Frances Garber
Frances Garber came from a family that traced its origins to Neustadt, Lithuania. Her grandfather, Mattathias Gorontzik, immigrated to America around 1875, settling in Baltimore, where he is believed to have worked as a pack peddler. The family later scattered, with relatives in Baltimore and Reading, Pennsylvania. Frances was the daughter of David Wolf and Ida Gorontzik Wolf. Three of the children were born in Baltimore and three in Dallas. The family's move to Texas came after her uncle Philip, a pack peddler who traveled as far as Atlanta, heard that Texas would be a good place to settle and chose Dallas on a railroad clerk's advice.
Frances's parents came to Dallas in 1902, drawn by the presence of Ida's brothers and by a doctor's advice. Her oldest brother Morris suffered epileptic seizures as a child, and a Baltimore physician, Dr. White, advised a change of climate. After the family moved to Dallas, Morris never had another seizure, though he remained high-strung throughout his life. The family first lived on Horton Street, near neighbors including the Aronoffs and the Bittermans, and later moved to Bellevue near what would become Sears on Lamar Street. As a child, Frances and her siblings rode the streetcar loop through Fair Park for amusement.
The family was deeply involved in Dallas commerce. Frances's father worked in his brother Philip's saloon for twenty-five dollars a month, then went into the grocery business with Louis Barzun, and later ran a liquor store. Her uncle Israel Gorontzik ran a saloon at Akard and Jackson until Prohibition, then founded the Dallas Tailor and Laundry Supply, the first such supply house in Texas. Her brother Philip Wolf was its first employee, working alongside Cleo Anderson Copeland for sixty-two years. Frances recalled many Jewish families of early Dallas, including the Metzgers, Rubensteins, Wertheimers, and Rabbi Lefkowitz, in the neighborhoods around Akard, South Boulevard, and Park Row.
Full Transcript
This is Rose Biederman. Today is Monday, August the 5th, 1991, and I'm sitting in the archives room with Francis Garber and looking at a book of obituaries from the 1940s. And I happened to see an obituary of Mr. Israel Gorancic, and he died in 1940. And, of course, that's... How was he related to you, Francis? Uncle Israel was my mother's brother. And it says here that he passed away in San Antonio, but he had been a Dallas resident for 40 years and a partner in Southern Cleaners and Supply Company. Uncle Israel was in the saloon business when he first came to Dallas. I can't give you the date.
He had a saloon on the corner of Ackerd and Jackson. And I think the Oriental Hotel was on the corner of Ackerd and Commerce, one block away. But the reason that the people who worked at the roundhouse, which was where the trains were repaired, was not too many blocks away. And many of the people that worked at, we called it the roundhouse, because it was round. Right, right. And they would come to his saloon, and he was in a very good area where going to town, everyone walked. You walked to town, or you were in a certain few blocks of his saloon, and he did very well.
He was a real fine person, and he was a wonderful businessman, very perceptive, and he did very, very well until the prohibition came in. And then he I can give you the date but he went into business with Mr Friedman Max Friedman in this pants manufacturing And coming in contact with Mr Friedman was a tailor and he evidently Where was his shop? His shop was on the corner of Pearl and Elm, upstairs. Upstairs. And I think, I'm not too sure about this, Mr. Friedman was the tailor. He was the inside man. And I have an idea that Uncle Israel must have been the outside contact because he was a very good salesman.
And he evidently coming in contact with tailors who may have also sold clothes besides making clothes. They could have also sold clothes. And from that experience, Uncle Israel had the idea that there was a need for a supply house for tailors and laundries. Like there was Oriental Laundry at that time. And maybe a few more laundries. You mean like supplies? Supplies. I see. He supplied tailors not with materials, with linings and needles and machinery, the sewing machines, and any supplies that they needed. He started off in a small place on North Irby between Elm and Pacific. Now if anyone Can remember That Mrs. Steele Rosa Steele Had a delicatessen I've been told that On North Irving And Uncle Israel's store Was right next to her Delicatessen And My brother Philip Wolf Was his first employee First and only employee For a long time Phillip stayed on the inside and took care of the orders.
Uncle Israel traveled. It wasn't just in Dallas. He traveled. How far did he travel? He traveled all over Texas. And he Dallas Tailor and Laundry Supply was the name of that company It was the first supply house in the state of Texas for tailors and laundries And that was one of the reasons because they were the first and because laundries and cleaners became so popular as the population increased And as clothes became more popular to have cleaned, that they were able to be the original brokers for so many products of the finest and the best and most popular products in those fields. like you know cleaning they sell all the equipment for cleaners and laundries and they were able to get the franchise for all of this because they were the first ones here and Uncle Israel traveled he was a very fine salesman and he was honest and people trusted him and my brother Philip Wolf took care of the orders Then, four years later, I think, they moved to Accord Street between Young and Wood, almost across the street from the Federal Reserve Bank.
And they had a much larger store. And that's when Cleo Copeland came to work there. Cleo Anderson Copeland. She was the second employee. Oh, the second employee. The second employee. And the reason I mention her name is because she and my brother worked together for 62 years. My goodness. That was the only position that Cleo had. It was the only position my brother Phillip had. He went to work for Uncle Israel right out of high school. My. And after Uncle Israel had been in the business several years, I don't remember the year, he took mr. Gita in as a partner oh I don't know why he took him in as a partner unless uncle Israel wasn feeling well I don remember and he and several years a few years later he sold out to mr Gita Oh I see That how Mr Gita became the owner My brother still worked there Cleo still worked there.
And then from there, they moved over on Griffin Street, right across from the Times Herald. I don't know the block. It's near Pacific. And they stayed there for a while, a few years, until they moved over on 2nd Avenue, where they are now, 502 2nd Avenue. It's maybe four or five blocks from the fairgrounds. Right. And that's the story of the Dallas Taylor and Laundry Supply. And they grew into the largest cleaner and laundry supply house in the state. There isn't another one that compares to them. And then the tailors kind of dwindled away so that really their business is with cleaners and laundries. They do call on tailors.
Where there are tailors, they do call on them. And they carry the supplies. They carry supplies because cleaners now do a lot of the work of the tailors. You want lining put in your coat, they'll do it for you. And all of those things. So that is the story. Was Israel Gorontzik, was he born in this country? Israel Gorontzik was born in Neinstadt, Lithuania. And he came to his father, Mordecai Gorontzik. No, not Mordecai, Mattathias. Mattathias Garanzic came to America I don't know what year but he did have he did take out his naturalization papers and at one time they were intact I don't know where they are now he must have come here around 1875 I'm going on that date because of when mama came here my mother who was Ida Garanzic And they came all the time came to Baltimore and I don't know I think that grandpa was a pack peddler I can't think of remembering anything else that he did and the Jew to Jewish people of Baltimore were very generous with the immigrants and whether grandpa was the first one that came here.
He had a brother. I can't think of his brother's name. Was here, was here or came here. And he had a sister, Mumma Riva Barzoon, married to Moshe Barzoon in Baltimore. Alster, Mrs. Singer of Reading, Pennsylvania. She and her husband lived and celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in Reading, Pennsylvania. My goodness. I have a picture of that. And And let's see, there was more. What brought the family to Dallas? Do you know? Yes. Uncle Philip was a pack peddler. He was the oldest of the sons. He was a pack peddler. Now this would be a brother to Israel? This was a brother to Israel. Okay.
And he came as far as Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia, and he stayed at a rooming house. And, you know, the peddlers were taught. Yeah. And he heard them mention Texas, that Texas was going to be a good place to establish yourself. So he went to the railroad station, and he put some money up on the counter, and he said to the clerk, I want to go to Texas. I hear that it's going to be good. And the clerk says, well, there's two places to go to, Beaumont or Dallas. Where do you want to go? He said, I don't know where I want to go. You tell me.
He said well if I were you I go to Dallas So my uncle came to Dallas and he established a saloon And his brothers came here because he was here And grandpa came here because he was here. And they all went into the saloon business? All of them went into the saloon business except Uncle Will. Uncle Will went in the real estate business. The liquor business didn't, saloon business didn't appeal to him. And he sold a piece of property at the corner, at the railroad track on Irby Street, where there was a flour mill went in there, and I can't think of the name of it now.
Burris mill? No, flour. They made flour. like La France flour. There was another flour mill, you know, at the corner of Katie's and the Santa Fe Railroad. That one was called, well, it'll come to me because I know it just so well. But there were two flour mills. He made flour. And he sold that piece of property to that flour mill. That must have been a good business deal Yes, that was a good business deal That gave Uncle Will the incentive to stay with it Which he did, he stayed with it And the reason that we came to Dallas My family, my father David Wolf and Mama Was because my oldest brother Morris As a child had epileptic seizures and mama and at and at the time that mama so after Morris there were two other children there was my brother Joe and my sister Jenny all three were born in Baltimore three in Baltimore three in Dallas but mama took Morris to a Dr.
White in Baltimore and he told her that if she would change climates that he would never have these seizures but that she would have to treat him differently than the other children he would always be a high nervous person child and an adult which he was So Mama packed up pillows and everything and came on the train I guess it took them four or five, six days to get here. I don't remember. But they came to Dallas because that's where her brothers were. And my brother Morris never had another seizure. That's very interesting. Isn't that interesting? Did the doctor, do you know if he wanted him to go to a warm climate or just a different climate?
He just said change climates. Is that right? And I'm sure that Mama must have conferred with him about going to Texas, and he probably said, that's fine. Isn't that interesting? I've never heard of that before or since. But he continued to be high-strung. He continued to be high-strung and nervous, and Mama did treat him differently than she did the rest of us. And we understood this in Morris too, and our attitude to him was different. You accepted that, I'm sure. And I worked with him for so many years in Papa's store, grocery store, and in the liquor store. So that I was aware of all of these things, you know.
And when Papa first came here, he went to work for Uncle Philip in the saloon. He made $25 a month. And around what time period is this? They came to Dallas in 1902. They came to Dallas in 1902. My goodness. Where did they get the liquor? Do you know? Yes, there were wholesale places here. There was one called Mangold. Mangold. Mangold. He was the one who had the Jefferson Hotel. Right. Irma Mangold was his daughter. I know that name is associated with Oak Cliff, Mangold. Uh-huh, yeah. And he had a wholesale liquor place. And he was very generous. they all credited oh they put them in business because they didn't have any money they put them in business they credited them I think they even you know furnished the the equipment oh really all of the everything that went in Oh Because they didn have any money Sure And I not sure what did the saloon sell beer liquor Beer and liquor, and they had food, not a lot of food, but they gave you food.
Uh-huh, uh-huh. They gave you food. They had hard-boiled eggs, maybe sandwiches, salami, or something like that. But if you bought your beer and your liquor there, you had a little snack. Not completely satisfying, but a little snack. I don't know whether they stayed open seven days or not. I can't remember. I can't remember, but they worked real hard. They worked very hard. How late? Late. They stayed open late. Stayed open late. when Mama and Papa first came here they lived on Horton Street that is behind where the convention center is now there is an odd fellow cemetery over to the side they moved the Jewish, that little Jewish cemetery and in back of that cemetery was Horton Street and it led right into Young Street.
At one time, before all of this business with the convention center, Horton Street was still there. I don't know whether it's still there or not. But there is, Horton Street was there. The Stauffmans later lived on Horton Street. And the Aronofs, Nathan Aronof's family lived there. They were neighbors. And Bittermans, the Bittermans lived there. Sam Bittermans' father and mother. Asher. Asher. They lived there. And then as the family became larger, Phillip was born on Harkin Street. Well, then we moved over to Bellevue. And then Papa had already, is that in the same general area of Bellevue? Was that closer to City Park? No, closer to City Park, closer to Sears on Lamar Street, where it's now Sears.
It runs right into Sears. But at that time, there was no Sears. It was a skating rink. Oh, is that right? Yes. Roller skating rink? Yes. Is that right? Yeah, roller skating rink. Was Lamar Street there? Lamar Street was there, but it wasn't paved. It wasn't paved. Someone said, but I don't remember it, that they had horse-drawn public transportation. But I don't remember ever hearing that. Well there was public transportation on Lamar Oh yes there always was public transportation on Lamar But what I remember is street cars Because we used to ride them at night We'd go around the loop, it was a loop It went on Commerce Street and I was a fair park And came down Forest Avenue And came back and Mama would be waiting for us to get off Was that amusement just to ride that loop?
Yeah, it was just an amusement for us. We would see all the things along the way. And I guess it cost for children maybe three cents. I don't know. But all of us would get on the streetcar and ride around. I think it took an hour. And she would meet us right there at the corner of Bellevue and Lamar. And we would get off and just happy as we could be. Right. And at that time, then Papa was already in the grocery business, and he was on Lamar Street, Katie's and Lamar. Was that in the original building? I have that picture of the Grove. Oh, you mean the Grove Hill.
That was Uncle Harry's liquor store. The saloon. Saloon. Saloon. Saloon. Not a liquor store. Saloon. Uncle Harry, no, he was, that was on the corner, that was where the railroad tracks were, on Lamar and the railroad tracks, almost. The railroad tracks are still there. And there's a brick building there. What was that close to? It was, see there was Bellevue, and you're going toward town, you're going north. Then there was Katy Street and then you went and there was the railroad track which was like a street almost And then you went farther north that was Yonge Street that was the next closest street and all of that was kind of vacant there was trains and trains were always parked the roundhouse was there and there was a foundry Moses Mosher Mosher foundry and Mosher was in my class at Forest High that did that become Mosher still yes that became Mosher still my goodness from that foundry and the foundry was in this area yeah the railroad yes was right there at the railroad track on opposite Uncle Harry's saloon Now, I remember Mosier Foundry very, very well.
And they must have done very well because their home later, when we moved on Park Row, that was 1930, the Mosier home was on the corner of Edgewood and South Boulevard, just across the street from the Metzger home. Beautiful red brick home. That was the Mosher home. And next to the Metzger's was the Bombs. Edith Bombs lived there, and then Rabbi Lefkowitz. And then the Goodman's bought the home next to the Lefkowitz's, but I don't know who originally lived in that home. Might have been one of them. The Mosiers lived on the corner. Mosiers lived on the southeast corner of Edgewood. I remember that house.
Beautiful red brick home. And I'll tell you who bought that home from them later. The people who had the bridal salons, the Jewish bridal things, what was their name? You know, they, not Rosenbaum. Yeah. The Rosenbaum? Uh-huh. I think that was who it was. I lived there, bought that home. And so I was born on Bellevue Street. I don even remember the number And Papa was in the grocery business with Louis Barzun who was Dr Benny Barzun father Now, was this a relative since you... Yes, Louis Barzun was a son of Mumariva of Baltimore. I don't know why he came to Dallas. I don't have any idea unless...
Didn't come with any of your family. Didn't come with my family, but it's possible that maybe things were tough in Baltimore, and he saw the family coming here. He knew that the Garazic family was here. So it may be that that's the reason that he came here. And he married Fannie Avelin. He was a single person. He married Fannie Avelin. And I think she died at the birth of a child. Benny was already born, I'm sure. And the Rubensteins raised Ben. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah, Ann has mentioned that. That's right. Yeah, she mentioned that. A. Rubenstein. That's another alphabet. Yeah, but I believe it was Adolph.
I think so. I think that's right. And they lived on Akron Street in a big, big house. Large, large home. I never saw it until that time. What story? To South Akard. South Akard close to Corinth. I see. Very good neighborhood. In fact, Uncle Israel didn't live very far from them. Uncle Israel and Aunt Dieda didn't live very far from them on Akard. That was a heavy Jewish populated street. Yes, it was. And the Bear Walls lived there. But it wasn't just Jewish people. No, no, not Jewish. But many Jewish people lived there. Many Jewish people, but not all. Was this around 1400 block, do you recall?
Is that about right? Yeah. Yes. Could be between 12 and 14. Between 12 and 14. Hindenburgs, Wertheimer's. Were these two-story houses? Yeah. Uncle Issel's was one story, but the Rubenstein's was two story. But the others the Wertheimer home was two story and Hindenburg lived in they owned the apartment first apartment building I ever remember seeing And it was huge They must have had eight apartments in there Is that right? Yes. A lovely home. Lovely place. On the corner of, I think, either Ganoe or McKee. Ganoe. Ganoe and Akron. Ganoe. Ganoe and Akron. Okay. Okay. Isn't that interesting? And this story came about because we saw this obituary?
Yeah. You know there was a Jewish young fellow who went to school with my brother Philip by the name of Waldorf. Harold Waldorf. There is a Waldorf family here in Dallas. And I asked them once if they were related. I think he said that they think they're distantly related but they did not know that family. Well, now the Waldorf, Harold Waldorf is his name, he had a relative who worked for E.M. Cain early in the first part of the century. And is that the family of Waldorf that I'm speaking of that lived here? I don't know. Now this Waldorf that lives here now are not original Dallas family.
No, no, he's from Germany. Oh, is that right? Right, okay. But a relative, and I can't remember how, came to Dallas and worked for EMK and then opened his own little men's shop. Well, that might have been Harold's family. The one that went to school was my brother Phillip. I don't know. He was very friendly. He lived on Ganoe. They had a nice home. And then the Freedbergs lived right up the street. Now, who is that? Uh, Saul Freedberg's family. Oh, is that right? Uh-huh. lived right up the street on Gonneau and Wall. And the Weinstein family lived on Hughes, not Hughes Circle, Hughes which is now Sullivan.
Deanie Weinstein's family. Oh really? Her father was a barber. That family lived on Hughes. L.B. Sacks, I came across his name here. He lived on the corner of Wall Hughes which is now Sullivan Rosenberg's lived next door Margaret Rosenberg her brother Monroe and her sister Evelyn who is married to Dr. Gross Marvin Gross. Oh really? Yeah and Margaret was married to Tobias, a Tobias that lives here. Is that part of the market?