Solomon Bernstein

Rosenfeld: Mr. Bernstein, will you tell me please where you were born?
BERNSTEIN: Well, Mrs. Rosenfeld, it’s my pleasure to have you interview me, and I’ll tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I, Solomon Bernstein, was born in Odessa, Russia in 1886, June 22nd. In 1907, I was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army, and I volunteered because they asked me if I wanted to be a volunteer to be in the service in the North Pacific, [where] I spent 39 months, 1907 to 1910. After the service I returned to Russia, and in 1912, I got married in Odessa. In 1914, I left Russia and started to travel around.

Rosenfeld: Why did you decide to leave Russia, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN: When I was in the service I tried to remain in Vladivostok. It’s a fort, not a city, and they wouldn’t allow me because I was a Jew. I started to hate the country at that time, you know. I didn’t have any use any more for it, and I had seen what was going on.

Rosenfeld: Like what?
BERNSTEIN: Antisemitism. My commanding officer [asked] me to remain, and he would give me all the security I want. I told him (he was a Georgian), “If I can’t be as a free citizen, as free, you know, [as when] I enlisted to be here in the army, I’ll better leave for home.” And I [did]. This was in December 1910. In 1912 I got married, and in 1914 I decided to leave Russia.

Rosenfeld: What were conditions like for Jews in Odessa? Were conditions better for Jews in Odessa than they had been in Vladivostok?
BERNSTEIN: They were antisemitic. You couldn’t walk in the street, unless [you] carried a gun in [your] pocket. I [carried] a Smith-Wesson in my pocket any time I walked in the street. They used to stop you and say, “Oh, why did you swerve, why did you call [me] names?” You know, picking on you. So this was Russia, and it took me 21 days and one train to reach China.

Rosenfeld: Then where did you go from China? Or did you stay in China?
BERNSTEIN: Then I started to keep moving and went to Japan, and I spent time in Japan. I was in Korea, and then I went to Japan, and I left Japan in 1915. 

Rosenfeld: How long did it take you then, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN: It took me 3 weeks on one boat, 21 days to reach the United States.

Rosenfeld: And where did you land?
BERNSTEIN: I wound up in Seattle, Washington, on November 22nd, and that year they declared Prohibition, so the night of New Years was a terrific night. It was snowing. There was as much as five feet of snow.

Rosenfeld: In Seattle?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. When I came [off] the boat, the immigration officer asked me, “Bernstein, do you want to change your name while you are still on the boat?” And I said, “No, my name is going to remain Bernstein.” And that’s what it was. This was November the 22nd. And I start[ed] to look around for a job, and I got a job working in a cap factory, the Seattle Cap Company.

Rosenfeld: Had this been your trade? Were you a cap maker in Russia?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. Uniforms. I made nothing but uniform caps. Every cap in the world, I made it. In the Seattle Cap Company, especially, it was nothing but uniforms. I used to work six days [a week], Saturday the same as Monday. Oh, I got a lot of money, $8.00 a week.

Rosenfeld: For six days work. Did your wife come with you?
BERNSTEIN: No, my wife came a year later, 1916. She came on the same boat as me, [the] Seder Maroos. Seder means “the boat” and Maroos, the name. It is Japanese. She came in October 1916.

Rosenfeld: Did you have any children by then?
BERNSTEIN: Yes, we had our older daughter, Fannie Usher. Her husband had an operation just this week. I hope he’s all right.

Rosenfeld: I hope so. How old was Fannie when she came to Seattle?
BERNSTEIN: Three years [old].

Rosenfeld: Did you have any family or any landsmen in Seattle? Or people from Odessa that you had known?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, yes. Tessie was born in Seattle. Tessie Weinstein.

Rosenfeld: Oh, I see. I guess what I was asking, Mr. Bernstein – when you came, how did you happen to stay in Seattle? Did you know anybody in Seattle?
BERNSTEIN: No, I met some friends, you know, some [inaudible] – a family by the name of German. He was also in the same trade that I was, but this family is gone already a long time.

Rosenfeld: How long did you live in Seattle?
BERNSTEIN: Five years.

Rosenfeld:      Why did you leave Seattle?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, my wife didn’t feel so good down there. She took sick and she had to have an operation and we moved, you know, figuring a change, climate… A man from Portland by the name of Mr. Tonkon came down and talked me into com[ing] to Portland, and he offered me a good salary.

Rosenfeld: Were you going to work for him? What was the name of his company?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. Metropolitan Cap Company. It was Tonkon and Goldblatt. It was called the Metropolitan Cap Company.

Rosenfeld: Do you remember where they were located?
BERNSTEIN: On Second and Alder.

Rosenfeld: And what kind of work did you do there?
BERNSTEIN: The same thing, uniforms.

Rosenfeld: Was it a big place?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, there [were] about 10-12 people, but I quit them. They didn’t keep their word. They switched around and fiddled around, and I quit them and went to work for a cap company, Mr. Jacobs. Do you remember the Jacobs family?

Rosenfeld: Later there was another Jacobs family that was in the Oregon Woolen Mills.
BERNSTEIN: This was a different family.

Rosenfeld: A different family, then I don’t know.
BERNSTEIN: Oh, yes, a different family. I know that family very well, because I [did] business with them.

Rosenfeld: What was the name of this other company that Jacobs had, the one you worked for?
BERNSTEIN: He is dead a long time ago. His wife is still alive, Mrs. Jacobs. She stayed together with her sister, Mrs. Sugarman.

Rosenfeld: Oh yes, but what was the name of Mr. Jacobs’ company?
BERNSTEIN: Jacobs Cap Company.

Rosenfeld: Where was that, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN: I think they were on Fourth and Stark, in the Phoenix Building

Rosenfeld: How big a place was that?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, 5-10 people worked down there, a very nice place. One of Hirsches was interested in the firm. You know, from Hirsch-Weis, the clothing manufacturers. He just died recently. He was 90 years of age. All of the Hirsch family died out.

Rosenfeld: How long did you work then for Mr. Jacobs?
BERNSTEIN: I think I worked for two years.

Rosenfeld: What were your working conditions like? How many days a week did you work?
BERNSTEIN: Five days a week. In those days it was five days a week. I was treated very well by Jacobs, [but] in 1922 I started to work for myself.

Rosenfeld: And then from then on, until you retired, you worked in your own place?
BERNSTEIN: In 1922 until 1965, and my place of business was Second and Washington, the Crane Building.
 
Rosenfeld: Did you work alone, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN: Oh no, I employed five or six people all the time.

Rosenfeld: Did you see a lot of change in the cap industry from the time you started in Seattle until 1965?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, it was quite a change.

Rosenfeld: In what way?
BERNSTEIN: The younger generation went away from wearing hats and caps, you know, just wearing, like, sportswear, just wearing it for sport like baseball and things like this. 

Rosenfeld: Did you still make a lot of uniform caps?
BERNSTEIN: Yes. Similar to that, but it was civilian. Then I went I went to work with the Pendleton Woolen Mills.

Rosenfeld: When was that, when you worked for Pendleton? While you had your own place?
BERNSTEIN: I was with them for almost 20 years. 

Rosenfeld: Oh, really?
BERNSTEIN: Then the White Stag people – Pendleton and White Stag – because you couldn’t make a living from the local merchants. That’s what kept me up. ‘Til today, one of the firms like Pendleton Woolen Mills says, “Bernstein, if you are going in back to work, we’ll give you all the business.”

Rosenfeld: What kind of caps did you make for Pendleton?
BERNSTEIN: A sport cap, you know. They went to Los Angeles and they made samples, and I approved the samples. They are still making and selling quite a few caps in Los Angeles. They are very nice people, [as is] White Stag.

Rosenfeld: When you first came to Portland, where did you and your wife (and you had two children by the time you moved to Portland, two daughters) –  where did you first live?
BERNSTEIN: I lived on Hooker Street, right across from the library. Schwartz had a three-family house and     I lived in one of those. I lived there for five years.

Rosenfeld: Were there a lot of Jewish people in that neighborhood?
BERNSTEIN: Oh yes, the Jewish center. We had the Meade Street shul right across the street. Portland had, I think, about five synagogues at that time.

Rosenfeld: Which ones were they?
BERNSTEIN: Like First Avenue [Shul]. Then they had Meade Street Shul. Then they had what they called the Kazachka, you know. Then they had Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel.

Rosenfeld: Why did you happen to move to that particular place? 
BERNSTEIN: There wasn’t any place [else] you could rent a place.

Rosenfeld: Why, do you suppose? 
BERNSTEIN: I tried a lot of places. They wouldn’t allow [you] in with small youngsters, so I couldn’t help myself. I moved into the Schwartz [place], and I paid, I think, $22 a month rent. Then I moved [to] Fourth Street. I had already Edith.

Rosenfeld: That was your third daughter?
BERNSTEIN: The third daughter. Tessie was born in Seattle and Edith was born in Portland.

Rosenfeld: What was the neighborhood like when you first moved in? 
BERNSTEIN: Oh, it was very nice, [nice] neighbors. What’s his name… he used to be the shamus of First Street Shul… Labby. He had a son – a dentist – and one was an organizer for the ladies’ garment [union. It was a very nice family. And there was another one, you know, the Gellers family on First Avenue.  A very lovely family. I am still with them, very nice people. When there’s a meeting, Sadie Geller comes; she doesn’t know what to do for me. She hugs me.

Rosenfeld: You are longtime friends.
BERNSTEIN: Yes, we are longtime friends.

Rosenfeld: Did you [often] go to the Neighborhood House? When you first came to Portland, you lived very close. What was the Neighborhood House like in those days?
BERNSTEIN: It was a very nice outfit. Right across was a park. It was a beautiful place. Quite a few people used to came in for entertainment; they used to play basketball.

Rosenfeld: Besides basketball and swimming, what were some of the other things that you remember        going on there?
BERNSTEIN: It’s awfully hard to tell. You know, my wife, unfortunately, was all her life a sick person, and I had to work as [much as I could] to meet [my] obligations.

Rosenfeld: So you were busy with work and home a lot of the time? But you knew that there was a lot of activity at the Neighborhood House.
BERNSTEIN: There was quite a bit of activity. 

Rosenfeld: Did people get together to play cards? Did you do any of that?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, yes. There [were] activities like this, and then they had other entertainment down there. It was very nice.

Rosenfeld: Did you ever get together with other people, or did the men get together and talk? What kind of social life did the people have? 
BERNSTEIN: I was in business [downtown]. So I used to gather with [people there]. But the women folks, you know, Mrs. Bernstein had a group of women, [who] never missed every other week to gather together, even today. There’s a woman by the name of Mrs. Boxer. She used to come to our house for almost 40 years, every other week. They played cards. Mrs. Bernstein used to take two days to prepare food.

Rosenfeld: Was it a luncheon or a dinner?
BERNSTEIN: No, it was a night.

Rosenfeld: Oh, a dinner – food, refreshments. They played cards?
BERNSTEIN: They played cards and played bingo. 

Rosenfeld: With bingo cards? What kind of cards did they play?
BERNSTEIN: I don’t know. I even had to take them home. I had an old Ford; I enjoyed it.

Rosenfeld: You moved from there, from the first house, after –
BERNSTEIN: On Fourth Street. On the corner was Tom Stern, [he] had a garage, and I lived there, I think for about five years. Then I moved right across from [the] First Street Shul, on the corner. I think Perkel [now] has my house as a warehouse. You know Perkel; he peddles groceries and things like this. Yes, he has my house. From there I moved to the Eastside.

Rosenfeld: When you moved to Fourth Street, did you have any connection with any of the people in the neighborhood?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, yes. There was a family, Tom Stern. We were the of best friends and then we used to gather down there, every night, especially in the spring and the summer, we used to gather down there. We used to chew the rag until 10 or 11 o’clock.

Rosenfeld: Just the two of you or were there more?
BERNSTEIN: Oh, there [were] more. There was a group of four or five people. Then there was a dairy, I believe. On First and Grant. On Second and Grant, if I am not mistaken, there was the City Dairy. He was a gentile. But he was crazy. Then there was an Irishman, and we used to have –

Rosenfeld: So, the group was just not Jewish men – you and Tom Stern – but it was also some of the other people in the neighborhood, the man from the dairy and some of the others?
BERNSTEIN: Oh yes, they used to come. And from down there I moved to the Eastside.

Rosenfeld: And what year was that, Mr. Bernstein?
BERNSTEIN: I want to be correct. In 1930. Then I moved from one place, and then I moved to 13th and Thompson. I lived there for 35 years.

Rosenfeld: What made you decide to move to the Eastside?
BERNSTEIN: There [weren’t many places] on the Westside to live, so that’s what made me move. And then in 1924, I believe it was, when I bought my house. That’s right, on 13th and Thompson, and I lived there for 35 years.

Rosenfeld: That was a long time.
BERNSTEIN: The School Board bought up two blocks of houses from Thompson to Brazee, and I sold my house to them. They needed it for the school. They were very nice to me and that’s what made me come into the [Robison] Home with Mrs. Bernstein. She came two months ahead of me. The kids told me, “Dad, you must go in.” That’s when I came in [to the home].