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Who was Jennie Scher?
In 1941, a stretch of road between Government Road and Richmond Road, hard against the Henrico County border and formerly known as Lewis Street and Mill Road, was named after Jennie Scher.
Jennie Scher was a Lithuanian native who came to U.S. in 1886. The wife of a tailor, Scher helped to organize the Ladies’ Hebrew Aid Society in 1897 and was later the driving force in the foundation of an old-folks home that also served as hospice for impoverished itinerants.
Scher is buried up the hill in the Sir Moses Montefiore side of the paired Sir Moses Montefiore and Beth Torah Cemeteries along Jennie Scher Road. Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery was founded in 1888 and has almost 700 internments.
This is all I could find… anybody got anything to add?
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Jennie B. Scher (1866-1938)
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Jennie Scher Road (1962 map)
I wrote a piece on Jennie Scher in the Greater Fulton Hill neighborhood newsletter about 6 years ago. I might still have a copy; I’ll let you know if I do.
I know that she was a great philanthropist and humanitarian. I also know that her husband’s name was Ike. When my wife’s great grandfather and great great uncle moved here from Lebanon, which was then called Syria, one or both of them worked for Ike. I have found their World War I draft cards, and they listed Ike as their household contact, since they came here as single men.
I believe Ike’s tailor shop was at one time located on the corner of 9th and Broad Street.
Here’s a little blurb from Ancestry.com about her with slightly differing birth info and some family links .
http://records.ancestry.com/jennie_b_scher_records.ashx?pid=8833148
This is why I love this site. BTW, if anyone has any questions about the ‘other side’ of this street, Adm. Gravely Blvd., see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_L._Gravely,_Jr.
He and Ralph Bunche are on my “to get to” list 🙂
Admiral Gravely was an interesting guy. Apparently he was born here in Richmond, in 1922, and attended Virginia Union University but didn’t graduate. He went on to join the Navy Reserve and graduated from UCLA. He went on to become the the first African American in the U.S. Navy to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a Navy ship, the first fleet commander, and the first to become a flag officer, retiring as a vice admiral. He died in 2004 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The street where he grew up was named after him in 1977. There is also a destroyer named after him. That’s all thanks to Wikipedia (and Erik).
See my website for article on the naming of this road.
Here: https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/26790684@N05/17616435554/in/dateposted-public/
& thanks!
Would help to have a date for the article which was May 18, 1941 (RTD)
Sent in by CRD: