Shinah Solomon^{[1, 2]}

1744 - 1822  (77 years)

• Name	Shinah Solomon  [3, 4, 5]
  Born	24 Dec 1744	Lancaster, Lancaster, PA   [5]
  Gender	Female
  Immigration	Sep 1780  [3]
  	to Baltimore
  	with 5 Children
  Reference Number	1728
  Died	30 Nov 1822	Baltimore, MD   [5]
  Person ID	I1728	aojd
  Last Modified	11 Nov 2011

  
  

  Father	Joseph Solomon,   b. 1710, London, Middlesex, England ,   d. 1778, Lancaster, Pennsylvania  (Age 68 years)
  Family ID	F550	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Children	1. Solomon Etting,   b. 28 Jul 1764, York, York, PA ,   d. 6 Aug 1847, Baltimore, MD  (Age 83 years)   2. Reuben Etting,   b. 6 Jun 1762, York ,   d. 3 Jun 1848, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  (Age 85 years)   3. Fanny Etting,   b. 2 Oct 1766, York ,   d. 20 Jan 1828, Baltimore, MD  (Age 61 years)   4. Kitty Etting,   b. 15 Sep 1768,   d. 12 Apr 1838  (Age 69 years)   5. Hetty Etting,   b. 4 Mar 1770,   d. 13 Sep 1847  (Age 77 years)   6. Elizabeth Etting,   b. 24 Nov 1773,   d. 27 Dec 1860, Emmitsburg, MD  (Age 87 years)   7. Sally Etting,   b. 12 Sep 1776,   d. 2 Jun 1863  (Age 86 years)   8. Joseph Etting,   b. 17 Nov 1778, York ,   d. 1781  (Age 2 years)
  Family ID	F641	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  "Came to Baltimore Sep 1780 with 5 children" [3] (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The daughter of merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myers-Cohen, Shinah grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her father was one of a handful of Jews who had moved to the frontier towns of Pennsylvania seeking opportunity afforded by Indian trade and the vast natural resources of the interior. In the mid-eighteenth century, Lancaster was perhaps the most important land-locked city in America, with 3-400 citizens in 1740.      Though its Jewish community in this period never grew above a small collection of shopkeepers and traders, Lancaster was, by some accounts, the fourth American city with a known Jewish presence, following New York, Newport and Philadelphia. The founder and unofficial leader of Lancaster's Jewish community, Joseph Simon was in business with Shinah's father, and the numerous marriages between these two families underlines the importance of business as much as the scarcity of Jews. Simon's daughter Reyna would marry Shinah's son Solomon Etting, while Simon's granddaughter, Frances Gratz would marry Shinah's son Reuben Etting. By no means restricted to Pennsylvania, Shinah was connected to some of the biggest names in colonial American Jewry. One of her first cousins would marry Gershom Mendes Seixas, another would marry famed silversmith Myer Myers, and a third Barnard Gratz.      At fourteen Shinah married Indian trader Elijah Etting, a merchant from Frankfurt-am-Main, who a year earlier had become the first Jew to settle in York, Pennsylvania. She joined her husband in York, where there first of eight children, Rueben, was born four years later. Elijah Etting engaged in business not only with Joseph Simon and Joseph Solomon, but with Barnard and Michael Gratz and David Franks.           In 1773 Alexander Graydon, future Revolutionary War captain, prominent Philadelphia lawyer and author spent a summer in York. Graydon would publish a popular memoir in 1811, and though his memories of York were not generally fond, he had this to say for the Ettings: "Those who have known York… cannot fail to recollect the sprightly and engaging Mrs. E, the life of all gaiety that could be mustered in the village; always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably, she was an indispensable ingredient in the little parties of pleasure…The master of the house, though much less brilliant than the mistress of the house, was always good humored and kind; and as they kept a small store, I repaid as well as I could the hospitality of a frequent dish or tea, by purchasing there what articles I wanted."      In 1778 her husband was asked by Joseph Simon and other merchants to petition the Continental Congress, then meeting in York, on their behalf concerning a financial matter. That same year, Elijah Etting died suddenly, leaving Shinah to care for eight children, the oldest sixteen, the youngest not yet born. The final child, Joseph, would not live past two.      Two years later Shinah moved her family to Baltimore, though her two oldest, Rueben and Solomon, remained in Pennsylvania. Lancaster was no place to stay. The town had been declining in prominence since the 1760s, as Pittsburgh and Carlisle became the western American outposts.      Baltimore was a growing seaport with no formal Jewish community. In 1780 there were six Jewish household in the city. Shinah's move to Baltimore would profoundly shape the city. The resolute mother with five daughters, the "sprightly and engaging Mrs. E," opened a boardinghouse in part of her home at Baltimore and Calvert Streets, and cared for her family through her energetic entrepreneurialism. She later became a shopkeeper, a profession into which her daughter Sally would follow. Her two sons and three brothers soon followed her to Baltimore, and the Ettings would emerge as one of the wealthiest and preeminent of Baltimore's Jewish families. Her sons would lead the fight for Jewish liberties in Maryland. [6]

  
  

• Sources

  [S81] . [S285] . [S4] PG. 67 ETTING (1) (Reliability: 3). [S71] . [S4] PG. 223 MYERS-COHEN (1) (Reliability: 3). [S294] ETTING, SHINAH SOLOMON (Reliability: 3).