Jennie and Charles Hymans

Born to Samuel and Caroline Hirsch Hymans in Gonzales and Goliad, Texas, respectively, siblings Jennie (age 4) and Charles (age 7) were admitted to the Home in November 1865. The circumstances of the children’s admission went unrecorded.

In 1871, at age 13, Charles was discharged into the care of Julius Loewenthal, a dry goods store owner in Mobile, Alabama, who provided opportunities to several Home children.  The following year, 11-year-old Jennie was discharged to her mother’s brother, David Hirsch of Corpus Christi, Texas, where she was later joined by Charles. 

 In Corpus Christi, Charles Hymans worked for his uncle, David Hirsch, and later with his brother-in-law, Charles Weil, before joining the dry good business of M. Lichtenstein, where he worked as wholesale manager for the rest of his life. In 1885, he married Emma Arnold, with whom he raised five children. When he died in 1906, having served as a member of the fire department and treasurer of the Knights of Pythias, Charles was remembered as “one of Corpus Christi’s prominent citizens.” 

Jennie Hymans, too, lived the rest of her life in Corpus Christi. Remaining single, she helped her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Charles Weil raise their eleven children. In 1907, while returning home from a summer vacation in Colorado, the Pullman sleeper car in which Jennie and the Weil family were traveling jumped the track, toppled over and rolled down an embankment “with its occupants in a frightful jumble.” Remarkably, Jennie and the Weil family members sustained only minor injuries. “Corpus People Hurt By Pullman Sleeper Turning Over and Going Into Ditch,” Corpus Christi Weekly Caller,” Sept. 13, 1907.  

Jennie died at age 69 in 1931 following a brief illness. After her burial in Corpus Christi’s Hebrew Rest Cemetery, Temple Beth El honored her contributions by naming the “Jennie Hymans Sewing Circle” in her memory.