Moses Morris Cohen

Son of Shlama Zalman

From Marshall Cohen:

My paternal grandfather Moses Hirsch (Tsvi) Cohen (1849-1921) was born in Merkine, Lithuania, which at the time was in Imperial Russia and was known as Meretz in Yiddish. In c1870 he married Chesna (-c1882), about whom little is known. She had two children, Abraham (1872-1939) and Sarah (1881-1958) and died after (or when) Sarah was born. Left with two children, in c1883 Moses married Margolies (Mary) Frankel (1865-1934). Margolie was from the nearby town of Druskininkai. She was the daughter of Yehudah Frankel (bc1815) and had several siblings including Abraham Frankel, who with his wife Rosa Frankel founded the Singapore branch of the Frankel clan. Margolies had five children, Julius (1885-1965) and William (1889-1980) were born in Meretz, and Solomon (1895-1962), Carrie (1896-1947), and Edith (1899-1985) were born in Boston. Altogether Moses had
seven children, born over 27 years.

Abraham Cohen immigrated to the US c1884; the circumstances are unknown. In 1895 he married Martha B. Reinherz (1874-1936) who had been born in Suwalki, Poland, and they had five children. They lived in Lowell, Massachusetts and in Brookline. Sarah Cohen immigrated in either 1890 or 1894; the census records disagree. In 1900 she was living with her family on Salem Street in Boston's North End. In c1902 she married Bernard Brams (1876-1938) and they had seven children in 16 years.

The details of the immigration of the Cohen family from Russia to Boston are not known, and the census records are not consistent. It is likely that Moses came first, around 1890, and Margolie came with Sarah and the younger children around 1894. But there surely were friends and relatives to greet the Cohens when they arrived. In the 1880's there was a thriving Litvak community in Boston. In 1883 the Boston Meretz Relief Association was founded, to celebrate the founders' Meretz heritage, and to provide humanitarian aid, in Palestine as well as Boston. (1)

In the late 1800s Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire, and Druskininkai and Meretz were in the Vilna Gubernia. These towns are on the Nemanus River and Druskininkai is a few miles from the current border with Belarus; the river flows north to Kovno. Druskininkai is close to several lakes and has long been a spa town. Like many other towns in Lithuania, Merketz and Druskininkai contained a high proportion of Jews; according to the 1897 census Jews were 74% of the total population of Meretz, which numbered about 2,600.

The Cohen family settled in Boston and evidently moved frequently. In 1895 when Solomon was born they lived in the South End at 319 Shawmut Ave; a year and a half later when Carrie was born they lived in the North End at 14 Cooper St. In 1900 they lived at nearby Salem Street, and in 1908 they lived in the East End, at 319 Sumner Street, close to what is now Logan International Airport. At the time, these were all immigrant neighborhoods, with a mixture of nationalities including many Yiddish-speaking Jews from East Europe.

In 1895 and 1896 Moses listed his occupation as a baker, while in 1900 he called himself a grocer. In the 1904 Boston City Directory Morris H. Cohen is listed as a grocer at 321 Sumner Street, East Boston. This is next door to where they lived in 1908, but it is not clear when they moved to East Boston.

In the 1900 US census Moses (or Morris as he is called in some records) and Margolie (or Mary) are living with five children ages "5/12" - 16, and one "cousin" age 19. This cousin is Sarah, the half-sister of the other five children. The half-brother Abraham was 28 years old and was married and living in Lowell.

Margolie Frankel Cohen had five children, and this is a quick review of their lives. In all she had xxx descendents, of whom yyyy are now alive.

(verbatim) Moses (Morris) Hirsh Cohen had been married before. His first wife's given name is unknown. They had two children: Sarah b. 1881 and Abraham b. 1883. He married second Margolie (Margolies) Frankel, daughter of Iudel Frankel circa 1883. It's likely that his wife died in childbirth. He and Margolie had their first child in May 1884.

Moses (Morris) Hirsch Cohen (1855-1921)

• Residence: 1920 - Precincts 3&4 Boston 19, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• Immigration: 1889
• Race: White
• Ethnicity: American
  • Reference: 1920 United States Federal Census - SmartCopy: Oct 23 2022, 0:52:27 UTC
• Residence: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States
• Residence: & Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Maine, United States
• Race: White
• Residence: Occupation peddler, Chelsea, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1893
• Residence: Ward 06 - 1900
• Residence: Lived on Sumner Street. Age: 45; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1900
• Residence: Sumner Street, Listed in City Directory as Morris Cohen, grocer., Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1904
• Residence: Ward 02 - 1910
• Residence: Age: 58; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1910
• Residence: Ward 09 - 1910
• Residence: Age: 58; Age: 38; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1910
• Residence: Age in 1910: 58; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1910
• Residence: 135 Harvard, Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1918
• Residence: Ward 19 - 1920
• Residence: Age: 69; Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States - 1920
  • Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Oct 23 2022, 0:53:56 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 23 2022, 1:14:11 UTC
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 10 2022, 23:10:54 UTC