Solomon Etting. Autograph Letter Signed, written to Hyman Gratz.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

31st March

Baltimore

1825

Etting informs Gratz of his receipt of $30 from Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia, to give to Solomon De Castro for passage to Curaçao. However, when De Castro came for the money, Etting discerned that he intended to go instead to Virginia and then pocket the balance of the money. Etting told De Castro he would not release the $30 unless De Castro was prepared to use it for its assigned purpose, in which case Etting would pass the $30 directly to the ship’s captain. De Castro declined, however taking into account De Castro’s “age and apparent destitute state” Etting gave him $12 for passage to Virginia, and thus returns here the balance of $18 to Mikveh Israel.Etting writes that De Castro is “an old traveler from time to time thro this country for 35 years by his own statement - and from his conversation, our religion forms little or no part of his consideration.” In closing, Etting “reciprocate[s] to you the compliments of the season,” referring to the immanent approach of Passover.

Hyman Gratz (1776-1857) was Etting’s cousin, through marriage to his wife Rachel. Gratz was a merchant in Philadelphia, and, as part of his illustrious family, a leader in many Jewish causes: An officer of Philadelphia’s flagship synagogue Mikveh Israel; one of the managers of the original Jewish Publication Society organized in 1845; and through an endowment in 1856, the founder of Gratz College. Solomon De Castro seems to have left little mark. He was the type of Jew present in those early American days - something of a vagabond, and judging by the surname, connected to noble Sephardic families in Europe and the Caribbean.