Jacob C. Levy
A Jewish leader with distinguished daughters
Jacob C. Levy (1788–1875) was a merchant, broker, and auctioneer who lived here and operated a business on Champney (Exchange) Street. Levy was a secretary of the Charleston Riflemen in 1810 and 1811, and, in the 1820s, twice served as president of the Hebrew Orphan Society. In August 1843, he was elected vice-president of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. He married Fanny Yates in 1817 and the couple had two daughters, Eugenia Levy Phillips (1820–1902) and Phoebe Yates Levy Pember (1823–1913), and a son, Samuel Yates Levy (1827–1887). The daughters gained fame during the Civil War as personifications of the Southern cause, Pember as nurse and administrator of the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, and Phillips as an accused Confederate spy and an outspoken opponent of the Yankee occupiers of New Orleans, where she lived at the time.
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember (1823–1913)
Daughter of Jacob C. Levy (1788–1875), Phoebe was a nurse and administrator of the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War.
301 East Bay Street, 2016
Once the home of merchant, broker, and auctioneer Jacob C. Levy (1788–1875). Photo by Jack Alterman.