Sam Friedman was the son of Israel Friedman and Dina Shulman Friedman. He was born in Little Chernovtsy near Kopaigorod in the Ukraine. He was born 1 April, 1897. He studied in Poland. In 1913, he traveled with his brother Solman to Galveston, Texas on the S.S. Chemnitz from Bremen, Germany. Details of their journey can be seen on the S.S. Chemnitz page in the History section. . Details of their story can be heard in the Sam and Sol audio files linked below. After living and working in Hermosillo, Mexico for about 5 years, Sam returned to Los Angeles and married Anne Licht on 8 March 1931. He had 2 sons and a daughter. He worked in the Friedman Bag Company. He died on 14 October, 1979.
Their occupations are listed as “trader”. They are able to read and write, their nationality is Russian and their race is Hebrew. Last permanent residence is Kopaigorod, the name and address of the nearest relative in country of origin is “father Srul Friedman”, ie Israel Friedman, in Kopaigorod, Podolsk. On the second page, go down again to lines 10 and 11 and you will see that they intend to go to San Francisco, Cal.
Their passages were paid by “self”. When asked if they have $50, they say “no”. When asked if they have been in US before, they say “no”.
In the column for name of friend or relative they are going to join they say “L. Abrams” at 520 Hayes St., San Francisco. They say “no” to the questions “Whether a polygamist, and whether an anarchist”. Condition of mental and physical heath is “good”. They are not deformed or crippled. Sam is 5’3″ and Sol is 5′ 4″, both have fair complexions, black hair and brown eyes, neither have marks of identification. Place of birth for Sam says Russia, Kopaigorod and for Sol it says Russia and something I can’t read…Zoporod?.
Also, you will see, on lines 6 and 7 that they are traveling with two friends from Kopaigorod, Boruch and Abram Melech Lechtus (Licht), ages 18 and 17, “clerks”, both from Kopaigarod, Podolsk, from their father Leish Lechtus, they are both going to San Francisco, tickets paid by self, no cash on hand, never been in US. They also are going to see L. Abrams at 520 Hayes St. in San Francisco. They are 5’3″, and 5’4″. Black hair and brown eyes, no scars or deformaties. Both born in Kopaigorod. The name of the ship was “S. S. Chemnitz“, sailing from Bremen on July 17, 1913.
Louis Abrams (1865-1948) was the sponsor for Sol and Sam in their journey from Kopaigorod to Galveston and finally to San Francisco. Louis came from Odessa, Russia and owned Russ House, a boarding house at 520 Hayes St. in San Francisco. He was married to Fannie Abrams and had 5 children.
The above audio tapes are a recording of Sam and Sol Friedman describing their journey to the United States. A downloadable pdf of the transcription is below.
A large collection of letters was found at the Friedman Bag Company by Irving Friedman after the death of Sam and Sol Friedman. I have been getting these translated so that we can all learn from them. All of the letters have been scanned, and you can read them by clicking on the links below and viewing them in Google Drive.
No attempt has been made to order the letters chronologically at this point. There are approximately seven batches of letters: YL1, YL2, YL3, Shulman Letters, Goldenberg Letters, Anna Licht Letters, and Clara Friedman Letters; there may be more coming. Most of these letters are addressed to Samuel Friedman and some to Solman.
This collection is a work in progress. I will include more as the translations become available. The bulk of the letters were translated by Ken Blady. Most of the Shulman letters were translated by Rifka Schiller. The original letters are scanned jpgs. The translations are in word documents. For many of the translation, I have made a second copy and annotated it, explaining who some of the people are.
