These
two pictures were kindly emailed from California by Helen
Brenner-Sabo of San Diego. She is a great Granddaughter of Joseph
'Jose' Leszerovich Levy the Bootmaker and Fur Trader and his wife, my
great, great aunt, Golda Levy nee Romanofsky, from Punta
Arenas Tierra Del Fuego, Chile...
The Levy's left Chile for New York in around 1917. From there, they made their way to California, where the Dunn's would have gone to from London, if it hadn't been for the outbreak of the First World War.
This photo shows Henry Poirier's Curiosity Shop 'Peleteria Magallanes' - Magellan Furstore which was run by our ancestors Simon and Rebecca Dunn, and 'Rivella's (as she was known) two sisters Golda and Sara, with their respective husbands, Joseph 'Jose' Leszervich Levy and Henry Poirier, formerly known as Herman Birnbaum.
They lived in Punta Arenas Tierre Del Fuego in Chile over 100 years ago. The sign at the bottom reads 'Speciality Seals, Otterlions and Fox Skins etc..
The passage below was brought to my attention by historian Duncan Campbell of www.patbrit.org It seems to be describing the curio shop owned by Henry poirier, and run by Simon and Joseph and their families.
1913 Excerpt from "To hell and back; my trip to South America", G J Morrill, Chicago, 1914
"The electric lights of the city lured our launch through the
shipping to the pier and we made a hurried hike by warehouses and
dingy broad ways to the Plaza. The band concert was over, but the
South wind-instruments blew music. The church was closed and the
only person around was a statue. The "Sarah Brown" mansion was
dark. Like moths we were attracted by the light of a curio store.
As we entered a little lady left the supper table and came to meet
us. She spoke English and when we did with an American accent she
tried to sell us a sample of every souvenir she had in stock. The
place was packed with vicuna, guanaco, otter and silver fox skins
and stuffed pigeons, penguins, albatross and armadillos. Two
traders came in with a big rawhide bundle of skins. The natives
catch the game with a boleta. It is a long leather thong with a
stone at each end, a kind of sling or lariat, which they throw at
the feet of the animal. I picked one up, but it was over an
English pound and I threw it at her feet, and bought a long bone
spearhead which some Tierra del Fuegian used to catch a fish or to
crack a bonehead enemy's skull. I use this savage weapon to cut
the leaves of magazines and newspaper articles written by ossified
and thick-skulled editors. I paid for this and the postcards with
my last Chilean pesos."
