Scherek Arbol » Lazarus Lazar Swett (± 1815-????)

Persoonlijke gegevens Lazarus Lazar Swett 

• Alternatieve naam: Tsvett
• Hij is geboren rond 1815 in Odessa, Kerson, Ukraine.
• Een kind van Mordechai Swett

Gezin van Lazarus Lazar Swett

Hij heeft/had een relatie met Sarah Chine Goldstein.

Kind(eren):

1. Leon Leib Swett  1839-1924 
2. Zacharia Swett  ± 1840-????
3. Zeba Sebor Swett  ± 1840-????
4. Isaac Alexander Swett  1843-1910 
5. Zlotta Swett  1848-1935 
6. Marcus Swett  1850-???? 
7. Margaret Margulia Swett  1859-???? 
8. Jennie Swett  1861-1947 
9. Henrietta Swett  1868-???? 

Notities over Lazarus Lazar Swett

Swett, Theodore M. Hilltop Drive, Roads End, RT 1 Box 344, Otis, Oregon,USA 97368, USA 20 Sept 1971 [Otis, a wide spot in the road on the north Oregon, USA coast]
Dear Jane [Honikman].
About the Swett-Ricen history: I am the only surviving member of the family to be able to assemble whatever knowledge remains, because I lived with my mother and father for 59 years. Uncle Will, spent most of his last 25 years of his life at our house. My mother, Elizabeth Ricen, was a first Cousin of my father.
The Swetts and the Ricens were so closely related that my mother and father had to be married in Victoria, BC, I have a copy of it from a Victoria paper.
The Swetts and Ricens were and are a remarkable family. All were intellectually inclined; none were a great money-maker. I think they took pride in that because to make money takes mostly cunning and ruthlessness. The Swetts and Ricens were too sensitive. That also applied to your grandfather Arnold Levy.
In Odessa, the Ricens had more money than the Swetts, but each had enough o provide proper educational opportunities for the children. It not only took money but also influence (bribes) to get a Jewish boy into college. And Uncle Joe and Uncle Leo made it. And in Odessa, not as in the villages, Jews had some opportunities to avail themselves of the arts. I remember my mother and Uncle Will recalling how they would go to the opera, high in the balcony. Peculiarly the family did not speak Yiddish; they spoke Russian. They did study Hebrew, but when they cam to this country, they quickly learned English, and I know than they knew very little of Yiddish but more of Russian. The Ricens owned a rather large apartment house. As I recall, it was about a block square, walled on the outside as most were in those days.
It was the Swetts who came first to America, my grandfather, Leon Swett, in 1882. The family was the first Russian Jewish family to settle in Oregon, USA At the time Grandpa came, he was married and had a wife and two sons an two daughters. From what I heard, the family probably emigrated from Palestine after the fall of the Temple in the year 70 A.D.. They probably went to Spain, thence to Germany, after the inquisition of 1492. That is why, perhaps, we find that my grandfather, father, brother, me etc all have blue eyes. They undoubtedly found their way back to Odessa because of the loss of a Protective duchy, which was necessary in those days, and many Germany duchys did falter in that respect.
A group of idealists, calling themselves the AM OLAM set out for Oregon, USA early in 1882 to settle on a farm, a commune, in southern Oregon, USA, in the belief that the Jews should get back on the land, till the soil, and live together in harmony and without persecution. The ship stopped at New York for about three weeks, then went on to the Isthmus of Panama. The groups then crossed the Isthmus by wagon or train, and then boarded another ship directly for Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA When the group arrived in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA, my grandpa decided not to join the group. You see, he was the eldest, and with a family of four children. The others were young, unmarried. And the country to which they were going was primitive and rugged. He felt that it would not be a good place for the growing-up of the children. So, instead, he obtained a homestead at Buxton, Washington County, Oregon, USA, about 40-50 miles from Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA on the way to the Oregon, USA Coast. And he farmed there for 25 years, clearing the land and building a house and barns. My father was not quite 12 when they arrived in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA, but soon after setting on the farm, he came in to Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA to get a job to help support the family in the farm. In 1886 Aunt Mary, the oldest child, married William Galvani who owned the adjoining homestead. He was also a Jew but in later years no one ever knew it. William Galvani was from St. Petersburg, and was an engineer. Shortly after Mary and he were married, while they were preparing for a Sunday mornings hunt, his gun went off and shot and killed Aunt Mary I have neWroclaw, Silesia, Polandaper notices of it. After that, because of the tragedy I guess, Galvani was not close to the family and went his own way, becoming a famous engineer in the early days of railroad engineering in Oregon, USA We had a great library, which he gave to Oregon, USA State University [University of Oregon, USA] which made him an L.L. B. I knew him in later years, and found him to be a kindly man. My uncle Isaac, my fathers brother, then came in to Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA, and became one of Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USAs first Jewish Lawyers. But, peculiarly, my Aunt Nadia, the youngest daughter, never married, once spent some time in Palestine, in the 1920 as secretary to Henrietta Szold, but was a rugged individualist and became a Farmer, ! Aunt Nadie (Nadia) can be claimed as the only Jewish farmerette in Oregon, USA, and my grandfather can be claimed as the only true, full-time Jewish Farmer in Oregon, USA When he left the homestead in Buxton, he brought a 16 acre farm at 60th and Glisan Streets in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA, which, if we still owned it, would have made us millionaires.
My grandfather, although he did not join the AM Olam group, remained friendly with them, as did my father in later years. But the scheme finally failed. First, I must say that all of them were strong individualists, and that does not make for communal living. They have a fine library there, had a contract with a railroad to make railroad ties, but a disastrous fire, plus those other things, and desires to move on, led to the downfall to the experiment.
In later years I met some of the children of this group, one or two born there. Wonderful people. Too bad the history is so fragmentary. No one kept a doing diary or record at the time. After talking with my father even I had to correct a few minor errors which crept into the enclosed article and the enclosed articles from the TRAPPER, a magazine published by the historical society of Douglas County, Oregon, USA
For family portraits or profiles, I can give only my own feelings and reactions.
Grandpa Leon Swett was a very soft-spoken, genuine and kindly man. I cant imagine him as much of a revolutionary, and thats probably one of the reasons why he did not join the group.
My father was much like my grandfather, and so I believe is my brother Bun.
Uncle Isaac Swett, the lawyer was more active, and he with my father in the background was responsible for the building of a Jewish Community Center in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA Both were, in times long past Grand Presidents of the West Coast division of Bnai Brith when that organization was quite important.
Aunt Mary of course I never knew because she was shot in 1886 on the farm. She is now buried at Beth Israel cemetery.
My Aunt Nadie, the Farmer, died about a year ago, at 91, a strong individualist, a loner, outspoken at all times. She lived a life of her own, by herself.
My mother on the Ricen side was also quite outspoken, and by that I mean telling it as it is, as she saw it. I guess I follow her in that respect. She was a most remarkable mother, and without her I doubt that I would have been alive today. My father and brother, of course were also great helps, and were a perfect family. Mom was Aunt Emmas greatest, closest and warmest friend. But who couldnt like Aunt Emma, your grandmother. Of all the Ricens, she was the saint, and you will notice I dont use any quotes around that word saint.
Uncle Joe, the pharmacist, was also a soft-spoken person and very kindly. He married a non-Jewish girl, had one son, Stanley, a fine man, but he has just never got anywhere. Uncle Joes last pharmacy was on the site of the present Hilton Hotel, but of course none of the family were money makers.
Uncle Jack was great fun, a kidder, and actually a fine artistic mind. He has a wrought iron furniture product, which would have made him a success were he a business man. But he just never quite made it. A wonderful guy, though.
Uncle Marcus was the revolutionary in the family, and he was probably as fortunate as any to get out of Russia, not only because he would have been in the army, as the older ones were, but also because he may have become involved in some of the ferment against the Russian regime. He was a character, true-blue, but with a temper. I looked after him in his last days, with help from his son Edgar. He also has a daughter Helen. But the family split up.
Uncle Will had his sarcastic sense of humor (I guess I too inherit some of that), his straight talk, his singular sense of humor. A good Dentist but never a financial success.
Youve met Aunt Fan and Aunt Jean, two wonderful people, absolutely remarkable for their ages. But then all of the family were long-lived. There was not a dull-witted one in the bunch, all had a great sense of humor, all enjoyed life, all were gay. Uncle Will and Uncle Jack actually once started out on a vaudeville ideas around the is area in the old days. It flopped of course. And Uncle Will once won a cake walk price, a dance popular at that time. The family always was around a piano, one at the piano, one at a mandolin, one at the banjo. Grandma Ricen, the mother of the nine surviving Ricens, was a stern mother, but she deserved a lot of credit with the burden of herself after her husbands death in bringing the whole gang over here and keeping them all going.
Did I leave out Uncle Leo, the physicianss He was a great individualist, a scholar, a traveler, a painter, and had his own sense of humor and his own ideas. But keeping in mind that each of the Ricens was one-of-a-kind, he was priceless, a kind of many you rarely see today.
Back to Aunt Amma, the saintly one, she actually cared fro Grandma Rice and Uncle Jack, and maybe even Uncle Joe, at their ends, she who could afford it least.
I doubt that the world will ever match the true happiness, despite some misfortunes which may come to anybody, than had the Swett-Ricen family. I can imagine any with more diverse talent, with so many personal differences, yet with so much respect for each other. And all with integrity. If I seem to you to be a bit proud of my family I am.

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