A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

times every week, and assist the professors in watching over their moral, religious conduct, but also togive them weekly several lessons, free of charge, in the religion and literature of Israel, and offer a goodchance to those who desire to study biblical or rabbinical literature. Thus these institutes might offer atpresent all the advantages of colleges of our own, until we shall be enabled to establish a seat of learningunder our own control.” 34His sons graduated for Farmers’ College, becoming a lawyer and a doctor. His later children weretaught in a school-house on the property.He established his first college on West 6th Street in 1875 which grew into becoming the HebrewUnion College. Wise founded the American Israelite newspaper which is still published. It is the oldestJewish American newspaper continuously published in America. He also published Die Deborah inGerman.For 46 years he was the editor of the American Israelite. He wrote eleven novels in English andsixteen in German. In 1870 he opened in prayer the U. S. Senate. For eighteen years he was a director andtrustee of the University of Cincinnati. He led the B’nai Yeshurun congregation for 46 years, and married4,000 couples. As a president and a professor he led the Hebrew Union College until his death in 1900.His body lay in state at the Plum Street Temple and his bier was passed by thousands of mourners.At his request, he had a plain pine coffin lined with muslin. He even specified that he was to have a tokenfloral arrangement in violets and smilax. In Cincinnati, school was canceled and the wholesale and retailstores closed in his honor. He was buried in the United Jewish Cemetery in Walnut Hills.Some may remember the newspaper columnist Imogene (Iphigene) (Molony) Bettman, who was oneof his grandchildren. She was married to Judge Gilbert Bettman, who was twice the Ohio attorneygeneral, a vice-mayor of Cincinnati and a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court when he died in 1942. Theirson is Judge Gilbert Bettman, Jr. of the Court of Common Pleas. Imogene married Gilbert Bettman underthe chestnut trees at Floral.After his death, Floral was purchased for Adolph Ochs for his wife and the Molony family livedthere. Imogene Bettman recalled; “An arrowhead plowed up created visions of lurking Indians.Revolutionary soldiers buried in the little cemetery at the corner brought that closer. My mother 35 toldstories of Union soldiers encamped across the road and of fearful preparations against Morgan’s Raiders.The cattle were to be driven into the woods and silver hung down the well. Morgan missed by two miles.Two incidents shook the farm’s feeling of peace and isolation. We had thought that Vance, the hiredman, was unduly timid when he refused to go off the place. But one summer twilight when my motherand I went for a stroll in the back pasture we saw a gathering in the field beyond. There, in full-sheetedregalia, was assembled the Ku Klux Klan, waiting for dark to light its fiery cross. As we stared over thefence one sheet detached itself and told us to move on. It was our pasture, but we moved.The second shock came toward the end of the Prohibition era. My mother lived alone in the bighouse now, and North College Hill’s sheriff kept a special eye on her. ‘Don’t be afraid, Mrs. Molony,’ hesaid one day, ‘you just call old Pete and he’ll be right over.’Next night Peter Dumele went to investigate a light in a supposed drugstore across the road. As heopened the door bootleggers shot him dead.” 36The Molony family was followed by that of Wise’s granddaughter, Alice Bernheim Weil and herhusband Norton Weil. Norton was a horticulturalist and brought the farm back to life. By 1968 the last ofthe Wise family had left. The Rouse Company purchased the land, the farm torn down, and the buildingsat Hamilton and Goodman Avenues took their place.One of his pleasures was sitting under his trees. Today, there is a small park in his memory onGoodman Avenue containing a bench between his favorite trees. The wall was constructed of bricks34 Op. cit.35 Helen Wise36 Cincinnati Enquirer, January 17, 1971.59