Milontaler family

The Milontaler Family of Roxbury, Massachusetts consisted of Maurice and Frances Levine Milontaler, and their children, Harold and Louise. Maurice's father was the well-known Louis Millionthaler, author of "Jesus and Rabbi Fletcher." Maurice's older sister was Sarah Millionthaler Gorfinkle, mother of Bernard Gorfinkle, whose papers are located in the AJHS repository in Boston, Massachusetts.

In general, the biographies of each Milontaler family member are spotty, at best. Louis Millionthaler was born in Suwalki, Russia in 1837. His father, Reb Label, was a bardchen who entertained on special occasions and traveled extensively. When Louis was eleven, his father passed way unexpectedly after returning home from one of his trips. Within the year, his mother, Sara Mera, passed away, leaving Louis and his married sixteen-year-old sister. As a Hebrew student, Louis traveled from town to town to get his education, and at eighteen he officially became a Hebrew teacher and entered an arranged marriage with sixteen- year-old Pesha Tupass from Rartzk in 1855. By 1870, Louis had arrived in the North End and worked as a teacher, eventually making enough money to send for Pesha and their three daughters. To earn enough money to support his family, Louis became a peddler, working in Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown, establishing a route with steady customers. At some point, Louis published "Jesus and Rabbi Fleisher," which is listed as a new acquisition for the Boston Public Library in 1908. Louis passed away on June 8, 1917. Pesha outlived him by eleven years, passing away on February 12, 1928.

Louis and Pesha had at least four children: Sarah, who later married Harris Gorfinkle; Fanny, who married Zelig London; Esther, who married Joseph Gans; and Maurice (Moses, May 8, 1875-February 1965.) It is possible, but not clear, that Louis and Pesha had another son, Louis Thader, who changed his last name. Maurice later married Frances Levine (November 27, 1886-November 1978). They had two children, Harold Eli (December 12, 1910 or 1911?-March 1995) and Louise Hannah (September 15, 1917-February 10, 1998.) Neither Harold nor Louise married.

In 1907, at age 32, Maurice changed his last name from Millionthaler to Milontaler. Blank order forms indicate that Maurice and Frances owned the Beacon Shade and Screen Company in the Grove Hall section of Roxbury, Massachusetts, but little remains of their business records aside from some cash books, account information from other businesses, and photographs of MetLife insurance outings and some storefronts in the early 1900s. Not much else is known about Maurice, except that he decided in his retirement to write a memoir on the North End. This manuscript, "The North End of Boston: Gateway to the Goldener Land," survives in draft and final manuscript form. Maurice wrote many of his notes on scraps of paper, window shades and cardboard, and hired a secretarial student from Boston University to assist him in the preparation of the manuscript. According to Maurice's memoir, he originally thought his son Harold would be a good author for the book, but Harold declined the idea.

Frances (Fanny) Levine Milontaler was the daughter of Abraham and Clara Joseph Levine. Many photographs of the Levine and Joseph family survive, including those of a young Frances, many of her father and mother, and her uncle Israel Joseph, who was a Rabbi in Montgomery, Alabama. Abraham Levine was originally from Bialystok.

Harold Eli Milontaler was born in 1910 or 1911 and attended Roosevelt Grammar School, Boston Public Latin School (1928), and Harvard University (1932, cum laude.) His high school yearbook picture is on page 60 and describes his activities as president of the Junior Debating Society, and participation in the Literary and French clubs, and Track. He also won their Modern Prize for three years in a row and the Class of 1885 Prize. Harold was clearly a good student who took copious notes from his classes and enjoyed writing both fiction and non-fiction. He made some attempts to publish in The Forum but seemingly had little success. Very little is known about Harold. Surviving copies of Maurice's correspondence describes more about Louise than Harold, other than his graduation from Harvard. One letter from Harold to Maurice does survive and is postmarked from Westboro, Massachusetts. Remaining pages from a Westboro State Hospital Newsletter and Harold's own written outbursts in the letter indicate that he was suffering from mental illness and the family wished to remain quiet about it. Harold never married and later lived with his sister Louise in Brookline. Some photographs of Harold do exist: a negative of a photo taken with baby Harold and his grandfather, Louis, and a group photo of a teen- or college-aged Harold with Joseph Gorfinkle and two unidentified men. Harold passed away in 1995.

Louise Milontaler went to the Massachusetts Art School and taught at Boston University for many years. She was, for the most part, a self-employed photographic negative retoucher for 40 years. Louise never married and provided care for her parents, which she never regretted, according to a letter she wrote to Nicki Russler. In later years she lived in Brookline with Harold. Louise passed away in 1998.

1 Historical information obtained from the Milontaler Family Papers and the Boston Public Library.