The Mysterious Incident in Memphis
Was my great-grandfather a murderer?
There was a brawl in a saloon in Memphis. He had to leave. The young immigrant from Russia had made his home here for over five years. Now he fled, not just leaving town, but travelling to a completely different continent, restarting his life in Cape Town, South Africa.
My great-grandfather, Nathan, was born in 1871 in Melitopol, a small market town in the south of Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Myer, was a wheat trader, making a living from buying and selling Ukraine’s lucrative crop. As a Jew, Myer was not allowed to farm wheat himself, to own land or live freely where he wanted to. But he worked hard and built up a comfortable business to support his large family. Nathan had three older brothers, three younger brothers and two younger sisters. His elder brothers worked with their father, in the wheat business. They would set up a stall on market day on the outskirts of Melitopol for peasants to sell their wheat, before going into town to make purchases. All his other brothers trained as cabinet makers, but Nathan never had a trade — although his father constantly urged him to apply himself to…
