Judith Solomon Cohen
American matriarch of Baltimore Maryland Jewish family
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Judith Solomon Cohen (December 21, 1766 – April 5, 1837) was the matriarch of one of the earliest Jewish families in Baltimore, Maryland.
Judith Solomon Cohen | |
|---|---|
Cohen in the 1830s | |
| Born | December 21, 1766 Bristol, England |
| Died | April 5, 1837 (aged 70) Baltimore, Maryland |
She married Israel I. Cohen, originally from Oberdorf Germany, on December 21, 1787, in England. The couple had emigrated to Richmond, Virginia, by 1784, where Israel worked temporarily as a constable.[1][2] He was one of the founders of the Congregation Beth Shalome as well as a subscriber for shares of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the United States of America.[3][2]
The couple had nine children: Joshua (1788-1788); Jacob Jr. (1789-1869); Solomon (b. 1791); Philip (1793-1852); Maria (1794-1834); Mendes (1796-1879); Benjamin (1797-1845); David (1800-1847); Joshua (1801-1870); and Edward (1802-1803).[4][1]
When Israel died on July 29, 1803, his house and belongings were auctioned off because at that time women could not own property.[1] Cohen moved her seven children to Baltimore, where she became a boarder of Shinah Solomon Etting.[5][6] Later her son Benjamin would marry Etting's daughter Kitty and the couple became part of Baltimore's elite social circle.[1]
In 1813, Cohen's sons founded Cohen's Lottery and Exchange. The lottery was very successful and the brothers opened five branch offices in other cities.[7] It published its own four-page newspaper, Cohen's Gazette and Lottery Register from 1814 until 1830, containing lottery as well as financial news.[7] In 1831, they opened Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. and Brothers Banking House.[8]
The Cohen family lived in a large house on North Charles Street where they kept kosher and held daily services.[9][10] In the 1850s, they were the sponsors of the short-lived Sephardic Congregation.[9][11]
Judith Solomon Cohen died in Baltimore on April 5, 1837. The family purchased a tract for her burial on Saratoga Street; it would be used for family burials until the 1970s, when the family was reinterred at Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.[9][12]