View source for Shinah Solomon Etting

{{Short description|Jewish woman in colonial Baltimore}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Shinah Solomon Etting
|image       = Shinah Solomon Etting.jpg
|caption     = Etting painted by [[Charles Peale Polk]]
|birth_date  = December 24, 1744
|birth_place =
|death_date  = {{death date and age |1822|11|30|1744|12|24|mf=yes}}
|death_place =
|other_names =
|known_for   =
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}}
'''Shinah Solomon Etting''' (December 24, 1744 – November 30, 1822) was the matriarch of one of the first Jewish families to live in [[Baltimore, Maryland]].<ref name="Ira">{{cite journal |last1=Rosenwaike |first1=Ira |title=The Jews of Baltimore to 1810 |journal=American Jewish Historical Quarterly |date=June 1975 |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=291–320 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23880394 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|jstor=23880394 }}</ref><ref name="IA020d">{{cite web | last=Brilliant|first=Richard|title=Facing the new world : Jewish portraits in colonial and federal America| website=Internet Archive | date=2020-06-10 | url=https://archive.org/details/facingnewworldje0000unse | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref><ref name="Browne Dielman Maryland Historical Society 1920 p. 4">{{cite book | last1=Browne | first1=W.H. | last2=Dielman | first2=L.H. | author3=Maryland Historical Society | title=Maryland Historical Magazine | publisher=Maryland Historical Society. | year=1920 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA4 | access-date=2021-05-01 | page=4}}</ref>
==Biography==
Etting was born in [[New York City]] to Lancaster merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myer-Cohen Solomon.<ref name="York">{{cite web | title=Shinah Etting, early York matriarch - Universal York | website=Universal York | date=2013-03-10 | url=https://yorkblog.com/universal/shinah-etting-early-york-matriarch/ | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref> She had two brothers, Isaac (1742-1798) and Levy (1748-1827).<ref name="Ira" /> In November 1759, she married 35-year-old Elijah Etting and the couple moved to [[York, Pennsylvania]], where they had eight children—Reuben, [[Solomon Etting|Solomon]], Joseph, Fanny, Elizabeth, Kitty, Hetty and Sally—all of whom lived to adulthood except Joseph.<ref name="Ira" /><ref name="York" /><ref name="Maryland State Archives">{{cite web | title=Solomon Etting , MSA SC 3520-13490 | website=Maryland State Archives | url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013400/013490/html/13490bio.html | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref>
She and her husband ran a small store in York where they hosted [[Alexander Graydon]] in the summer of 1773.<ref name="CJ">{{cite web | title=York, Pa.'s, Shinah Etting: 'The life of all the gaiety that could be mustered in the village | website=The Courier-Journal | date=2010-12-01 | url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/history/blogs/york-town-square/2010/12/01/womens-club/31754349/ | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref> 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...."<ref name="CJ" />
When Elijah died in 1778, Shinah moved to Baltimore with her younger children around 1780, though the exact date is unknown.<ref name="York" /><ref name="JE">{{cite web | title=Baltimore | website=JewishEncyclopedia.com | url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2420-baltimore | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref> Using her inheritance, she had a small boarding house built to her specifications, "for gentlemen."<ref name="MHM">{{cite journal |last1=Jacob |first1=Kathryn Allamong |title=The Woman's Lot in Baltimore Town 1729-1797 |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |date=1976 |volume=71 |issue=3 |page=291 |url=http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5800/sc5881/000001/000000/000283/pdf/msa_sc_5881_1_283.pdf |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> She took in boarders, among them [[Judith Solomon Cohen|Judith Cohen]], the widow of Israel Cohen, and her children; both families had sons who rose to prominence in Baltimore.<ref name="Jewish Virtual Library 2020">{{cite web | title=Baltimore Jewish History Tour | website=Jewish Virtual Library | date=2020-04-17 | url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/baltimore-jewish-history-tour | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref><ref name="JMM">{{cite web |title=Timeline of Baltimore Jewry: 1657 – 1849 |url=http://www.jhsm.org/html/cr_timeline1.html |website=Jewish Museum of Maryland |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="Beirne 1984 p. 211">{{cite book | last=Beirne | first=F.F. | title=The Amiable Baltimoreans | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | series=Maryland Paperback Bookshelf | year=1984 | isbn=978-0-8018-2513-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNso9EnqfxcC&pg=PA211 | access-date=2021-05-01 | page=211}}</ref> Etting used the profits from her successful inn to assist her two prominent sons in their business ventures.<ref name="MHM" /> She was a stockholder in Union Bank in 1796, along with two of her sons and two of her daughters.<ref name="IA20">{{cite web | last=Blum|first=Isidor|title=The Jews of Baltimore; an historical summary of their progress and status as citizens of Baltimore from early days to the year nineteen hundred and ten| website=Internet Archive | date=2020-06-10 | url=https://archive.org/details/jewsofbaltimoreh00blum | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref>
Etting had her portrait painted twice by [[Charles Peale Polk]] in the first half of the 1790s.<ref name="IA20c">{{cite web | last=Kleeblatt|first=Norman L.|title=The Jewish heritage in American folk art| website=Internet Archive | date=2020-06-10 | url=https://archive.org/details/jewishheritagein00klee | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref><ref name="Silberman 2008 p. 10">{{cite book | last=Silberman | first=L.R. | title=The Jewish Community of Baltimore | publisher=Arcadia Pub. | series=Images of America | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-7385-5397-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OfJ5UfqBIMkC&pg=PA10 | access-date=2021-05-01 | page=10}}</ref> One of the paintings is considered "one of his more successful portraits."<ref name="IA20c" /> An additional portrait was painted of her by [[John Wesley Jarvis]] in 1813.<ref name="MCFHC">{{cite web | title=Maryland Center for History and Culture | website=Maryland Center for History and Culture | url=https://www.mdhistory.org/digital-resource/7863/ | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref>
Her son Solomon and her brother Levy purchased the "Jew's burying ground" in Baltimore in 1801.<ref name="JE" /> The cemetery which became known as the Etting Cemetery, was the oldest Jewish cemetery in Baltimore.<ref name="JMM2">{{cite web |title=Archive Record |url=https://jewishmuseummd.pastperfectonline.com/archive/91264F4F-EDBF-42AF-9D2C-895300897107 |website=Jewish Museum of Maryland Online Collections Database |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> 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."<ref name="JMM" /> Etting Street in Northwest Baltimore is named for Solomon Etting.<ref name="TBS">{{cite news |title=Baltimore's Names: Etting |url=https://img7.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=17789422 |access-date=1 May 2021 |work=The Evening Sun |date=June 7, 1979 |location=Baltimore, MD |page=27}}</ref> Her son Reuben was appointed [[United States Marshal]] for Maryland by [[Thomas Jefferson|President Jefferson]] in 1801 and served through 1804.<ref name="MSA">{{cite web | title=U.S. Marshals (Maryland) | website=Maryland State Archives | url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/39fed/html/0500list.html | access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref><ref name="JTA">{{cite news |title=Jewish Community of Baltimore, Dating Back More Than a Century, Now Numbers 76,000 |url=http://pdfs.jta.org/1927/1927-12-14_944.pdf |date=December 14, 1927|work=Jewish Daily Bulletin |agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|access-date=2021-05-01}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[History of the Jews in Baltimore]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Etting, Shinah Solomon}}
[[Category:1744 births]]
[[Category:1822 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American women]]
[[Category:19th-century American women]]
[[Category:18th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:19th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:People from Baltimore]]
[[Category:People from New York City]]