Archives West Finding Aid

Tape recorded interview with Therese and Harold Offer conducted by Meta Kaplan on 28 Jul 1975. The accession also includes memorabilia, ca. 1875-1930.

Therese Offer Interview: The recording begins with an interview with Therese Offer, concerning Mrs. Offer's father's coming to Seattle and going to work for Schwabachers where his uncle Sigmund Aronson was employed. Her father, Elkan Morgenstern, became secretary of Schwabacher Groceries. Mrs. Offer is a first cousin of Mary McCarthy's mother. She gives an account of her personal association with Mary McCarthy. All four of her grandparents were born in Europe. She tells of anti-Semitism on the UW campus, but how her granddaughter joined a non-Jewish sorority, an encapsulation of change. She tells of her work for Council and how Adele Simons from San Francisco, who had a hard-of-hearing child, demonstrated an audiometer at a Seattle Section meeting and inspired purchase of the audiometer for the Seattle Pulbic Schools. She tells how her father told how Schwabachers did business in a tent because their building burned completely. At the end of the tape there is a short interview with Mr. Offer's husband Harold, in which he talks about is arrival in Seattle from San Francisco in 1910. His father was His mother's family were fruit famers in Stockton. Harold Offer came from San Francisco to Seattle because his uncle, Julius Offer, lived here. He met Therese Morgenstern and stayed in Seattle to marry her in 1916. His mother was a real forty-niner. His father was born in Hungary. He made money in cigar manufacturing in San Francisco, and lost all of his money in oil. (His father was taken from Ellis Island by the Jewish Immigration Society and taught a trade.) His father worked his way West on horseback and with a horse and wagon. He met his wife in Stockton where Harold was born.Talks of his parent's life in Salt Lake City among the Mormons. He tells of the kindness of Mormon bankers to his mother.

Harold Offer Interview: Harold Offer came from San Francisco to Seattle because his uncle, Julius Offer, lived here. He met Therese Morgenstern and stayed in Seattle to marry her. His mother was a real forty-niner. His father was born in Europe, made and lost money in cigar manufacturing in San Francisco, and lost all of his money in oil. (His father was taken from Ellis Island by the Jewish Immigration Society and taught a trade.) His father worked his way West on horseback and with a horse and wagon. He met his wife in Stockton where Harold was born.

There are two transcripts of the same interview. The first (22 pages) possibly done near the time of the interview, the second (38 pages) done in 2000.