Biography of Isadore Cohen - Mercer Co. WV

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 352


ISADORE COHEN

Iadore Cohen, who is one of the representative young 
business men of the City of Bluefield, where he conducts
a well equipped jewelry establishment, was born in Russia,
May 11, 1884, and is a son of Rabbi S. A. and Mollie (Katz)
Cohen.  The father was graduated in a leading Jewish 
theological school, and was in charge of a Jewish 
congregation in Russia until 1905, when at the age of
seventy-one years, he came to the United States, some of 
his children having previously established their homes in
this country--located respectively in Washington, D. C., 
Baltimore, Maryland, the State of Georgia and in Bluefield,
West Virginia.

Reared in a home of intellectual and cultural influences,
Isadore Cohen attended school in the City of Riga, Russia,
and at the age of twenty years he graduated from the 
University of Kiev.  In 1905 he came with his venerable
father to America and established his residence at Bluefield,
West Virginia, where he entered a private school for the
purpose of learning the English language, which he could not
speak at that time.  So effectively did he study that he now
speaks the language with fluency and with no foreign accent,
besides being able to read and write with the high standard
of efficiency that his previous liberal education has made 
possible.  While at the University of Kiev he studied
denistry, but he has never entered the practice of the same.
After attending private school at Bluefield Mr. Cohen here 
engaged in the cigar business in 1907, with one stand in the
Altamont Hotel, and later another at the Matz Hotel, his
original capitalistic investment having been $300.  In 1912
he opened his jewelry store, and he has built up a most
prosperous enterprise, based alike on his personal popularity
and the effective service rendered to an appreciative trade.
>From 1916 to 1921 Mr. Cohen was a member of the Board of
Directors of the Bluefield Chamber of Commerce.  He is one of 
the loyal, liberal and public-spirited citizens of the
Mercer County metropolis. During the World war period he was
a member of the local organization of the National Council of
Defense, a member of the fuel administration of Mercer County 
and the Jewish Welfare Board, and chairman of the local 
committee of the American Jewish Relief Commission, the 
committee of this body having raised at Bluefield the sum of
$25,000 for relief work in Europe.  Mr. Cohen is on the
Executive  Board of the Boys Club of Bluefield, West Virginia,
and through the efforts of Rev. S. H. Mabie, a clergyman of
the Baptist Church, and those of Mr. Cohen was established
the first playground at Bluefield.  Mr. Cohen is deeply 
appreciative of American institutions and advantages, and
his loyalty is expressed in service in behalf of communal
welfare.  He is a charter member of the Rotary Club in his
home city, is affiliated with Bluefield Lodge No. 85, F. and
A. M., Bluefield Lodge of Perfection No. 8, West Virginia
Consistory at Wheeling, No. 1, and Beni-Kedem Temple, 
A. A. O. N. M. S., of Charleston, West Virginia.  He and
his wife are zealous members of the Jewish congregation
at Bluefield, and are popular in social circles of the 
community.

In 1910 Mr. Cohen wedded Miss Flora Charlotte Greenspon,
daughter of Solomon Greenspon, and the two children of
this union are Helen and Emanuel B.


Submitted by Vivian Brinker <VIVIANB@RAVEN.CCC.CC.KS.US>

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