Birth: February 28, 1848 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Death: April 29, 1913 in Victoria, B.C.
Plot: Row E – Plot 23
Inscription:
In Loving Memory of
JACK LEVY
SAM LEVY
sons of ESTHER LEVY
1848-1913
1845-1921
Biography:
British born Esther Solomon immigrated to New Zealand to marry British born Benjamin in an arranged marriage. Jacob “Jack” Levy (1848-1913) was born after the family moved to Sydney, Australia. He was the last child born before the Levy’s relocated to San Francisco for the California Gold Rush. They moved to London not long after. On the trip back to California, Benjamin died of typhoid when they were a few days from Panama. Esther, very pregnant, continued with her children, all of whom were under the age of 11. After Esther gave birth, the family was assisted through charity appeals in the Jewish Chronicle in London, as well as by the British Government, to return to England.
Esther struggled to raise her children as a single mother in London. To support families charities apprenticed young children to work at low paying occupations. Unhappy with the conditions in London, at the age of 16, eldest son, Henry Emanuel, “H.E.” left London on his own and arrived in Victoria in 1859. In 1865, at the age of 22, with the money he earned as a police officer, he established Levy’s Arcade Oyster Saloon. With those proceeds, H.E. brought his mother and five remaining living siblings, including Jack to Victoria.
Leaving the restaurant in the hands of his brother, Joe, H.E. went to Seattle in search of new business opportunities. By 1871, he had established Levy Brothers’ Seattle Soda Works which manufactured soda water, syrups, cider, ginger beer, sarsaparilla and other beverages. It was the first soda water manufacturer in the Washington Territory. Jack worked in Seattle with H.E. in that venture until 1874, when Jack left the business and returned to Victoria. He came back to Seattle two years later and established himself as a cigar merchant.
Jack conducted his business from the Grotto Stand which was housed in one of the buildings on Mill Street, the epicenter of early days in Seattle, now known as Yesler Way. Besides selling cigars, Jack made his stand a community hub. He had a huge bulletin board to advertise upcoming events and publicize items that came across the telegraph lines, often a day ahead of when the news was published in the local papers.
In addition to selling cigars at his stand, Jack also sold tickets to major theatrical productions as well as steamship excursions. Jack was a central ticket vendor for most of the major productions that came to Seattle, including tickets for the theater, vaudeville, novelty acts and the opera. Jack often dealt directly with stars of the day and agents arranging to bring the entertainment to Seattle, often on their way to or from performances in Victoria. Beginning in 1877, the Seattle Post Intelligencer began publishing notices identifying the Grotto Stand as a location for purchasing or reserving tickets at no extra fee.
Jack was also an important early organizer and promoter of sports in Seattle. He organized and promoted the Seattle Rifle Team in international matches. The July 2, 1877 edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that Jack was involved in organizing a regatta as part of the July 4th celebrations in Seattle. On July 6, 1877 the paper detailed the international rifle match that Jack organized between the Seattle and Victoria teams. The more experienced Victoria team hosted the event, but the under-dog Seattle team won the competition. Jack presented a Maltese Cross to his winning team at the concluding dinner.
Perhaps Jack was best known for the important role that he played in Seattle’s baseball history before major league baseball was established. On June 1, 1877, the first organized baseball team, the Seattle Base Ball Club, voted to change its name to the Alki Base Ball Club and elected Jack as its president. Jack is recognized as the first Jewish baseball manager on the west coast. The team that Jack organized for a series of matches with the Victoria team developed into an active semi-professional team.
The Klondike Gold Rush attracted fifty year old Jack to the Yukon. He was among one of the early arrivals to Skagway. According to his account which was published in the Seattle Post Intelligencer on August 12, 1897, there were only two houses in Skagway at the time. Twenty of his fellow passengers volunteered to help build the trail. Jack remained in the Yukon at least through August, 1897. He might have been a clerk in a clothing store run by his brother Joe. The Seattle Post Intelligencer on in 1897 named several residents of Dawson City and described Jack as a “Seattle Lothario.”
Jack remained in the Yukon for a dozen years before moving to Victoria. According to his obituary published in the Victoria Daily Times on April 30, 1913, Jack “opened a restaurant behind the Bank Exchange on Yates Street.” Several months after that, Jack’s health had begun to decline. The obituary noted that Jack suffered ‘for many years’ from injuries that he sustained in October, 1892 when the steamship Willamette collided with the Premier. Jack was sitting in his room on the Premier when the bow of the Willamette crashed through, splintering his room. Jack was taken from the debris scratched and bruised.
His death certificate indicated that Jack’s former occupation was hotel keeper and that he had been at the Jubilee Hospital just under a month before he died of a double irreducible hernia at the age of sixty-six. The funeral took place in his brother H.E.’s home. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at 3 pm on May 1, 1913.
*****Special thanks to Carolyn Hahn for her suggested edits and for her tireless willingness to help get her family’s story straight.
Parents:
Benjamin Levy (1819–1853)
Esther Solomon Levy (1824–1911)
Siblings:
Joseph “Joe” Levy (1841-1935)
H.E. (Henry Emanuel) Levy (1843–1929)
Samuel L. Levy (1845-1923)
Phoebe Levy Levy (1854-1926)
Abraham Levy (died 1874)
Additional Images:
The Jewish Cemetery of Victoria, British Columbia 