About the Blum Family
1901 Blum Household | About
the Blum Family | About
the House | Jewish
Calendar | The
Year 1901
The Blum Family are recent refugees from Galveston, where they lost much to the
Great Galveston Storm of 1900.
In an effort to escape the disastrous wreck of Galveston and their properties
Mordecai Blum moved his wife, Leah, and their surviving children, Alexander and
Benjamin, and his unmarried sister Ella, to Dallas where he began to partner
the Dallas branch of the family business with his brother, Simon. The family
plans to rebuild their fortunes and move back to Galveston in the future to
reopen their businesses there.
The Blum Family preparing to celebrate
Shabbat. From left to right -
Miss Ella Blum, Mr. Simon Blum & Mrs. Leah Blum
Upon arrival in Dallas Mordecai Blum purchased a Queen Anne style home in a
neighborhood near downtown. His brother Simon already lives in the area, which
is the home of much of Dallas' growing Jewish community. As Traditionally
Observant Jews the Blum’s joined Congregation Shearith Israel, located on
Jackson Street at Pearl, within walking distance from their new home. Another
congregation, following the American Reform Movement, Temple Emanu-El is also
located in the area on Ervay Street. As there are no Jewish schools in Dallas
yet their eldest son, Alexander at age ten attends Dallas Public School and
receives religious education with other children from the Jewish community each
afternoon from local Rabbi Henoch Grinstein.
Leah Meyer Blum was born in Galveston, Texas in August of 1858, the fourth of
five children of Samuel and Ruth Meyer. Leah is the youngest daughter of the
family. Her father, Samuel, was a prominent local businessman in the
import/export business.
Leah’s Parents were both born in the East portion of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and were married in September of 1849, immigrating to Galveston, Texas
in the summer of 1851 with one child, their eldest daughter Raquela. Four more
children followed in succession before 1860, being Sarah in 1852, Hannah in
1856, Leah in 1858, and finally a son Leonard in 1859.
On June 19, 1884 Leah Meyer married Mordecai Blum, the American born eldest son
of German immigrants Avram and Esther Blum. Mordecai and his younger brother
Simon joined their father in retail business in Galveston, with Simon moving to
Dallas in 1892 to open a branch of the family store in that city. Their sister,
Ella, never married and continued to live with her parents in Galveston. Both
the Blum and Meyer families are members of Congregation B’Nai Israel in
Galveston, which was founded in 1868.
Mordecai and Leah Meyer Blum had three children in the first ten years of their
marriage. Their eldest child, daughter Ruby, was born in 1885, followed by sons
Alexander in 1890 and Benjamin in 1895.
The Great Galveston Storm of September 8, 1900 brought tragedy to both the
Meyer and Blum families. Both sets of parents, Avram and Esther Blum, and
Samuel and Ruth Meyer died in the hurricane along with Hannah Meyer’s husband
and Mordecai and Leah Blum’s eldest child, Ruby. The Blum store and homes were
all destroyed and Samuel Meyer’s shipping business brought to a halt. The
surviving members of the Blum family refugeed to Houston, staying with Leah’s
eldest sister, Raquela, who had married Houston sochet (kosher butcher) Noah
Lieberman in 1872.
Leah Blum works hard to keep a kosher household and kitchen, in spite of the
fact that their new home had been built a few years earlier by non-Jewish
residents. Fresh fruit and vegetables are available at the nearby Farmer’s
Market and many Jewish merchants, including butchers and bakers, line Elm
Street near the Houston, Texas, and Central Railroad tracks.
The Blum Brothers General Store is
located in that same area, on Main Street.
The Blum family, finding solace in their religion, celebrate all of the
holidays of the Jewish year 5561-2 (c.e.1901) as traditionally as they can
given the scarcity of kosher supplies available in Dallas and North Texas.
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