Subject: Charles Lehman

Billhead - Charles Lehman…...6/28/1875…..Wines, Liquors, Tobacco, Hardware, Grain, Farmers' Produce, 70 Main Street, Helena, Montana. Married Carolina who came from an established Alsatian Jewish family lineage in the Bas-Rhin region of France. This European border territory was home to a large, vibrant Jewish merchant culture that was highly bilingual in French and German. Her background is highly relevant to why Charles Lehman—who had already been out West operating pack trains and supply stores for years—temporarily left his frontier mining camps to return to New York City in 1869. His primary goal was to find a wife from the same Jewish immigrant community. Jacob A. Bach's most enduring cultural legacy was structural, strengthening the frontier Jewish network through direct kinship. By marrying his daughter Carolina to fellow prominent merchant Charles Lehman, he united two influential lineages that anchored the territory's commerce and community life. Upon his death in 1882, Bach was laid to rest according to Jewish customs at the historic Benton Avenue Cemetery, solidifying his place as one of the true patriarchs of Montana's frontier Jewish heritage Prior to his passing, Lehman explicitly requested a Masonic service. His family contacted the Master of the Lewistown Lodge to implement the ritual funeral with no religious reference.