Stevens/Lehman

The families on this page reflect the Jewish heritage in the Stevens family, including those with roots in Germany (the Lehmans) and those with French roots (the Dalmberts). The Dalmbert side of the family married into the Scots-Irish Hart family whose ancestors included German and Swiss roots.

The Lehman Family

The Lehman family is of Ashkenazi Jewish German origin and includes teachers and rabbis.

How We're Related

Jeanette Lehman married William Stevens on June 26, 1912 in Columbus, Indiana. When they married the local paper said, "A romance dating back to school days reached a happy consummation this morning in the marriage of Miss Jeannette Lehman and Park W. Stevens."

Jeanette was probably named after her father's mother Jeanette Pessels (Besselsohn). You could say that she was a lady who paced herself and, as a result, lived to be 100 years old. She offered my mother some advice when Doris was a newlywed, "If you tell them that you can't do, they'll do it for you." And she followed that advice. For example, she never learned to drive. She was a small woman and there are stories that when her kids were old enough they would pull her in a wagon.

Lewis Lehman married Emma Dalmbert in Indiana on February 16, 1887.

My great grandfather Lewis Lehman (1856-1939), an Ashkenazi Jew and son of a Jewish teacher and the grandson of a Rabbi, emigrated from Germany in 1871. Johann Ludwig Lehmann became Lewis (or sometimes Louis) John Lehman when he arrived. Lewis was preceded to America by his half-brother Charles Lehman. In 1877 he renounced allegiance to Frederick William Emperor of Germany and became an American citizen.

Lewis married Emma, who was herself the daughter of a Jewish immigrant, Adolph Dalmbert, who came to this country in 1854 and married a girl with a Scots-Irish/German heritage. So Lewis become both a business partner with Adolph Dalmbert and also his son-in-law.

At age 21, Lewis when was working as the bookkeeper at the Woolen Mill owned by Adolph Dalmbert traveled back to visit his family in Germany. He sailed aboard the Abyssinia on a trip that cost him $500. The form he had to fill out tells us that he was 5 feet 9.5 inches, had a high forehead, brown eyes, a prominent nose, a medium mouth, a pointed chin, brown hair, a fair complexion, and a face that was "long and spare."

Lewis was apparently totally secular and did not follow the religious tradition of his parents. He and Emma married in an Episcopalian service. This was also evidenced by a 1908 local newspaper article that described a fire that started in the Lehman family Christmas tree and noted that Lewis lost a "perfectly good pair of Santa Claus whiskers in the fire."

Lehman Dry Goods ad 1885

By 1900 Lewis and Emma and Estelle and Jeanette are living on Sycamore Street and have a hired girl living with them for housekeeping. By 1905 business must have been good because he had an impressive home built on Pearl St. An article about the construction noted that it was "modern in every detail and will be completed with a furnace and a bath." Lewis owned retail enterprises in Columbus selling shoes and dry goods store, a skating rink company, and sold securities. He started with a small dry goods store that went to a large department store in his own business block with a branch store in Hope, Indiana. Lewis was the first president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce in 1890 and stayed active in it until late in his life. He was a member of the local Masonic Lodge.

Although most of his life was spent in Columbus, in 1900 he bought a half interest in a department store in St. Louis and moved his family there. Then just as quickly they moved back to Columbus the next year.

As successful as Lewis was, he also had his setbacks. In 1902, he declared business bankruptcy. In 1909 he and Emma went through a very messy and public divorce. After the divorce the census report shows the two girls living with Lewis on Seventh St.

A feature article in the paper in 1907 lauded his business acumen then went on to say that he "takes a keen pleasure in doing fancy stunts on roller skates. he apparently also had a reputation as a good golfer.

We know from letters that the Lehmann family wrote that Yiddish and German was spoken in Lewis' home in Germany. He mastered English and one of his objectives was to read the Great Books. I know this because they were passed down to my family and I now own his set of Joseph Conrad novels. It seems a fitting author for a man, like Conrad, who spent his life communicating in a foreign tongue.

Lewis spent his last three years living with his daughter, Estelle, in Florida.

*******

Ignatz Lehmann married Jeanette Pessels on December 25, 1854. The Lehman family has a double connection to the Pessels family: Ignatz brother, Jonathan, married Jeanette's sister, Rosalie.

Lewis' father Ignatz Lehmann (1812-1875) was a teacher and a Palatine school pioneer of the 19th century. He was co-founder of the Palatinate school sheet (1842) and founder of a boys' College that was to become the trade educational institution Institut Gombrich in Neustadt am Haardt. I found the following three ads in the German publication "Allgemeine Zeitung of Judaism" and Google translated them.

October 4, 1852: "Israelite boarding Young people who are dedicated to the Business, find me conscientious teaching of all subjects for their work necessary and useful articles. English and French are the conversational languages of the house and it is achieved by method and constant application of rapid skill in it. Careful, paternal serious education will replace the pupils of the parental home as possible. My apartment is very friendly, open situation, in issued one of the most charming places in Germany. For more, certainly satisfactory in every respect information: Ignaz Lehmann, teacher at the grammar-school at Neustadt ad Haardt (Bavarian Palatinate). "

October 10, 1859: "The trade-establishment of J. Lehmann a.d. to Neustadt Haardt (Rhine Palatinate), licensed in 1857 was visited 1858/59 of 60 pupils and owes such a result the efficient performance of their teacher who truly motherly love and care with which Mrs. Lehmann decency and physical care of the pupils managed, and the lovely and very healthy situation of our city, which, at the close of a beautiful valley, protected by mountains from northern winds, located to the east in the plane, rarely a fever or chest patient has in their field and have never been hit by any epidemic.

It will allow us to know you, to make an institution, which, united in the more complete way all the conditions for physical and spiritual welfare of their pupils in itself, and perhaps we should mention it as a good sign of the times that Catholic here learn Protestant and Israelite pupils and boarders in a run by Israelites Institute in best harmony and live together. Salomon merchant.”

September 18, 1860: "I am looking for a capable teacher for my boys' boarding knowledge of French and Hebrew would be desirable is the case of a corresponding benefits. Assured in every respect pleasant position. J. Lehmann in Neustadt an der Haardt (Pfalz)."

A series of letters written in Yiddish, German and French are archived at Yeshiva University. They represent communication among the family in the 1830’s, including from Ignatz’s brother from New York City and from Ignatz’s family in Markt Erlbach, Germany, while Ignatz was living and working in another German city (first Worms and later Mussbach). Ignatz’ position as eldest child is apparent in the letters.

Ignatz’ father writes “Why are you traveling around the world?” (Ignatz is 200 km from home.) He is given traditional advice from his mother, “Take care that you don’t mingle with bad company.” “Please mend your shirts and socks often.”

Brother Julius wrote Ignatz in 1832 and admonished him to “…continue to be thrifty and when you have money to spare, send it to the dear parents.”

Brother Jean wrote in 1834 asking for career advice. “I beg you not to lay down this letter without considering that practically my whole life’s fortunes depend upon it.”

Julius writes to Ignatz in early 1836, “I…beg you…not oppose my firm intention to travel to America.” Julius left Germany for New York City in 1836. The first letter he wrote back to his family in Markt Erlbach (original in German) . “We departed on the morning of June 11 from the port of Bremen with favorable winds and made good progress for 12 days; then we experienced 15 days of stormy weather and were repeatedly blown backward, so that we arrived here only on August 10 after 61 days.” Julius got a job his first day looking as a jeweler (although he apparently was trained in the textile trade). After two months he says “I make the most beautiful broaches and rings.” He is surprised at the status and opportunities for women. “…the female sex stands in extraordinarily high esteem in this country. The man must fetch the water, carry the basket to market and buy the groceries…you would find unbelievable the rights that women have here.” He went on to say “I believe that nothing could move me to marry here.” Julius married Hannah Meyer, a girl who had immigrated to New York a year before Julius, also from Bavaria, in about 1841. They had eight children.

********

Levi Lehmann married Babette Gerst in 1811 in Markt Erlbach, Bavaria. Levi was born in Kunreuth 1772, prepared for teaching by studying in Prague. His first teaching assignment was in Gleicherwiesen, Hessen. His second assignment was in Lenkershem, Bavaria in 1811. When he married Babette Gerst in Markt Erlbach he began a dry goods and hardware retail business. He assumed the permanent family name of Lehmann in 1813.

********

Rabbi Isaak Yitzchak Levi was born in 1747 in Kunreuth, Bavaria. His wife is unknown but he had seven sons and three daughters.

Eugenie Lehmann

Theresienstadt concentration camp

There are always at least two stories with families that leave their homeland to start a new life in another country. I have been telling the stories of those who left home, but there are also the stories of those who stayed and continued their lives in the native land.

A more shocking contrast can be found in the case of my great grandfather Lewis Lehman. Lewis became a successful businessman in America. His sister Eugenie, who had stayed behind in Germany, while her brother emigrated, died in 1942 at the hands of the Nazis at Theresienstadt concentration camp, in what is now the Czech Republic. The son and daughter of Eugenie (Lehman) Schloss, Werner and Gertrude, died at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 and 1942.

Stevens/Lehman/Dalmbert

The Dalmbert Family

The Dalmbert family can be traced back to their French-Jewish roots in the Alsace region of France. The immigrant was Adolph Dalmbert who came directly to Indiana in the 1850s.

How We're Related

L to R My great aunt (Pinky), grandmother (Jeanette), and great grandmother (Emma)

Emma Dalmbert married Lewis Lehman on February 16, 1887 in Edinburg, Indiana. Their marriage united two families that had also had ties back in Europe. Caroline, the mother of Emma's father, Adolph, was also Lewis' father's first wife (but not Lewis' mother) and Adolph had undoubtedly been instrumental in getting Lewis to immigrate to Indiana. Adolph was a well-established businessman in the Columbus, Indiana area and, as the wedding write-up said, Lewis was "one of the most promising and successful young business men of Columbus."

Emma led a long and interesting life. An article in the local newspaper in Aug 1908 said that Emma was a capable driver and is "capable of driving a machine on almost any kind of road" as shown in the photo above.

In 1907 Emma worked as the secretary in the City Skating Rink Company.

But by 1909 the marriage had fallen on hard times and in October Emma filed for divorce. What followed was a long, nasty, and very public proceeding that was eventually settled in November 1910.

Emma married Edgar Rickmeyer, a Columbus optometrist, in 1919. He died in 1924.

Emma lived to be 96 having lived most of her life in Columbus.

********

French connection

Adolph Dalmbert married Estella Hart in 1865. After Estella died in 1896, Adolph married May George in 1903.

Adolph's family's roots are in the Alsace region on the German/French border. Adolph, immigrated to America in 1854. He was apparently following his older sister Emilie who emigrated earlier and married Joseph Zeiler who was a merchant in Rising Sun, Indiana. Adolph worked for Joseph in Rising Sun and when Joseph relocated to Cincinnati, Adolph moved to Edinburg, Indiana and opened a dry goods store there.

Adolph later became a merchant in the Columbus, Indiana area. He operated a dry goods store and also ran the Columbus woolen mill that made jeans, blankets flannels and yarns that was destroyed in a fire in 1881.

Previous to Adolph’s emigration, his father, Joseph, died and Caroline remarried Isaak Lehmann. They had a son, Charles. Back in Germany, Caroline died and Isaak remarried and had a son, Lewis Lehman. Adolph was responsible for the later immigration to the Columbus area of both Charles Lehman and , and Lewis Lehman as well as another relative, Max Dalmbert. At various times during his life, Adolph was involved with business partnerships with all three men.

Adolph remembers having voted for Lincoln, and having shaken hands with Lincoln in Cincinnati when a young man. But in a local newspaper interview in 1879, he remembers Grant as the best president in American history. Adolph was himself involved in local politics in Columbus and was a city councilman in the late 1870s.

Adolph Dalmbert passed away at age 97 at his home in Hope, Indiana in 1932.

Joseph Dalmbert married Caroline Gottshalk in Mannheim, Germany on May 4, 1829.

Joseph was born in 1793 just after the French Revolution in Mutzig, France, part of the Bas-Rhin or Lower Rhine area. This area went back and forth between Germany and France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but during Joseph’s life was part of France. However, Joseph seems to have lived most of his life in Germany. In 1825 he was a jeweler in Mannheim, Germany. But he was married in 1829 and his son, Adolph, was born in Magdeburg which is 500 kilometers northeast of Mannheim. Joseph died at 43 years of age.

Records show that Joseph was the son of Mathias Dalmbert and Josephine Mayer. There is also significant DNA evidence to show that Joseph was connected to the family of Mathias Zadoc Lazare Dalmbert.

Caroline Gottshalk married Joseph Dalmbert in Mannheim, Germany on May 4, 1829. Their son, Adolph, immigrated to America in 1854 and became a merchant in the Columbus, Indiana area. Previous to his emigration, Adolph's father, Joseph, died and Caroline remarried Isaak Lehmann. They had a son, Charles who presumably at Adolph's invitation also immigrated from Germany to Indiana in 1858 and became a partner with Adolph in the dry goods trade. Back in Germany, Caroline died and Isaak remarried and had a son, Lewis Lehman. He also left Germany in 1871, again presumably at Adolph's urging, and also became a partner with Adolph in Columbus.

Caroline's parents were Abraham Gottschalck and Gertrude Stern from Worms, Germany, just north of Mannheim. During the first decades of the 19th century Jews were forced by law to take on full civil names. Abraham's surname was changed from Alsens to Gottschalck.

Mathias Zadoc Lazare Dalmbert married Josephine Merlé Mayer

In Napoleonic France of 1804 to 1814, Napoleon decreed that all Jews would have to conform to social codes, including using family names, not patronymics, meaning Jews would not use names derived from their fathers. On July 20, 1808 Mathias Lazare officially changed his name to Mathias Lazar Dalmbert. Where that name came from seems to be lost. One possibility is that he chose the name of a famous French mathematician who died in 1783 named Jean le Rond d'Alembert.

Mathias was born in Mutzig in the Alsace region of France. His youngest children were born in Mutzig and Strasbourg, France. Mathias worked as a contractor of animal fodder in Strasbourg. Records show that he was a controller of military supplies in the Kingdom of Westphalia, a short-lived vassal state of the First French Empire that only existed from 1807 to 1813. In 1809 is family are all living together in Mannheim, Germany where he is recorded in 1825 as a merchant. He died in 1830.

********

Synagogue of Mutzig

Lazard Aron Mayer married Pesselé in 1754 in the Alsace region of France. He was a banker in Mutzig. He was also a rabbi, a Talmudist scholar, a director of the Jewish school in Rosheim (near Strasbourg), attendant (gabbai) for synagogue services. The family of Aron Meyer of Mutzig was one of the grandes familles. In 1784, the Jewish community in Mutzig counted more than 300 members. A synagogue was built at the request of Aaron Meyer, deputy general of the Jewish nation in Alsace. A complaint filed with the authorities on September 23, 1694 for vandalism "in the Synagogue" suggests that an older temple may have existed before the current building.

********

Aaron Mayer married Kendel Moch in 1730. He was General Counselor of the Jewish nation and Attendant of Haute-Alsace, Jewish Agent of Mutzig.