Feinbergs in Nebraska

While viewing the movie "Nebraska," about petty, gossipy, small-town residents of the Cornhusker State, I was forced to reckon with the fact that I am (ugh) half Nebraskan due to the fact my father Ted was born in Grand Island.

In 1909, my grandfather Max Feinberg, then 17 and living in Des Moines, began working in shoe stores, mostly for Sol Panor's Family Shoe Store. In 1917, Sol assigned Max to open and manage a "novelty" boot store in Lincoln, the Nebraska State Capital and home to the University of Nebraska.

The following January, Grandma Mae gave birth to twin girls. Only Helena survived, and almost 96 years later she is still surviving.

Max still managed for Panor in 1918. There was no Lincoln city directory in 1919. In 1920, Panor had a different manager and Max had his own shoe business. It must be during this transition that the Feinbergs lived in a small town, either in Nebraska or Missouri. As Ted remembered the story, the Ku Klux Klan warned Helena's baby sitter to stop working for Jews, who they were about to drive out. The baby sitter reported the incident, and the Feinbergs moved on.

In 1920, Max was now operating the C & F Shoe Store with his father-in-law Nathan Chapman, who moved his family from Centerville, Iowa. At the same time, Max was President of the Lincoln Shoe Co. at 1337 O St., two blocks over from C & F at 1107 O St. In 1921, Lincoln Shoe Co. was gone, and Max managed C & F, where brothers-in-law David and Jake Chapman were now working.

O St. is the main east-west road across Lincoln.

Around 1922, Max left the partnership, and Nathan and Jake ran C & F another two years. The Feinbergs now moved further west to Grand Island, where Betty was born in June 1922, followed by Ted in 1926. They, too, are still alive.

The Feinbergs lived here at 401 W. Charles St. in 1926.
It was at least their second residence in Grand Island.

For most of the Grand Island years, Max operated the Feinberg Novelty Boot Shop. Helena recalls that the store had a home-like atmosphere, with comfortable armchairs and sofas. The history book of Grand Island and Hall County (2007) has a 1927 photo of the block the store was on. The boot shop was wedged between Martin’s Department Store on the right and the Piggly Wiggly Store on the left.

The family lived comfortably at home as well. I visited the town in the 1990s and photographed two of the residences. Max, though never particularly religious, hosted High Holiday services, according to a newspaper article written years later.

Last of at least four Feinberg residences in Grand Island.
This "show house" is at 2212 W. Division.
David and Lenore Chapman also lived with them here in 1930.

His other religion was baseball, and he was one of the directors of the town's Nebraska League team. It was while driving to or from a road game when Max, with Ted sitting on his lap, swerved to avoid a head-on collision. He flung the door open, threw Ted out, and jumped out himself, but Grandma was still inside when the car stopped upside down in a corn field. She suffered internal injuries and several broken bones, was laid up two years, and never fully recovered.

Around 1933, Feinberg Novelty Boot Store became Feinberg Economy Shop, selling ladies ready-to-wear clothing and shoes.  Dad says it grew into a chain of nine small-town stores in Nebraska.

Then came the dust bowl, which drove him and much of Nebraska to bankruptcy. In August 1934, with less than $40 and a dog named Fritz, the family moved back to Des Moines.

With 17 years of retail experience acquired in Nebraska, Max was hired almost immediately by the Davidson family to work in their "Boston Store," first as salesman, then as manager. About three years later, with $50 loans from brothers-in-law Dave Matulef and Leo Schutzbank, Max acquired a grocery and was once more self-employed.

"Foot" Note: When Nebraska comes to mind the first thing many people think of is University of Nebraska football. Dad told me that his uncle Dave Chapman (1897-1949) was the first NU freshman to play first string. I found a web site (huskermax.com) that has all the rosters, and from 1914 through 1923 there was nobody named Chapman.