Jacob Stein

JACOB STEIN'S OWN WORDS IN 1956:

"My Father's name was Morris and my Mother's name was Rebecca. When he was young, he was in the contracting business. In 1875, Russia started building railroads so my Father got the contracts to build the railroad stations. My Grandfather's name was Solomon and my Grandmother's name was Rose. My Grandfather owned a mill that was run by a windmill and all the farmers for miles around used to bring their grain to him and he used to make flour for them. I was 4 or 5 years old at that time. They lived in the Ukraine...

[My wife's] name was Sarah and her Father's name was Isreal Glazer. Her Mother's name was Dorothy. He was a glazer by trade. He used to go out for a week at at time to the small towns and farmers and fix their windows. At that time, they didn't pay with cash, only farm goods and produce. He used to have his own horse and wagon and at the week's end he used to bring this produce and goods back into town and sell it.

As I remember from the old country, I lived in a city by the name of Odessa, which is in the southern part of Russia, near the Black Sea.

After I was Bar Mitzvah'd, I went to learn a trade as an iron worker. After I started making money, it was the style to go dancing so I went to a dancing school to take ballroom dancing. I became so expert that I also taught dancing at the school.

During the summer we went swimming in the Black Sea. The place where we lived faced the Black Sea.

I lived like this until I was twenty, then I was drafted into the army.

After I was discharged from the army, I got married.

When I was a child in Russia, there were no public schools and I got my formal schooling at a Jewish Chedar.

I came to [Canada] from Russia in 1904 with [Sarah] and was in the structural iron business all my life."