Although most of the early East European Jewish community of Des Moines came from Pilviskiai, Lithuania, my first ancestors to reach the city came from Romania.
The 1880 census did not list any Romanian immigrants in Des Moines, and only six in the entire state, including two Jews, Isaac Rindskopf and Paul Rosenthall, both in Council Bluffs. The entire national census listed barely one hundred Romanian-born Americans, Jewish or otherwise.
Des Moines's first Romanian Jewish immigrants appeared in the 1884 directory. They were F. Blank, who sold "notions and fancy goods" at 321 E. Walnut St. , and S. Leon, whose restaurant and residence was across the river at 210 W. Walnut St. "S. Leon," mentioned in my previous blog, was the brother of my great-grandmother Clara Marcovis.
Both the Blanks and the Leons were in the 1885 Iowa State Census. Another Des Moines household, headed by Albert Davis, was marked as Russian*, but later records always showed them as Romanian. Living with the Davis's at 208 Fourth St. was another Romanian, Jacob Anzelberg, brother-in-law of my great-grandfather Aaron Marcovis.
The 1886 directory showed Albert Davis, a peddler, sharing a residence with Aaron Davis, a tinner. This is odd, because Albert's sons in 1885 were Samuel and Nathan, ages 9 and 14. Also suspicious was that not a single other record could be found for Aaron Davis from Romania. We will come back to this.
Moving on to the 1888 directory, one sees for the first time a name similar to Aaron Marcovis. Harry Marcovich of 214 E. 4th Street worked for Albert Davis, a tinner who lived at 765 W. 9th St. That was the same year that Aaron and Clara married.
Come 1890, "Harry" is "Henry" but the spelling "Marcovis" appears for the first time. It also marks his move to 784 9th Street just south of Keosauqua Way, near the Davis's, except that the Davis's have moved to 214 E. 4th Street! Albert's "hardware and tinware" shop is still on West 9th, one block north of Aaron's "stove and tinware" shop. Two or three years later, the Davis's moved to Galesburg, IL.
The connections between Albert Davis, Jacob Anselberg and Aaron Marcovis demand and receive an explanation. For one thing, Aaron's mother was Sarah David (1925 Iowa State Census). "David" was a common Romanian Jewish surname, while "Davis" is never seen among Romanian immigrant ship passenger. For another, Albert's daughter Jeanette E. Davis Flournoy was sited in Artists in California, 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes, which says she was born in Braila. That's where Aaron was born.
According to the census you look at, Albert Davis (David) was born between 1838 and 1853. Sarah David Marcovici would have likely been born around 1840. Thus, it's likely that Albert Davis was Aaron Marcovis's uncle.
And now we better understand how my great-grandparents, who came from different parts of Romania, came to Des Moines and married. Sol Leon paved the way for his sister Clara, and Albert Davis paved the way for his nephew Aaron. As heads of two of the three Romanian Jewish households in town, the match was inevitable.
This Thursday would be Aaron and Clara's 124th anniversary.
Albert and Annie Davis later lived in Peoria and Springfied before moving to Los Angeles, where they were still alive in 1930. Jeanette (1880-1958) lived in Vista, California, from 1931 onwards. From her first marriage she had a son, Lynn Welvart (1901-1976), and a daughter Marion, Mirriam or Miriam (picture from passport application shown below). Son Samuel, his wife Elizabeth, and daughters Margaret and Maxine were in Indianapolis in 1930. Son Edward had one son, Alvin (1961-2001), who was raised by Albert and Annie. Son Nathan had no known family.
* The 1885 census was edited, crossing out the names of certain countries and writing "Oc" (other country) over it. Northern and western European countried such and Germany and Sweden were not crossed out.
Pictured below, passport photo of Mirriam Welvart, a granddaughter of Albert and Annie Davis.
