Samuel Drachman
From left to right: Samuel Drachman, Samuel Drachman and others standing in front of his tobacco store, the Palace Cigar Store viewed between Maiden Lane and Congress Street
Samuel Drachman, brother of Philip Drachman, was a local businessman and wandering rabbi who worked to support Judaism throughout Southern Arizona.
Samuel was born in Piotrków, Poland in 1837 and arrived in Arizona roughly ten years after his brother, in 1867. Samuel had settled in Charleston, South Carolina before moving west, and during the Civil War, found himself fighting for the Confederacy under the leadership of General Beauregard, who made him a colonel before the war’s end. Drachman left for Arizona from New York on May 21, 1867 and arrived in Tucson on September 4, 1867. His travel time was prolonged in Arizona City when he was called upon to fill in as a court clerk during a legal dispute, as he was one of, if not the only, literate men to be found.
Upon arrival in Tucson, Samuel went straight to work for his brother’s company, Goldberg and Drachman, but by 1873 he had opened his own dry goods, grocery, and clothing store and he had also started to bid on government contracts. Despite the eventual failure of his first store, Drachman persevered and attempted to open up another; but his commercial success turned out to be not in dry goods, but in tobacco. Opened in the 1880s, Drachman’s tobacco shop was located in the Wedge, a strip between Congress Street and Maiden Lane frequented by those looking to indulge in drinking, gambling and prostitution. He later added a pool hall onto his store, which solidified it as a haunt for Tucson’s young men. Samuel expressed his wit in several of his advertisements, one of which displayed his version of the Ten Commandments, including quips such as: “Thou shalt have but one sweetheart and in her presence thou shalt smoke but the fragrant Key West cigar, sold by S.H. Drachman,” or “. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. In church thou shalt not smoke, but when returning therefrom enter the Cigar Store of S.H. Drachman and there purchase the best cigar in town.” Another advertisement recounted a fantastical anecdote about a group of miners who, while working in the Santa Catalina mountains, found gold nuggets engraved with directions to go to his tobacco shop in Tucson.
Like most pioneering Jewish men, Samuel looked beyond the frontiers of the Arizona Territory to find a spouse, and found Jennie Miguel, who, like his sister Augusta, was a resident of San Bernardino, California. One anecdote recounts that in 1886, during Tucson’s first Purim Ball, Jennie dressed up as a “Tamale Girl,” following the tradition of donning an extravagant costume to celebrate the holiday. Jennie was an important community member in early Tucson as well: she was an organizer and member of the Women’s Universal Benevolent Association, a charitable organization which strove to take care of the city’s poor from 1893 through the early 20th century.
Drachman also left a stellar record of community service, including multiple terms on the Tucson City Council and in the Eighth Arizona Legislature. Despite all of this worthwhile civic activity, Samuel’s primary passion was the support of Judaism in Southern Arizona. In 1890, he joined sixteen other Jews in donating $3.50 to help create the Jewish Cemetery Association and in 1910, he had the distinction of becoming the first president of Temple Emanu-El. Although Drachman was not an ordained rabbi, he would frequently assume the role, traveling as far as Texas to conduct informal services and lifecycle events. In Phoenix, he officiated at the marriage of Rebecca Goldberg, a Tucsonan, to Hugo Zeckendorf, son of Aaron Zeckendorf, and in El Paso, he conducted the double marriage of sisters Eva and Rose Solomon, daughters of the pioneers of Solomonville.
Samuel and Jennie had four children together, none of whom carried on the faith of Judaism. Drachman passed away in 1911 and was buried according to Masonic rites, while Jennie survived him by sixteen years and was herself interred according to Christian Science rites.
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