Joseph Rosenwater

lived at 2534 E 40th Street,Cleveland, OH

Joseph Rosenwater

Mr. Joseph Rosenwater passed away peacefully at his home, 2534 East Fortieth street, Monday morning. He had just completed the seventy-second year of his life the previous day, and had celebrated the event happily, surrounded by all of his children. A man of sterling qualities, quiet, thoughtful of others, self-effacing, he was endeared to all of his friends and relatives.

Mr. Rosenwater was born in Bohemia in 1843 and came to Cleveland at the age of 12, residing here sixty years. He was engaged in the dry goods business until seven years ago. After retiring from business he devoted his time to active charities, as trustee of the Hebrew Relief Association and treasurer of the Hebrew Free Loan Association. He was also a member of the B'nai B'rith and of the Euclid Avenue Temple. He was a trustee of the old Scovill Avenue Temple and was on the building committee at the time of its erection.

His wife, Mrs. Rosa Rosenwater, died seven years ago. He is survived by six children: William M. Rosewater, of Milwaukee; Edwin J., Harry S., Arthur H. and Dr. Eugene D. Rosewater, and Mrs, Walter S. Palek, of this city. The following grandchildren survive him: Robert, Harold and lioris Rosewater, Ralph and Milton Rosewater, Murjoric and Rosalind Rosewater, and Itichnrd and Paul Pitek. He is also survived by three brothers and two sisters: Dr. Nathan Rosewater, of this city; Mr. Frank Rosewater, of New York; Dr. Charles Rosewater, Mrs. Edward Kohn and Mrs. Charles Singer, of Omaha. The services were held from Mayfield chapel at 2:30 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, and were conducted by Rabbi Louis Wolscy. The pallbearers were Harry Wodicka, Julius Wodicka, Philip Sampliner, Dr. William Sampliner, Paul Rosenwasser, Rudolph Singer.

The Jewish Independent, Friday, February 05, 1915; Section: Front page, Page: 1

Two Hundred Years of Family History The Story of Josef Kohn and his Descendants 1744-1945

by Sidney C. Singer, August 21, 1945

The following is a partial transcript of Singer's work as it relates to the ancestors of Michele Fern (Rosewater) Pruden. The original manuscript's index lists twenty-two genealogy charts which were not included in the copy used for this transcription.

Page 1 -- The earliest known ancestor of the Kohn Family was Josef Kohn, who was born in 1744 and died in 1810. He lived in Bohemia and had two known children - Solomon and Wolf - from whom this narrative evolves. No other information about Josef is available to the writer.

Solomon Kahn, the son of Josef, was born in 1781, and made his home in Zaluzan, Bohemia. He and his brother Wolf were peddlers, travelling about from town to town to sell their wares. We are informed that they both succumbed to cholera in 1850. Solomon first married Agnes Levi, who was born in 1781, and the couple had six children. Agnes died in 1821, and Solomon later married Thekla Strauss Levi. The exact date of the second marriage is not known, but it was at some time after February 28, 1827, as on that date Thekla was divorced from a Mr. Levi. It is not known whether this Mr. Levi was related to Solomon's first wife Agnes Levi. Solomon and Thekla had three children, and Thekla died in 1874.

Page 11 -- The third child [of Solomon and Agnes Kohn] was Rebecca Kohn, who was born in 1812. She married Marcus Woditzka and had two children. Marcus, a butcher by trade, was very intelligent and ambitious, and was studying to be a rabbi when he died in 1843. Rebecca later married David Woditzka and had one child. So far as is known, Marcus and David were not related. Rebecca and her husband and children emigrated to Cleveland in the early 1860's.

Page 13 -- Rosa Woditzka, the second child of Rebecca and Marcus Woditzka, was born in 1842. In 1866 she married her cousin, Joseph Rosenwater*. Joseph was born in 1843 in Bukovan, Bohemia, the second son of Herman and Rosalia Kohn Rosenwasser. He came to America with his family in 1854, and settled in Cleveland, where he thereafter made his home. As a young boy he went to work to help support the family by peddling notions, and in later years he assisted in financing the medical education of his younger brother abroad. Very early in life he showed business ability, and he later became a very successful dry goods merchant. Joseph changed the spelling of his family name from Rosenwasser to Rosenwater, but all of his children adopted the more usual form of Rosewater. The couple reared a family of eight children, all of whom were born in Cleveland. Rosa died in 1908 and Joseph in 1915.

The oldest child of this couple [Joseph and Rosa Rosenwater], Emma Rosewater, was born in 1867 and lived but a few days. The second child, Anna Rosewater, was born in 1868 and died early in 1870. The third child William Marcus Rosewater was born in 1870 and died in 1935. He was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of technology and was well known as a mechanical engineer. In 1897 he married Eva Bernstein of Milwaukee, now a resident of Los Angeles. The couple had no children.

The fourth child [of Joseph and Rosa Rosenwater], Edwin J. Rosewater, was born in 1873. He married Amelia Singer, a first cousin of the writer, and a couple live in Cleveland, where their three children were born. Edwin is engaged in the retail mercantile business there.

• Joseph's mother, Rosalia Kohn Rosenwasser, was the younger sister of Rosa's mother, Rebecca Kohn Woditzka.

Page 14 -- Their [Edwin and Amelia Rosewater], oldest child, Robert S. Rosewater, was born in 1901. In 1934 he married Helen Swartchild of Chicago, but their marriage was cut short by his sudden death the following year. He left an infant son, Robert S. Rosewater, who, upon his mother's remarriage, adopted the name of his stepfather, Sempliner. This Sempliner family lives in Beverly Hills, California. They are distantly related to the Sempliner branch of the Kohn family. The second son of Edwin and Amelia, Harold J. Rosewater, was born in 1905. He is been connected with the brokerage firm in Cleveland for many years. In 1934 he married Alice Jane Vactor of Cleveland, and their one child, Robert David Rosewater, is now a lad six years old. Doris Harriet Rosewater, the third child of Amelia and Edwin, married Arthur Edward Wilkoff in 1929 and resided in Youngstown, Ohio, up to the time of her sudden death in 1943. She left one daughter, Nancy Jeanne Wilkoff, who was born in 1931.

The fifth child of Rosa and Joseph was Harry Samuel Rosewater, who was born in 1875. He is an electrical engineer and lives in Cleveland. In 1906 he married Avalon Jennie Rosenberg, and the couple have two daughters. The older, Marjorie, married Jack E. Beyer and has two sons, John Allen and Robert William Beyer. The younger daughter, Rosalind Rosewater, is unmarried.

The next child [of Joseph and Rosa Rosenwater] was Ernestine Rosewater. She married Walter L. Patek in 1905, and the couple have two sons: Richard J. Patek, who married Ebbyline B. Maupin in 1932, and Paul R. Patek, who married Esther B. Sturgeon. Paul and Esther have one daughter, Patricia C. Patek. Ernestine and Walter now live in Glendale, California, and their children live in Los Angeles.

The next child [of Joseph and Rosa Rosenwater] was Arthur Herman Rosewater, who was born in 1880. In 1905 he married Florence Weidenthal and the couple have three children. The oldest, Ralph S. Rosewater, married Lenora Adel Cohen in 1934, and has two children: Florence Louise and Stanley Eugene Rosewater. The second son, Milton Elmer Rosewater, married Rose Makman in 1936, and has three children: Michelle [sic] Fern, Frederick Hal and Eugene William Rosewater. The third child, Joy Elaine Rosewater, married Charles Robert Bruml in 1938 and has one daughter, Mary Dawn Bruml.

Page 15 -- The youngest child of Rosa and Joseph was Eugene David Rosewater. He was born in 1884 and died in 1928, never having married. He was educated as an engineer and later as a doctor.

Ö

The fourth and fifth children of Solomon and Agnes Kohn were Rosalia Kohn, and a twin sister who died in infancy and whose name is not known. In 1838 Rosalia married Herman Rosenwasser, who was born in 1807 in Libna, near Prague, Bohemia, the third child of Osias and Susannah Rosenwasser. Herman's father died when he was very young and he was apprenticed to the butcher trade. However, he studied in his spare time and later became a private tutor. He settled in the town of Bukovan, Bohemia, and married Julia Kohn, by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Rosenwasser. Julia died of typhoid at the birth of her second child, a son, and the child died also. Shortly after Julia's death, Herman married her cousin, Rosalia Kohn. Rosalie took over the care of the motherless Elizabeth, and had eight sons and three daughters of her own. In 1854 in the family emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on Christmas Day, and in Cleveland on New Year's Day, 1855.

Herman found it difficult to make his way in his new surroundings, and from the very first his two oldest sons had to go to work to help support the family. Herman was a brilliant man with a fine line, but he was narrow and hidebound in religious matters, and he ruled his children with extreme strictness. On the other hand, Rosalia's outstanding character, expressed by her gentleness and fairness, where no small way responsible for the accomplishments of her children in the fields of journalism, literature, medicine, engineering and politics. After the Rosenwasser family was established in this country, all but two of the boys changed the spelling of the name to the anglicized form of Rosewater. Joseph adopted the spelling Rosenwater, and only Marcus retained the old form of Rosenwasser.

Herman's first child, Elizabeth Rosenwasser, married Adolf Feil and settled in Cleveland, but she and her descendents do not, of course, enter into the history of the Solomon Kohn family.

The oldest child of Herman and Rosalia was and Anna Rosenwasser, who was born in 1840 and died in infancy.

The next child [of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser], Edward Rosewater, was born in 1841 in BukovanÖ

Page 19a -- Joseph Rosenwater, the second son of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser, married his cousin Rosa Woditzka, and the history of his branch of the family is covered in pages 13 to 15 of this record.

The third child [of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser], Sarah Rosenwasser, was born in 1844Ö

Page 21 -- The fifth child of Herman and Rosalia was Marcus Rosenwasser, who was born in 1846Ö

Page 22 -- The next son of Herman and Rosalia was Andrew Rosewater, who was born in 1848Ö

Page 23 -- The next child of Herman and Rosalia was Grace Rosenwasser, mother of the writer, who was born in 1850Ö

Page 26 -- The next child of Rosalia and Herman was Sigmund Rosenwasser, who was born in 1852 and died when a few months of age.

Nathan Rosewater, the ninth child [of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser], was born in 1854, and was but a few months old when he was brought to AmericaÖ

Page 26a -- The next child [of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser] was Frank Rosewater, who was born in Cleveland in 1856Ö

The youngest child [of Herman and Rosalia Rosenwasser], Charles Rosewater, was born in Cleveland in 1859Ö