NOTES ON THE SAMUEL KAUFMAN FAMILY
My father was very anxious to have his family out of Brooklyn as he had a sick daughter named Anna. He went to the mountains looking for a farm to buy. He did not like the schools there. He wanted to find a place that had a school for his five daughters, (my parents had seven daughters).
A friend told my father about Toms River, the town with 800 people and one policeman. He came to Toms River and liked the high school. My two older sisters attended the high school.
My father bought the "Wills" farm on the Old Freehold Road, a farm of 52 acres, which he farmed. He was the first Jewish farmer in Toms River. He came on March 19, 1910. He raised many crops; corn, wheat, potatoes and peanuts. He also had cows. He won many prizes for his vegetables in Grover's store on Main Street.
My family was the first to have chickens on his farm. We had the first hand incubator. The eggs were turned by hand, daily in this type of incubator. Because of his interest in both Palestine (now Israel) and chickens, he arranged to send White Leghorns to Israel. For many years he worked for Israel with Mr. Friedman, Mr. Sachs and Mr. Schein.
The younger girls attended a one room school on old Freehold Road called the Gowdy School; eight classes in one room. It was next to the Goldman farm. There was one teacher, Mrs. Goble. My father took us out of this school after one year. We five girls then drove to Toms River with a horse and wagon. My sister Henrietta did the driving as she was the oldest (when she graduated High School, there were eight in her class).
Henrietta and my sister Rose attended school at Trenton Teachers' School and became teacher. Later, when sister Henrietta married Mr. J. Samuelson, she was the first Jewish teacher in the Toms River School. She taught sixth and seventh grades.
We lived on the farm for 10 years. My father worked very hard with Mr. Mazur of the Jewish Agricultural Society to help get the Jews out of the sweat-shops of Brooklyn and New York and onto farms .
My father, Samuel Kaufman, was a man who could not read or write. He was a very successful man. He was a builder in Brooklyn. He loved the land and he was a great farmer. He was always ready to help anyone he felt needed help.
He and my mother, Roslie gave the land for the Jewish Community Center. They felt that the Jews who were coming to Toms River would need a place to meet. Mr. Jacob Wexler built the building.
After 10 years my father sold the farm to the Cohen Brothers and my father bought the Murray Feed Co. on Water Street. Mr. Samuelson, with my father, ran that feed company, which later became the United Feed Co. After the store on Water Street had a fire, a new building was built near the railroad on Flint Road.
When we moved to Toms River we thought we were going to the end of the world. Family and friends came to bid my parents "Good-bye" and just sat there and cried I can remember that well.
The house on the farm did not please my father, who was a builder. He would not let us move into the house as it was. He wanted us to have the comfort that we had in Brooklyn. There
was a hotel called the Kessler Hotel on Old Freehold Road near our farm. We all stayed there until the house was finished with heat and a bathroom. Town people would ride out to see the house. In those days there were no bathrooms or steam heat in farm houses. When we sold the farm we moved to Highland Parkway.
When my sister Anne became very ill, my mother and younger sister Sylvia went to live in Tucson, Arizona. My mother would come home for awhile and then return. Sylvia remained with Anne and still lives there. My sister died there and is buried in Lakewood. My sister Rose was a teacher. She was teaching in Newark, got the flu, was ill for a very short while and died. She is buried in Lakewood.
My sister Henrietta helped run the United Feed Co. She married Mr. Samuelson and had one child, Rose Leslye, who is now in California with her two daughters. Henrietta died and is buried in the Toms River Jewish Community Center Cemetery.
My father retired and spent his winters in Daytona, Florida after my mother died. (She is buried in Lakewood). Later on my father made his home in Daytona Beach. When he died he was living with me. He is buried in the Toms River Jewish Community Cemetery. He was a great man, he did so much the building of Toms River. He owned the Park and Tilford Farms in Laurelton. He built farms there and sold them.
I was the only one of his daughters who gave him three grandsons and a granddaughters. He loved them all: Norman, George, Dick and Anne, and of course, my niece Rose Leslye.
I can assure you that I have not written you half the things my father did for people, putting them in business. Most of those people are gone now.
He never received any awards, medals . . . He never asked for anything from anyone. I will always love him and think of him as a great human being, always ready to help. He sent a boy in Israel through college although he never knew the boy.
He was not a religious man, but he believed in Israel and always told me, "Work for our Jewish people and also help others." He was great.
Lillian Kushinsky