Louis Roth (1859 - 1894) - Shopkeeper

 

Tim Kovacs

Louis Roth, son of Yosef Avraham and his wife Tcharne, was born about 1859 in what is now Kovácsvágás, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hungary.  He was later known as Louis, Lajos or Leo.

After the Austrian Hapsburgs teamed up with Tsar Nicholas I of Russia to put down the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Hungarian Jews lost the few civil rights they had enjoyed and became subject to the Russian military draft.  Louis’s older brother Jacob was conscripted in this fashion, prompting their father to urge his other sons to emigrate as soon as possible.

Accordingly, Louis and Max, the next two oldest sons, came to America in 1879.  Louis appears to have filed a declaration of intent to become a naturalized U. S. citizen under the name of Lewis Roth in Fairfield County, Ohio, on January 30, 1885.  By 1888, Louis and his younger siblings had reunited in Los Angeles, where he had found work with the Kline Clothing Company and the Excelsior Clothing Company.  The Roth family—Max, Rosa, Kelly, Mike and Isidor—ultimately became very involved in Los Angeles’s Hungarian Jewish community.

In January, 1888, Louis’s financial position was stable enough for him to marry Miss Fannie Gerson.  Unfortunately, the marriage did not last; they divorced just five months later.

By January 1891, Louis was in Phoenix, Arizona, operating his own cigar and confectionary shop on Washington Street, near the Monihon Building.  It’s possible that he came to Arizona for his health, considering that he died of consumption on April 12, 1894.

Louis’s brother Max traveled to Phoenix to see him properly buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery and to close out his business affairs.  When Beth Israel Cemetery opened in 1903, the family had his remains moved there and a fine marble monument erected in his memory.

Fast forward to January 2019, when Tim Kovacs was visiting the Beth Israel Cemetery.  While there, he happened upon a broken marker on which he recognized the place name Kovacs Vagas—a Hungarian village about 33 miles from where his own ancestors originated.

On February 9, 2021, Tim received a surprising message from Geri Roth Jacobson, Louis Roth’s great-niece.  She had spent thirty years looking for a grave marker for her “Uncle Leo” in California, but to no avail.  Only by luck had she come upon his memorial on Find A Grave.

Because Roth had originally been buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Geri appealed to the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association for help with repairs, and its preservation team responded.  The restoration was a success and, on December 21, 2022, Geri and a contingent of relatives from California visited the grave for the first time ever to view the results.

- By Tim Kovacs and Donna Carr

 

Victorian Flavors Reimagined: The 1859 Irish "Spice Bag"

 

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Come with us as we embark on a culinary time-travel adventure, where flavors of the past and present collide into a “reimagined” dish. This 1859 recipe for “Spiced Beef in the Irish Style” has been created into a present day Irish spice bag.  The original historical recipe is listed following the reinvention. 

The Irish spice bag is a popular fast food dish in Ireland, particularly in urban areas. It typically consists of a mix of fried or battered meat, fries, and a variety of vegetables such as red and green peppers, and onions. These ingredients are tossed together in a spicy seasoning mix and then served in a paper or foil bag. The spice bag has become a common Irish “street food”, reflecting the multicultural influences from Chinese and Asian culinary traditions.

Simplified Beef Irish Spice Bag Recipe

1 lb beef strips (sirloin or flank steak works well)

3 large potatoes, cut into fries

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 onion, sliced

Oil for frying

Spice Mix: 

1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, ½ tsp ground cloves, ½ tsp allspice, 

1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp chili powder, pinch of garlic

In a small bowl, combine salt, black pepper, ground cloves, allspice, brown sugar, and chili powder. Mix well. Place the beef strips in a bowl and sprinkle half of the spice mix over them. Toss until the beef is evenly coated. Let it marinate for at least 15 minutes, or longer if you have time. Heat oil in a deep fryer or large pan to 180°C (356°F). Fry the potato fries until golden and crispy. Remove and drain on paper towels. In a skillet or wok, heat a little oil over medium-high heat. Add the marinated beef strips and stir-fry until they are just cooked through (about 3-4 minutes, depending on thickness). Remove the beef and set aside. In the same skillet, add a bit more oil if needed, and stir-fry the sliced bell pepper and onion until they are soft but still slightly crisp.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked beef, fries, and stir-fried vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining spice mix over the top and toss everything together.

Serve immediately, either in a large bowl or in individual paper bags.  

(Original Recipe) Spiced Beef in the Irish Style - 1859

*Editor's Note:  The original recipe Below also included an ounce of "saltpetre".  this was a preservative used for meats, and is also used for toothpaste and explosives.  We do not recommend using it in this recipe.  We also recommend that you refrigerate the meat if you do not intend on baking it right away, contrary to the recipe suggestion.  

"To a round weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds, take a pint of salt, two ounces of pepper, two ounces of cloves, one ounce of allspice, four ounces of brown sugar, all well pulverized, and mixed together; rub the round well with it, and lay it in a small tub or vessel by itself. Turn and rub it once a day for ten days. It will not injure if it remain a week longer in the spices, if it should not be convenient to bake it. When you wish to have it cooked, strew over the top of the round a small handful of suet. Be particular to bind it tight round with a cord, or narrow strip of muslin, which must be wrapped several times round to keep it in shape; put it in a dutch-oven, and add three pints of water when it is first put down; keep water boiling in the tea-kettle, and add a little as it seems necessary, observing not to add too much. It will require a slow heat, and take four hours to bake."

-1859 Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts and Hints to Young Housekeepers, Elizabeth Lea

Joannes Baptiste Steyaert (1859-1897)

Steyaert/Swindall House

Courtesy of Donna Carr 

Joannes Baptiste Steyaert was born 7 October 1859 in Evergen, Belgium—avery small village.  He and his wife, Matilda Van Damme, had a total of eight children, whose birthplaces provide a map of the family’s journey from Belgium to Arizona.

The three eldest children—Marie Victoria, Emil Johan and Augustine Bernard--were born in Belgium.  The fourth child, Marie Leona, and the fifth child, Benjamin Paul, arrived in 1890 and 1891 while the family was living in Winnipeg, Canada.  The Steyaerts seem to have gravitated to heavily forested areas, suggesting occupations associated with lumber.

 By the time the seventh and eighth children, Medard Tracy and Joseph Julius, were born in 1894 and 1897, the family was in De Pere, Wisconsin.  In the summer of 1897, the Steyaert family left Wisconsin for Arizona with newborn Joseph.  Within just a few weeks of their arrival, Joannes fell desperately ill.   After a protracted bout with typhoid which exhausted the family’s financial resources, he died on July 21, 1897, and was buried in the Loosley Cemetery.  His daughter Marie Victoria died of pneumonia a few months later, on November 21, 1897, and was buried in the same cemetery.

This left Matilda Steyaert destitute, with seven children to support.  They ranged from Emil, almost 12, to Joseph, a mere babe in arms.  The local newspaper, the Arizona Republican, appealed to its readership to assist the family.  The Steyaerts were listed intermittently as indigent between 1898 and 1900.

In time, however, the Steyaert children became old enough to support themselves.  In 1913, the boys built a fine house, designed by Howard B. Claflin, for their mother at 1021 East Washington.  The ten-room brick bungalow is said to have had screened sleeping porches and much built-in cabinetry.  Owing to the use of an innovative truss, the front porch offered an unobstructed view of the street.

Ben and Gus Steyaert became locomotive engineers for the Santa Fe Railway and the Southern Pacific Railroad respectively.  Emil was by turns a miner, prospector and truck driver for Union Oil.  Joseph Julius worked as a heavy equipment operator.  Only Medard and Frank carried on the family tradition of working with wood.  In 1928, Medard was managing a planing mill at 1501 South Central, which made cabinets and office furniture. 

With her children grown up, Matilda converted her bungalow on East Washington into a boarding house and rented rooms to guests regardless of race.  After her death on 27 July 1941, the house was sold to Golden and Elvira Swindall, who continued Matilda’s legacy of providing accommodations to African American guests who were not welcome at the segregated hotels in downtown Phoenix.  The Swindall Tourist Inn was listed in the famous ‘Green Book’ for Negro travelers;  Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Jackie Robinson are believed to have stayed there.  Bought in 1996 to serve as the headquarters for the Desert Mashies golf club, the house is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

-by Donna Carr

check out our website at Pioneers' Cemetery Assocation.