The Drachmans of Arizona
by Floyd S. Fierman
From: American Jewish Archives* Vol. XVI, No. 4 (November 1964), 135-160
Arizona Jalapeños
The evening of March 10, 1896,1 was a gala occasion in El Paso. Two of the daughters of Isidor Elkan Solomon,2 of Solomonville, Arizona, were about to be married at the Vendome Hotel. The Solomon family had probably come to El Paso for the weddings, instead of celebrating them nearer home, at Phoenix or Tucson, because most of their family was located in the El Paso area. Isidor's brother Adolph was in business there, while the Freudenthals, Isidor's in-laws, were situated in the environs of Las Cruces, New Mexico, only forty miles away.
The festivities had a significance beyond that of gracing the social life of El Paso, "a city Of 15,000 inhabitants and 25 saloons." They marked a double wedding, unusual in itself, and they were of particular Jewish interest. Eva Solomon was to be wed to Julius Wetzler, of Holbrook, Arizona, and Rosa A. Solomon was to exchange nuptial vows with another Arizonian, David Goldberg, of Phoenix. The first ceremony took place at eight o'clock in the evening; the second, at nine. There were two officiants, Judge Frank Hunter, to satisfy the requirements of the civil law, and Samuel H. Drachman, of Tucson, to perform the Jewish religious portion of the ritual, "in which the bride and groom pledge each other in wine."
There was no rabbi in this section of the Southwest in 1896. Neither Santa Fe, Tucson, nor Phoenix had a rabbi, and El Paso did not call a rabbi until 1899. Religious occasions requiring Hebrew prayers fell, in a rabbi's absence, upon the shoulders of a learned layman or at least of a man familiar with the ritual. Such a person was Samuel Drachman. In addition to being the uncle of David Goldberg, one of the grooms, he obviously had some familiarity with Jewish religious practice.
The Drachmans had migrated to the Southwest during the last half of the nineteenth century. Samuel and his brother Philip, his two brothers-in-law Hyman Goldberg and Sam Katzenstein, and Hyman's brother Isaac, were all closely identified with the growth of the Arizona Territory. These men were not flat tortillas; they were spicy jalapeños giving flavor to the frontier. While they never personally accumulated the wealth that was potentially attainable, their efforts as prospectors were sifted on the dry washer to the advantage of the Territory. As merchants, they allowed only the small coins to remain in their cash drawers; the paper bills were blown about to the welfare of the people. Who can measure their contributions to the economic and political development of what was then a backward stretch of land?
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