On This Date in Minnesota History: February 3

February 3, 1915 – Ruben Silver was arraigned today in Minneapolis Municipal Court on a non-support charge, admitting on the stand that he had two wives living. Herman Liss, deputy clerk of the Municipal Court, says he has evidence indicating that Silver’s real name is Koleman Weisfeldt, and that he has three wives besides Rose Redker Silver, whom he married in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. The case was continued pending further investigation of Silver’s matrimonial record.

Ruben Silver

Silver arrived in Minneapolis about two months ago, and almost immediately sought the services of a shadchan, or matrimonial agent, to secure him a wife. Through the shadchan he met and married Rose, whose dowry was to be a team of horses and a wagon.

Silver, according to his wife and relatives-in-law, quit work as soon as he was married and became insistent that he be given the promised team so that he might start in the express business. This, they say, led to a partial estrangement and to Silver’s being watched by Sol Redker, his brother-in-law, who a few days ago met Abe Koenig, formerly of Poland.

Koenig, according to Redker, asserted that Silver had three wives besides his Minneapolis spouse.

He left his wife and two children in Russian Poland, said Koenig, when he came to America five years ago; abandoned another in Topeka; and under the name of Carl Weis married and later deserted Virginia Rosenthal in St. Joseph, Mo.

With these charges against his brother-in-law, Sol Redker sought Deputy Liss. The issuance of a warrant and Silver’s arrest on the non-support charge followed quickly.

On the stand the defendant denied any wives except Rose and the one in St. Joseph. Liss, however, asserts that Silver’s photo over the name of Weisfeldt, has been published in the New York Jewish Daily News gallery of wife deserters, with the statement that he left his wife and children in Poland. He expresses the belief that Silver, or Weisfeldt may have married more than one girl for her dowry.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Bigamy Suspect Admits Two Wives, Denies More. Ruben Silver Accused of Having Married Four Women, Three Illegally. Deserted Wife and Two Children in Poland Five Years Ago Is Assertion.”; Feb. 4, 1915; p. 9.

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