Kay Goldman Ph.D

A 2003 graduate of Texas A&M University, Kay entered the Department of History as a Ph.D. student to study under Harold Livesay. Focusing on the Jews of Texas, her dissertation explored the relationship of Jewish businessmen within the surrounding culture. Kay has also dome research on The National Council of Jewish Women in Louisiana and Texas.

Her current project is annotated memoir of Rebecca Cohen Mayer With a Doll in One Pocket and a Piston in the Other: Rebecca Cohen Mayer 1837-1930.

I became fascinated by history before I entered my teens. As a young girl, I preferred reading biographies and at fifteen began investigating my family history. Discovering that all my mother's ancestors arrived in the South before the Civil War, I documented their movements through Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Currently my cousin and I are attempting to find information about our Hart, Lavine, Oppenheimer and Simon ancestors in Europe.

I became a charter member of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, and in the 1980s I began recording information about Jewish cemeteries across Texas. This project eventually resulted in a book listing most of the Texas Jewish graves published by the Texas Jewish Historical Society.

In 1993, I entered Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University at San Marcus) seeking a M.S. in History. My research focused on the early Jewish merchants who settled between the Gulf of Mexico and San Antonio, along the Guadalupe River.

After entering Texas A&M University, I began working in the field of Business History but also maintained my interest in Jewish history. My dissertation brought these two fields together and it covers Texas Jewish Businessmen. I investigated their businesses and then their relationships with other men and women in Texas. The work includes information about their involvement in fraternal organizations such as Odd Fellows and Freemasons, their service in the Civil War, their political involvement in Texas and finally their social interaction with other Texans.

My current project is researching the story of Rebecca Cohen Mayer. Rebecca Cohen married Henry Mayer in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1852 and accompanied Henry down the Santa Fe Trail. The couple lived in Mexico and San Antonio, Texas before fleeing the South during the Civil War. After leaving Texas, Henry and Rebecca spent time in New York City, Frankfurt, Germany and Liverpool, England. Eventually they returned to the United States and settled in Chicago. This remarkable woman reared twelve children and lived until 1930.

After finishing this project, I hope to continue documenting the Jewish history of Texas.