Old City Cemetery - Rockdale

Temple Daily Telegram

Sunday, May 27, 2001

Historians, descendants rediscover Jewish cemetery

Houston genealogist working with translator in Israel to interpret symbols found on Rockdale markers

By JEANNE WILLIAMS

ROCKDALE -Since 1939, the Jewish Cemetery of . Rockdale has slumbered peacefully in the shade of this town's history.

Sequestered in a dark, tree covered corner of a city block housing the Old City Cemetery on South Main Street, the Jewish Cemetery of Rockdale is being rediscovered by genealogists, historians,- and descendants of Jewish pioneers to Milam County, some of whom reside in Israel.

Headstone carvings in Hebrew characterize the heritage of Jewish settlers who chose the new railroad town of Rockdale, circa-1874, as their home in the late 19th Century. The Jewish Cemetery is fenced off from its neighbor, the city cemetery.

"It is important to note that the early grave markers, pre-1900 are marble and the Hebrew carving was all done by hand," said Lynna Kay Shuffield, a genealogist from Houston.

"Of course, they were originally white, but are now - stained with time and mold. It took a very skilled carver to make these markers with , Hebrew and English lettering."

Ms. Shuffield is working with a translator in Israel to decipher etchings, in an effort to gather more information on family histories from the markers. While most of the 19 graves of the cemetery have Hebrew carvings, the headstone of Jacob “John” Kestenbaum has writing in Yiddish, she said.

Ms. Shuffield, whose family tree is rooted in Milam County, began compiling a history of the cemetery to obtain its designation as a Texas Historical Cemetery with the Texas Historical Commission.

Through Internet contacts, Ms. Shuffield learned that the research is invaluable to descendents of Jewish residents of early Rockdale.

For example, descendents of Henry Goldsticker - a native of Breslan, Prussia, who was a retail grocer in Rockdale - had no information on their forebears, until contacted by Ms. Shuffield.

Edward Krool, of Zichron Yaakov, Israel, descendent of Rockdale Jewish pioneers Theodore Krohn and Meyer Crown, through an e-mail interview, commended Ms. Shuffield for her research

Mrs. Shuffield; who is writing a book on U.S. soldiers who died in wars during the 20th Century, is a crusader for historical preservation, and is pursuing historical designations for several pioneer cemeteries in Milam County, including the Hurt Cemetery south of Milano.

The Hebrew Benevolent Society established the Jewish Cemetery of Rockdale in 1878., though Rockdale had neither a Jewish Temple nor synagogue. The closest synagogue was in Brenham or Waco. They did, however have a Hebrew school, Ms. Shuffield said.

The last burial was recorded in 1939, she said. Surnames of Jewish pioneers buried in the cemetery include Block, Cohen, Cohn, Collins, Crown, Emsheimer, Goldsticker, Kestenbaum, Loewenstein, Malsch, Philipson, Rosenfield, and Steinburg.

The Goldsticker family, based in the Dallas area, learned through Ms. Shuffield that three of their Texas ancestors were buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Rockdale -vital family history information lost to them by the passage of time and misplaced records, she said.

One descendent, Daniel Goldsticker, 12, of Dallas, as part of his Bar Mitzvah, has undertaken a project to honor his two forebears. Henry Goldsticker, and his son George Goldsticker, both of whom are interred in the Jewish .Cemetery of Rockdale.

The youth's Mitzvah Project will take place at 10 a.m., I Saturday, June 2, at the cemetery. The Bar Mitzvah will take place Saturday, Oct. 27, at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas.

"A Mitzvah Project is 'a good deed for the community' and a Mitzvah honoring the dead is particularly special because it is a deed that 'C8n never be repaid," Ms. Shuffield said.

In addition to the Goldsticker family, Saturday's Mitzvah Project will involve volunteers and members of the Milam County Genealogical Society.

The workday will aid in the process of getting a historical marker, she said.

"Once we get the grave markers cleaned and photographed, all we need to do is submit the application," Ms. Shuffield said.

The Jewish Cemetery of Rockdale is tied to a tragic chapter in the town's early history. Isaac Crown, 30, a partner in the Rockdale company, I. Baum & Co., was among 11 people who perished in the June 4, 1888 fire of the Mundine Hotel, which stood on the corner of Main Street and Milam Avenue, where McVoy’s Grocery & Feed operated for many years.

Across the railroad tracks and a short distance down a quiet street is the Jewish Cemetery of Rockdale, where encircled in a rusty wrought iron fence and “sacred to the memory" of Isaac Crown is a grave shaded by the branches of ancient trees, its upright stone and etchings tarnished by more than a century of time and seasons.