Nauchman (Nathan) Feitleberg (Fetleberg, Feitelberg)
Born: 1842, Russia
Died: October 9, 1915, San Francisco
Fanny (Wittenberger) Feitleberg
Born: 1857, Hungary
Died: April 23, 1913, San Francisco
“Infant” Feitleberg
Born:, June 1884, Leadville
Died: August 5, 1884 (interred at Leadville’s Hebrew Cemetery)
Nauchman Feitleberg most likely arrived in the United States in 1859. [1] According to records, he was born in Russia during 1842 and became a United States citizen on October 12, 1891. [2] He was a registered Republican. [3] Nauchman married Jewish-Hungarian immigrant Fanny Wittenberger, thirteen years his junior, during 1883 in all likelihood, before either one made any sojourn to Leadville. However, Fanny’s brother, shoemaker Herman Wittenberger, [4] had arrived at Leadville with his wife, Antonia Klein Wittenberger, in 1881 or 1882 and was established there [5] before records confirm Nauchman’s presence in the city during 1884. The couples seem to have followed the same migratory pattern indicating the families were quite close. During their time in Leadville, the Feitelbergs made their home at 311, and the Wittenbergers at 331, East 3rd Street while Nauchman made his living as a laborer. [6]
The Feitleberg’s brief time in Leadville was marred by the birth and subsequent death of a child known only as “Infant Feitleberg.” The wooden grave marker endured many harsh winters for over a century in the outdoors of the Rocky Mountains and is now on display at the Temple Israel Museum in Leadville.
Cemetery records indicate the child was two months old at the time of its death [7] on August 5, 1884, [8] logically estimating the birth to have been during June of 1884.
The only other known record of Nachman in Leadville is in the Carbonate Chronicle’s June 21, 1884, “List of Letters”. [9] It is probable that the Feitlebergs left Leadville around the same span as Herman and Antonia Wittenberg, sometime between 1884 and 1885. Their next address cannot be confirmed until 1887, when they are found in San Francisco living at 16½ Garden Street next door to Herman and Antonia, who lived at number 18. [10]
Nauchman appears to have kept some form of his birthname up until around 1900, when he appears to have anglicized it to “Nathan.” Census records indicate that Fanny gave birth to five children in total. The infant son Lee was born in Leadville in 1887 [11] and another, who is loosely documented, did not survive to adulthood. Only two daughters, Leah Anthony (b. 1887 [12]) and Freida Dondero (b. 1890 [13]) were still living in 1910. [14] These young ladies went on to have long, productive lives.
Fanny Feitleberg lived only a few more years and died at the age of fifty-eight on April 23, 1913. [15] Nathan followed a short time later on October 9, 1915. [16] The pair rest side by side at Salem Memorial Park and Garden in Colma, California. [17] Herman and Antonia Wittenberger are interred in the same city. [18]
Original wood marker for “Infant Feitleberg” found in the Hebrew Cemetery in Leadville, Colorado.
Hebrew Cemetery of Leadville (Leadville, Lake County, Colorado), Infant Feitleberg, Grave marker.
Photo by Robert-George de Stolfe in 2015 for the Temple Israel Foundation.
Closeup of the Infant Feitleberg grave marker. Upon first glance, one might think the marker was made with raised lettering. However, this is not the case. The new marker was a plank of flat wood with a rounded top that had the name painted on the flat wood. Over the last one hundred plus years, the combination of sun, rain, and snow eventually wore down the wood. However, the weather did not wear down the wood nearly as fast under the painted areas, thus leaving what appears like a raised effect. For the same reason, the original wood marker was a little thicker than it currently shows.
Editor Notes
The Feitleberg grave marker was the only wood tombstone found in the Hebrew Cemetery. The other historic markers in the Hebrew Cemetery are stone or concrete. Wood grave markers were the simplest and least expensive markers available, often because “blanks” were available ready to use, with just the need to hand paint or to stencil on the board the name of the deceased. Other nearly identical wood markers with the simple shape and basic lettering that remain exist throughout the Evergreen Cemetery. The inexpensive, simple nature of the wood grave marker hints at the economic status of the Feitleberg family.
1 Year: 1900; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: 101; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0056
2 California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1866-1898; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 107; FHL Roll Number: 977266
3 California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968
4 Births, Marriages, and Deaths (San Francisco: The San Francisco Call), April 24, 1913, P4.
5 Quinn Whittington. Wittenberger. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2023.
6 Corbett and Ballenger. Leadville, CO; USA. 1884. P113 & 255.
7 Manly, Nancy. Who’s Where In Leadville’s Evergreen Cemetery. Leadville, CO; USA. Historical Research Co-operative.1981. P123.
8 Find a Grave, [database and images] Memorial Page for Infant Feitleberg (1884–5 Aug 1884), Find a Grave Memorial ID 18471650 .
9 List of Letters (Leadville, CO: Carbonate Chronicle) June 21, 1884, P10.
10 Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. 465 & 1235
11 Year: 1900; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: 101; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0056
12 Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022.
13 Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. 1913-1/1/1972. Population Schedules for the 1950 Census, 1950 - 1950. Washington, DC: National Archives at Washington, DC.
14 Year: 1910; Census Place: San Francisco Assembly District 36, San Francisco, California; Roll: T624_96; Page: 4b; Enumeration District: 0146; FHL microfilm: 1374109
15 Find a Grave. [database and images] Memorial Page for Fannie Feitelberg (1856–23 Apr 1913), Find a Grave Memorial ID 132136982,
16 FEITELBERG. (San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner). October 10, 1915. P18.
17 Find a Grave. [database and images]. Memorial Page for Nathan Feitelberg (1842–9 Oct 1915), Find a Grave Memorial ID 132136991 .
18 Find a Grave. [database and images]. Memorial Page for Nace Wittenberger (March 10, 1877 – August 4, 1934), Find a Grave Memorial ID 77700418.
Bibliography
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Births, Marriages, and Deaths San Francisco: The San Francisco Call. April 24, 1913.
California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968.
California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1866-1898; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 107; FHL Roll Number: 977266.
Corbett, T. B., and J. H Ballenger. Corbett & Ballenger’s Fifth Annual City Directory Containing a Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms Etc. in the City of Leadville for 1884. Leadville, CO: Corbett & Ballenger Publishers, 1884.
FEITELBERG. San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner. October 10, 1915.
Find a Grave. [database and images] Memorial Page for Fannie Feitelberg (1856–23 Apr 1913), Find a Grave Memorial ID 132136982, citing Salem Memorial Park and Garden, Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA; Maintained by Larry White. (contributor 46875221).
Find a Grave, [database and images] Memorial Page for Infant Feitleberg (1884–5 Aug 1884), Find a Grave Memorial ID 18471650, citing Hebrew Cemetery, Leadville, Lake County, Colorado, USA; Maintained by GrammieK (contributor 47251452).
Find a Grave. [database and images]. Memorial Page for Nathan Feitelberg (1842–9 Oct 1915), Find a Grave Memorial ID 132136991, citing Salem Memorial Park and Garden, Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA; Maintained by Larry White (contributor 46875221).
Find a Grave. [database and images]. Memorial Page for Nace Wittenberger (March 10, 1877 – August 4, 1934), Find a Grave Memorial ID 77700418; citing Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA, maintained by SkåneBesökare (contributor 47402285).
List of Letters. Leadville, CO: Carbonate Chronicle. June 21, 1884.
Manly, Nancy. Who’s Where In Leadville’s Evergreen Cemetery. Leadville, CO; USA. Historical Research Co-operative.1981.
National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: 2133; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 38-833.
Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.
United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Petaluma, Sonoma, Ca.
Whittington, Quinn. Wittenberger. Leadville, CO: Temple Israel Foundation. 2023.
To cite any of the information in this biography, please use the following reference.
AUTHOR: Jeffrey P. Grant
CONTRIBUTOR: Quinn Whittington
Special thanks to Marc Cohn.
EDITOR: William Korn & Andrea Jacobs
SOURCE: Jewish Surnames/Feitleberg
PUBLISHED BY: Temple Israel Foundation. Leadville, CO; USA. 2023.
STABLE URL: http://www.jewishleadville.org/feitleberg.html
