When David and his father immigrated to New Orleans from Amsterdam in 1817 the twelve year old boy was immediately sent to the pilot station at the mouth of the Mississippi, one hundred eleven miles down river. David spent the next five years in very rough company. (278 kB)
In 1831 David made a disastrous expedition to Texas by sea. He described it thoroughly in his Reminiscences nearly a half century later. Here, I retell the story with the benefit of public records that reveal some of David's penchant for exaggeration. (325 kB)
During the Texas Revolution David created many personal enemies by his actions in his own neighborhood. Ten years later these hostilities boiled into a colorful lawsuit, which is described here. (136 kB)
David's uncle remarries. This marriage document is extraordinarily detailed. Furthermore, this aunt later followed the Kokernots to New Orleans. Her son,Moses Cohen, David's first cousin, accompanied David on the 1831expedition mentioned above.
Kokernots and slaves: The Kokernot and van der Beugel families in Amsterdam were extremely poor, and so probably never owned slaves there even though slave ownership among Dutch Jews was not uncommon, especially on the plantations in Surinam. In New Orleans David's parents bought and sold slaves. David, so far as is known, never owned slaves, though he did employ their labor. Here are three documents relating slavery to David's father, his mother, and himself.
In 1830 David sued Caroline, his fifteen year old wife of only seventeen months, for divorce. The suit went nowhere and the couple reconciled, but the documents in the case file tell us a little about their life and identify Caroline's mother and her home address.
Kokernot and Veterans: David with some fellow veterans in a photograph with a strange twist.
Return to "Scratchings"
© 2006 Alan Barber