Abraham Franklin

Abe was born in 1863 in Glukhov. He married Ida Rivkin in Russia where their two sons Leonard and Nathan were born. Abe was looked upon as the head of the family. He operated a small department store on the south side of Milwaukee in a Polish neighborhood.

Abe died of pneumonia in California in 1922. Ida died in 1930.

Leonard Franklin became a secret service agent in W.W.I, and in W.W.II he worked in government intelligence.

Nathan Franklin married Betty Diamond. They had a furniture store in California.

Leo Franklin

Leo was born in Glukhov in 1868. He served three years in the Russian Cavalry immigrated to America in 1894 where he married Rose Bespalow in 1897. They lived in Milwaukee and had a dry goods store on the south side. Rose's sister married Leo's brother Mendel. Leo and Rose had three sons, Louis, Harry and Emil, who were all football players. Leo died in 1939.

Louis Franklin 1898 -1994 graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1921 His first position was teaching algebra in the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Also in 1921 he married Edith Herz, and they had four children.

Louis had a long and interesting career as a geologist. He lived in many parts of the United States and abroad. According to his memoirs, "One of the most memorable experiences of my career as an oil explorationist, was the time I spent in 1946-47 and 1953-56 in Palestine and Israel."

Edith passed away in 1956 and Leo married her widowed cousin. Louis died in 1994, at the age of 95 in Abilene, Texas. He was Abilene's oldest practicing geologist.

Harry Franklin 1901 - 1986 married Evelyn Traxler. They remained in Milwaukee where they had two children.

Emil Franklin 1904 - 1970 married Rose Pelton and became a doctor. They had two children.

Louis Franklin

Louis was born Chaim Leib Zavelsky in 1869 in Glukhov. According to his son, Nate, "he was in the Russian army, and when awol while on maneuvers. He left six children and his wife at home and when the army came to look for him they stuck swords in the mattress where his oldest son was hiding under the bed." In 1906 his wife Sarah Bess Donsker, born in Kovno, Lithuania, came to America with their six children, all born in Kovno: Rachel, Minnie, Marian, Anna, Lester and Reuben. In America they had four more children: Nathan, Benjamin, Solomon and Abraham.

Click here to read an excerpt from Marion Franklins autobiography pertaining to her early years in Kovno and the trip to America.

Louis was a bookbinder in Russia and for seventeen years. Later he had a grocery store in Milwaukee.

Rachel Franklin 1896 - was the first born of Louis and Sarah's children. She married Joseph Krevat and had two children.

Minnie Franklin 1898 - the second child of Louis and Sarah married Ben Ricklin and had three sons.

Marion Franklin 1899 - never married. She spent a good part of her life living and working in Chicago.

Anna Franklin 1901 - We do not know anything of Anna.

Lester Franklin 1903 - was born in Kovno. He married Belle Bartel and was an insurance broker. Lester and Belle had one son who became an internist.

Reuben Franklin was born in Kovno and died two weeks after arriving in Milwaukee.

Nathan Louis Franklin 1907 - was the first of Louis and Sarah's children to be born in America.

He married Ruth Berdikoff and had a son. After Ruth's death he married Frances Schwartz and had a second son and a daughter.

Benjamin Jack Franklin 1909 - was born in Milwaukee and married Edna Reiter. They had two daughters and a son.

Solomon Franklin 1911 - was born in Milwaukee and was a real estate appraiser. He married Minnie Gold and they had two daughters.

Abraham Franklin 1913 - the youngest child of Louis and Sarah was born in Milwaukee. He married Mildred Frank and they had two sons and a daughter.

Myer Franklin

Myer was born in Glukhov 1873, married Tillie Schelesnyack, and had two sons born in Gotlovka: Jacob Bear 1900 -1984 and Nathan Mendel (1901 - 1992.) They immigrated to America in 1902 and their two daughters were born in Milwaukee: Ida 1904 - and Sarah 1908 -.

Click here to read Ida's story about her parents.

Jacob Bear Franklin married Becky and they had two sons.

He was a dentist in practice with his brother until 1945 when he decided to become an orthodontist. He also became a professor at Marquette Dental School.

After Becky's death, Jacob married a second time.

Ida Franklin married Jacob Ozonoff whose sister was married to Ida's brother Nathan.

Ida was a well known collage artist. She graduated high school in Milwaukee when she was 16 and help her parents in their stores. Ida met her husband while he was in medical school. They married after he was finished his internship and had two sons and a daughter.

Sonia Franklin

Sonia was born in Glukhov in 1875. She married William Schostak in Russia and they arrived in America in 1900. They lived in Milwaukee where they had a little schoolhouse right in back of their home. William taught Hebrew in his little schoolhouse to prepare boys for their Bar Mitzvah.

Sonia was said to be a very strong woman. She and William had seven children: five boys and two girls: Louis, Abe, Manya, Alex, Celia, Nathan and Theo. Sonia's mother Leah lived with her for many years.

Mendel Franklin

Mendel 1877 - 1940 was born in Glukhov and arrived in America in 1892. He married Minnie Bespalow and they had three sons: Nathan, Harry and Aaron.

Mendel had a dry goods store in Milwaukee.

Hannah Franklin

Hannah,born in 1880 in Glukhov, arrived in the United States in 1901 and married Max Cable.

They had two daughters: Mildred and Alice. Mildred was reputed to have been an opera star who sang all over the world. Sonia was know to be a strong woman like her sister .

Samuel Franklin

Samuel 1882 - who arrived in the United States in 1901 as a teenager, married Minnie Schnell and became a doctor. Sam and Minnie had three children: Denora, Charlotte and Zalmond.

Before going to medical school he was a photographer. He went to school at Marquette in Milwaukee and drove a jitney to make ends meet. He became a general practitioner.

His son Zalmon left college in his last year to join The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and fight in Spain. According to family legend, Sam joined his son there.

Isador Franklin

Isador Franklin 1890 - the youngest of the Franklin brothers arrived in America in 1905 and went on to become a doctor.

He was married to Ida Brody and they had three children: Zalmon, Edith and Lillian.

Isador was an eye surgeon, a founding member of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee, the first Jew to be an instructor at Marquette University, head of the Hydra-Hormone Cancer Research Laboratory in Milwaukee and a militant atheist.

Isador and Ida's son Zalmon was a child prodigy who died of Leukemia at the age of 16.