The Lyons Family: Uncut Diamonds and the Gift of the Sea
By Eric Friendly
Research Coordinator, Historic Columbia
In the first years of the nineteenth century, Jewish immigrant Isaac Lyons (1774-1843) arrived in Philadelphia from Europe. Although he was born in Oberelsbach, Germany, family lore has it that he and his ancestors were of Sephardic descent, not Ashkenazic. Indeed, according to one of Isaac’s grandchildren who recorded part of the family history, the Lyons family could trace its roots to Portugal.
A victim of the Inquisition. Francisco de Goya, Por Haber Nacido en Otra Parte (For Being Born Someplace Else), 1814-1823. Museo del Prado.
A predominantly Catholic nation, Portugal, like Spain, was a dangerous place to be Jewish in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. In 1536, the monarchy of Portugal formally established an Inquisition to root out heresy. Officially disbanded in 1821, the Portuguese Inquisition primarily targeted conversos (Jews who publicly converted to Catholicism to evade persecution yet were suspected of secretly practicing Judaism). Once discovered, the accused–who were presumed guilty–were forced to endure a public penance ritual called an auto-da-fé, or “act of faith.” Usually taking place in a public square or plaza, the ritual consisted of a Catholic Mass; a procession of the accused, who were dressed in sanbenitos (penitential tunics) and capirotes (pointed hats traditionally worn by Catholic flagellants and later used by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions as a sign of public humiliation); and a reading of the accused’s sentences. While most of the Portuguese Inquisition’s approximately 40,000 victims faced imprisonment, confiscation of property, exile, and/or banishment, about four percent were executed, usually by being burned at the stake.¹
According to the family lore, the Lyons's ancestors were wealthy conversos who practiced their faith in secret while “outwardly pretending to be Christian to escape expulsion or death.” After a servant discovered them “praying and fasting on Yom Kippur and denounced them to the Inquisition,” the head of the household arranged for the family to flee for the safety of London, “while he himself was burned at the stake.” Leaving their old life behind, the family left Portugal carrying uncut diamonds, which held the promise of a better future. As the “melodramatic” story continues, the family children, “not knowing what they [the diamonds] were, threw them into the sea.”²
A Sephardic family holds a secret seder. Moshe Maimon, Los Conversos, 1893.
Although the Lyons family lore does not account for how Isaac was born in Germany, it nonetheless lends itself well to his religious and mercantile activities in the United States, particularly those in South Carolina. Soon after he set foot in Philadelphia, Isaac married Rachel Cohen (1775-1838), the daughter of Jacob Raphael Cohen (1738-1811)–the hazan (cantor), shohet (ritual slaughterer), shamash (caretaker), and mohel (person who performs ritual circumcisions) for Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel Synagogue. Isaac did well for himself in the former capital of this fledgling nation, becoming a merchant by 1804 and entering local politics by serving as a member of the Committee of Vigilance in Philadelphia’s Lower Delaware Ward.³
Around 1811, the growing Lyons family, which by that point included a daughter and three sons, moved south to Charleston. The following year, Isaac purchased three enslaved people: Geneserva, Sainte, and Charleston. These individuals likely worked in the Lyons’s home and possibly worked in Isaac’s mineral water warehouse, which opened at 62 East Bay Street in 1813. Outside of work and home life, Isaac became a member of the city’s Beth Elohim Synagogue, which was founded primarily by Sephardic immigrants. By 1815, “there were few Spanish or Portuguese speakers in the congregation” and “Jews of German descent far outnumbered the Sephardim.” Despite the minor Sephardic presence, the synagogue “strictly followed the Sephardic minhag, or liturgy,” which certainly called to Isaac’s Iberian roots. In 1820, Isaac was named to the synagogue’s governing council, “a move that solidified his place in Charleston’s Jewish establishment.”⁴
An advertisement for the new Lyons Grocery and Oyster Saloon. Reprinted from Columbia Telescope, November 9, 1827. Courtesy South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
Despite everything the Lyons family had going for them in Charleston, sometime between 1820 and 1826 they moved to the state capital of Columbia. There, Isaac served as a founding member of the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society, and, with the help of his sons Henry (1805-1858) and Jacob (1807-1887), he founded a grocery store and oyster saloon at 1201 Main Street in 1827. A curious business venture for a likely “traditionalist” Jew, the grocery and oyster saloon nonetheless proved immensely popular. Across Gervais Street from the State House and only blocks away from South Carolina College (University of South Carolina), the establishment attracted its fair share of upstart students. Indeed, according to infamous gynecologist J. Marion Sims, who attended South Carolina College from 1830 to 1832, “Mr. Lyons’s saloon was patronized by every young man who had ever gone through the South Carolina College, from its foundation up to my day (an exaggerated statement, but one that indicates that patronizing Lyons Oyster Saloon had become a tradition by Sims’s era).” Sims continues by recounting how trusting “Mr. Lyons” was with students, allowing them to rack up sizable bar tabs and to repay their debts without interest years later. Sims himself racked up a bar tab of $200 during his years at the college.⁵
Richardson (Main) Street looking north from the steps of the South Carolina State House, February 1865. The lot to the left just beyond the fence is the site of Jacob Lyons’ grocery. Image courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.
Before rail connected Columbia to Charleston in 1842, oysters were shipped in barrels and on ice from Charleston in months that contain an “r” (September through April), and they would have arrived by boat if the rivers were navigable or alternatively by wagon in dry seasons.⁶ Paired with the oysters and served up at the bar were presumably an assortment of flavorful condiments, spices, and beverages from around the world: black and cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles, French and Spanish olives and capers, lemons, ginger, champagne, London porter, Holland gin, Jamaican rum, Scotch whiskey, and French and Spanish wines.⁷ With these flavors and Isaac Lyons’s hospitality in mind, it isn’t surprising why Lyons Oyster Saloon became such a popular venue. Isaac Lyons’s death in 1843 appears to have marked the end of Lyons Oyster Saloon, although Jacob continued to operate a grocery at the site until the Burning of Columbia in February 1865.⁸
Having graciously accepted the uncut diamonds surrendered by the Lyons children during their flight from Portugal, the Atlantic gave a gift of its own to the family many years later. Although not as brilliant as diamonds, the mud-colored shellfish it provided were served up as the main course in what may have been the most popular oyster saloon in Columbia’s history.
Osias Beert, Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, and Wine, c.1620. National Gallery of Art.
Oysters Au Gratin
from Jewish Twentieth Century Cookbook published by the Columbia Temple Sisterhood of Tree of Life Congregation, 1935. Courtesy Richland Library.
Take 50 large, or small, oysters, boil in their juice until the edges curl; set aside. Then take two cups of toasted breadcrumbs, one stalk of white celery, finely chopped parsley, one-half cup melted butter, a half a can of mushrooms, a little Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, cayenne pepper, and salt, and mix well. Add the oysters and one or two tablespoons of their juice. Grease deep shaped oyster shells or ramakins; put in some of the above mixture, sprinkle breadcrumbs and butter on top and bake in hot oven until brown. Serve at once.
Footnotes
1. “Portuguese Inquisition,” Wikipedia, last modified January 3, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Inquisition, “Auto-da-fé,” Wikipedia, last modified November 16, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9, “Modern Jewish History: Auto de Fe,” Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/auto-de-fe, R. Warren Anderson, “Inquisitorial Punishments in Lisbon and Évora,” E-Journal of Portuguese History 10, no.1 (Summer 2012):
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/html/issue19/html/v10n1a02.html.
2. Marie Ferrara, Harlan Greene, Dale Rosesngarten, and Susan Wyssen, “The Diary of Joseph Lyons, 1833-1835,” American Jewish History 91, no. ¾ (September/December 2003): 493-606.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. John Hammond Moore, Columbia and Richland County (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993), 79-99.
7. Jewish merchant I.D. Mordecai (1805-1864) received a shipment in December 1838 that was transported from Charleston aboard the steamers Congaree and James Adams. The list of groceries and beverages he received is probably like what Isaac Lyons would have received in his shipments, see I.D. Mordecai shipment list, Columbia Telescope, December 29, 1838.
8. The 1859 Columbia City Directory shows Jacob Lyons operating a grocery at 1201 Main Street, but not an oyster saloon–these received their own business category in the directory, see https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/sccitydirec/id/253/rec/1. Jacob Lyons briefly reopened his store on Main Street in late 1865, from which he sold groceries, household items, and oysters, see J.C. Lyons advertisement, The Daily Phoenix, November 26, 1865.