A Secret Gift (44 page)

 

Sam’s mother, Hinde, age forty, and four younger children—Gusta (Gussie), eleven; Tina (Esther), nine; David, seven; and Isadore (Al), an infant—emigrate to the United States aboard the SS
Ivernia,
leaving from Liverpool, England, and arriving in the port of Boston. The family reunites in Pittsburgh.

 

Minna Adolph, Sam’s future wife, is born.

 

U.S. Census for Pittsburgh makes no mention of a Sam Finkelstein or a Sam Stone, but lists his father, Jacob Finkelstein, age forty-eight, born in Romania; spouse Heldia [
sic
], age forty-five; daughter Goldie, seventeen; daughter Ester, fifteen; son Dave, thirteen; and son Isidor, seven.

 

The Kenosha, Wisconsin, City Directory records that Samuel Stone, a salesman, is living at 328 Fremont Avenue and working at the Block Brothers department store.

 

The Kenosha, Wisconsin, City Directory records that Samuel Stone is living at 375 Durkee Avenue and managing S & J Gottlieb Company Dry Goods.

 

The Chicago City Directory lists Samuel Stone as an advertising agent living at 3000 Ellis Avenue. He works for David Seiden, who runs a millinery shop at 81 East Madison Street.

 

Twenty-nine-year-old Samuel J. Stone signs a military registration card in Chicago, Illinois, giving his birth date as March 2, 1888, and his birthplace as Bucharest, Romania. He lists his legal status as “Alien.” Sam serves in the U.S. infantry for two years.

 

The U.S. Census records that Samuel J. Stone, age thirty, is a “roomer” living at 930 Tenth Street Northwest in Canton, Ohio. He is listed as emigrating to the United States in 1900, and gives his birthplace, as well as that of his father and mother, as Germany. His occupation: advertising.

 

The Canton City Directory lists Samuel Stone as a boarder at 1121 Walnut Avenue Northeast working for the Quality Shoppe at 226 Market Avenue South.

 

A birth certificate allegedly signed by J. H. Harkins in Pittsburgh shows that Sam Stone was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 

A U.S. passport is issued to Sam Stone. It gives his place of birth as Pittsburgh and birth date as March 1, 1889. Shortly afterward, he embarks for France, Italy, Romania, Switzerland, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

 

Minna Adolph graduates from McKinley High School at age fifteen. Her graduation is a front-page story.

 

Sam’s eldest sister, Sarah, and her husband, Jacob S. Berman, join Sam in Canton. Jacob goes to work for Sam.

 

Sam’s father, Jacob Finkelstein, dies in Pittsburgh at age sixty-seven. Shortly thereafter Sam meets Minna Adolph and they begin their courtship. Sam’s brother Mack joins him in Canton and goes to work for him.

 

Sam Stone marries Minna Adolph, a woman who, at nineteen, is half his age. On the marriage certificate, Sam claims to be thirty-five, not thirty-nine, and born in Pittsburgh. He gives his father’s name as “Jacob Stone,” though his father steadfastly refused to change his name to Stone.

 

Sam purchases a clothing store in Buffalo, New York.

 

The stock market crashes. The Great Depression begins and Sam Stone suffers his own severe financial reversals.

 

Sam and Minna Stone and daughters Virginia, two, and Dorothy, four months, live at 1009 Seventeenth Street Northwest in Canton. Sam lists his birthplace as Pennsylvania, and his parents’ birthplace as “Bohemia.”

 

Sam’s brother Mack, his wife, and perhaps others steal from his inventory and open their own store—Stone Brothers—in direct competition on the same city block in downtown Canton.

 

In an envelope are notes from Minna in shorthand and an alleged copy of Sam’s birth certificate giving the birthplace of his parents as Russia and claiming that Sam was born on March 29, 1889, at 29 Gum Street in Pittsburgh. The midwife is listed as H. Sandusky and the certificate is said to be recorded in volume 376, on pages 291-98. No such record appears in Pittsburgh’s birth registry.

 

Mack Stone, Sam’s brother, attempts to blackmail him with trumped-up allegations of arson.

 

Sam Stone acquires the Kibler Clothing chain, which consists of nine retail stores in Ohio, West Virginia, and Illinois.

 

The B. Virdot letters and gifts are sent.

 

Sam Stone goes to bankruptcy court.

 

Sam’s mother, Hilda Finkelstein, dies at age seventy-six.

 

Sam donates fifty wool coats to British civilians and takes out a full-page ad in the
Repository
soliciting help for the Allied Relief Fund: “The Homeless Poor of Europe Cannot Wait.” That same month, because of the Smith Act and its provisions requiring aliens to either register or face prosecution, Sam retains an attorney and agonizes over whether to continue the ruse of citizenship or come clean.

 

The Jews of Dorohoi, Romania, where Sam is from, are systematically rounded up and exterminated.

 

Sam retires from the clothing business and moves to Golden Beach, Florida. He enters real estate, helps develop Sunset Isles in Hollywood, and acquires the Florida Vacuum Metalizing plant.

 

Issues of Sam’s citizenship arise again as he seeks to renew his passport.

A Washington attorney advises him to avoid raising questions that might provoke suspicions about his legal status.

 

A passport is again issued to Sam Stone and again he lists his birthplace as Pittsburgh.

 

Sam returns to his native town of Dorohoi, Romania, but makes no mention of what he finds, who he sees, or what feelings he has for the town.

 

Sam Stone dies after crashing into a rising drawbridge in North Miami. He is buried in Canton’s West Lawn Cemetery.

 

The B. Virdot letters are passed to Sam Stone’s grandson.

A., Mrs. Bessie (gift applicant)

Adolph, Elias “Al,”

Adolph, Minna.
See
Stone, Minna Cecilia

Alien Registration Act (Smith Act)

aliens

Jews in Romania

registration in United States

suspicion and deportation of

Allen, Lottie

Aman, Ruth

Anderson, Richard E.

Atwell, Zadock and May

Austin, Mr. and Mrs. C. W.

Bailey, Dan

Bailey, Deloris

Bailey, Denzell and Velma

Bailey, Fred and Ida

Bair, Florence (later Winters)

bank failures

American Exchange Bank

Dime Savings Bank

extent of

Harter Bank

loss of savings

modern-day prevention of

Reconstruction Finance Corporation assistance

barter system

Baum, Hazel

Bean, James Wilson

Beggs, Don

Beggs, Raymond and Ora

Bender’s tavern

Bennafield, Allen C., Jr.

Bennafield, Allen Chester and Emily

Bennafield, Donald

Bennafield, Leta

Berman, Hana Sure “Sarah” (formerly Finkelstein, Stone; later Shapiro)

Berman, Jacob

Berman, Zelda

Billings, Earl J.

Black, Brad

Blizzard Manufacturing Company (formerly Joseph Dick)

Blythe, Clarence

Blythe, Richard

Blythe, Ruby

Blythe, Sandra

Boyer, Margaret and John

Boylan, Clifford P.

Brenner, Clara

Brigham, Doris Jean

Brigham, Mary

Brigham, William Lewis

Brigham, William Lewis “Bill,”

Brown, Donavon and Mabel

Brown, Evan Jet

Brown, Ruth Stewart

Brownlee, James A.

Bunt, Delia

Bunt, Elizabeth (later Haren)

Bunt, Martin William

Bunt, Thelma

Burnbrier, Carl Joseph “Joe” and Maude

Burnbrier, Thomas

Burnbrier, Virginia

Burson, James

Canoyer, Rebecca J.

Canton, Ohio

Bender’s tavern

car dealerships

class distinctions

County Poorhouse

crime and corruption

decline

Dueber-Hampden watch factory

evictions

Fairmount Children’s Home

Family Services

Ford Motor Company

during Great Recession

Hercules Motor Corporation

homelessness

Hoover Company

immigrant population

Jewish community

Joseph Dick Manufacturing Company (later Blizzard)

labor strikes

legacy of Great Depression

Mansfield Reformatory

medical services

Meyers Lake Amusement Park

misery and hardship

Palace Theater

population growth

prosperity

Republic Steel

scammers

scavenging for coal

Stone’s Clothes

suicides

Timken Roller Bearing Company

unemployment

vegetable gardening

Canton Poultry

ad placed by B. Virdot

“Community Help” feature

on Dime Savings Bank failure

on donation of coats for wartime relief

on Minna Adolph’s academic achievements

on Stone’s generosity

Carlin, Donald

Carlin, George and Hazel “Tootie,”

Carlin, James

Carlin, Jean

Carlin, Lawrence Henry and Florence Maude

Carlin, Lheeta (later Talbott)

Carlin, Valerie

Case, Frank E.

charity, aversion to

Chiparus, Demetre Haralamb

Christmas Carol, A
(Dickens)

Christmas gift.
See
gift distribution

Civil Works Administration (CWA)

Clark, Dorothy

coal, scavenging for

Cohen, Meyer

Cohen, Shirley

Coldren, George D.

community, sense of

Compher, Betty Jane

Compher, Carol

Compher, Clarence Marion

Compher, Donald

Compher, Norma J.

Compher, Oscar and Harriet

Cooke, Edmund Vance

Couch, William S.

County Poorhouse

credit, purchases on

Crew, Shirley

crime

for access to security in jail

in Canton culture

desperation

Criswell, Hilda and Reuben

Cunningham, Florence

CWA (Civil Works Administration)

Davis, William and Elizabeth

DeHoff, Harold

DeHoff, Howard

DeHoff, Howard Ellsworth

DeHoff, Rachel

Dennison, Thomas

Depression.
See
Great Depression

DeWalt, Anna

Dick, Edward

Dick, Florence

Dick, Frank J.

Dick, Harriet

Dick, Joseph

Dick, Robert

Dick, Sally

Dick, Thomas

Dickens, Charles

Dickerhoff, Ethel

DiGianantonio, Felicia

Dime Savings Bank

Duca, Ion

Dueber-Hampden watch factory

economic downturn of twenty-first century.
See
Great Recession

Eger, Hersh

Evans, Willis and Minnie

evictions

Fairmount Children’s Home

family, appreciation of

Family Services

Ferruccio, Pat

Finkelstein, David (later Stone) Finkelstein, Gusta “Gussie” (later Stone)

Finkelstein, Hana Sure “Sarah” (later Stone, Berman, Shapiro)

Finkelstein, Hinde “Hilda” (later Stone)

Finkelstein, Isadore “Al” (later Stone)

Finkelstein, Janne “Jacob,”

Finkelstein, Moses “Mack” (later Stone)

Finkelstein, Tina “Esther” (later Stone, Moidell)

Finn, Samuel

First Presbyterian Church (Canton, Ohio)

Ford Motor Company

Fry, Geraldine Laura Hillman “Gerry,”

Fry, Romain “Bud,”

gift distribution

administration of

amount of

anonymity of donor and recipients