March’s Artifact of the Month is a small wooden box with an
unfortunately violent history. The box belonged
to Judah Nachemsohn, a Jewish peddler who traveled from Waco, Texas to the
Bellevue area in April of 1871. It contained eyeglasses and samples of various
lenses, including a pair of eyeglasses from Carter Opticians, located at 322
Texas Street in Shreveport. This little
box has quite the story behind it.
On April 19, 1871, F.M. Braden found an abandoned wagon in
the woods about 2 miles from Bellevue, near the Minden Road. Braden reported his discovery to Richard
Welcome Turner and the two men returned to the wagon the following day, where
they soon realized a crime had been committed.
Blood was on the wagon and several trunks were broken open. They followed the wagon tracks and came upon a
man’s body. Several clues hinted at the
man’s identity: a bill of sale for a
wagon and two horses from H. Kruse of Waco, TX to John Nachemsohn was found in
the man’s coat pocket, a pair of pants in the wagon had the same name, and an
accounting cash book in the wagon had “Nachemsohn, Silverstein & Co”
written on the cover. According to the
account book, the murdered man carried about four thousand dollars. The Bossier Banner notes that “it is evident
the deceased was a peddler, and was killed for his money.”
The Jewish community in Shreveport took Nachemsohn’s body
for burial, and correctly identified the man as Judah Nachemsohn, not John. He
was an immigrant from Hamburg. News from
the Waco Register ran in the May 20,
1871 issue of the Bossier Banner:
“Mr. Nachemsohn left [Waco] about six weeks ago; after converting all his
effects into cash, and took with him, as a companion, a young man named Lamb.
He had about him between three and four thousand dollars in specie, and
dissolved his copartnership with Messrs. Silverstein & Ettleson (both
gentlemen now in [Waco]), and left with the intention of visiting his home in
Europe. Mr. Nachemsohn was a clever
gentleman, and a Mason and Odd Fellow in good standing. Young Lamb, his companion from this place, has
not been heard of since he left.”
This is an intriguing mystery and it seems like police had
several leads to follow, but that newspaper article was the last mention of
Nachemsohn’s murder. Just like today,
the news cycle continued and on May 27, the Fillmore shooting of James
McClanahan and James Wooley by D. Charles Mims captured the attention of the Bossier Banner. Nachemsohn’s unsolved murder was “old news” and
Banner readers moved on to the next
headlines. No arrests were ever made and
the matter remains a mystery to this day.
This unassuming wooden box tells the story of many men like
Judah Nachemsohn. Hundreds of Jewish
peddlers worked throughout the South, traveling through small towns and
bringing their goods to the rural population. Peddlers generally traveled alone and carried
cash, so stories of robberies and murders abound.
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