Shinah Solomon Etting (December 24, 1744 – November 30, 1822) was the matriarch of one of the first Jewish families to live in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Biography

Etting was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to Lancaster merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myer-Cohen Solomon. She had two brothers, Isaac (1742-1798) and Levy (1748-1827). In November 1759, she married 35-year-old Elijah Etting and the couple moved to

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

, where they had eight children—Reuben, Solomon, Joseph, Fanny, Elizabeth, Kitty, Hetty and Sally—all of whom lived to adulthood except Joseph. She and her husband ran a small store in York where they hosted

Alexander Graydon Alexander Graydon Jr. (1752–1818) was an author and officer in the American Revolution. He was commissioned captain on January 5, 1776 and commanded a company of men in the Battle of Long Island and in the Battle of Harlem Heights. He was taken ...

in the summer of 1773. He wrote about the pleasant hospitality he received in the Etting home, saying that Shinah in specific was "always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably...." When Elijah died in 1778, Shinah moved to Baltimore with her younger children around 1780, though the exact date is unknown. Using her inheritance, she had a small boarding house built to her specifications, "for gentlemen." She took in boarders, among them Judith Cohen, the widow of Israel Cohen, and her children; both families had sons who rose to prominence in Baltimore. Etting used the profits from her successful inn to assist her two prominent sons in their business ventures. She was a stockholder in Union Bank in 1796, along with two of her sons and two of her daughters. Etting had her portrait painted twice by

Charles Peale Polk Charles Peale Polk (March 17, 1767 – May 6, 1822) was an American portrait painter and the nephew of artist Charles Willson Peale. Biography Polk was born in Annapolis, Maryland, to Elizabeth Digby Peale and Robert Polk. At age eight or ten ...

in the first half of the 1790s. One of the paintings is considered "one of his more successful portraits." An additional portrait was painted of her by

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in 1813. Her son Solomon and her brother Levy purchased the "Jew's burying ground" in Baltimore in 1801. The cemetery which became known as the Etting Cemetery, was the oldest Jewish cemetery in Baltimore. Solomon Etting and Jacob Cohen were elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1826 a few months after the state constitution was amended to modify the requirement that elected officials swear a "Christian oath." Etting Street in Northwest Baltimore is named for Solomon Etting. Her son Reuben was appointed

United States Marshal The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforc ...

for Maryland by

President Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

in 1801 and served through 1804.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etting, Shinah Solomon 1744 births 1822 deaths People from Baltimore Jewish women 18th-century American women 19th-century American women 18th-century American Jews 19th-century American Jews People from New York City

Biography

See also

References