Last updated: March 7, 2023
Person
Flora Langerman Spiegelberg
Courtesy of the Jewish Museum of the American West
Quick Facts
Significance:
Activist, educator, and member of a successful Jewish Santa Fe Trail merchant family
Place of Birth:
New York City
Date of Birth:
1857
Place of Death:
New York City
Date of Death:
1943
Flora Langerman Spiegelberg was a Jewish writer, activist, and educator who travelled the Santa Fe Trail to move to Santa Fe, NM, with her husband. Flora was born in New York City in 1857. After her father died in 1866, Flora moved to Nuremburg, Germany, to finish school. It was there she met her husband Willi Spiegelberg, a successful Santa Fe merchant, who was visiting his homeland.
Willi was the youngest of five brothers who partnered in business related to the Santa Fe trade. Jacob Solomon, Willi’s oldest brother, established a general merchandise firm called Spiegelberg Brothers in 1846. Eventually, all the brothers immigrated to New Mexico to join the business, with Willi arriving in 1861. Their business was highly successful. They operated a storefront on the Santa Fe Plaza, invested in mining, insurance, and construction, and founded the Second National Bank of Santa Fe.
As newlyweds, Flora and Willie travelled from Germany to Santa Fe in 1875, with the final leg of the journey following the Santa Fe Trail. At the time, the railroad had replaced the eastern half of the trail, with a terminus in Los Animas, Colorado. They traveled on the trail by coach the remainder of the way.
Flora and Willie were welcomed in Santa Fe to great fanfare. She wrote of the day they arrived: “To our great surprise, my husband’s brother Lehman, joined by friends in buggies or horseback and even on burros, had come out to welcome us with a band of Mexican musicians on top of an old stage coach and amid cheers for ‘Don Julian El Bonito and his pretty Tenderfoot Bride’” (Spiegelberg, p. 3).
Flora became an important socialite as a member of one of the wealthiest families in Santa Fe. She was active in the community and helped her family host prominent community members and visiting dignitaries. The Spiegelberg family hosted President and Mrs. Hayes, Ulysses Grant, Phillip S. Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman.
As a member of the small Jewish community in New Mexico, Flora was accepting of people with different religions and backgrounds. Through shared experiences of discrimination, the Spiegelbergs connected with locals who encountered prejudice from Americans. According to Flora, locals expressed a fondness for the Spiegelbergs, noting that, “Los hermanos Jacobus estan la misma gente que nuestro Rentor Jesus Cristos,” (We honor the five Spiegelberg brothers because they are of the same people as our Savior Jesus Christ).
The Spiegelbergs also connected with the Catholic population in Santa Fe. Flora developed a close friendship with Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy who made a point to commemorate Jewish holidays by sending gifts to the family. The Spiegelbergs contributed funds for the construction of St. Francis Cathedral.
Noting the lack of a public school in Santa Fe, Flora organized the first school available to children outside of the Catholic faith. The one-room schoolhouse and its one teacher served Protestant and Jewish children alike. In 1880 after the railroad reached Santa Fe, she helped organize donations to build a larger schoolhouse at the old Fort Marcy grounds. She also helped create the area’s first Children’s Garden where she taught kids how to plant, grow, and tend to plants.
Flora’s two daughters, Betty and Rose, were born in Santa Fe. In 1889 the family moved to New York City to provide a stronger Jewish community for the girls. Flora maintained a strong community presence in New York as an activist, educator, organizer, and author.
Flora’s desire to create a better world for working people lead her to campaign for improved sanitation practices in New York City. Garnering her the nickname, “Garbage Can Flora,” she fought for and won rights for sanitation workers. In 1919, her “Ten Commandments for World Peace,” which demanded public input on US decisions to enter war, was published. Flora also helped establish committees and clubs for Jewish women.
Flora passed away in 1943 in New York City after a rich life of bringing people together, advocating for change, and standing up for marginalized people.
Learn More
Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Sources
- Cook, M.J. (2000). Flora Spiegelberg, “Tenderfoot bride of the Santa Fe Trail,” Wagon Tracks, 15(1), 11-16. Retrieved from https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=wagon_tracks
- Fields, J. (2009, Mar. 20). Flora Langerman Spiegelberg. Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved from https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/spiegelberg-flora-langerman.
- Gleicher, S. G. (1992). The Spiegelbergs of New Mexico: A family story of the Soutwestern frontier. Southwest Jewish History, 1(2). Retrieved from https://swja.library.arizona.edu/content/spiegelbergs-new-mexico-family-story-southwestern-frontier
- Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum. (n.d.). Flora Langerman Spiegelberg. Stories Untold: Jewish Pioneer Women 1850-1910. Retrieved from http://www.storiesuntold.org/women/flora_text.html?fbclid=IwAR2k10BE4oJlPrmW5uI486h75HmAdu5bbN2Ga0E7pAeKOAEdk1_x2tRXfEY
- Spiegelberg, F. (2013). Reminiscences of a Jewish Bride of the Santa Fe Trail – Part 1. New Mexico Jewish Historical Society’s Legacy, 26(1), pp. 1 – 3.