Hyman Goldberg
Yuma, Arizona, ca. 1890-1920
Hyman Goldberg, brother of fellow Jewish pioneer Isaac Goldberg, is believed to be one of the earliest Jewish pioneers in Southern Arizona, along with his brother Isaac.
Goldberg was born in Pietrokow, Poland in 1815 and arrived in the United States in 1839. For almost ten years he worked as a tailor in New York, until he, like his brother, became seduced by news of the California gold rush, and struck out west. He got to San Francisco in 1849 where he lived for many years and in 1852 he married Augusta Drachman, the sister of fellow pioneering Jews Philip and Samuel. Augusta was one of the rare pioneering women who came to the frontier by herself, unwed and unaccompanied by her family.
Together they had two sons, Aaron and David; two daughters, Amelia and Rebecca; and one child, Marris Moses, who died in infancy. Rebecca would go on to marry Hugo Zeckendorf, the son of Aaron Zeckendorf, an important merchant in New Mexico and Tucson. Their marriage was officiated by pioneering Jew Samuel Drachman. By the mid to late 1870s Goldberg had moved into Arizona, where he established stores in Florence, La Paz, Ehrenberg, Yuma, Harshaw, and Phoenix, always fearing the destruction of his stores, which occurred in the last three of the aforementioned cities. In 1876, Hyman moved the family to Phoenix. The infamous Phoenix fire of 1885 was particularly painful as it started in the stockage of his own business, H. Goldberg & Company.
Business was not the sole pursuit of Goldberg’s life. In 1873, he served on the Yuma Town Council and represented the Yuma County Democrats for the lower house of the eighth Territorial Legislature, and his social life was marked by involvement with B’nai B’rith, the Odd Fellows Society, the Masonic Lodge, as well as the American Legion of Honor. Hyman Goldberg died in 1889 and was survived by Augusta, who lived until 1908, as well as their children. Aaron carried on his father’s political legacy through his long career in the territorial legislature, his tenure on the Phoenix city council, and his efforts to cement Phoenix as the capital of the Arizona Territory.
Cholent and Chorizo, by Abraham Chanin
Jewish Settlers in the Arizona Territory, by Blaine Lamb
Photo credits: University of Southern California Libraries
Photo credits: California Historical Society