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In lieu of a trained rabbi, S. Feinberg, W. Bluestein, and probably others, acted as lay leaders for the Jewish assemblies, the latter possessing the only Torah in Beaumont in 1881. ²⁰

Usually, Jewish weddings were the instrument for bringing visiting rabbis to Beaumont. Beaumont�s first was that of Sam Lederer to Mildred Hirsch, the daughter of Mrs. J. J. Loeb, in February, 1889, with Rabbi Kaiser of Galveston officiating at St. Mark�s Episcopal Church.²¹ The second was that of W. T. Smyth to Jeanette Schwerin in May, 1891. ²²

Beaumont�s third Jewish wedding of record was that of Mattie Loeb to George Bliss, a young merchant, in March, 1892. Rabbi Wilner of Houston officiated at the City Hall, where �floral decorations were beautifully and tastefully arranged.�²³ The weddings of� Jake Nathan to Annette Levy, daughter of the rabbi, in 1900, and Ada Feinberg to Henry Roos in 1901 were the Jewish social events of those years.²⁴

In 1888, of six dry goods firms doing a combined annual business of $220,000, five of them, Schwartz Brothers, H. Solinsky, L. R. Levy, F. Hecht, and E. Morris, were Jewish-owned. Levy was also in the grocery business. In 1889, Schwartz Brothers built a three-story building to enlarge their business.²⁵

In 1889, three other Jews, R. M. Mothner, Hyman A. Perlstein, and M. H. Hirsch, settled in Beaumont, each with a favorable effect on the community, and Perlstein with only $11.90 in his pocket. Mothner became Beaumont�s second jeweler (Alfred Schwaner, the first). He became an organizer and the first president of the Jubilee Lodge, B�nai B�rith, and later of the Chamber of Commerce and the Beaumont Fair Association. In 1902 he and Perlstein brought in a Spindletop gusher on a site where, earlier, Captain Anthony Lucas reputedly had been unsuccessful.²⁶

²⁰Blum et al., �Founders and Builders,� p. 9.

²¹Marriage Book A, Nr. 1281, Feb. 24, 1889, Jefferson County, Texas, Archives; Blum et al., �Founders and Builders, 1878-1923,� p. 2.

²²Marriage Book A, Nr. 1441, May 27, 1891, Jefferson County, Texas, Archives.

²³Marriage Book A, Nr. 1509, March 2, 1892, Jefferson County; Texas, Archives; Galveston Daily News, March 7, 1892; �Emerald of the Neches,� pp. 514-515.

²⁴Blum et al., �Founders and Builders, 1878-1923,� pp. 5-6; Beaumont Enterprise, Jan. 24, 1901. See also photo of Mrs. Henry Roos in B. C. C., The Beaumont Country (Oct., 1913), Vol. 111, Nr. 3.

²⁵Galveston Daily News, Apr. 12, 1889; �Emerald of the Neches,� p. 389.

²⁶See biography of R. M. Mothner, Sabine Pass News, May 5, 1900; see also Block, �Emerald of the Neches,� p. 544; also ad and photo, R. M. Mothner, Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1908-1909 (Houston: 1908), pp. 101, 197; Perlstein Papers, Special Collections, Mary and John Gray Library, Lamar University.