Our patriarch Lewin Jacob Braunhart had a long and illustrious career.  He was honored by his colleagues and friends along with his wife Wilhelmine Zadek Braunhart on the occasion of their 65th wedding anniversary, commonly known as the iron anniversary.

Below is a newspaper article written in the Die Deborah newspaper, which was the most important German-Jewish newspaper in its time.  The newspaper existed from 1855 through 1902.

This article about the Braunharts was published in January, 1901.

An English translation has just been done. In essence, the article states:

"The former teacher Braunhart, born on the 4th of February 1806 in Schubin, celebrated with his wife, who is  only a few years younger,  the rare event of the iron wedding anniversary. Friends and well-wishers formed a committee to organize a tribute for the couple. The evening of  the ceremony to honor their marriage was intended to be as nice as possible, as the couple themselves live a rather simple life. Mr. Braunhart, who initially wanted to become a rabbi, did study in Berlin for some time, where he enjoyed classes with Bunz, Eduard Gans and Heinrich Heine as a student of the Institute for the Study of Culture and Science. After some years in London, Liverpool and Bordeaux, he returned to his homeland and city of his birth, graduated as a teacher, and started to work at the Jewish school of Schubin in the year 1835. For his 50th jubilee as a teacher, he was awarded the royal eagle medal. The old man is relatively healthy, despite being completely blind for eight years." 

With complete reverence and respect for the participants in this wedding, especially Frieda Braunhart and Salo Brunn, the bride and groom, I have to say that this is quite the surreal wedding photo.  The photo was taken at their wedding in Berlin, Germany on May 12, 1926.

It reminds me somewhat if one can use their imagination, of the album cover for the Beatles' famous Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It almost looks like some of the photos were pasted in, as in the album cover.

Hopefully some of the activities of the day created some happiness, as the participants do not look like they are having a great time.

So let's identify who we can.  The bride is easy to pinpoint and she is of course Frieda Braunhart.  Next to her is her groom Salo Brunn. All the way to the left is the infant Horst Braunhart, in the lap of his mother Else Schmalenbach Braunhart, and behind Else her husband Philipp Braunhart.   In the middle of the photo (next to the bald man with his eyes closed, and behind the bride), is Frieda's older sister Selma Braunhart.  The bald man with his eyes closed is Frieda's brother Carl Braunhart, and next to him is his wife Hedwig Bukofzer Braunhart.  Directly behind Hedwig is another of Frieda's brothers, Theodor Braunhart.  The gentleman who is to the left of Selma Braunhart is Salo's brother Leo Brunn, and the gentleman way to the right who also has a bowtie on is another of Salo's brothers, Maurice Brunn.  Finally, next to Salo is his mother Frieda Brunn.


With appreciation to Miriam Brunn Matranga for providing this photo, and to Stuart Matranga for scanning it.

Isidore went to his room and didn't reappear to the family for three days. At that time in the late 1940s he was living with his daughter Mynette Heyman and her husband Henry Pound and their son Clyde.  When Isidor came out of his room with a huge grin on his face, he displayed for the family a necktie with an exchangeable knot that could be easily changed out as the wearer wished.  The clip-on tie was invented in Clinton, Iowa in 1928 - but this may have been the first exchangeable knot-based tie.  Who knows?

Isidore Heyman was my great grandfather.  He was the only one of my great grandparents who was alive when I was.  I do not remember him at all, except for a vague memory that he smelled funny.  He died when I was only eight years old.

For some reason, for the past few years as I have been researching his history and stories, I have come to call him "Izzie," so as a nickname that he probably either never heard or didn't like, I will use that moniker fondly throughout his story.

Izzie was born in Posen, Prussia in 1866.  Unfortunately I have not been able to pinpoint the exact city or town of his birth.  According to a marriage record, his father's name was Hyman Heyman, and his mother was Caroline.  The marriage record states that her last name was "Bufsky" but I believe that it was a phonetic spelling.  For some reason, yet to be proven, I suspect that her last name was Jacobowsky.

He immigrated to America in 1882 as a 16 year old young man. There is a very fuzzy story that his family were furriers, but there is no evidence of that as yet.

Ernestine Bernstein became Izzie's wife on July 19, 1893 in Manhattan.   Ernestine was the very first female Braunhart to have immigrated to America.  She did so at age 17, unaccompanied and unmet at the Port of New York in 1888.

Ernestine and Izzie had six children - Robert, for whom my father is named, died as a youngster from tuberculosis prior to 1910.  Celia Heyman, my grandmother, was the oldest, followed by Martha, Arthur, Leo and Wilhelmine (who changed her name to Mynette because she hated her first name - and wasn't too fond of Minnie either).

Izzie was a very creative sort and had many interesting occupations. Early in his life in New York, he was a pocketbook manufacturer and registered a patent in 1887 for a leather coin purse. Throughout his life he was involved with leather goods manufacturing.

He sued the Eastern Brewing Company in 1898. He drove their horse drawn "beer wagons," and stopped another beer wagon with its horses out of control from running over a family. He was dragged for quite a distance and suffered many scratches and scrapes, as well as needing surgery on his skull.  He carried the large indent in his head for the rest of his life. 

Various other occupations included owning and operating a fish market, as well as operating a nickelodeon theater, where his daughter played the piano during the screening of silent movies.

The Heyman family moved to Oakland, California in 1910.  Ernestine's mother, Sara Braunhart Bernstein, and Ernestine's brother Max had previously moved to California in 1906, shortly after the death of Samuel Braunhart, the politician.

Izzie owned a pool hall initially after moving to California, and then his creativity took over.  He invented the metal stairs that came out of the trains as steps for passengers to embark or disembark. Unfortunately, he was not a great businessman and after showing his invention to Southern Pacific, they promptly had someone else manufacture them, and Izzie received nothing.

Back to his roots, Izzie formed the Bay Cities Bag Company.  He invented the valise hinge that was used in doctor's bags, and was also used for many years in men's grooming kits.  Below is a photo of the hinge, patented in 1921:

Izzie ran the Bay Cities Bag Company for nearly two decades, manufacturing leather purses, Boston bags and other miscellaneous leather items.  He retired in the late 1930s and his leather goods business soon became a new business founded by his son-in-law Mervyn Marks.  That company, California Optical Leather Company, existed for another 40 years under the tutelage of my grandfather Mervyn and his two sons, Robert and Merv Jr.

Izzie's sweet wife Ernestine died in 1944.  Izzie became an excellent whist card player and probably spent the last 11 years of his life dreaming up new ideas.