Rebecca and Solomon Schuldenfrei
Becci and Sol Schuldenfrei were born in Cracow in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Their families immigrated to the United States when they were very young and they were raised in New York.1)
In 1897, they sold their small necktie and shirtwaist manufacturing business in New York where they were raising three children. Rebecca’s sister in Pennsylvania took care of the children while they sailed north from Seattle. They spent all their money on transportation, and it was too late to go prospecting when they arrived in Dawson in late September. They sold Rebecca’s lynx robe for $250 and bought a log cabin. They had a year’s worth of supplies, so they draped off one end of the building and crammed in some tables and benches to operate a restaurant. By December they were operating two small restaurants.2)
Rebecca missed her children and took the first boat out in the summer of 1898. Solomon stayed for another winter and ran a hotel they had purchased. After a fire burned down the hotel in 1899, Solomon also returned south.3)