Issue 36, Spring 1995

Issue 36, Spring 1995

On the cover: German-born Morris Bernstein (1823-1898) immigrated to the U.S. in the 1840s and settled in Huntsville. [Courtesy Margaret Ann Goldsmith Hanaw and Huntsville-Madison County Public Library]


Features

Jewish Life in Alabama: The Formative Stages

By Henry Marks and Marsha Kass Marks

Beginning in the 18th century, Alabama and other Southern states attracted a significant number of Jewish immigrants, many from the Germanic states, who came in search of the social, economic and political freedom that had long been denied them in their homeland. Many migrated to small towns along the rivers, where they became a vital and highly respected part of their communities. This article, by historians Henry Marks and Marsha Kass Marks, chronicles the lives of pioneering Jewish families in the state and the hardships and challenges these immigrants faced.


The Moseses of Montgomery: The Saga of a Jewish Family in the South

By Kenneth Libo

This article tells the saga of a remarkable Jewish family who established the most successful real estate and insurance business in the state and built the tallest building (six stories) in 19th-century Alabama. “The Moses Family,” writes Libo, curator of American Jewish History at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, “became part of a new generation of lawyers, farmers and merchants who replaced the old landed aristocracy in positions of power.” One brother, Mordecai Moses, was elected the first Democratic mayor of Montgomery after the Civil War, and another brother, Alfred, almost single-handedly founded the city of Sheffield.

Additional Information

  • “The Moseses and the Lehmans: From Montgomery to New York“, by Kenneth Libo
  • “The Jewish Community in Demopolis”, by Anna Jacobs Singer
  • Images of Southern Jewish Life: A Jewish Road Trip through Alabama”, by Marcie Cohen

Redecorating the Beast: The Life and Death of Captain Henry Wirz, CSA

By Christopher Mohney

Dubbed “The Butcher of Andersonville,” Wirz oversaw the infamous Georgia prison camp throughout its 14-month existence. During his command, nearly 13,000 Union prisoners died from malnutrition, disease and exposure or were murdered – more deaths than at any single Civil War battle. From the beginning, Swiss-born Henry Wirz was a staunch supporter of “the Southern cause” and enlisted in the Confederate army early in the war. Author Christopher Mohney, whose great-great-great-grandfather was a Union army private who died at Andersonville, outlines the military career of Wirz, highlighting his fateful March 1864 assignment to the newly constructed prison camp. Wirz, notes Mohney, one of the Civil War’s “last victims,” vehemently proclaimed his innocence until his execution for war crimes in 1865.


Departments

The Nature Journal

Chestnut Blight

By L. J. Davenport

Native to southeast Asia, the fungus Endothia parasitica was apparently imported into New York harbor on nursery stock. While the fungus causes only minor damage to its original host, the Asiatic chestnut, American chestnuts showed no such resistance. L.J. Davenport discusses the disastrous effects of this blight on American forests.


Art in the South

William Bullock Inge 

By Robert O. Mellown

The story of William Bullock Inge (1815-1873), whose portrait hangs in the University of Alabama’s special collections library, reveals much about life in antebellum Alabama. 


Report from the Historical Commission

Need Help Revitalizing Downtown? Try The Alabama Main Street Program

By Alta C. Hodgson 

The Alabama Main Street Program, administered by the Alabama Historical Commission, is designed to help small cities–those with populations of fifty thousand or less–revitalize their downtowns within the context of historical preservation.  Several cities have already participated in the program. Alta Hodgson discusses the benefits of this program.

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