Interview with Edward Lurye, April 18, 1977, Superior, Wisconsin

Partial Transcript: Place and date of birth.

Partial Transcript: Arrived in Montreal; was a greenhorn. Took a train to Superior.

Partial Transcript: Maternal uncles, Edelstein brothers, lived in Superior. Future looked bad in Europe.

Partial Transcript: Attended school until the 6th grade; then started working because family was large and needed money. Regrets he did not complete his education; later, took business course in night school. Discusses importance of education.

Partial Transcript: Wrapped bundles for the owners, Nathan and Bill Stein, who were German Jews.

Partial Transcript: Parents wanted him home in Superior, so got a job as a timekeeper.

Partial Transcript: Rented a store for 25 dollars a month. Brother was in transfer business; his father was a blacksmith; Ed was the go-getter. Business expanded until circumstances changed and Lurye got into some trouble.

Partial Transcript: Began in 1939 with 15 dollars capital. Family did not approve, but now a three generation business.

Partial Transcript: Americanization; some saw wisdom in not following the old traditions.

Partial Transcript: Only three or four families of German extraction. Discusses Albert Abraham (actually Arthur Abraham).

Partial Transcript: First lived in “Oklahoma” section, above a Jewish bakery. Lurye's father remarried after his wife died; Ed Lurye discusses his stepmother.

Partial Transcript: Handlovsky family ran bakery business.

Partial Transcript: Good relationship maintained, Lurye business required contacts with Gentile community; Lurye was a member of many community organizations.

Partial Transcript: Had a Bar Mitzvah in Superior; had a tutor who lived with the family in Russia.

Partial Transcript: Little synagogue started in Oklahoma.

Partial Transcript: Kerner brought many relatives to the United States; Lurye family small compared to Kaner family.

Partial Transcript: Perhaps an arranged marriage.

Partial Transcript: His father had a good business, but no future for a family of seven children. Czar's army a threat; family didn't want their sons drafted.

Partial Transcript: Ed's older brother Morris went with his father. Ed's father worked in flour sheds long hours to make enough money to send for his family.

Partial Transcript: Zelasnic picked up rags with horse and wagon. Lurye helped him because he could speak English.

Partial Transcript: Family got government contract for hauling mail from the railway depot.

Partial Transcript: Father angry because Ed rented the store on Saturday; father's wife interfered in family business.

Partial Transcript: B'nai Brith.

Partial Transcript: Edelstein grandparents arrived in Superior one year after Lurye family; B.H. Edelstein (Ed's uncle) lived in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Partial Transcript: Kaner family peddled rubber and junk.

Partial Transcript: Zelasnic was in cattle business. Many Jews bought and sold cattle.

Partial Transcript: Family wanted to get away from the traditional trade.

Partial Transcript: Arrived on July 4, 1901 and sold balloons at an Independence Day parade.

Partial Transcript: Frank Nathan and wife lived in Hotel Superior; Felix Seligman was manager of Columbia Clothing Company.

Partial Transcript: Woolf, Schlosberg, and Bazalan families. Bazalan an associate judge of the court of appeals in Washington, D.C.