Nathan Bensusan and Gershan Bensusan
World War I Veterans
By Camille Arbogast
Brothers Nathan and Gershan Bensusan both served in the Quartermaster Corps during the First World War. Nathan was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, on December 10, 1890. Gershan, known as George, was born in Boston on September 11, 1896.
Their father, Moses Bensusan, known as Moss, was a cigar maker who had been born in England. Their mother, Sarah (Nickelsberg or Mickelsburg) was originally from Amsterdam, Holland. Moss and Sarah married in London in 1880. Their oldest child, Elizabeth, was born in England in 1881. According to family sources, they had two other children who were born in England, Louis in 1882 and Dinah in 1884, both of whom died at under a year old. Moss, Sarah, and Elizabeth immigrated to the United States in 1885.
After their arrival in the United States, the Bensusans initially lived in New York City, where Frances was born in 1886 and Kate in 1888. By 1890, they had moved to Saratoga Springs, where Nathan was born, as well as Rachel in 1891. Frances died in 1889 and Rachel before 1900, according to family sources. The Bensusans moved to Massachusetts by 1892, where their son, Koffman (known as John Benson), was born. He was followed by Flora (known as Florence) in 1894, George, and Rachel (known as Ruth) in 1899.
In 1892, the Bensusans lived at 53 Lamartine Street in Jamaica Plain. By 1894, they had moved a short distance to 25 Armstrong Street. At the time of George’s birth in 1896, their home was 26 Mansur Street in Roslindale. Three years later they were living at 1 Buckley Avenue in Jamaica Plain. They had moved to 343 Heath Street by 1901. That year, Sarah died of appendicitis and septicemia.
Nathan attended one year of high school, according to the 1940 census. He was possibly the Nathan Bensusan who graduated from the Jefferson School on Heath Street in 1907. George attended four years of high school, according to the 1940 census.
By 1910, the Bensusans had moved to Dorchester and were living at 59 Coleman Street. Nathan, 19, was working as a shipping clerk at a clothing store. Kate and Florence were milliners; John was a newsboy. The next year, they moved to 78 Clarkson Street and Kate married. In 1912, Moses wed Bessie (Simmons) Levi, who lived at 406 Blue Hill Avenue. It was the second marriage for both. Bessie, like Sarah, was originally from Holland. The Bensusans were living at 77Kingsdale Street in 1916. By June 1917, they had moved to 263 Talbot Avenue. Nathan was working as a commercial traveler. George was in the billing department of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston.
On December 13, 1917, Nathan enlisted in the Army at Fort Slocum in New Rochelle, New York. He initially served the Provisional General Repair Shop School Section at Camp Joseph E. Johnston in Jacksonville, Florida, the largest Quartermaster Corps training camp. On March 1, 1918, Nathan was assigned to Storekeepers Company 1, also based at Camp Joseph E. Johnston. He was transferred to Detachment #2, Quartermaster Corps, in Newport News, Virginia on March 25 and promoted to private first class on August 1. Nathan was discharged on February 25, 1919.
George also joined the Army at Fort Slocum, enlisting on May 9, 1918. He was initially assigned to the Quartermaster Corps Recruit Depot at Fort Slocum. On May 17, 1918, he too, was sent to Camp Joseph E. Johnston, where he served in Company 5, Receiving Camp. On June 7, he was transferred to Training Company #8, and then on June 30, to the Quartermaster Corps Detachment at Camp Cody in Deming, New Mexico. He was made a private first class on August 1; a corporal on August 15; a sergeant on December 1; and a sergeant first class on December 31. George was demobilized at Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, and discharged on January 28, 1919.
While still in the Army, Nathan married Ida Brooks in Boston on May 19, 1918. Ida, a bookkeeper, had been born in Russia and immigrated to the United States around 1897. She lived at 15 Helen Street in Dorchester. Nathan and Ida were married by Rabbi Phineas Israeli. They had three children: Albert born in 1920, Howard in 1922, and Selma, also known as Sally, born in 1925.
Nathan was a stocks and bonds salesman. In 1929, the Boston directory listed him working for the LeBoeuf Fountain Pen Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. His license to sell stocks was revoked in June 1931, due to his involvement in the sale of fraudulent stocks of the company. He was the treasurer of Friendly Products in 1932 and 1933. In 1942, Nathan reported on his World War II draft registration that he was employed by F.L. Putnam & Co., a brokerage firm located at 77 Franklin Street in Boston.
Nathan and Ida moved to Brookline, Massachusetts in the 1920s, living at 156 Coolidge Street in 1924, 395 Harvard Street in 1926, and 19 Westbourne Terrace in 1928. In 1929, they moved to 125 Park Street in Brookline, where they lived for more than ten years. In 1930, Ida’s father, Isaac, a watchmaker with his own shop, was living with them. They also employed a live-in maid, Catherine Wallace, a 28-year-old recent immigrant from Scotland. Around 1942, they moved to 132a Coolidge Street, also in Brookline. In the early 1950s, they relocated to Quincy, Massachusetts, initially living at 31 Alrick Road. At the end of Nathan’s life, they lived at 243 Marlboro Street in Quincy.
Nathan died on his 71st birthday, December 10, 1961. A service was held for him at Solomon Chapel at 420 Harvard Street in Brookline and a memorial observance was held at his late residence. He was buried in the Roxbury Mutual Cemetery in Woburn, Massachusetts. When Ida died in 1966, she was buried beside him.
George returned to 263 Talbot Avenue after the First World War and worked as a receiving clerk at a wholesale drug company. On July 25, 1920, George married Marian Edelstein. Marian had been born in Boston and lived at 6 Lincoln Road (today Landor Road) in Dorchester. They were married by Rabbi Hyman Glaser of Shari Zidek, 18 Intervale Street. In 1922, George and Marian were living at her family’s home on Lincoln Road and he was working as a paper hanger. Their daughter, Shirley, was born in 1923, followed by Phyllis in 1925. Marian died in 1925.
In March 1927, George filed for bankruptcy, owing $1,000. That year, he married Henrietta Goldman in Boston. In 1929, they lived at 38 Park Vale Avenue in Allston. The next year they moved to 217 Warren Street in Brighton. They moved again in 1932, to 100 Kilsyth Road, where they lived for at least five years. By 1940, they had moved to 14 James Street in Brookline, George’s home for the rest of his life.
After his bankruptcy, George went to work for the Sears, Roebuck and Company department store chain. He began as a salesman in 1929 at the newly opened Boston store at 201 Brookline Avenue. By 1932, he was a division head, and by 1934, the assistant manager of the Cambridge store. He earned $3,180 in 1940. That year, he was elected vice-president of the Ten Year club, comprised of retail employees who had worked for Sears for ten years or longer. George was manager of the Sears store on Moody Street in Waltham, Massachusetts by 1945. Three years later, he was kidnapped on his way home from work one evening. He was driving through Newton, Massachusetts, “when another machine forced him to the curb. Two men jumped out of the other car, rapped on Bensusan’s windows with revolvers and ordered him to ‘open up.’” One of the men told him “‘We know who you are. We know you have the keys to the store and you know the combinationof the safe. Drive back to the store, open it up, don’t try to attract attention of any cops, and nothing will happen to you.’” Back in Waltham, “they menaced” George “with revolvers,” forcing him “to open the safe and surrender $2500 in Christmas shopping receipts.” After the heist, his kidnappers deposited him “at a lonely area near Albemarle Golf Club, in Newtonville.” George “managed to flag down a passing car and the driver took him to the police station.” The Boston Globe reported that “the kidnapping and holdup was similar in detail to at least two others in the last year.” By 1951, George had left Sears and was working at the House of Television store in Kenmore Square.
George died in Miami Dade County, Florida, on January 25, 1969. A service was held for him at Solomon Chapel and he was buried in the Sharon Memorial Park, in Sharon, Massachusetts.
Sources
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A War-Time Record: An Illustrated Account of the War-Time Activities of The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston During the Great War 1914-1918. Privately Printed for The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Boston, 1922: 65; Archive.org
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Nathan Bensusan, FindAGrave.com
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