Day 5: Springfield

The State House Inn, where we are staying, is very nicely appointed in a modern style with nice touches like bathrobes and a full hearty breakfast included.  


We started at the Oak Ridge Cemetery, where we drove around looking for the Nusbaum family plot.  I had a section # - 5, but it took awhile to find the right area - it was in a part called "old vault".  Once we got to the right area, we found section #5 and the Nusbaum family plot - with Abraham (Carla's great-grandfather), Sarah (his wife), and Moses (their son, Uncle Mose, who was Charles' brother and Carla's great uncle).  In another part of the same section we found many Salzenstein graves - Sarah, Abraham's wife, was Sarah Saltzenstein.  Ann found the grave for Benjamin Nusbaum, who we believe was Abe's brother, and his wife Bessie and a daughter.  

Abraham Nusbaum

baby Nusbaum

Louis and Minnie Salzenstein

Dust to Dust
The
Soul to God

This section of Oak Ridge was a cemetery site for Congregation B'rith Shalom, the oldest synagogue in central Illinois, started by German Jews in 1858, and a magnet for the sprinkling of Jews in the Sangamon Valley, including Petersburg and Athens (pronounced with a long "a"), where the Salzensteins had a store at the time Lincoln lived in the area.  (Mim found some very interesting stories about this in a History of Athens.)


Cheri figured out that Sara Salzenstein came to Illinois in 1849, when she was 14.  Abe Nusbaum came to Illinois in 1853, when he was 26.  Quite possibly Abe's younger brother Benjamin had already settled in Springfield.  We couldn't find any marriage records, but their first child, Moses, was born in 1855.  Cheri also found Abe's obituary which said he was survived by his brother in Springfield.  In another publication, Benjamin Nusbaum's parents were identified as Baer and Marion.  Benjamin Nusbaum also married a Salzenstien in 1863.  


Cheri has been putting together timelines for each person so we can keep it all straight and Ann has offered to scan documents into the wiki site she started several years ago.  No photos today - I used my camera and not my phone.  Cheri & I are off to the copy center while Ann & Mim go to the Lincoln museum.