Ernest Markewitz

Feldman: Ernie, who were the first members of your family to come to this country?
MARKEWITZ: My great-grandparents

Feldman: Your great-grandparents! Where did they settle?
MARKEWITZ: My father’s mother was born in Philadelphia. So, I think her parents settled somewhere in that neighborhood. My father’s father was born near Prague which was then Bohemia and they settled first around New York because my great-grandfather had a potato farm on Manhattan Island which he sold and returned to Germany. I think he sold it for $80,000. He returned and lived in Bremen, Germany. My mother’s father was born near Munich. My mother’s mother was born in London because the family was on their way to this country from Germany and she was born on the way over.

Feldman: What was the date of her birth, do you know?
MARKEWITZ: I haven’t the faintest idea off-hand. I could just roughly figure it out. I think they came to this country right around 1850.

Feldman: That’s very early.
MARKEWITZ: Before 1850 because my grandfather who lived in Portland told me that his family came to San Francisco in 1851.

Feldman: Who was the first member of your family to settle in Portland?
MARKEWITZ: My Mother’s parents.

Feldman:  And they came from the Philadelphia area? 
MARKEWITZ:  No, they came from San Francisco. They had both lived in San Francisco and were married in San Francisco before they came to Portland in 1871.

Feldman: When they came to Portland, where did they first settle, which neighborhood?
MARKEWITZ: I don’t know exactly, except that my mother once said that she was born on 11th and SW Salmon. That’s the earliest residence I know definitely in Portland.

Feldman: How about your father’s side of the family. How did your mother and father meet?
MARKEWITZ: They met in Portland. My father was born in San Francisco in 1889 [later he corrects this to 1869].

Feldman: And how old was he when he came to Portland?
MARKEWITZ: He was 19.

Feldman: And your mother, you said she was born here. About what year?
MARKEWITZ: I believe it was 1894.

Feldman: So, they met here in Portland and were married here. Can you tell me a little about your neighborhood where you grew up? Where was your house that you lived most in?
MARKEWITZ: I was born on NW Davis between 13th and 14th. The only Jewish family that I remember at that time were the Lax’s who lived at the corner. There is no longer any member of their family here nor has there been for many years. We moved there to NW 18th and Hoyt which was practically a little ghetto. For instance, on my block, starting on 17th and Hoyt were the Harris sisters; two houses from them were the George Lowensons; two houses above them were the Salomons.

Feldman: Which Salomons – do you remember?
MARKEWITZ: I think he was the founder of a publication called the Columbian. He was the grandfather of Millard and Leo Samuel who can tell you all about him.

Feldman: That’s all right. Tell me some more about your neighbors. 
MARKEWITZ: They had two sons whose names I don’t remember, but the daughter married Clarence Samuel. Back of us – I can’t think of the name of the family now – on 18th and Hoyt were the Senders, the Arthur Senders, his mother, two brothers and his sister Lola. Two houses below them on Hoyt was the Germanis family, father and mother and one son, Harold. Back of the senders’ house lived the Alex Millers and across from them were the Mays.

Feldman: Where did you go to school?
MARKEWITZ: I went to the old Couch school.

Feldman: Were any of these young kids particular friends of yours? With whom did you pal around when you were young?
MARKEWITZ:  Leland Lowenson, Charlie Cohen whose family lived across the street from us on 18th between Glisan and Hoyt. I forgot to say that right through the block from us on 17th between Hoyt and Glisan was the Rich family, Jessie Rich’s family where Jessie and his brother Eugene lived. That covers that immediate block. 

Feldman: With whom did you spend most of your time, for instance, some of the people with whom you palled around, and what you did when you were a young boy in the neighborhood. What were some of the activities?
MARKEWITZ: Of course, there were lots of empty lots in those days where we could play football and baseball and such, and then we used to play lots of games just out on the street – that was before the days of the automobiles. 

Feldman: When were you born, what was the year of your birth?
MARKEWITZ: I was born January 11, 1903.

Feldman: Can you remember any particular happenings in the neighborhood that were memorable, like fires, floods, or anything like that?
MARKEWITZ: No, nothing like that in the family, no I can’t. 

Feldman: Were you pretty much a temple going family and which temple did you go to?
MARKEWITZ: Beth Israel.

Feldman: Where was Beth Israel located then?
MARKEWITZ: Beth Israel was on Front and Main.

Feldman: Did you go to Sunday school? Saturday School?
MARKEWITZ: Sunday school, oh, yes. And by the way, nearly all the boys in those days were bar mitzvah.

Feldman: And you were bar mitzvah in Beth Israel? Who did you study under?
MARKEWITZ: Jonah Wise was the Rabbi and my Sunday School teachers were Isabelle Wolfstein and Miss Bernstein (Judith), Francis Harris, Mildred Meyer was the singing teacher, I remember.

Feldman: Did you used to sing?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes, everybody sang, that was the usual thing in the big basement room. Of course, I remember very dearly the wonderful Mr. Olsen, he was the janitor. He was far, far more than a janitor; he was a great man.

Feldman: What do you mean, why was he so important to you?
MARKEWITZ: Because he used to watch over the children so much. When they were running around in the halls he would stop them and when the bell rang to come in and were outside playing, he would see that we would get inside, and then every Friday night at Temple, he was standing at the door welcoming everybody who came in.

Feldman: Was he Jewish?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, no, the story of him is a story itself, a fascinating story.

Feldman: Would you tell us?
MARKEWITZ: As much as I remember. He knew everybody by name. Mr. Markewitz, Mr. Bloch and Mr. Rothschild and whoever it was. He had come to Portland just before the turn of the century. He had been a sailor on a Danish ship and he jumped ship and he looked around for a job, and he got a job at first I think as the assistant janitor of Temple Beth Israel, and then he became the head janitor. He remained until he retired, just when that was I can’t say. It must have been about 25 years ago and when he retired, (I don’t remember the rabbi then, maybe it was Berkowitz,) he [the rabbi] asked him what he would like to have or something about his funeral and he said if possible he would like to have a plot in Beth Israel cemetery because he had always taken a great deal of interest in it. I think that was given to him. He was buried, I think, from the Temple. I am positive that whoever was the rabbi then officiated at his funeral. I think all the pallbearers were Jews and he had listed them in his will. I was one of them who was honored at his request.

Feldman: That’s interesting.
MARKEWITZ: I think that was a very great honor. I shall always remember that.

Feldman: Can you tell me a little more about some of the characters in the neighborhood as you were growing up? What stores did they shop at?
MARKEWITZ: The old neighborhood grocery stores in those days. Big chain stores were of course the thing unheard of. The large stores of course, were Meier & Frank and Lipman, Wolfe…

Feldman: I was thinking particularly in your neighborhood. I think…
MARKEWITZ: I think of all of my friends in that neighborhood who were not Jews were Irish Catholic. It was a very Irish Catholic neighborhood. 

Feldman: What did you like most about your neighborhood?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, I think just the friendliness of it. It was an extremely friendly neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody. Of course, my mother having been born here, she could not only tell you whom every Jew married, she could tell you who every Irishman married.

Feldman: You told me that your parents moved into that house after you were born. Do you have any brothers and sisters?
MARKEWITZ: I have one brother, Arthur.

Feldman: And he is the one who is married to Sophie. But no sisters. Was there anything missing from your area, where you had to go out of the neighborhood?
MARKEWITZ: No, not particularly, I think we were pretty well satisfied. 

Feldman: Was it pretty much a Reform Jewish community?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes. Almost entirely, all the Jews with whom I was raised in that area.

Feldman: They were all Reform. In the South Portland interviews, we find many who were quite Orthodox.
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes.

Feldman: Was there a hospital already in that area?
MARKEWITZ: Good Samaritan u on 23rd and of course St. Vincent’s up on the hill. In fact, I think these were the only hospitals in Portland.

Feldman: Can you remember any hard times in your neighborhood.
MARKEWITZ: No, I don’t. I wouldn’t have known much about it anyway.

Feldman: Did you have any relatives that lived in the area?
MARKEWITZ: Very few. I had no first cousins at all. The only relatives I can really think of, the ones we were closest were the Friedenthals, Frances Simon’s parents. We were very intimate with them. However, Florence Taubenheimer May who died a few months ago and left quite a sum to the Temple, she was my second cousin. Her mother was my father’s aunt. 

Feldman: And she lived in the area?
MARKEWITZ: She lived on the corner of 21st and Johnson, catty-corner from the Sichels. She married Mr. May a good many years ago, and then when he sold the stockyards, which he owned, to Swift and Co., they moved to New York. So, they haven’t lived here for over forty years.

Feldman: Can you tell me a little bit about your school life, when you went to high school and how you went into the business that you went into, this sort of thing?
MARKEWITZ: First I like to go back to the old Couch School. Frances Harris was one of the teachers. Then upon entering Lincoln High School, the only Jewish teacher I had was Miss Grieber. She was an old-time science teacher there. She was not the only either, I had Mrs. Alton.

Feldman: How about Judith Bernstein, didn’t she teach there?
MARKEWITZ: No, Mrs. Alton taught German, she was head of the German Department. 

Feldman: And you took German?
MARKEWITZ: No I didn’t take German from her. I knew her well. My father, when he first came to Portland, got a job in a printing shop (I forget the name of it) as a paper cutter. The firm went broke in 1900 and he and one of the other members of the firm who had been the bookkeeper took it over. Then my father became the salesman. Later he bought out his partner, a Mr. Bushong, who the firm was named after. At that time, their business was on the corner of Front and Stark St., up on the dock. Later they moved to NW Park and Stark St.  A partner of my father was Barney May. When my father died, my brother and I took over the business and then we bought out Mr. May. We sold out the business about 18 years ago.

Feldman: Where did you meet Frances? 
MARKEWITZ: Frances was visiting here as the guest of Mrs. Leo Friede, the parents of George Friede. They gave a reception one evening which I went to with all the other nice Jewish boys, and that’s where I met Frances.

Feldman: Did she ever go home – from where she was visiting?
MARKEWITZ: San Francisco

Feldman: Did she go home again?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes

Feldman: You kept in touch.
MARKEWITZ: You see, another cousin of Frances’, who gave a big party for her, was Edna Frank Holmes. She was Lloyd Frank’s first wife.

Feldman: The builder of Lewis and Clark College. [The family of Lloyd Frank donated his estate, designed by Herman Brookman to become the campus of Lewis and Clark University]
MARKEWITZ: Lloyd Frank’s first wife.

Feldman: We are going to talk a little bit about your civic and social activities.
MARKEWITZ: Well, as a young boy I belonged to the Jewish Community Center, and I was a charter member of the Ramblers.

Feldman: Where was the center located then?
MARKEWITZ: It was located at SW 13th on the equivalent of Market St, if it hadn’t been cut through.

Feldman: What sort of things did you do there?
MARKEWITZ: I used to wrestle a good deal because I wrestled in high school and college and I wrestled for a few years there afterwards.

Feldman: About what years were you active in the Men’s Club?
MARKEWITZ: About 25 years or more.

Feldman: What sort of activities were they involved with in those days?
MARKEWITZ: The only thing I can remember is that Nixon was running for vice president. He spoke before the Men’s Club. I remember that his wife was with him and I remember being introduced to…. Of course, I remember the fire in the original temple very well. 

Feldman: Did you see it?
MARKEWITZ: I got there right after it started. As a matter of fact, there was a Jewish fraternity here then, called Pi Tau Pi, and we were having a meeting that night at the home of the Tonkons on NW Northrup – Moe Tonkon. There were nine children. Some were late coming to the meeting and as they came in they told us of the fire. I think we closed up the meeting then, and we all rushed up to see it.

Feldman: Did the synagogue burn down completely?
MARKEWITZ: Yes, almost completely. After all, it was a wooden building.

Feldman: After that they rebuilt it where it is now, didn’t they? Now you say you were active in the Ramblers. What were some of the activities that the Ramblers did?
MARKEWITZ: It was mostly athletic. They turned out crackerjack basketball teams. That was before the days of the six and seven footers. That’s the principal thing I can remember about them just because that was the principal thing in which I was interested.

Feldman: About what years were those, do you recall?
MARKEWITZ: I would say approximately 1930, maybe even before that, around that era. 

Feldman: Can you think of any other activity that you were involved in?
MARKEWITZ: My father had been a charter member of Tualatin Country Club; I later belonged to the club for quite a few years. There is nothing very exciting about that.

Feldman: Did you play golf?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes. In those days in the old wooden club house that we had out there. There were two or three rooms upstairs. I remember Moe Tonkon and I used to stay out there on Saturday nights. I think they used to charge us then about $1.50 for the room. In those days, they had a marvelous cook out there, Mrs. Johnson. She used to serve wonderful steak and chicken dinners for about $1.50. 

Feldman: Sounds like a bargain.
MARKEWITZ: It was. It was marvelous food.

Feldman: Well, let’s see. What were some of the changes that you saw in Portland, particularly in the Jewish community over the years?
MARKEWITZ: The greatest change I can think of is the great change in the Jewish population, the people themselves.

Feldman: What do you mean?
MARKEWITZ: For instance, years ago, when I used to go to Temple, until maybe 20 years ago, I knew practically everyone. Now I don’t know over 10% of the people there on the holidays now.

Feldman: You mean that the congregation has grown so much?
MARKEWITZ: Grown and changed.

Feldman: How has it changed?
MARKEWITZ: I imagine a number of the Jewish families have died out. A number of them have moved away from Portland and a great number have passed. I mean they are no longer Jews. They married outside the faith and their children no longer look upon themselves as Jews.

Feldman: Can you think of any particular families that you have in mind when you say those things?
MARKEWITZ: The Rothschild family for instance and the Blitz family. None of their children are Jews anymore. The only one living in Portland is Bill Blitz who considers himself a Jew. His children were not raised as Jews. His brother Arnold, who has passed away, has a couple of daughters here who have married outside the faith. That’s one of the largest families I can think of. Of course on the other hand, descendants of the Rothschilds are the Goldsmiths, and the one living in Portland, of course, is Gerson Goldsmith who is very much a Jew. 

Feldman: Can you think of any other changes?
MARKEWITZ: That is the principal thing that I can think of, that is a tremendous change.

Feldman: How about The Depression? What kind of an effect did that have on some of the people that you knew?
MARKEWITZ: Well, it had a tremendous effect, because a great many of them lost a great deal of money in the market.

Feldman: In your particular neighborhood, where you grew up, can you think of or recall any specific instances of things which demonstrate the effect of The Depression?
MARKEWITZ: No, not particularly, because I think all of them came through it quite well. People lost a certain amount of money, but I can’t think of anyone who actually went bankrupt during The Depression or anything of that nature.

Feldman: How about when the Second World War came? Did that have an effect on the people that lived in your neighborhood?
MARKEWITZ: Well, none other than that a great number of the younger fellows went into the service. I was never caught into the service because of my age. After all, I was a few years too young for World War I and a few years too old for World War 2.

Feldman: You worked that out just right.
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes, I timed that perfectly. Of course, in World War Two, I was already married and had a couple of children, but I knew a great many, of course, who did go into the service.

Feldman: What are the names of your children?
MARKEWITZ: John and Ann. Ann is the older. She is 35 and John is 32.

Feldman: Ann is married?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes. She married a man who was actually born in Portland. She married Robert Hoffmann whose family at that time were living here.

Feldman: Where is she living now?
MARKEWITZ: Berkeley

Feldman: What does her husband do?
MARKEWITZ: He is an analyst for Contra Costa County. Five years ago, we went to Europe for three weeks. At that time my son was in the Army and stationed near Wurzburg, Germany.

Feldman: Where did you and Frances live when you were first married?
MARKEWITZ: We lived in a one-room apartment on the corner of 19th and Irving, I think it was.

Feldman: How long did you live there approximately?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, I don’t think we were there for more than about a year.

Feldman: Was that an apartment?
MARKEWITZ: Yes. Then we moved to a larger apartment. Then we moved to a house on Portland Heights.

Feldman: Where? What was the address?
MARKEWITZ: I don’t remember the exact address. I think it was Ravensview. Then we moved to some flats on the corner of NW 25th and Northrup, across the street from the house I had lived in as a boy.

Feldman: Can you tell me what year you lived on Ravensview?
MARKEWITZ: I am sure that Fran can. Shall I call her in?

Feldman: Frances is going to fill in the years that the Markewitzs lived in different places. You started to tell me that you had a house on Ravensview. Could you remember the years that you were there?
Frances: Yes, we were married in 1934 and we lived on Ravensview from 1936 to 1938.

Feldman: And then where did you move?
MARKEWITZ: On 26th and Northrup.

Feldman: In a home?
MARKEWITZ: In a flat. In a four-dwelling building there. We lived there for four years.

Feldman:  And then? 
MARKEWITZ: Then we lived on Patton and Montgomery for 23 years.

Feldman: Do you remember your address there?
MARKEWITZ: It was 2640 SW Patton Rd. Then we lived in Beaverton on Farmington Rd for about eight years and the last four years we lived here on Roxbury.

Feldman: Thank you, Frances, for filling that in for us. You were telling me of some of your activities of your earlier years. 
MARKEWITZ: One of the things that the boys did and the boys back in our high school days was swimming and canoeing on the river

Feldman: The Willamette or the Columbia?
MARKEWITZ: The Willamette. There was a resort on the north end of Ross Island called Windemith and we used to all go swimming there. Then there was a good deal of canoeing on the river, and one of the most exciting things we did was to get a canoe in back of one of the old paddlewheel boats and ride the waves.

Feldman: That sounds like fun.
MARKEWITZ: It was quite exciting. A sport quite exciting in those days was crawfishing, and from the time I was probably six years of age until maybe fifteen or sixteen, I used to go crawfishing very often with my grandfather on Sunday on Johnson Creek. We used to take the Sellwood Streetcar and ride out to about 100th Street, get off and walk to a dairy farm and crawfish in the creek. Then we brought them home and cleaned them and our parents cooked them, at least my mother cooked them. That was a very popular thing with many Jewish families in those days.

Feldman: That’s interesting.
MARKEWITZ: My grandfather used to take a horse-car to what is now Good Samaritan Hospital and walk a few hundred yards and shoot pheasant. Also as a boy in high school, I swam several times in what was then Giles Lake.

Feldman: They filled that in. 
MARKEWITZ: When they built Westover Terrace, they sluiced the mud down into Giles Lake. You see in those days there were many simple pleasures which we don’t have today. Every family did not have an automobile and so forth. There were no radios, let alone television sets.

Feldman: Did you ever have anything to do with horses?
MARKEWITZ: Yes. I used to ride horseback as did many of the Jewish children at the Portland Riding Academy which was located on NW Johnson between 21st and 22nd. 

Feldman: What did you do, rent a horse?
MARKEWITZ: We used to ride in a ring. Later on that became Nicols Riding Academy.

Feldman: How about ice skating, did you ever do anything like that?
MARKEWITZ: Yes, I used to ice skate at the old skating rink on 21st and Lovejoy. At hockey games, I used to usher and scrape the ice by hand between periods.

Feldman: Did you get paid for that or did you do it for fun?
MARKEWITZ: We did it to see the game free, that was all.

Feldman: This is just the sort of thing we want.
MARKEWITZ: The high schools in those days had hockey games and Lincoln always had the championship team and three of the Lincoln players were Dr. Russell Kaufman, George Wolf, the architect and Dr. Martin Sichel.

Feldman: Did you ever play hockey?
MARKEWITZ: No, I was too small.

Feldman: Ernie, you were starting to tell me about the Concordia Club.
MARKEWITZ: Of course, that was the older generation. That existed for around 40 years. At one time, it was a very influential thing and a very important thing in the Jewish community. It was in the two-story red brick building on the corner of 16th and Morrison.

Feldman: Tell me a little about it.
MARKEWITZ: It was practically the center of Jewish social life in those days and some of the older men here can tell you far more about it than I can. I would suggest, if you can speak to Herbert Goldsmith about it, not Dr. Herbert Goldsmith, the other Herbert Goldsmith.

Feldman: I would just as soon know what you thought about it and what you think they did.
MARKEWITZ: I was very young when it went out of existence. It practically died I believe because of the founding of the Tualatin Country Club which took over the social life to a great extent.

Feldman: Was it for men only?
MARKEWITZ: Oh, yes, they had a few dances a year and I remember they had a bowling alley in the basement. That’s about all I can remember about it. I remember my father used to go down there one or two nights a week to play bridge with all his cronies, all of them, of course, have passed away now, but I am sure Herbert Goldsmith could tell you quite a bit about it. 

Feldman: Can you think of any funny incidents that happened over the years?
MARKEWITZ: Not of general interest – [laughter]

Feldman: We have a few additions and corrections which we would like to make on this tape. Ernie, you said that you had given the date of your father’s birth incorrectly.
MARKEWITZ: yes, my father was born in 1869 and it was 1889 he came to Portland.

Feldman: And you were beginning to mention some of your experiences at the University of Washington in Seattle.
MARKEWITZ: Yes, at that time there was no Jewish Fraternity on the campus up there. One was just being organized. I was one of the first ones to be initiated into it. Other Portland boys who became members at the same time were Norman Burnett and Moe Mesher. Since then there had been many boys who became members. Also I should have mentioned that in approximately 1920, a chapter of Pi Tau Pi fraternity was organized in Portland. The members of that were Harold Miller, Ed Tonkin, Sanford Tonkin, Moe Tonkon, Morton and Scott Sichel, Jerome Holzman, Shirley Baron, Irwin Fulop.

Feldman: What was the purpose of the fraternity?
MARKEWITZ: It was strictly a social organization.

Feldman: How often did you meet?
MARKEWITZ: We met once a month. Other members were Forest Berg and his father, Charles Berg was sort of our advisor. 

Feldman: You said it was in 1920?
MARKEWITZ: Yes and it was quite active for about 12 years. Then it died out here in Portland and I understand that the national group no longer existed either. After all, there is no place for such an organization any more. There really wasn’t very much place for it then.