1977), a British-born salesman, on April 10, 1918 in Coeur d'Alene, ID. They had a second religious ceremony on April 30, 1918 in Paul and Fannie Davis's house in Spokane. They moved to many places, including Spokane, WA; Watrous, Saskatchewan; Los Angeles, and Portland, OR before retiring in Miami in the 1950s. Widowed, Bess married the retired pots and pans manufacturer Louis Krutt (1899-1983) in 1978 in Miami. Lou Krutt was born in Odessa, Russia but immigrated to Argentina and lived there as a boy before coming to the United States. Nat Karasov and Bess Karasov Krutt had one daughter:
E4a. Frances E. Fingerhut (1919-2014)
Frances Fingerhut and her mother Bess Karasov, 1944.
E5. Florence Davis (born 1904 in Manhattan; died 2001 in San Francisco, CA) married Walter J. Fraser in 1922 in Coeur d'Alene, ID. They later divorced, Florence later moved to San Francisco, and married Valentine J. Daly (1893-1960). Walter and Florence Fraser had one son:
E5a. Robert Lee Fraser (1924-2020), who served in World War II in General Patton's Third Army, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and helped bring the famed Lipizzan horses to safety from Czechoslovakia to Austria. After the war, he served in the FBI, became an assistant district attorney and eventually was a judge in Washington State.
Robert Lee Fraser during World War II.
E6. Dorothy Davis (born 1905 in Milwaukee, WI; died 1991 in Santa Ana, CA) married Mickey Berg (1905-1986; son of Jacob Berg and Hannah Aronowitz) in 1934 in Brooklyn and had two children:
E6a. Paul Berg (1935), who studied abstract painting with Philip Guston in the 1950s and became a graphic designer. He and his second wife Estelle (1940-2017) were influential South Florida art collectors.
E6b. Anita Eisenman
Paul and Estelle Berg in front of an installation in their collection, 2008.
E7. Esther Davis (born 1913 in Spokane, WA; died 2002 in Queens, NY) married Ruby Kaplan (1913-2005; son of Joseph and Ida Kaplan) in 1936 in Brooklyn and they had two children:
E7a. Jerry Kaplan
E7b. Marilyn Pressman
The Axelrod Family, c.1940. Top: Estelle Axelrod, Sol and Sylvia Axelrod. Bottom: Ella and Ben Axelrod.
F1. Solomon [Yekutiel Sussman] Axelrod (1902-1988), a salesman who married Sylvia Pardes (1913-1994) and had one son:
F1a. Mark Axelrod
F2. David Solomon Axelrod (born 1905 in Manhattan; died 1907 in Manhattan)
F3. Milton Axelrod (born 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts; died 1910 in Manhattan)
F4. Estelle [Esther] Axelrod (1914-1994), a bookkeeper who never married.
SASLOWSKY COUSINS
A sister or close relative of Esther (Saslowky) Davis, Eva Saslowsky, married Max Etkis. Their daughter, Freyde Etkis (c.1870-1938), married Michel Krakowitz (c.1866-1913), and the young couple immigrated to New York in 1891. Their passenger record said they came from Korsun, the same town connected with Ruben and Louis Davis.
Michel, who changed his name to Max, and Freda Krakowitz lived on Delancey Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side with their three children: a daughter named Rebecca (1900-1948) and twins named Abram Hirsh and Deborah Krakowitz, who were born on November 27, 1903. Max worked as a clothing factory worker and died in his mid-40s.
After Max's death, Freda and her children changed their last name to Kay. Rebecca changed her name to Beatrice Kay, married a postal clerk named Abraham Felstein in 1936, and they had no children. Abram changed his name to Albert "Al" Harry Kay (1903-1976), and Deborah changed her name to Dorothy "Dottie" Kay (1903-1990). Al Kay owned a successful business in buttons and trimmings for women's coats and suits, and he, his wife Jean (born 1904), and Dottie Kay lived in an apartment in the same building as the Barneys department store, on the West 16th Street side.
Al and Dottie Kay grew up near their cousins Sol and Estelle Axelrod on the Lower East Side and they remained close as adults. Sol's son, Mark Axelrod, remembered visiting Al Kay's buttons and trimmings factory "in the heart of the Garment District in the West 30s":
"The Al Kay Company was a beehive of activity with quite a few employees. This business was strictly wholesale, so nobody cared that the place had zero eye appeal. I remember that all the walls were lined with drawers, floor-to-ceiling, filled with different types of buttons, hooks, snaps, zippers, etc. ... One time I recall, when my father worked as a salesman for a ladies' raincoat company, he stayed in the office/showroom area where he would meet with buyers. Behind that area was a very large room where the cutters worked. This, mind you, was at a time when cutting and final assembly was still done in the Garment District... The cutters worked on giant tables, 10' X 15' is my best recollection, and there were many such tables in this big room. This was long before electric scissors were invented and the cutters used humongous manual scissors the blades of which were over a foot long.
"Down on the street, lots of men pushed racks on wheels that contained fifty or more garments. There were so many of these racks that walking on the sidewalk was difficult... The Garment District I remember from my youth was for the most part old, cramped and dirty. On the plus side, it employed thousands upon thousands of people in manufacturing, sales/marketing, distribution, administration and executive positions. I'm sure that number today is a tiny fraction of what it once was, but that story is retold in America in all kinds of manufacturing businesses, not only clothing."
The bustle and the hustle of peddlers, the mining towns, the clothing stores, the Lower East Side, the sweatshops, the fish markets, the Garment District, the Northern Pacific Railway — the Davis family and their kin scratched out a living among an American tidal wave of migration and movement. Whatever past life left behind in Russia was forgotten, and the Davis family pressed forward, assimilating into the nonstop pace of the United States.
UNCOVERING THE DIVINSKIY FAMILY'S RUSSIAN PAST
As promised, I saved my Davis family's most distant Russian history for the very end. It's deliciously ironic that the only way I was able to stretch this family tree back to the 18th century was through a series of internet genealogy discoveries in March 2022!
I began with New York City vital records — 13.3 million birth, marriage, and death records that are now available online for free, thanks to the legal efforts of Reclaim the Records, a genealogy advocacy group that fights for public records to be truly public.
Soon I found over 50 vital records regarding my Great-Grandma Bess's Davis family, and I noticed a curious pattern. Six family weddings, of Ella Axelrod and five of her nieces between 1899-1907, involved the same rabbi, Max Etkes (later known as Max Etkin). Given that Esther Davis's sister married a different man named Max Etkis, I am willing to bet that this rabbi was an extended relative.
Rabbi Max Etkes's office was at 50 Essex Street in Manhattan (a site that is now part of Seward Park). Thanks to Google Books, I searched a 1900 directory for Manhattan and the Bronx and saw 50 Essex Street listed as the address of the Chebra Bohoslow & Korsun, a chevra kadisha (burial society) for Jewish immigrants from the towns that are now Bohuslav and Korsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyi, Ukraine.
As I said before, given that Ruben Davis's immigration record said he was from Korsun, and Louis Davis was buried in a cemetery plot for people from Korsun, this family rabbi serving a congregation from Korsun seemed to prove the Davis family hometown.
I posted a Twitter thread about this finding on March 19, 2022, and genealogist Michael Waas commented with startling news: there are digitized records from Korsun online!
Internet genealogists have one man to thank for the privilege of being able to peruse Ukrainian records online: Alex Krakovsky. For years Alex has digitized precious books in Ukrainian archives. Even as Russia launched its repulsive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Alex posted on Facebook a photo of archival books and a computer on his desk with an amazing caption: "The show must go on."
So again, it's thanks to Alex Krakovsky that I could piece together my distant Divinskiy family history.
It took one record to demolish a 20-year-old brick wall in my research. The Russian Empire kept "revision lists," books that listed families to keep track of males eligible to serve in the military. Towns made a new revision list every 10-20 years, noting which members of the family were born or died in the interim, and also noting which families had moved away. Unfortunately details like occupations are not included, but if a family stayed in one place these lists can help trace then back, generation by generation.
I checked the 1879 revision list for Korsun, and in the town of Smiela lived the "Widow (Vdova) Divinska," 45-year-old Ester Divinska, with her sons Ruvin (Ruben), Itzko (Ike), Leizor Yankel (Louis), and Peisach (Paul), her daughter Marim (Ella), and Rubin's wife and two young daughters! Except for the oldest son Joe, everyone else in the Davis family was listed here!
I was pleased to see Rubin's signature at the bottom of the revision list, which matched the handwriting that he and his brothers used when they signed in English.
I searched an 1875 revision list for Kanev and found another jackpot: Zus Divinskiy and his wife and children were listed along with Zus's brothers and mother — Chana-Bluma Divinskaya!
Then the Divinskiy trail ran cold. The family wasn't in other Kanev revision lists. I only got another clue when I entered this Divinskiy family into an Ancestry.com family tree. Zus's younger brother Berko was an eligible voter for the 1906 Duma, the weak Tsarist attempt at a legislature. I checked JewishGen.org, which I knew has indexes for the 1906 Duma voters' list, and I saw Berko’s patronym listed as “Chaim-Moshkov.”
Next, I searched for Divinskiy in JewishGen's Ukraine Database, and among the indexed revision lists of Kiev Gubernia I saw shocking results.
The Divinskiy family appears in the 1850 revision list for Bila Tserkva, a town about 50 miles south of Kiev! Chaim-Moshko Itzkov Divinskiy and his wife Bluma are listed with their children, including 16-year-old Zus!
Bila Tserkva, or Belaya Tserkov in Russian, literally means "White Church." Local Jews avoided using this very Christian name and called the town Sadeh Lavan ("white field"), as well as a more inflammatory nickname, Schvartze Timme ("black abomination").
Alex Krakovsky's digital archives once again contain a wealth of revision lists for Bila Tserkva, allowing me to go further and further back in time.
In 1834, Chaim-Moshko Itzkov Divinskiy was listed alongside his recently departed father, Itzko Gershkov Divinskiy (c.1782-1831).
In 1816, Itzko Gershkov Divinskiy was listed alongside his recently departed father, Gershko Berkov Divinskiy (c.1739-1815). Gershko was a decade younger than Tsarina Catherine the Great, and lived through the fall of Napoleon, Russia's failed invader.
Incredibly, there is also a 1795 revision list of Bila Tserkva, written in both Russian and Polish! Written four years after the creation of the Pale of Settlement, this document captures the era before Russian Jews had mandatory surnames, which they only adopted in 1804!
This 1795 list includes a 55-year-old man known as Gershko Berkov in Russian and Herszko Berkow in Polish, and his 12-year-old son Itzko. Gershko/Herszko's patronym implies that his father, a man who lived over 300 years ago, was named Berko.
All these revision lists in Cyrillic make it clear that the surname Gershko/Herszko and his children adopted was Divinskiy, not Davinsky or Dubinsky. This is a toponymic surname, meaning it refers to a place — probably Dyvyn, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine (45 miles northwest of Bila Tserka), rather than other similarly named places like Dzivin, Belarus (over 370 miles from Bila Tserkva). This town's name lives vaguely on in the Davis family name.
SIMPLIFIED RUSSIAN DIVINSKIY FAMILY TREE
Gershko Berkov / Herszko Berkow Divinskiy (c.1739-1815), son of Berko, married Golda Leybowa (1743), and their children included:
1. (possibly) Moszko Herszelow (born 1774), a son
2. Froim Gershkov Divinskiy, a son
3. [a wife of Shlumo Kagana], a daughter
4. Yankel Gershkov Divinskiy (1778-1831), a son
5. Zus Gershkov Divinskiy (1780-1833), a son
6. Itzko Gershkov Divinskiy (1782-1831), a son whose family continues below.
7. Berko Gershkov Divinskiy (1785), a twin son
8. Ruvin Gershkov Divinskiy (1784/1785-1847), a twin son
Itzko Gershkov Divinskiy (1782-1831) married Gitlia (1786), and they had at least a son:
1. Chaim-Moshko Itzkov Divinskiy (1807), a son whose family continues below.
Chaim-Moshko Itzkov Divinskiy (1807) married Chana-Bluma Yoizipova (1810), and their children included:
1. Itzko Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (c.1829), a son
2. Zus Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (c.1833), a son whose family continues below.
3. Chaya Chaim-Moshkova Divinskaya (1834), a daughter
4. Yankel Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (1837), a son
5. Leiba Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (1840), a son
6. Berko Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (1843), a son
7. Malka Chaim-Moshkova Divinskaya (1844), a daughter
8. Leizor Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (1845), a son
9. Binya Chaim-Moshkova Divinskaya (1848), a daughter
Zus Chaim-Moshkov Divinskiy (c.1833-c.1877) married Ester Zaslavskiy (1834-1910), and their children included:
1. Ios Zusov Divinskiy / Joe Davis (1852-1934)
2. Abrush Duvid Zusov Divinskiy (1854), probably a different son from Ruvin?
3. Ruvin Zusov Divinskiy / Ruben Davis (1854-1934)
4. Itzko Zusov Divinskiy / Ike Davis (1855-1921)
5. Leizor Yankel Zusov Divinskiy / Louis Davis (1860-1944)
6. Peisach Zusov Divinskiy / Paul Davis (1867-1926)
7. Marim Zusov Divinskiy / Ella Axelrod (1876-1960)
The brothers Joe Davis, Ruben Davis, Ike Davis, Louis Davis, and Paul Davis, and the sister Ella Axelrod immigrated to the United States, and their stories are at the start of this article.
A full list of the many descendants of Gershko Berkov Divinskiy (c.1739-1815) appears in a separate blog entry.
Hi Edward,
ReplyDeleteMy mother, Sallie, has just written back to you about Joe Davis and his son, Reuben (my great-grandfather). I just wanted to thank you so much for all the hard work you've done here and for the connection you have provided for us. It's very, very moving!
Thank you!
Anna