November 2, 2012, Friday, 306

Mary Leventhal

From The Peopling of New York City

Part 4

The most or could be the least interesting immigrant on this list was actually not an immigrant. She was born in 1889 here in the U.S.. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find her name or any of her family members in the U.S. 1910 or 1920 census. Mary Leventhal, was killed in the fire at the age of 22. Ms. Leventhal lived at 604 Sutter Place, Brooklyn. David Von Drehle found her by different names (Loventhal, Laventhol, Leventhal, and Lowenthol) in multiple newspapers (On November 22, 2010, we were contacted by a representative of Mary Leventhal's family, who asked that we use the spelling Leventhal. To respect that request, we have made the change to that spelling throughout this site--Joseph Ugoretz). Ms. Leventhal was identified by her brother, Benjamin, and her dentist. [1] According to her death certificate (10611) [2] she was buried on March 30, 1911, five days after her death. Her name on the death certificate is Mary Loventhal. Most of the Women and Men who died at the factory were identified and buried by March 27, 1911. This suggests that the once beautiful and popular Mary Leventhal was so badly burned and injured that it was hard to identify her from the severity of these injuries and burns. In Triangle it was mentioned that Leventhal was sent to a dentist by Joseph Flecher, paymaster, for a gold cap on one of her teeth. Thus, she was finally discovered and buried in Washington Cemetery. Mary Leventhal's father was Benjamin Leventhal who was born in Russia and an immigrant to the U.S.. Strangely, Von Drehle claimed that Benjamin was her brother. Unless her brother and father had the same name, it is strange that the author/historian has made a serious mistake. Leventhal's Mother was Martha A. Soloman who was also born in Russia and immigrated to the U.S..

Brook.jpg
Brooklyn in 1911 borrowed from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp3.blogger.com/


During the late 1800s Russia was going through some tough times. People were discriminated for religious differences. These differences inevitably caused hatred and violence among people. Mary Leventhal’s parents left the country seeking a safer place to live. They could have arrived any time before 1889. I couldn’t find any documents that had the date of their arrival or any census information the years following their arrival and the birth of Mary Leventhal. Since Mary’s name was spelled in so many different ways after her death at the factory, it is possible that the census takers could have spelled the family’s name wrong (On November 22, 2010, we were contacted by a representative of Mary Leventhal's family, who asked that we use the spelling Leventhal. To respect that request, we have made the change to that spelling throughout this site--Joseph Ugoretz). Therefore, making it impossible to track down with the names I borrowed from the Von Drehle’s book.[3]

Immigrants.jpg http://www.immigrationbail.biz/images/arrivals.jpg


Mary Leventhal worked as a book keeper on the ninth floor. Her table was on the corner where the telephone was. Her job was to distribute the bundles of work that came from the floor below and to keep a record of the work done by the operators.[4] The cutter Joseph Granick said that “I have never been able to forget that maybe I could have saved pretty Mary Leventhal.” “Only a few minutes before the fire she came down to the eight floor where I was cutting trimmings. She said ‘Joe, I have a few girls coming in tomorrow. I need a few dozen cuffs.’ “I gave her five bundles of cuffs. Why didn’t I hold her back? Why didn’t I talk to her a little longer? Why didn’t I argue with her? If she stayed only a few more minutes she would have escaped with us. But, no! She went back to the ninth floor to die.” [5]. Leon Stein mentions in his book The Triangle Fire that Mary Leventhal was pretty and blond. Anna Gullo worked with Mary Leventhal and she is the person who told everyone about Ms. Leventhal’s unfortunate entrapment on the ninth floor. Gullo said, “Mary went back to her table and I went toward the freight elevators where the button was for ringing and the quitting bell” [6]Anna Gullo is Mary Leventhal’s sister! When the fire broke out Gullo lost her sister in the crowd and never again saw her alive. Gullo said that she ran around shouting Mary Leventhal’s name. But, she wasn’t able to find her and so she escaped through the Greene Street staircase. She saw on her way down and moments later heard a barrel of oil blow up. Clearly the entire place was burning up really fast.


Pic 3.jpg




Mary Leventhal’s body was so badly burned that it was hard for her family to identify. The biggest lead was her gold tooth cap. Joseph Flecher, office worker, remembered that he had sent Mary Leventhal to a friend dentist who had put a gold cap on one of her teeth. It was Dr. Zaharia who had recognized the body of Mary Leventhal when he saw the gold tooth cap he had placed for her. On March 28, an article in the New York Times said that Mary Leventhal was reported missing by her brother, Morris not Benjamin as Von Drehl made that mistake in his book.[7] Surprisingly, the Leventhal family believed that the body of Mary Leventhal is missing because they couldn’t recognize her badly burned body. Note that the article gave me a new spelling for the family's name. Recall, that March 27, 1911 is the first day of burials. So, the easily recognized bodies were buried on this day. In the same article, there was a list of unidentified victims. In box 100: “Woman: body charred, teeth filled with gold, Wore black shoes and stockings.” This identfication could be that of Mary Leventhal's. I didn't find any more information of who was in the box and who came to claim the body. Furthermore, it wasn't described by anyone what Mary Leventhal was wearing on the day of the fire. Mary Leventhal’s body was so badly burned that they didn’t know that she was a blond, a feature that would have helped many who were in search for her.

Mary Leventhal’s body is buried in Washington Cemetery. Her burial number is 105-30-0471 and her body is in path 43r. She is classified under the Workmens society. I find after extraneous research that I can not find any records on Mary Leventhal or her family. I have tried to search for her under the names that I found in Von Drehle’s book. I checked in census records at Ancestry.com, heritagequest.com, stevemorse.org, nypl.org, uscensus.org, index books with census inofrmation at the library. I also tried looking for her Family members on the same websites. I looked through city directories at Brooklyn College and the NYPL library and found nothing. What I did find is a multitude of spellings for Mary Leventhal’s name. In fact, there are about 6-7 ways of spelling her name. (On November 22, 2010, we were contacted by a representative of Mary Leventhal's family, who asked that we use the spelling Leventhal. To respect that request, we have made the change to that spelling throughout this site--Joseph Ugoretz) With this I have concluded three possible reasons to why it is very difficult to find records on Mary Leventhal. The first reason is that the city’s government recording system was very badly designed and handled. Recorders couldn’t spell and records were not saved under the right names. The second reason is that Mary Leventhal’s family was immigrants who were not educated. So, they probably didn’t spell their names correctly in the English translated version. The final and most provocative idea is that Mary Leventhal’s family was either hiding from the government because they were illegal immigrants or they were involved in some criminal activity which explains why their names are spelled in so many different ways. It also explains why I can’t find them anywhere in the records. But, I doubt they were criminals. In fact, Mary Leventhal was popular and liked by many of her co-workers than most likely she and her family were good citizens. Be aware that these are preliminary conclusions without any textual evidence.

Washington cemetery.jpg picasaweb.google.com

During the week of May 6, I was desperately searching for any last bits of information I could find. During the process I think I found the greatest discovery in my investigative research. In the March 28, 1911 New York Times article, Mary Leventhal was listed by her brother as missing.[8] What surprised me was that the last name was spelled Levinthal. So, from curiosity, I decided to look the name up in the census through Ancestry.com. I found two entries with Mary Levinthal’s family. Unfortunately, just as I was about to claim that I had finally found the census information on Mary Levinthal and her family, I saw that the wife of the family was Jennie and not Martha. Mary’s father was listed as William and her brother was listed as Ben. I was deeply saddened that once more I have failed to uncover the mystery behind Mary Leventhal.


That afternoon, I headed back to the New York Public Library for the fifth time hoping to find leads to the other victims I am investigating. I was reading through the book we original found almost a month ago. The Report of the Red Cross Emergency Relief Committee has some very useful information on the distribution of grants to the families who were affected by the fire. The total amount of money spent for the relief totaled $81,126.16. Three fifths of appropriations to the families in which there was a death were $500. One fifth of appropriations to families in which there was a death were $1000. 92 families had lost one or more members in the fire and to those families a total of $72,426.81 was granted. 60 families where affected other ways and to those families the committee granted a total of $7,842.35. The two values total out to $80,269.19, which is the Red Cross total. Other statistics provided below.[9]

Number of Families
Amount recieved
35: $50-99
61: $100-499
39: $500-999
16: $1000-4999
1 : $5000

The final section of this book had a list of cases in which the committee had reported the conditions of families and the amount rewarded to those families. While I was reading this section, I realized two things one that the information provided is very useful in my investigation and two the names of the victims were not listed, probably because the committee wanted to protect the identity of the victims and their families. Of course, this was horrible because there was useful information but we had no idea who was who. EUREKA!!, case number 157: is the description of a 22 year old girl who dies in the fire. The family was Russian but the children were born in the United States.[10] Immediately, I knew I had found Mary Leventhal. She was the second of nine children in the family. Her book keeping job at the Triangle Factory was the primary source of income for the family. Mary Leventhal was making twice as much as any of her three working brothers. She was earning $18 a week, which was considered a good income during those days. The committee reported that her father was ill and unable to work. The saddest information I obtained from the case report is that Mary Leventhal was expecting to marry in about eight months from the time. I learned that the fire had destroyed her future and left her family in need. This source gave the information I needed to make the risky conclusions I was in hope to make. The family that I had found on the census earlier that morning could actually be Mary Leventhal’s family. But, either the father’s name is not correct or she lived with another relative who considered Mary Leventhal and her siblings as their own children. This could also be possible if the Leventhals decided to send their children to live with a relative who could support them. Mary Leventhal’s father is disabled and jobless which gives the justification to why Mary Leventhal and her younger siblings had to start working so early in their lives.


On the Census, Mary Leventhal is listed as the second sibling at the age of 20. Her nativity is listed as New York since she was born here, and Russian since her family is from Russia. It also says that her ethnicity is Yiddish. She was able to communicate well in English. Her occupation was book keeping for a mercantile which is one of the reasons why I believe this is the same Leventhal. The level of her education was listed at High School and no college. She left school to work in order to help her large family. But, if her family did not require her to work and if she had continued through school she would have never been caught in the fire.[11]


On the census, the head of the household is William Levinthal and his wife is Anetta who were 46, 42 respectively. They were both Russian and Yiddish but they both got U.S. citizenship in 1888. William spoke English more fluently than his wife. Anetta is listed to speak only Yiddish. William Levinthal was a Tailor and worked at a shop. It is not clear if he owned the place. Anetta was a house wife, a common thing back in the days. Both husband and wife were not educated. Morris is the first son listed on the Census. He is 22 years old and was also born in the United States. He spoke English and finished high school. He was also pushed into working young in order to support such a large family. His occupation is, as I believe, a conductor at an Electric RR. Obviously, I have no clue what kind of occupation this is. Third on list is Ben, short for Benjamin, who is a son at the age of 19. Unlike his older siblings Ben’s English was fluent and he doesn’t have a job was means he was still in school. The next sibling is Dave who is 17 years old. He is also fluent in English and doesn’t have a job. The next person is Herman who is also 17, either a twin or a step child. He is also fluent in English and doesn’t have a job. There are two more sons one who is Joe, 14, and the other son Alie is 12. There are also two sisters one who is Ema, 6, and the other Harriet is 8. The last four youngest children also obviously don’t have jobs and are also fluent in English.[12]

My Investigation has come to an end. This is all I was able to retrieve.

Reference

  1. ↑ David Von Drehle, Triangle the fire that changed America, Grove Press New York, 2003
  2. ↑ Municipal Archives- Death Certificates Manhattan Death Certificates 1911 film containing numbers 9995-10952
  3. ↑ David Von Drehle, Triangle the fire that changed America, Grove Press New York, 2003
  4. ↑ Stein Leon, The Triangle Fire call number JLD 89 1660 at NYPL or F128.5.s83 at Brooklyn College Library , J.B. Lippincott Company Ithaca, New York, 1962
  5. ↑ Stein Leon, The Triangle Fire call number JLD 89 1660 at NYPL or F128.5.s83 at Brooklyn College Library , J.B. Lippincott Company Ithaca, New York, 1962
  6. ↑ Stein Leon, The Triangle Fire call number JLD 89 1660 at NYPL or F128.5.s83 at Brooklyn College Library , J.B. Lippincott Company Ithaca, New York, 1962
  7. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05E5DD1431E233A2575BC2A9659C946096D6CF&scp=2&sq=march+28%2C+1911+and+triangle+fire&st=p
  8. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05E5DD1431E233A2575BC2A9659C946096D6CF&scp=2&sq=march+28%2C+1911+and+triangle+fire&st=p
  9. ↑ Report of the Red Cross Emergency Relief Committee of the Charity organization society of the City of N.Y. (NYPL call number: SHD p.v.68, no.8)
  10. ↑ Report of the Red Cross Emergency Relief Committee of the Charity organization society of the City of N.Y. (NYPL call number: SHD p.v.68, no.8)
  11. ↑ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1910USCenIndex%2c&rank=0&gsfn=mary&gsln=levinthal&sx=&gs1co=2%2cUSA&gs1pl=35%2cNew+York&year=&yearend=1911&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&o_iid=21416&o_lid=21416&pcat=35&fh=0&recid=52001659&recoff=1+2
  12. ↑ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=1910USCenIndex%2c&rank=0&gsfn=mary&gsln=levinthal&sx=&gs1co=2%2cUSA&gs1pl=35%2cNew+York&year=&yearend=1911&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3b_80000002%3b_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&o_iid=21416&o_lid=21416&pcat=35&fh=0&recid=52001659&recoff=1+2
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