summer 2004 newsletter - Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina

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PAGE 4JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINAMorris Rothman,Oakland, California, 1915“We went to court about it. The judge says tome, ‘You know what happens to little boys who tell lies?’I said, ‘Yes, they go to hell. The devil gets them.’” YoungAl testified and the judge awarded my grandfather sixdollars—one for each pig. “We won!” my aunt chortledat age 100. “We won!”Amazingly, they did. On the word of a child. Thechild of Jewish outsiders and socialists. Did the neighborscheer, or did they resent it? The Aiken library held no clue.What I did find was: “Aiken Colony Is a Success,” AikenJournal, August 13, 1907. “Happyville colony isremarkable. . . .” Notices proudly invited the public topatronize the new cotton gin and saw mill.A year later, it was over.Ida’s explanation: “My father worked dawn todusk behind a plow. He wanted to prove they couldmake a go of it. The others dressed up and went to town.It made him so mad.”Shankman blames bad weather, internal dissension,lack of skills, poor soil, debt. And he says that intellectuals,Al Rothman in his World War Iarmy uniform, 1919.Rothman served in France.Ida (Arline) Rothman Knowltonand her mother Bertha Rothman,Oakland, California, 1937who staged Yiddish plays and had Tolstoy in their library,“would have longed for a richer cultural and social life.” 5Nowhere did I read that treating blacks as equals led to aboycott of the colony’s goods. But then, no colonists wereinterviewed—none stayed to tell the tale.Happyville didn’t last long, but “failure” seems thewrong word.1Interview of Al Rothman, 1982, recorded by CarolMorrison, daughter of Al’s sister, Sara RothmanRosenblatt.2Ida (Arline) Knowlton (1902–2003).3Arnold Shankman, “Happyville, the Forgotten Colony,”American Jewish Archives 30 (April 1978): 3–19.4Author of From Selma to Sorrow, The Life and Deathof Viola Liuzzo (Athens: University of Georgia Press,1998).5Shankman, 19.At the Russiancolony in Aiken
SUMMER 2004 VOLUME IX - NUMBER 2PAGE 5A Brief History of the ColonyIn December 1905, ten families of Russian-Jewishimmigrants left New York City’s tenements to settle anagricultural colony near the village of Montmorenci in AikenCounty. They were answering an invitation published bySouth Carolina’s Department of Agriculture, Commerce andImmigration and translated into Yiddish, to come and buy“very fertile land” to be had “very cheaply.” Desperate forworkers to till large tracts of land abandoned during the CivilWar, state officials decided that industrious EasternEuropeans would save its economy. The immigrants calledthe colony Happyville. It lasted less than three years.E. J. Watson, a Columbia newspaperman active inthe Chamber of Commerce, was hired to oversee theprogram. In New York, he enlisted Charles Weintraub, anidealist who had been a piano tuner in Russia. Weintraubwas all enthusiasm. He purchased a 2,200-acre tract, sevenmiles from Aiken, forming the Incorporative FarmingAssociation, and sold shares to his friends—socialists andintellectuals like himself. The land was poor, mostly forest,but had a stream, livestock, farm implements, and a fewbuildings. Soon the colonists were felling trees for lumberand making plans for a cotton gin and sawmill. More peoplecame, eventually totaling around 50.The weather the first year was terrible. A latefrost damaged the cotton plants; heavy rains destroyedthem. But the colonists’ spirits were good. The secondyear, the weather cooperated and they were prospering.A school for their children opened. The public wasinvited to patronize their new ginnery and sawmill,powered by a 36-inch turbine using stream water. Thesmall Jewish community in Aiken welcomed thecolonists in spite of political and religious differences.The local paper pronounced Happyville an unqualifiedsuccess.But by the middle of 1908, it was over. Manyproblems contributed: another harsh winter, heavy debt,lack of farming knowledge, internal dissension, and lackof patronage for their gin and mill. A rival ginnery wasbeing built by nearby farmers. The colony auctioned offits land and equipment. The colonists—who had losttheir money and hopes—left. Happyville was gone,leaving no trace.Photo credits: Portraits courtesy of Marcia Savin.Landscape scenes courtesy of Winthrop UniversityArchives.Scene at the Aiken colonyMarcia Savin is an author and playwright. Her children’sbook, The Moon Bridge (Scholastic) deals with the challengeof prejudice to a friendship of two fifth-graders, oneJapanese-American, during World War II. It is used inschools throughout the country. She lives in Brooklyn,New York. Anyone with information about Happyville,please contact Marcia at msavin2@earthlink.net or718.852.2867.Coming in October…Published by the College of CharlestonLibrary in association with Brith SholomBeth Israel. Signed copies will be availableat the “Jewish Roots in Southern Soil”conference.
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summer 2004 newsletter - Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina

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