Barker Family

Ah, you still live still in the area!   Now I understand why you wouldn't want to mention anything bad about anyone :)  That is what has made me hesitant about writing my book about my relatives.   I've discovered some dubious history of some of my Barker lines, which the present descendants aren't aware of.   It's sad to see, because Jacob's father was killed in Lithuania in 1876, and that's the reason why Jacob and his siblings ended up in America.  When their father intervened in a fight between Jacob and a non-Jew, he was hit on the head and died.  Some of his children, didn't exactly live honorable lives.   Especially in hindsight, given what would have happened to their descendants, if they had stayed in Europe.    Maybe life for Russian Jews was not exactly easy in America, though.   Especially for a simple peddler.    I'm trying to understand the mindset of a peddler, to understand the actions of some of Jacob's brothers, when they managed to obtain some wealth.

Moses Barker started out as boxer,  as I'm sure you have read about.  For a while, he and his brother ran a fish store.    I found an article from 1924, which said that game wardens had entered the store, and cited them for selling fish out of season, and tried to confiscate their whole stock.   A fight broke out the brothers and the wardens.   I interviewed a 93 year old relative in 2013, who unfortunately has since passed away.  He remembered the incident, and it was the talk of the neighborhood, especially because the brothers got the better of the fight.  What the officials were really after, was that the brothers were running a numbers game in the back of the store.   My relative remembers that they used to pull him in to draw numbers for them.   I'm guessing it was some sort of lottery game?   The police were actually trying to shut down the store because of this, so came up with some trumped up charge.    What happened afterwards, though, I don't know!

When prohibition arrived, Moses because a muscle man for the bootleggers.  He ended up being present, when the head of the mob, located and assaulted a competitor bootlegger, with a gun.  After prohibition, the courts dismissed all the minor offenses that still existed for the bootleggers.  But they wanted to put the head of the mob away in prison.  They tried to get the competitor bootlegger to testify.  But he left Trenton, without a trace.  So then they tried to get Moses to testify.  He also left, for North Carolina.   And then a curious thing  happened.  Moses had a brother-in-law who died young, leaving 6 sons to fend for themselves.  Some of them ended up in North Carolina, with Moses.  According to my relative, Moses helped them out, with some of the money that he had made during prohibition.  Some of these nephews, would eventually build up a a very successful chain of successful furniture stores.  Their descendants became big Jewish donors in their area.  So in away, Moses did change his life around.   He eventually did return to New Jersey, and start a family.  I have to go research them, to see what became of them!

Btw, here's a great story about Jacob's 2nd wife Yetta, in the Trenton Times.   She ran a pottery store, and got into a "cat fight", with a woman who was a competitor.   I don't know whether I can believe the details of story in the newspaper, but they literally were beating each other up, pulling hair and ripping clothes. The fight was settled, when Yetta threw a pot at the woman, knocking her out. :) - Mark

Mark London mrl@psfc.mit.edu

Dear Mr. Finkle -  I just received a copy of your newly published book

on Trenton's Jews, a book that was long needed.   If you do a 2nd

printing, can you correct a mistake on one of my Barker relatives that

lived there?   On the page that mentions first Russian Jews that moved

there, you state that "Jacob Barker" and his wife and 7 children, moved

there in 1881.   It was actually Jacob's MOTHER that moved there, and

she was the one that had 7 children. And she was a widow.

When Jacob's father was killed in 1876 in Lithuania, Jacob's mother "Czerne", sent Jacob to America, in 1878.  Two other brothers came later, and then in 1882, Their  mother and 3 younger siblings, arrived in 1882 (my great grandmother stayed behind, for another 20 years).

The first mention of Jacob in America, occurs in the 1885 Trenton

city directory.   A relative of mine, who has been an expert genealogy

for many decades, has tried to find mention of Jacob, in the records of

the New Jersey Archives in Trenton, but has found none.   I've also

tried myself.  That is why you mentioning Jacob being in Trenton in 1881, is a somewhat magnified mistake. However, I'm glad you mentioned one of my Barker relatives to begin with!

I was struck by the synchronicity that you mention that there 2 Turkish

bath houses.   Because I was just researching the one that James Barker

helped to build.  In fact, I only found evidence that his was the only

one in the Jewish section.   He built his on 105-107 Union St., with

Hyman Movsovich.   According to the August 1900 Trenton Times, they

started building it in place of a "bath house" that was in the back of the "Union St Synagogue".  The synagogue had been torn down, to be replaced by a new synagogue. I've often wondered if the "bath house" was really a mikvah, considering that it was in the back of a synagogue.

In any event, the Turkish bath house was completed in May 1901. But after constant advertisements for it, they soon disappeared. James Barker and Hyman Movsovich would soon go to other businesses. In other words, that don't appear to have been a success.

There was a Turkish bath house that was built on 132 N. Warren St, in

late 1906, by non-Jewish businessmen.   But in order for them to stay in

business, they ending up creating rooms for rent.

Mark London

Natick, MA