Jacob S. Mansfeld
From left to right: Portrait of Jacob Mansfeld, Jacob and Eva Mansfeld and their children
Jacob S. Mansfeld was a pioneer in Tucson who founded the town’s first bookstore and strove to improve education on the frontier.
Jacob S. Mansfeld was born in Pasewalk, a northern German town in the province of Prussia, in 1833. Mansfeld arrived in the United States in 1856, after fulfilling his service in the Prussian Army. Like many other pioneers, he tried to build his wealth by merchandising in Idaho, California and Nevada, following mining booms as they appeared. An unlucky series of fires brought all of his stores to ruin which, together with the exhaustion of mines in Nevada, pushed him to leave for Arizona, where he arrived in 1869 after months of travel. The following year, Mansfeld filled a unique niche when he founded Tucson’s very first newsstand, the Pioneer News Depot, selling newspapers, books, and stationery.
The Pioneer News Depot found great success as a sanctuary for all who were interested in intellectual pursuits in this still-small town. Mansfeld’s store served as a meeting place for the educated of Tucson, most notably as headquarters for planning the legislation that would establish the University of Arizona. Mansfeld himself was instrumental in organizing these meetings, along with other figures such as Charles Moses Strauss and Selim Franklin. Mansfeld’s news depot grew to include editions not only in English but in Spanish and German as well. In the early 1870s he started a small circulating library from which people could loan books, an example of his consistent dedication to public education.
Mansfeld’s interest in civil service surpassed the confines of his own store. He wrote Tucson’s first city charter, and served on the City Council and on the Board of Regents for the Territorial University. The new university in Tucson was of such importance to him that Mansfeld persuaded two well-known and successful gamblers, along with a wealthy local saloon owner, to donate around four acres of land for the campus. Fittingly for the man who opened Tucson’s first news depot, he was also on the first board of trustees that governed the Old Pueblo’s first public library.
Eva Mansfeld, Jacob’s wife and sister of another prominent Tucson pioneer Leo Goldschmidt, also contributed much to Tucson’s development through her work as vice president of the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society, a charitable organization that fundraised and provided aid to the poor of Tucson. Jacob Mansfeld ran his news depot until he passed away in 1894, while Eva lived for several more years. Today, just south of the university campus that he did so much to establish, Mansfeld Middle School bears the name of this pioneering Jewish family.
Cholent and Chorizo, by Abraham Chanin
Jewish Settlers in the Arizona Territory, by Blaine Lamb
Photo credits: Arizona Historical Society
Photo credits: Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives