Philip Stern

 

Philip & Sherwood Stern

A story from Peter…

Jacob Stern was rebelling against his dad Philip, so he took his family and got on a boat headed for Galveston, Texas.  But there was an epidemic on board so the boat was not allowed to land in Galveston.  Instead, the passengers were allowed to disembark in Savannah, Georgia.

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that when Savannah was founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe – a member of Parliament – the royal charter was for a new colony to be settled with: newly-freed debt prisoners as well as other social outcasts – like the working poor and religious dissenters including Jews.  Interestingly, Catholics, lawyers and slave holders were banned.