From Australia’s Jewish Past: Nathan Cohen – continuing the story of the Cohen Family in Tamworth

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Nathan, Henry and George’s youngest brother, was born in 1842 in Port Macquarie and educated in Goulburn together with his brothers.

Nathan Cohen

He then went to Sydney to study business.  On Friday 27 August 1858, aged sixteen, Nathan travelled to Tamworth via Newcastle in a two-wheeled cart drawn by two sweating horses who jolted over the stony Peel River, up the north bank and then lumbered eastward down Peel Street – Tamworth’s main street.  This was considered to be a most important day for the township as the cart was the first of a modern passenger transport vehicle having taken three days to travel the one hundred and eighty-mile journey.

Many of Tamworth’s population of five hundred were outside the store of Cohen & Levy to welcome the vehicle, which was also carrying the mail.   Nathan and his uncle’s family were unrelated to the store owners  -Abraham Cohen of Cohen & Levy.  Nathan’s reason for coming to Tamworth was to join his Uncle William, who ran a store in West Tamworth.  He remained with his uncle for ten years, continuing to manage the business after his uncle’s death.

In 1868, Nathan opened his own business as an auctioneer and estate agent.  By 1870 he had established a soap works, had coal mining interests, was foundation director of the Tamworth Permanent Mutual Benefit Building Society and was an active worker and office-bearer for the Tamworth Hospital.  During his lifetime, he was associated with every organisation which worked for the benefit of Tamworth and its citizens.  The Tamworth Municipal Council was formed in 1876, and Nathan was an inaugural member of the first Council, becoming mayor on two occasions in 1882 and 1883.  Nathan was also associated with the Tamworth Cricket Club, where he served as president and the Jockey Club, where he was a trustee.

1872 saw Nathan involved in building the township’s Exchange Buildings, and three years later, he went into partnership with David Nathan, who married Siela – Abraham Cohen’s daughter. This partnership was dissolved in 1885 and a new partner was brought in, and this arrangement lasted until 1895. Nathan then operated the business himself until 1908, when it was converted to a limited liability company.  His next project was establishing the dairy industry from a farm in the Peel Valley known as ‘’Percydale’’.  Nathan employed a butter maker and started a small butter factory with the aim of improving his dairy herd.  He was known throughout the region for always purchasing the best stock available.  He had a Jersey bull named ‘Sir Patrick’, and the Jersey breed was, in fact, the first to be brought in to the Peel Valley.  It wasn’t long before the Tamworth Co-Operative Dairy Society was formed, with Nathan becoming its founding director.

Nathan met and married Esther Solomon in 1866, and they settled in a house called “Eden Cottage’’.  Nine years later, Nathan and Elizabeth built a two-storey brick residence and, in honour of his father’s home town in England, he named it “Brighton”.  Esther passed away – aged 34 – in December 1880 in childbirth, leaving Nathan with six young children.  A couple of years later, Nathan married Esther’s sister – Deborah – and they had one son named Eliot.

In 1908 Nathan travelled overseas to Europe but unfortunately, just prior to leaving, was gored by a bull, and he never quite recovered.  He passed away on 16 August 1910, aged sixty-eight, leaving his wife Deborah and their seven children.   Deborah passed away in 1942, aged ninety-nine.    Nathan’s passing had a significant impact on the people of Tamworth, so much so that on the day of his funeral, life stopped, and all shops closed in his honour.   Nathan was described as being one of exemplary benevolence, a source of great moral, commercial and social strength, and one of the main pillars of Tamworth.

In an article written by Rabbi Dr Israel Porush – ‘’The Jews of Tamworth’’ (AJHS, Vol. 3, Pt 4, December 1950), he wrote that Nathan was the most prominent Jewish resident of Tamworth. He was compared to “one of the old Patriarchs of his own noble race.”  The tributes paid to him, especially at this funeral, were evidence of the warm place he occupied in the hearts of the Tamworth citizens.   Following Nathan’s death, his nephew and son-in-law – the husband of his daughter Ida –  took over the running of the company and changed its name to Victor Cohen & Co Ltd.  Victor was also very charitable and active within the township, being largely instrumental in the building of the Tamworth Hospital, and was part of the committee for many years, having taken on a number of offices including Treasurer, President and Trustee.

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story.

Australian Dictionary of Biography – People of Australia; Tamworth Historical Society (1996);

Meta Studies – genealogy; Obituaries Australia; Northern Daily Leader

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