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Note NI0538 Index
Minnie was born Menucha or Menuche to Chaim-Movsha Lifschitz and Rivka Suponitsky in Priluki, in what is now Ukraine. Priluki is near the village of Ichnya were she settled with her husband and his family.
Minnie is listed on the Statendam ship's manifest as Menuche Tatarski. She arrived at Ellis Island on Feb. 13, 1906 with her husband and two of their children, Solomon and Reva. The ship had sailed from Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands. Her ethnicity is listed as Russia, Hebrew; place of residence is Bialystok, age 46.
Minnie died at the home of her daughter, Sophie Bein. Her grave stone lists her as Minnie Tarson. Waldheim cemetery records state that Minnie was aged 71 at her death in 1926.
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Note NI0539 Index
Leroy's last name was originally Rutenberg (pronounced Rootenberg). He came over from Russia when he was about 12 or 13 in 1899 with his mother, sister Esther and brother Joe, and they traveled to America in steerage. Leroy's father had come eight years earlier in 1891. (I haven't yet found records on when brother Max immigrated.) Milt said Leroy told him his family was highly educated, city people, not from a small village. Leroy told his son Milt about the pogroms in Russia that made it necessary for his family to emigrate. Leroy told of seeing men (soldiers or Cossacks?) on horseback riding through the streets of their town armed with sabers and whips killing people and whipping people. Leroy came from a highly educated family, maybe in the banking or financial industry.
In the 1910 census, he lived at home with his parents and his brother Joe in Dayton, Ohio. He worked then as a cleaner/presser. He then moved to Chicago, and Leroy started as a piece cutter in the garment industry. Milt thinks he then went on to be a tailor. He worked at the 12th Street department store in Chicago, one of the two big department stores in the city at that time. He met his future wife, Rose Kessler there and they married in 1913. She was a saleswoman at the 12th street department store. They lived at the home of his father-in-law, Morris Kessler in an apartment in the 3-story building that also housed Morris' butcher shop. Both Milt and Irving were born there at 1255 S. Morgan St. about a half block from Maxwell. They lived there until at least 1923 and Leroy is listed in the city directory as a clerk or salesman.
During the twenties when LeRoy couldn't find work, his brother Joe (who worked for Al Capone) would give Leroy an address to deliver a gallon jug of "alkie" or pure grain alcohol to be cut down to whiskey. During the depression, he found work managing a department store in Galesburg, IL that was part of a NY chain of stores. After 2 years in Galesburg, he was transferred to manage a department store in Sandusky, OH where Milt finished high school. Milt was getting into fights at school over people taunting him about his name, calling him Rutabaga. Milt convinced his father to change the family name, adding a t to make Ruttenberg.
Leroy later joined his brother-in-law Jack Kolko, as a salesman for the salvage from Speedway Wrecking Co. He passed away after celebrating 60 years of marriage with Rose.
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Note NI0540 Index
Rose met her husband Leroy when they were both working at the 12th Street Department store in Chicago. She was a saleswoman there. She also taught Sunday school.
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Note NI0541 Index
Morris Kessler was born in Russia bet. 1869 -1872. He immigrated to the US in 1885 when he would have been about 13 or 14. It's unknown if he came with his family or alone.
Morris and his wife Rebecca were married on Nov. 21, 1890 by Rabbi Lesser of the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Ubnei Jacob in Chicago. They are listed on the application as Moses Kassel, age 22 and Beccie Kaufman, age 18.
For over 10 years until about 1910 Morris had a meat market at 403 Maxwell St. in Chicago and used the name Moses Kessler. He had a kosher butcher shop named Kessler's at 1255 S. Morgan about half a block from Maxwell Street in Chicago from about 1911 until the mid 1920's. It was a three-flat building and the butcher shop was on the first floor. The chickens, ducks and geese were kept in the dirt-floor basement of the building. Milt's job as a child was to take the live fowl down to the ritual slaughterer a block or so away and then return with them to be cleaned for the customers. He got a nickel a week. In Milt Ruttenberg's early childhood, there was a small apartment behind the shop where Morris' daughter Jeannette lived with her husband Sam Kahn. Morris and Rebecca lived on the second floor with Anne and her husband Sam Fleischman. Anne and her mother Rebecca were very close. Milt's family lived on the third floor.
Morris died at home of cardiac failure after having stomach cancer for about a year. His death certificate states that he had been in the US for 40 years. Rebecca attended Milt's high school graduation. She took the train there by herself.