Just recently, I posted a story about little 12-year-old Chaim Kleinman (misspelled as "Chain" in the original article), who ran away from his violent father in Warsaw, Poland and succeeded in getting to New York City with nothing but 3 rubles in his pocket. He was hoping to find his mother, who somehow had managed to escape her abusive husband with just a few of the younger children (the two older boys, including Chaim, were left behind). This was in 1907! It was quite an amazing tale of derring-do, but I had to wonder: whatever happened to the little stowaway? Did the immigration authorities at Ellis Island send him back, even though Chaim feared that his father would kill him if he returned? Did he ever find his mother? Here's the original Dastardly Dads from the Archives posting:
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/05/dastardly-dads-from-archives-ellis.html
Well, Chaim's story struck a nerve with at least one reader, who decided to see if there was a resolution to this tale. So she searched a bit, and fortunately, she found that Chaim did indeed locate his mother, who, as you can imagine, was utterly thrilled to have her son back! Here's what she found:
From the New York Times, September 16, 1907
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9801EEDB1F30E233A25755C1A96F9C946697D6CF
WELCOME WAITS FOR THIS STOWAWAY
Little Russian's Mother and Brother and Sisters and Uncle are Found.
RAN AWAY FROM WARSAW
12-Year-Old Chaim Shlome Kleinman Beat His Way to Ellis Island and Will be Released To-day.
Chaim Shlome Kleinman is not to go back to Russia, as was thought very probable on Thursday, when the Barbarossa came into port with the 12-year-old boy a stowaway and no one to receive him. True, he knew that he had two uncles--Morris Jacobson and Max Weiss--here; that his mother, two brothers, and a sister were in New York, but he had no addresses. He left his father in a hurry one night in Warsaw, Poland, and didn't wait for special instructions.
Since Friday, when Chaim Shlome (he'll soon get another name) was put in the detention house on Ellis Island by the immigration authorities, he has been telling about his relatives here. Some did not believe that he had any, and almost all his listeners were quite sure that the thin little boy had mistaken their names.
But Jews who took an interest in his case advertised the two names given by Chaim Shlome in east side papers, and yesterday, one of of these papers heard from the very Max Weiss about whom the boy had told. He has a well-paying tailor's shop at 791 Ninth Avenue, near Fifty-third Street, and lives in the house above with his wife.
There, too, lives Chaim's mother, who had to leave her husband, Hirsh Kleinman, some three years ago, she said, because he was mean to her. She is a sister of Mrs. Weiss and also of the wife of the very Morris Jacobson whose name was given by the little stowaway, and lives at 438 Lenox Avenue.
Since coming here, Mrs. Kleinman, a pleasant-faced little woman, has been living with the Weiss's and working about as a trained nurse. When she fled from her husband, who operates a line of wagons in Warsaw, she left him Jacob, who was then 13, and Chaim, who was 9. She brought Raphael, then a baby, and Annie, who was then 11 years old.
Annie lives with Mrs. Jacobson. Some two months ago, Jacob came to this country, and was at once taken into the Weiss family. He is working in the shop at 791 Ninth Avenue. No one wrote to Chaim to come here. Though he had treated her cruelly, she said yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Kleinman thought that her husband ought to have one or two of the children with him. But when Chaim read the letters that were sent to Jacob telling of America, and though no money was provided for him, and though nobody had invited him to pay America a visit, he decided on his own hook to do it.
Mr. Weiss and Mrs. Kleinman rushed down yesterday morning to try to get Chaim out immediately, but they were told to come back to-day. And so this morning early they will be there--Mrs. Kleinman, Mrs. Weiss, Max Weiss, Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsson, and Raphael--to welcome the stout little stowaway. Jacob will not be there as he must tend the shop while Mr. Weiss goes. The golden-haired Annie will not be there, as she explained this way:
"Oh, I must go to school. Did you notice how I speak the English language? The school runs to-morrow, and I will--no, shall--not be in readiness to go see my brother. I must not go anywhere but to school, you know, except on Saturdays and Sundays. And I came running down to Mrs. Weiss's to-day, but he could not come. Now I shall see him after the school. That will be grand."
One reason immigration officials were doubtful about Chaim being able to carry out his often-expressed determination to come into this country in spite of all laws and office, was that even if some of the relatives of the lad should be located, they wouldn't be willing to take him on their hands. In that case he would have to be sent back. But Mr. Weiss means well by Chaim Shlome Kleinman: he will agree to care for him.
Mrs. Kleinman is very proud of Chaim Kleinman now; she is sure that a boy who could make his way from Warsaw to New York with a couple of rubles is a pretty good sort of person to bank on. She will send him to school after the holidays. But first of all she is going to have him tell all about his adventures while walking the twelve days from Warsaw to Cracow; how he got past the border guards; how he got to Bremen, and then how he got aboard the ship. There's a good time ahead for Chaim Shlome Kleinman at 791 Ninth Avenue; he is already a hero there.
