Uncle Joe Paid in Gold

Uncle Joe Paid in Gold is based on the life of Joseph Sondheimer who had the biggest fur trade in the west in the late 1800s. He was one of the founders of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Interestingly, the histories of Muskogee have overlooked him. This historical fiction closely based on his life, starts with his arrival in Baltimore in 1852 at 13 where he starts an apprenticeship with a student of his father's William Rayner and dies in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1913. We follow him through his travels as he supplies the Union army in Cairo, Illinois and builds a Jewish congregation there, explores St. Louis, and then the Indian Territory before moving there. Joseph returns to Germany where his parents find him a cousin to marry. He then returns to Indian Territory and starts his business commuting between Muskogee and St. Louis for a number of years. After his parents die, his fiancée and his sister arrive in St. Louis, Missouri where both he and his brother Adolph are based. His business grows as does his family, though his wife Johanna insists upon staying in St. Louis with the children. His wife falls into a deep depression after two of their children die and he feels he must send her to an asylum. Joseph moves his three surviving children with him to the wild Muskogee and raises them himself. During this time, he builds the biggest fur and pecan trading business in the West. One of his sons marries a local Christian woman. Joseph's remaining daughter dies of complications of diabetes. His reputation as a businessman who treated everyone fairly regardless of their background, did not save him from deep sadness. This historical fiction is a perfect depiction of the American story: a boy comes with nothing and dies rich, loved by many.