TRAGHEIM, Samuel ^{2 4}

   Other names for Samuel were BENFORD, Samuel,⁶ TRAGHAM, Samuel,⁷ TRAGHEIM, John ^{1 8} and TRAGHEIM, John S..⁵

   User ID: J419.

  General Notes:

"Name: Samuel Tragheim
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 10 ???. 1838 ?. (10 Aug 1838)
Birth Place: Hosenpoth, Russia
Father: Mendel Tragheim
Mother:Toube Perau
FHL Film Number:1562241"

from Russia, Select Births and Baptisms


The 1861 census for Elswick, in Newcastle on Tyne, England, recorded John S. Tragheim as head of the household living at 5 Gloucester Street in the municipal ward of Westgate. With John lived his wife Cathen [sic], their two children, Diana and Edward, and a 'relative' Elizabeth Winter [sic], probably Catherine's siter Elizabeth Winton. John was 28 years of age and had been born in Russia. He worked as a draper and interpreter.


Samuel's daughter, Mary Jane died, in 1869 at the Sick Children's Hospital in Edinburgh. In her death certificate, Samuel Tragheim was recorded as a draper by occupation. His wife, Catherine, was the informant.

When Catherine Winton died in 1914, her death certificate recorded her age as 76 years. It also recorded that she had been married to 1] Samuel Tragheim draper and 2] George Wright iron moulder.

In the marriage certificate of his daughter, Diana, in 1881, and in her death certificate of 1941, Samuel Tragheim or Tragham was recorded as having been a commercial traveller.

No record has been found as yet in the Scottish or English records of a death of Samuel Tragheim. It is more likely that he left his wife Catherine Winton and their children to go elsewhere. If he was not actually dead when Catherine married in 1872, it would make her second marriage bigamous, by letter of the law. In the absence of ready access to inexpensive divorce proceedings this was not as uncommon at the time as one might think. A marriage is recorded on 12 November 1865 between a Samuel Tragheim and Anne Benford at St James Clerkenwell, and this couple had two children. Later in the USA a Samuel Tragheim married Anne Smith in Missouri in 1875.

The following is a possible death record for Samuel Tragheim, who had a number of aliases in Scotland, England and the USA:

"Name: Samuel Benford
Gender: Male
Age53
Birth Date: abt 1837
Birth Place: Russia
Death Date: 24 Aug 1890
Death Place: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Father: Mandel Benford
Mother: Theresa Benford"

from Massachusetts, U.S., Death Records ^{4 5 6 7 9 10 11}

  Research Notes:

THE ADVENTURES OF SAMUEL TRAGHEIM

There is some confusion about whether there were two individuals named Samuel Tragheim born in the 1830's, one the son of Mendel Tragheim, and the other the son of Menere. It is more likely that the names Menere and Mendel are variants of the same name. Samuel, later also called John, was prone to name changes and duplicity. He was a bigamist, an inventor, businessman, and possibly a Russian spy.

According to Russia, Select Births and Baptisms, 1755-1917 a male child named Samuel Tragheim was born on 10 August 1838 in Hosenpoth or Hassenpoth, also known as Aizpute county. During its history the area of Samuel's birth became part of the Russian Empire. From this baptism record, his father was Mendel Tragheim and his mother was Toube Perau. The land where the child was born was also known as Courland, a German speaking enclave in Russia where there was a Jewish community. It is now part of Latvia. Many of his generation left Russia for England, Scotland, the US, and Canada.

Samuel appears in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the age of 22 years, when he marries Catherine Winton. Characteristically, Samuel's first known mention in official documentation is under a pseudonym; he married under the name "John." His wedding was in a church, and it's not known if he officially converted to Christianity. John/Samuel gives his parents' names as Menere Tragheim and Tontine Rengister. Later he gives his parents as Mendel Tragheim and Taube Perau. At the time of his marriage to Catherine John/Samuel was living at 92 High St, Edinburgh. His date of birth, according to his marriage certificate, would have been about 1835. Catherine was recorded as 20 years old. John/Samuel's trade was noted as "shoemaker." Their first child, Daniel, was born 16 months later, on 12 August, 1858. Sadly, he died the same day. Diana Lyle, who lived to adulthood, was born the following year in Leith.

By 1861, the time of the census, the family had moved to Newcastle, where Edward was born. The family - there were now four of them - lived at 5 Gloucester Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Westgate, along with an unmarried relative called Elizabeth Winter. That would have been Catherine's younger sister, Elizabeth Winton. Samuel is now no longer a "shoemaker," but a "draper and interpreter." It is possible that, as a fluent German speaker, with a smattering of Russian, he had found work that used his linguistic skills.

The following year, 1862, the family were back up in Leith, living at 83 Kirkgate, where, on 15 September, Mary Jane was born. She was only to live until 1869. On her birth certificate, Samuel, as he is called there, is again recorded as a clothier. Presumably he was no longer finding work as an interpreter. On Guy Fawkes' night, 5 November 1862, Samuel was awarded provisional protection, (no. 2999), for a patent outlining a method of treating hemp. As far as is known, this was Samuel's first patent application.

Sometime between 1862 and 1865 Samuel abandoned his family for Anne Benford, of London. In late 1865, Catherine Winton gave birth to their son, Alfred, in Norwich, England. This is at more or less about the same time that Samuel and Anne are proclaiming their banns in London. Samuel had abandoned Catherine and the children sometime between Catherine getting pregnant in early 1865, and the first calling of the banns on October 29. According to family member Janet Billings, "Alfred was born in Norwich, where Sam disappeared and Catherine and the children were rescued by her brothers." Catherine's brothers were Alexander and James Winton.

Samuel moved to London, where he married Anne Benford. This was the first of his bigamous marriages. Actually, we have a record of the banns being called on 29 October and on 5 and 12 November, but not of the wedding itself. A daughter was born to Anne Benford on 17 June, 1866, fewer than nine months after the first calling of the banns. This was not at all uncommon, although Eleanor Anne Louisa Benford's birth does not seem to have been registered in England, and her birth date is only known through her baptismal ceremony from 1871 in St James, Clerkenwell, an area of London. It is possible that Eleanor Anne Louisa Benford was born abroad. Samuel was prone to travel. One explanation may be that Samuel went to London to find work, got into an affair without revealing he was married, and was forced to wed because of a pregnancy. That might explain him abandoning his family in Norwich. Anne Benford's family was not rich, so Samuel did not marry her for her money. Her father was a jobber for a watch maker. Her mother had been born in Calcutta, but was ethnically English. In 1867 another child was born: Samuel Benford Tragheim. His birth was, unlike Eleanor's, officially recorded. He too was baptized on 2 November 1871 in St James, Clerkenwell.

In 1868 Samuel applied for two further patents. On 10 September, provisional protection was not allowed for "An improved mode of and apparatus for cleansing fibrous materials" (number 2791). The wording describes a kind of washing machine: "An apparatus consisting of an inverted pan or flanged disc pierced with holes and fitted at its centre with a vertical tube having hollow taper arms is placed in the boiler intended to receive the clothes, and the detergent solution being sufficiently heated the liquor discharges in continuous streams through the tube and taper arms on the clothes placed in the copper." There is no indication of why the application was rejected.

Samuel was more successful on 9 October 1868 with patent application 3104, for "An improved mode of and apparatus for washing, dyeing, cooking, and wholly or partly dissolving substances of vegetable, animal, or mineral origin, and for evaporating and concentrating solutions of the same substances," which was awarded provisional protection. A fuller description outlines something like the washing machine described in the earlier patent: Liquids, circulating and spraying - Related to apparatus primarily described for circulating water through clothes or for spraying them while being boiled in an open copper or other vessel, but stated to be applicable for evaporating liquids. In one form, the clothes rest on a perforated disc, beneath which are placed fans for circulating the liquid. Some of the perforations may be protected by pegs or guards so that the clothes do not cover the perforations. Or a pipe or cone may be used, which stands on a serrated rim and carries at the top a sort of cowl with downwardly-projecting nozzles or with a rotary series of nozzles acting on the principle of a Barker's mill. A perforated or plain bottom disc may be combined with the tube or cone. Or, finally, the clothes may be "placed between the upper and lower ends of" a serpentine pipe contained in the vessel. Samuel was living at Swinton Street, Grey's Inn Road, Middlesex when he made these patent applications. His occupation is recorded as "interpreter".

Three years later, in the 1871 census, Samuel's wife Catherine, and his children, Diane, and Edward, are living without Samuel at 37 William Street, Edinburgh. Catherine is recorded as a widow. Where is Samuel? He does not appear on the English or Scottish census of that year. The two children by his second wife, Samuel and Eleanor Anne Louisa, were baptized at Clerkenwell St James on 2 November, 1871, but it is not known whether or not Samuel was in attendance. In 1871, Samuel's trade is recorded as "fat melter". It is possible that Samuel was actually a business owner, rather than someone who stirred vats of melting fat for a living. He may even have been using his own patented washing-machine-cum-evaporator. His address at the time of his children's baptisms had been noted as Sydney House, Abbey Road, West Ham. West Ham at that time seems to have been a booming industrial town. Between 1860 and 1919 at least 290 permanent manufacturing firms were formed, of which the main groups were chemicals (100 firms), engineering and metals (60), food, drink and tobacco (33), textiles, leather and clothing (23), timber, furniture, etc. (21), and bricks, pottery, cement, glass.

On 7 April 1875, Samuel arrives in New York City, but under the name John Benford. He is accompanied by Anne Benford, his wife, who was travelling under her maiden name. Anne's age is recorded as 28 years, which would make her date of birth about 1848, fitting the record for her in the 1851 census. John/Samuel's trade was recorded as a merchant, "rice miller", his nationality, "Russian", and his date of birth, 40 years old. So, with a date of birth about 1835, all appears to fit. So does the use of the first name John, which he had used before.

Why would he have been traveling under a pseudonym? Five years later he was outed as a Russian spy, and if he was already spying at this time it may have been convenient for him to have had an alias. There's no sign of the children. Were they living with Anne's family? Samuel Benford Tragheim certainly survived, because he married in 1898 and lived until 1915, when he was 47 years of age. There is no record of Eleanor Ann Louisa Benford.

There is also a marriage recorded between a Samuel Tragheim and an Anne Smith in St. Louis, Missouri, on 2 November 1875. There is scant detail on this marriage certificate. It is certainly Samuel Tragheim, of Edinburgh and London, was in the USA. He was even with a woman named Anne. Could he have gone through another wedding ceremony with his wife Anne? Were they perhaps not legally married in England so decided to legitimate their union? If so, why would she marry under an assumed surname? Or was Anne Smith a third spouse?

There is a naturalization of a Samuel Tragheim Benford, with the names in that order, on 16 July, 1877. His address is given as 415 Grand St, New York City. He is noted as being a merchant, and as "Russian." His witness was a Philip Pasaroff, another Russian perhaps.

On 17 June, 1877 there is yet another marriage. This time it's between Samuel Tragheim and - a woman whose name on the certificate is so illegible that it has been read as Eva Rossair and as Johanna Lesser. A patent application is filed on 20 September of that year, and on 10 April, there's a patent was granted (189,325) this time for an "ice machine." The grantee's name is "Simon Tragheim" and the address is "New York, NY." Since no other Simon Tragheim has ever appeared in the record, it is not unlikely that this is Samuel Tragheim.

The following year, 1878, there's another "Simon Tragheim" patent awarded. This one's for a "screw propeller" and Tragheim is the "assignor" for "David S. Ritterband, New York, NY." ( Official Gazette, Vol 13, page 435). This invention merited a brief mention in Scientific American (April 13, 1878): "Mr. Simon Tragheim, of New York City, has patented a Screw Propeller, which is claimed to admit of almost instant reversing, and at the same time pass through the water with facility. The blades are strengthened by an outer frame extending at both side obliquely from the hub and across the centre point of the blade. The front and rear edges of these frames are bevelled, so as to cut through the water easily." David S. Ritterband was a lawyer with an address at 61 Wall St. By 1909, Ritterband would be the director of a land company, the South Elberon Land Co. with a capital of $200,000, a huge sum at the time. In "assigning" the patent to Ritterband, Samuel was selling his ownership rights to his intellectual property.

In 1880, Tragheim is in London, England again to meet the Nihilist, Leo Hartmann, upon whom he is to spy. Hartmann had been directly involved in a plot to assassinate Czar Alexander II. Hartmann describes Samuel Tragheim as follows: In June, 1880, there came to London a stout man of about forty-five, whose hair and beard were partly grey. He gave his name as Mr. Tragheim (Hartmann refers to "Traghaim" throughout his letter, although it is rendered it as "Tragheim"), formerly a Russian subject from the German provinces and now a citizen of the United States of America. He knew a few Russian words and spoke German and English perfectly. He was undoubtedly a Jew. It was quite apparent that he had been in America for years and knew New York very well. He said he was a wholesale butcher and that he dealt with England. He assured me that he owned several houses in the city of New York on streets where the elevated railroads are. Before coming to London he had lived for some time at Geneva, Switzerland.

According to Hartmann, Tragheim was a "trusted agent" of the Czar, and had been given vast amount of money, £50,000. He, Tragheim, made numerous attempts to have Hartmann kidnapped and transported back to Russia aboard a steamer. He also tried to set Hartmann up by giving him forged notes. We only have Hartmann's side of the story but it is not a flattering one with regard to Samuel. Hartmann describes Tragheim as being his "Judas." The New York Evening Post, basing its opinion on Hartmann's account of his dealings with Tragheim, describes the latter as "a foolish sort of person for the Czar to select for any serious work." Hartmann exposed Tragheim to the British police as a Russian spy, and revealed that he may have been involved in the placing of a dynamite bomb on the North Western Railway, in an attempt to blame the Nihilists and to have them driven out of England. The police there were already aware of Tragheim's activities, but he fled London and was not found, despite intensive searches on the continent. This may have been been because Samuel had not in fact fled to the continent, but to the USA.

On 27 October, 1880, a "Saml Traghum" arrives in New York City aboard the Scythia, from Liverpool. He is "Russian" and aged 46 years of age. His plan is "unknown." So are his movements after that date. If he did indeed flee with the £50,000 the Czar gave him, he could have afforded to keep a low profile.

On 10 April, 1894, in "Ice and refrigeration, Volume 7" the patent for the Ice Machine is recorded as having expired.

Please note:

The above was edited and amended by Mary McGonigal but drew heavily of the content published at https://tragheim.com/rootspersona-tree/samuel-tragheim/ where more information van be found regarding Samuel's descendants. ¹²

Samuel married Catherine WINTON, daughter of Robert WINTON (DNA Link) and Helen WEBSTER, on 7 April 1857 in 45 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland.¹ (Catherine WINTON was born on 1 August 1837, baptised on 13 August 1837 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland ¹³ and died 8 March 1914 at 5.00 am in 80 Clerk Street, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland ¹¹.). The cause of her death was cerebral haemorrhage over 2 months.

  Marriage Notes:

"WINTON
CATHERINE
TRAGHEIM
JOHN
1857
685 / 6 / 51
Calton and Bonnington"

from Index of Marriages


The marriage was celebrated according the forms of the Church of Scotland. A minister of the Free Church, Edinburgh, John Hunter, conducted the ceremony. James Winton and Hellen Robertson were the witnesses.

John Tragheim, aged 22 years and unmarried, of 92 High Street, was a shoemaker by trade. His mother and father were recorded as Menere Tragheim and Tontine Rengnistek. His father was a clothier by occupation and alive. His mother was deceased.

Catherine Winton, aged 19 years and of the same address, was a stay maker. She was unmarried. Her father was deceased.

The marriage was registered on 9 April 1857 at Edinburgh, Andrew Balfour being the registrar. ^{1 8}

Samuel next married Anne BENFORD in 1865 in St James Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Green, London, England.² (Anne BENFORD was born about 1847 in England.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Name: Anne Benford
Gender: Female
Record Type: Marriage Banns (Marriage Bann)
Marriage Banns Date:1865
Marriage Banns Place: Saint James, Clerkenwell: Clerkenwell Green, Islington, England
Spouse: Samuel Tragheim
Register Type: Parish Register"

from Church of England Marriages and Banns ²

Samuel next married Anne SMITH on 2 November 1875 in St Louis, Missouri, USA.³ (Anne SMITH was born about 1850.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Name: Miss Anne Smith
Marriage Date: 2 Nov 1875
Marriage Place: St Louis, Missouri, USA
Spouse: Samuel Tragheim"

from Missouri Marriage Records ³