Atkins, Ruth Samuels, 1976

RUTH SAMUELS ATKINS – March 28, 1976 Franchon Title, member of the Jewish Historical Society of Hartford, CT interviewing my long-time friend, Mrs. Harry Atkins. Of course, I first knew her as Ruth Samuels and that goes back many years. Sarah Lowengard is recording this conversation. Sarah is my granddaughter and Ruth you have known her since she was a small child. This interview will be part of the archives of the Jewish Historical Society to be used for research and historical data. RA: I was born in Hartford, 66 Capitol Avenue and there has been a street cut right through the place now. FT: Is that so? Well, what number was it? RA: 66 FR: And where was that? RA: Down Hudson Street, I think was cut through. FT: To make a RA: To make a street. It was a brownstone. FT: Any houses like it? RA: Well there might be some left there. There might be one or two. I don’t know. I haven’t been there for quite a while. It was a very nice neighborhood. FT: It was? RA: Yes it was and the Mt. Sinai Hospital was up the street and it was a mansion, a brownstone mansion. It later became a rooming house. FT: Well how long did you live there? RA: Well, I lived when I was about two years old but my family lived there for many years. FT: What do you mean your family, your father’s family, your mother’s? RA: My grandmother and my mother and father and I guess that was all and Mrs. _______ Wolf lived across the street. FT: And Mrs. Wolf was your RA: My mother’s sister. FT: And she had other sisters too? RA: Mrs. Joel Samuels and Annie and Mrs. Wolf, Aunt Hattie. That was all. She had a brother Joseph Kronesheiner. FT: Your mother’s name was Kronesheiner? RA: Yes. FT: The Kronesheiners were old Hartford residents, weren’t they? RA: Yes. FT: How long had they lived in Hartford? RA: Well, I tell you what, you want to know where they came from? FT: Yes. RA: They came from between, let’s see, East Germany and Poland. I don’t know what it was called but they were named after the town, Kronesheiner. The town was Kronashein, as they did in those days. You see. Then they went to Scotland, to Glasgow, and there Annie was born and another sister, Gertrude. I don’t know, I don’t think the brother was. And there Aunt Annie and Uncle Joe were married. In Scotland. And we had pictures of them, two little girls. And then they went to Canada and they opened a gentlemen, they were gentlemen farmers. And they lost every cent because they didn’t know, they had no idea of how to be gentlemen farmers. And so they had to buy food and stuff to feed the help. Well finally they came to Brooklyn and they lived in Brooklyn for quite a while and that’s where they met Dr. Wolf and became acquainted with the Moses family and my grandmother’s sister, Fanny married William Moses. They were opticians. FT: In Hartford? RA: No, in Brooklyn. And they had a big family but they used to come to Hartford to visit us. They were English. FT: But how did the branch come to Hartford? RA: They came, no they didn’t come right to Hartford they went to New Haven. How I don’t know. I wasn’t born. How am I supposed to know? FT: Well I thought maybe RA: No, I really don’t know and then the came to Hartford and there was another boy and his name was Louie and he was killed with a shotgun. He was out playing. And then my grandfather died, grandpa Kronesheiner died and great-grandfather lived with them. That’s the one I forgot. His wife lived with another daughter, Mrs. Pauline Kalish. FT: In Hartford? RA: She was my grandmother’s sister. My grandmother had these children to support and she was a very alert up-to-date person. She opened a china shop on Main Street near Charter Oak Avenue. And she was very successful and we always laughed because when her three daughters were married she gave each one a piano and a fur coat. Well I thought it was wonderful for a woman in those days. No women went into business. FT: Well in the files of the Deborah Society we have bills that were sent from the Kronesheiner Crockery. Like a plate for 5 cents. RA: And her son Joseph was with her and the girls helped too. FT: Well now, was your mother ever in the store? RA: I think she helped, yes. RT: Well then where did she meet your father? RA: Well, through the Moses of Brooklyn, Uncle Joe met them, they were English too, and he was either to Dr. Wolf he came up to Hartford and he met Aunt Annie and they were married. FT: They were married RA: In Hartford FT: Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Samuels you’re talking about, RA: That’s right. FT: And what was your father’s name? RA: My father’s name was Louie. FT: Louie. And RA: Then it was through that that my mother married my father who came, he was born in Baltimore. That family lived, the Samuels family lived in Jersey, the Isle of Jersey. And I often wondered, Uncle Joe would tell me my mother spoke French as well as English, until I grew older I didn’t know why, because it’s a French island. Then they when to London and he was eleven years old when he came over here. Of course, there we no Reform Jewish temples, the Reform hadn’t been formed yet. My father’s family lived in Nashville, Baltimore and Nashville and then they moved to Cincinnati and an aunt, my father’s sister an Ezekial and my father’s brother married an Ezekial. There were two mixed up there. And they were a large and very prominent family in Cincinnati and one of the Ezekials was an artist and he lived in Rome for many, many years and he was knighted by the King and when he died the Ambassador brought him home and he was buried in the National Cemetery, but that, of course, isn’t relation to me. He used to send me things from Italy through my aunt who was worried about me. They had no children and of course they were very fond FT: Well now what business was your father in here? RA: They were in the shoe business. FT: He was in business with his brother Joel? RA: Yes. And they had a store in Maryland which my father had charge of and he was always very proud, this is all here say, because I was too little to know when Peary went on one of his trips to the Pole my father fitted them out with shoes. FT: That’s an historical fact to recall. RA: And they made little white shoes for his daughter. She didn’t go on the trip of course. FT: But your father died when he was very young. RA: My father died suddenly when he was 41. FT: Oh my. And how old were you then? RA: I was four and Arthur was nine. FT: Well you had a brother, Arthur, because I remember him. RA: Yes. FT: Then you say you moved from Capitol Avenue RA: Yes. They moved out to Collins Street. They built a house on Collins Street. FT: You say they. Who did that. RA: Joel. FT: Your father was there? RA: Oh yes. And then we moved on Garden Street and the yard two backyards connected and they only lived there about a year, I think when my father died. FT: Oh RA: Suddenly. The home of Mr. Metzger. FT: The Metzger’s were an old family here too. RA: Oh yes. And the men the men were playing billiards. My father would auction. They had a billiard room on the third floor and he said he didn’t feel very well and he, Dr. Wolf was there and Mr. Metzger caught him in his arms and he was gone. FT: You talk, Dr. Wolf was married to your aunt. RA: Yes. FT: And he was a very prominent doctor. RA: Oh yes. He held many prominent positions. FT: Yes. Well what was he really, he was famous for some RA: He was a bacteriologist. He was a surgeon at St. Francis. FT: Wasn’t he the head of the staff there for a long time? RA: Yes. And he helped them form the Mt. Sinai Hospital. FT: Well Mt. Sinai’s come a long way since then though, but Ruth, when you were a little girl you lived on Collins Street then, I mean were you old enough to go to school? RA: When my father died we moved in with Uncle Joel. The two brothers had promised each other if anything ever happened they’d take care of the family. So we moved in there with them. The house was big enough but I think today you wouldn’t __________. A woman would have kept up her house. FT: Just locate that house, Collins Street is a long street. RA: The third house from Garden. Garden was a long street too. FT: Is that house still standing? RA: No. It was torn down ______ apartments there. FT: All right. Well then what school did you go to? RA: West Middle. FT: And when did you start, in kindergarten, did they have kindergarten then? RA: Kindergarten. I remember the day I went. And when my mother left me and then waiting to take me home was my brother and Louie Samuels and I walked between them. They held my hand and they were so proud of me. And I was ________ because it was my first day of school. FT: Well you speak of Louie. Louie was not your brother. Arthur was your brother. RD: Ya. But you see we lived together Anna and Louie and Sam. There were eight of us. Five children. And I was just a little one. And we had a wonderful home with them and they just were devoted of course, the sisters and the brothers. They all got along so wonderfully. FT: Well, of course, this is your interview, but your family entered into it a great deal and your mother was very active in the RA: After my father died she did a lot that they had planned to do with us. And he was just beginning to take my brother Arthur to concerts and it was, my mother was only 33 and we stayed, I mean we lived there and we were educated from there FT: Well Arthur was older than you. RA: Yes. FT: How much older was Arthur? RA: He was five years older. And then he went to Princeton and he didn’t settle back in Hartford then. He wrote. He became a newspaper writer. And he also was a musician and composed and played and lived in New York at the time of when young men and women were at the height of their accomplishments. FT: Well, he was connected with Haywood Brune and a lot of, a large circle. RA: The round tables. And the Dutch Treat Club. But before that he traveled and was just out on the New York Sun in the year ___ and he traveled with Theodore Roosevelt who was running for President. He became very fond of _______. Who had a wonderful personality as you know. And it was an interesting story. William ___________, It will come to me. He wrote his autobiography and he said he had never been scooped, ever. He had always gotten the story for except one story and that was the break between Taft and Roosevelt. And that story was given to Arthur by Theodore Roosevelt because he had been so honest with him and had never written anything that wasn’t true in the political sense. So that was the big break and William White, William Allen White. FT: Well he was a big name. RA: Yes. And when I heard that I thought well _________________ FT: You should do it. Well, then Arthur married. He married a famous RA: He married an actress. She was an actress and FT: A well-known actress. RA: __________ Martin. And I went away to school. FT: Well now let’s go back. You went to the West Middle School. RA: West Middle School. Went to Hartford High School and FT: What about Hartford High in those days? RA: Well the Hartford High was the only high school in Hartford. And it had its advantages, it was a beautiful school. It had its advantages because you met people from all over the city. We knew everybody, in the North, South End and East and West and it was unusual but of course the city began to grow, that was much later. FT: Well what were those years that you were at Hartford High like? RA: I was 1911 was my class. And then I went to Wellesley and I only stayed a year because I didn’t study. I had too good a time and I went to boarding school to, to Walnut Hill and then I stayed at home I had ___________ I would go back and start again. FT: You went to RA: To Wellesley and I’ve always regretted it because I should have but FT: Not too many girls went to college in those years. RA: Well there were about 300 pupils in FT: No, I mean of the RA: No, I don’t think so. It was a great mistake of my family not to push me there but they didn’t. We always loved to do as we saw fit. FT: Well then as a girl you always lived on Collins Street? RA: Yes, until I was married. FT: Until you were married. RA: And year I was married they sold the house. FT: Well, not what year was that? RA: 1925 FT: 1925. And your childhood, did you have a lot of connections with the Jewish religion and was your household religious? RA: I was very religious until after I was married. Yes, we were religious. FT: Well, your Uncle Joseph RA: And Uncle Joe was religious and we had Friday night services at the table and I went to Sunday school. My mother taught Sunday school for years and years and years. FT: And what Sunday school was that? RA: What FT: Where was the Sunday school? What was the RA: Charter Oak Avenue. FT: Temple Beth Israel RA: Yes. And I was confirmed by Rabbi Elkin. Well and then finally they raised money for this place and we were already _____ FT: Right RA: Right. And FT: Who was your teacher in Sunday school? Do you remember and of your teachers? RA: Oh, I don’t remember. I tell you what I do remember. That the head of the principal was Henry Mayer who was a principal of a school in Hartford and he was married to a Protestant and Rabbi Elkin had nothing to do with Sunday school which was a very sad thing for him. He had nothing to do with it. But this Henry Mayer was a marvelous teacher. We really learned a great deal from him. His brother was Dr. Mayer who wrote music criticism for the Hartford papers and was also a practicing physician. Well, then FT: Your mother did a lot of things in the community RA: My mother was very active in everything. She was active in the Jewish charity she helped establish and even before that when there were no formal charities at all she worked at the North Street Settlement and with Miss Jones and that’s when I started when I was in high school. We used to go down with Helen Greenberg. And we had classes down there. It was real slums then. FT: Where was real slums? RA: Down on North Street. FT: North Street RA: But we as private individuals would take a case of _________ they would go an d visit them. And they would call on different members of the community to help and it was a number of years before the charities performed. And then of course the Community Chest _____well and she ____________ these charitable organizations. They weren’t some were Jewish and some were not. And then she was elected to the Visiting Nurse Board, which she served until she was ill and I took her place and I was on it for 25 years. And then we decided that it would just be a three or four or five year period and then they would go off the Board and then a new one would come in. and after I was off it for a while they changed it and decided it would be best to keep people for years and years but I didn’t go back ________. FT: Well, I know your mother was also active in the Needlework Guild. RA: The what FT: Needlework Guild. RA: Oh, yes, she was. She had been sewing from that to different people and _______ and they would sell and then when the hospital is in need of material they bought it from Atkins Brothers and they divided it up and they sewed and they cut did that sort of thing. FT: Well I know Needlework Guild made layettes for ________ RA: Yes they did. FT: And your mother was one of the original members, the incorporators of the Girls Scouts. RA: Yes, she was. And I remember going to around collecting money that first year. From house to house. Well in the better section where they would get more money. She was very prominent all through. FT: Everybody knew Minnie Samuels. RA: I remember when she died Uncle Ben Harris said Ruth, who are we going to get to replace her? He said I can’t think of anybody, meaning Jewish, to replace her. Of course, he did, naturally. FT: Yes, but she was wonderful. When you lived on Collins Street were there other Jewish people living there? RA: Well yes. The Rothschilds lived across the street and that was all. Not on Collins, on Sumner Street. Kashmans and Marxs lived. FT: But they were the only Jews around there now? RA: Yes, they were around. Well I won’t go into that. FT: What? All the neighbors you mean? The Rothschilds had been here many years. RA: Oh, the Rothschilds, when I was about 4 years old, and we hadn’t, my father was still living, I was probably 3, they moved there and then one day the maid didn’t have telephones, you know how it is, very few did, the maid came running around and said, Oh, Mrs. Samuels, it’s a girl. That’s was Rebecca. FT: Well, in as much as the Rothschild family is passed away, Mr. Rothschild had a store RA: He died in California of pneumonia. FT: But he had a store on Asylum Street for many years. RA: He was a lovely man. Crazy about children. ________________________ ______________. It seems to me I talked FT: No, it’s very interesting. Don’t you think so Sarah? Sarah: Ya. RA: What could she say? FT: Well, what was life like though in those days in Hartford and RA: Life was what their social life. Yes, there was a social life. There were luncheons and bridge. ______________ and we would have refreshments, and play bridge. And that’s _________. And then we formed a very nice sewing club with which Mrs. Title was a member and FT: Well you are getting on to, I haven’t gotten to your married life yet. But before you were married I mean when you were ____ what did they do evenings? Were there theaters or what? RA: Yes, there were movies and theater, Parsons Theaters a Shubert Theater so we got openings that now go to New Haven. But it was a great theater time. There were other theaters too. But there was things doing. I belonged to a literary club with my mother, __________________. We studied Browning and Emerson and________ and we had professors from different colleges would come and lectures and we opened those to the public. I never stopped studying I enjoyed studying and I always kept up except mathematics. I can’t do a checkbook very well. I never could. FT: Well, Ruth, did the temple have a lot of activities then? RA: Yes, they had cakes sales and they had marvelous cakes, sometimes down there and sometimes in peoples’ houses and they raised money for activities like the Ladies Deborah Society, and there was always something going. They made dinner parties and FT: So there was a lot to do? RA: There was plenty of social life of that sort. FT: And did you have a wide circle of friends, of Jewish friends? RA: Oh, yes. FT: There were a lot of Jewish people RA: There were quite a few. I wouldn’t say that there were a lot but there were quite a few my age that I would be friends with and I had friends we always mixed with the other groups too, we meet Protestant groups, not too much in groups but we were all friends. And especially in the summer time when we went away and we made lasting friends. FT: Well where did you go in the summer? RA: We went to Crescent Beach. Crescent Beach Niantic. They took me when I was three weeks old and I went ever after. FT: Was there a large Jewish colony of people who went there? RA: No, we were the only ones and then a few others came but very few. Of course, now it is different. I don’t know how they happened to pick out, I guess they just traveled around and liked that beach and I can remember baggage would come down by train and the baggage was brought from the station with oxen, a cart with oxen to drag them on. FT: If I remember that train left at 6 in the morning or something like that RA: well, there were other trains too, and then of course the beach grew there weren’t many people there then and then it began to grow and big things to meet the train and then go _________. FT: I remember that myself. RA: The Metzgers had a cottage there and a year after my father died, Mr. Metzger who was his best friend, went to Watch Hill for the summer with his family. ____ died that summer in Watch Hill, one year after and neither Mrs. Metzger or my mother ever married again. FT: Now let’s go back to the City of Hartford in the days when you were growing up. How did you get to the city from your house? RA: Well, from Collins Street we walked. It wasn’t a long walk. We walked over Garden Street hill and right near us was Charles Hopkins ____ and ________ and when I was a little girl they were down on Walnut Street on Brooks Street it was sort of a slum I guess, and these boys would come up and they’d get into the _______. Mrs. Clark gave _______ and me permission to go in and pick the __________ mostly and that was a great event, of course. FT: When you talk about Laura, that was Laura Rothschild. RA: Yes. FT: And who later became Mrs. Louis Meyers. RA: Yes. FT: Right. RA: Around on Sumner Street, which was not very far from us going up toward Asylum there was Minnie Kashman and Florence, now Florence Hess and Marshall, Arthur and Joseph who died. And then the Kattens were there and Mr. Leopold Marxs and then further up the street was Grampa Katten. FT: So, there were a few Jewish neighbors there. Now if you wanted to go downtown also, instead of walking wasn’t there a trolley RA: There was a trolley car. And we got to know them and the motormen would let my brother stand up between them and hold the wheel and push the bell with his foot. That was the best thing you could do when you’re a boy. I remember coming back one rainy, Pat Dorffen, I guess, the motorman saw me and he stopped the trolley and waited for me to get in and let me out at my corner. So I didn’t get wet. FT: Well, in winter do you remember, was there a stove in the trolley car? RA: No. FT: No RA: I don’t remember that. FT: In the summer, do you remember anything about the open trolley cars? RA: Oh yes. That was great and I remember my mother taking me out to Wethersfield for a trolley ride. We’d go out to the end of the line and we’d get out and walk around and then we’d come back. It was quite an event, and a nice trip. Then we went to Elizabeth Park. As a little girl I went there very often, go out with mother and I had birthday parties there because it was so pretty and we’d take 4 or 5 and she’d bring lunch and we’d have a party around the rose bushes. FT: Well, the trolley car that time went through Prospect Avenue to the Park, didn’t it? RA: Yes. FT: And then when you got downtown where did the trolley stop? What was downtown? RA: Well it stopped, as I remember it stopped at Main Street and then there was the Island of Safety, I don’t remember when that was built. And we’d go to Foxes and we would go to Brown Thompson and__________ FT: Was Pratt Street there? RA: Pratt Street was there, yes. Pratt Street had as the city rule it had very lovely shops on it. And Sage Allen separated Mr. Sage from Mr. Allen and he had an exclusive shop and there were other shops there too. _____________________ _______. It was a nice city. It was a lovely city, with shoe stores and FT: Where was your father’s shoe store? RA: It was on Main Street and it was on the corner of Main of Kingsley and it was burned out, there was a terrible fire, and it burned out and then Sage Allens went in there and the shoe store took the lower floor and sold ladies shoes and then they had a mens store down the street a little way. And that went on for a while and then afterwards they withdrew from Sage Allen. FT: Well was Ballersteins still there? RA: There was Ballelsteins. This huge building and they were milliners and all the stores had wonderful millinary departments FT: Everybody wore a hat then. RA: Oh, yes. FT: And a fancy hat too? RA: And the one I used to go to, her name was, I think her name was Kennedy, Miss Kennedy and she later married not Aaron, but the other Hollander. I can’t think of it. There were two Hollander brothers. FT: Well, let’s get on a little bit and we go away from your early years. You spoke about when you were married in 1925. RA: Yes. FT: And you married Harry Atkins. RA: Yes. FT: Now Harry came from a large old Jewish family. RA: Yes, his family was, I think there were 12 and he was the youngest and his parents were __________________wasn’t living when I knew her and ----- three sisters and two brothers FT: And the rest were dead RA: Yes. Somehow I think he had three sisters. FT: Well, and the Atkins family had a big dry goods store, right? RA: Wholesale Dry Goods. FT: Where was that? RA: On Ann Street and they after many years they sold had a place on Pearl Street and that was bought by the hotel, the what is it, the Hilton? FT: Was it. RA: The Hilton Hotel FT: On Pearl Street RA: Ya, they bought that. Then they went to a place on North Main Street. FT: That was a very old concern. Was your father-in-law in that store? RA: No, he died when I married. FT: Oh, he didn’t start the business. RA: I worked in sales. No, they started with Dewey Goldsmith. It was H. Goldsmith. And they were there and Sam Atkins married Edyth Goldsmith so that is how they became established in that. FT: In the dry goods business? RA: Yes, in that. FT: Well t hat was many years ago. RA: Ya. Harry was about 18. He used to drive out in the country with a horse and buggy. FT: Selling the dry goods? RA: Yes, taking orders and ______ but he was taking orders and later on I used to go with him and he would show me the route. He loved being out in the country. FT: Well, they sold all kinds of things, sheets, pillows cases, clothes RA: Those are all dry goods. FT: I wonder if there is anything comparable to that today? RA: I don’t know. Toward the end of the business things didn’t go well and Sam, and well poor Sam died. FT: Sam was the oldest? RA: Things began to go down and then finally they closed down. FT: It was Sam who was active in the community? RA: And Jay. FT: And Jay, Jacob. RA: And Harry. Those are the three. FT: And when you were married did you live in Hartford? RA: West Hartford. FT: That’s when you came to West Hartford. RA: That’s when I came to West Hartford. FT: And have been here ever since, right? RA: Ya. FT: And your family, tell us about them? RA: You mean my children? FT: Yes. RA: Well I have a daughter and a son. My daughter went to Hartford Art School and then when well she went there for about 4 years. She got a scholarship and when she graduated she went to work for Stevens Jewelry and did some designing and that sort of thing, and didn’t like it. So that was the time the new Carlson’s was starting and she decided she would like to go into that so she’s been connected with the theater ever since. My son went to Harvard, went to Choate, and then went to Harvard and he was always wrote even in prep school his writing was his ______. Avocation would I say is proud of it. Anyway, then he lived in New York and had been writing ever since. FT: And he has written a couple of books, hasn’t he? RA: Well, he has a published novel and he had another one that hasn’t been published but you know how books go around sometimes and don’t get published but he hopes it will sometime. He is always writing and now he is with the Macy Medical Foundation. They just published a book of his called the Dean. It is a biography of, autobiography, I might say, Dean ________ and his contribution to public health and it’s not advertised except in medical magazines, I think. __________________ It wouldn’t appeal to everybody but it is a very interesting book and I think if your interested in public health at all, it is only about that think, that it is a fascinating book. FT: Well, I jumped ahead. When you were married did people have big weddings and where were you married? RA: I had a big wedding. Yes. I didn’t want it but my mother was always looking forward and I was very young when I got married. So we were married in the Bond ballroom. FT: Well you see the Bond has simply passed out of existence. No one would even know about it. I always thought that was FT: Well it was a very fine hotel and it was a lovely wedding. FT: It was on Asylum Street, right? RA: Yes. And took the Great Lakes trip for a wedding trip and went to Saginaw Island which is lovely and ______. We used to have fun. After I was married we had a lot of fun and things going on and we _________ FT: I will go back to your children. Neither of them live in Hartford at the present time. RA: No. They both live in New York. Jo Ellen didn’t marry and Harry has a little boy, 5-1/2 and a baby. Let’s see, 9 months old. They lived in Morocco for two years and he lived, before that, he had been over by himself and traveled all through Southern or Northern Africa. And knew that country very well. But he ___________ FT: Well today you have very little family left in Hartford. RA: No, I have just _________ and her son and daughter. We ere double cousins. FT: Are you still active, Ruth, in a lot of things? RA: No. I hooked on the boards of everything when young people began to come on I felt well I have done it enough and I resigned from the organizations but I didn’t, I haven’t done anything active except at the rehab I would just do addressing and stuffing and that sort of thing. But I got to the point where I didn’t want any more responsibility of that type. FT: But you are in good health and you are enjoying yourself and still going to lectures? RA: Oh yes, I went to one Thursday. It’s the beginning of the lectures at the Women’s College on _______________. FT: I think we got the date of your birth, didn’t we? How old are you now, 82? RA: 83. I will be 84 in June. FT: And you look marvelous, and I hope you keep well. And we are having this interview today for the Jewish Historical Society and today is Sunday, March 28, 1976. And Sarah do you have any questions, have we covered all