Joshua Lazarus
The man who helped illuminate Charleston
Joshua Lazarus (1796–1861), a son of Marks and Rachel Lazarus, operated a business here and served as president of the Charleston Gas Light Company, incorporated in 1846. In 1848, the company provided the first gas lights in the City of Charleston. A man of wealth and property, Lazarus owned twenty pieces of real estate in Charleston and served as the president of a bank in Cheraw, in upstate South Carolina. When Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim’s new synagogue was completed in 1841, Lazarus, chairman of the committee overseeing the dedication, presented the congregation with a silver basket likely purchased on one of his trips to England. He became president of the congregation in 1851 and served until his death, in Cheraw, in 1861.
![Joshua Lazarus (1796–1861)](https://mappingjewishcharleston.cofc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lazarus_Joshua.jpg)
Joshua Lazarus (1796–1861)
Portrait by Amelie Dautel D’Aubigny (ca. 1796–1861), France, ca. 1840. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association.![Phebe Yates Lazarus (Mrs. Joshua Lazarus) (1794–1870)](https://mappingjewishcharleston.cofc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lazarus_Joshua_HisWifePhebeYatesLazarus_Small.jpg)
Phebe Yates Lazarus (Mrs. Joshua Lazarus) (1794–1870)
Portrait by Amelie Dautel D'Aubigny (ca. 1796–1861), France, ca. 1840. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association.![Sugar or sweetmeat bowl (David Bell, England, ca. 1777)](https://mappingjewishcharleston.cofc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Lazarus_Joshua_SilverBasket-.jpg)