Cayoosh Flat (now called Lillooet), in 1865. Cayoosh Flat (now called Lillooet), in 1865. (image from JGSBC)
In the Jewish Cemetery in Victoria, there is a small concrete slab on which is inscribed: “In memory of Morris Price. Killed at Cayoosh B.C. Buried May 6 1861. First interment in this cemetery.” Cayoosh, today the town of Lillooet, was, in 1861, a cluster of about 30 buildings with a reported population of 190 people, most non-British. It lay at the end of a difficult trail from the Fraser River via Harrison Lake and Penticton through a series of lakes and portages.
The murder of Morris Price took place on the night of Feb. 1. His body was discovered in his store the next morning with “his throat cut from ear to ear … his nose broken and his buttocks mutilated … numerous stab wounds in other parts of the body amounting to 25 in all,” according to the British Colonist correspondent. The correspondent further wrote: “He was interred today [Feb. 3] by his fellow Masons with every mark of respect and deep-felt sorrow.”
The perpetrators were quickly identified as three members of the Shuswap First Nation from the Big Bar area, north of Lillooet. On April 12, Justice Matthew Begbie held a trial of the three and found them guilty. Two, who took part in the murder, were sentenced to death, while a third, who had stood watch, was sentenced to a year’s hard labour.
Although Price’s body had been buried in Cayoosh, this proved a temporary arrangement, as Masons in Victoria raised money to transfer his body to Victoria. The funeral took place on May 6 with “Masonic honors and Jewish rites” and with many participants “who had long known and deeply respected their deceased brother.”
The cemetery records state that Price was born in Kepten, Germany, although no town of that name has ever existed. On Nov. 1, Jacob St. Losky of Victoria, Vancouver Island, was granted probate for Price’s estate, as he was “the natural and lawful Brother and next of kin” of the deceased.
In late 2024, Martin Friedland, emeritus professor of law at the University of Toronto, who was studying the criminal case that resulted from the murder, approached the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia (JGSBC) and asked: “Who were Morris Price and Jacob St. Losky?” What follows are the answers to that question.
Other than the probate records, there was no mention of Jacob St. Losky in any of the local newspapers or records. The estate administration files that usually accompany the probate are not in the BC Archives, so the estate’s net worth or how St. Losky disposed of its contents aree unknown. Further searches for St. Losky revealed two UK records: In 1847, he was trading as a cigar manufacturer and importer in Bishopsgate in London and, in 1858, he arrived at the Port of London from Amsterdam.
The name St. Losky was exceedingly rare and only one other UK family had it. Samuel and Hanna St. Losky, who had married in December 1848, were Orthodox Jews in the upper echelons of British society. There was no mention of Samuel St. Losky in any records before the marriage, but, in the early 1850s, he formed a cigar manufacturer and importer in London named Levy Brothers & St. Losky, which also traded as St. Losky, Levy & Co. in San Francisco. This branch of the firm was wildly successful and remitted tens of thousands of dollars of specie to London.
Further searching revealed that Samuel St. Losky’s father was Hirschel Schenkolowsky of Kempen in Posen, Prussia. “St. Losky” was clearly a made-up name created to ease their way in British society. Was the same true of Jacob? Indeed, it was – Jacob Szenkolowski, an American citizen, born in Kempen, arrived at the Port of London on Sept. 27, 1844, after which he seems to have adopted the St. Losky pseudonym. He became a UK citizen in 1847, which meant that he would automatically have been a citizen of any of the UK colonies, including Vancouver Island. Jacob later became an agent for Levy Brothers in 1859 and 1860. The last listing before his appearance in Victoria is a record of “Jacob St. Losky of New York” buying $11,000 of US government debt.
Searching the records found no entries for either Samuel or Morris Szenkolowski (variant spellings included). The breakthrough came when a JGSBC member discovered a newspaper listing acts passed in the Mississippi legislature in January 1846. One line read: “To change the name of Morris Shenkloski into that of Morris Price” – providing the key to understanding the family’s history.
The first record of Morris is dated 1840, when he, under the name Shenkloski, applied to become an American citizen in the state of New York. He had arrived in America five years earlier and, at the time of his naturalization, was 23, having been born circa 1817. Samuel, who also used the name variant Shenkloski, signed the naturalization document as well.
The name Morris was also a pseudonym. Kempen Jewish community records before 1825 do not exist; Morris was almost certainly named Moses at his bris, and is likely to have used the secular name Moritz, as was common in Prussia at the time. From other sources, it is clear that Morris, Samuel and Jacob were sons of merchant Hirsch Szenkolowski and his wife Jette Jereslaw.
Samuel Shenkloski became a US citizen in September 1843, aged 32, and obtained a passport in August 1845, while Jacob Szenkolowski, aged 30, became a US citizen in July 1843 and applied for a passport the same day. There is no evidence that Morris ever obtained a passport.
Morris and Samuel were shopkeepers in New York. A city directory from 1840/41 lists “Shenkloski S. & M. drygoods, 30 Maiden-Lane.” The store does not appear in any subsequent directory, suggesting it was short-lived, a characteristic of many subsequent stores that Morris was involved with.
After his sojourn in New York, Morris Shenkloski next appears in a newspaper listing of peddlers licensed to operate in Georgia from April 1841 to April 1842. This listing also gives some details of Morris’s physical features. The record shows that he was relatively short, 5’ 4 3/4”, with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. His two brothers’ passports show that they had similar features. Samuel was an inch taller and Jacob the same height; both had dark hair and complexions, and hazel rather than black eyes.
Over the next few years, Morris opened a number of short-lived stores in the southern United States. Adverts appear in Savannah, Ga. (November 1842), Columbus, Ga. (June 1843), Little Rock, Ark. (March 1845) and Van Buren, Ark. (April 1845). All were signed “M. Shenkloski” and offered dry goods, jewelry and sometimes cutlery, “all at the lowest prices.”
The next reference to Morris is as Price at Fort Smith, Ark., a few miles west of Van Buren. Fort Smith was on the border with Indian territory (present-day Oklahoma) and the majority of trade was with the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations.
The California Gold Rush of 1849 induced Morris to move on. He is listed in the state census of 1852 as “M. Price,” a merchant, aged 35 (born ca. 1817), an American citizen, born in Prussia, whose last domicile was Arkansas, living in the mining camp of Shasta, Calif. In the same census, his brother, Samuel St. Losky, was enumerated in San Francisco.
In 1854, Morris was in the small town of Nevada, Calif. “M. Price” had a store selling cigars obtained from St. Losky & Co., San Francisco. The two brothers were collaborating again, as they had in New York 14 years earlier.
The last California reference is an 1856 newspaper listing of letters that had arrived at the post office of Georgetown – one was addressed to Morris Price. Georgetown is where the richest veins of gold were found, but it is unknown whether Morris ever set up a store there.
When gold was found in the Fraser Valley, Morris was part of the flood of Americans who arrived in Victoria, most traveling from or via San Francisco. From newspaper reports after his death, it seems likely that he arrived in Victoria in late 1858, where he established himself. In early 1860, he moved to Cayoosh, where he set up his store and remained until his death. While many Americans returned from the gold fields disappointed, Morris seemed to have set down roots by buying land in both Victoria and New Westminster. Moses Szenkolowski, known as Morris Price, died at age 43, a well-liked and highly respected member of BC pioneer society.
There are no records or newspaper entries about Jacob St. Losky/Szenkowloski after the probate was issued in 1861 and what happened to him remains a mystery.
Samuel St. Losky outlived his brother by only a few years – he died in London from kidney disease in 1864, aged 52. JGSBC was able to find one of Samuel’s great-great-great-grandchildren in the United Kingdom to share these findings about his family.
This is an abridged version of the story and the research that uncovered it. Readers interested in the full details, and who would like to see pictures of the original documents, can visit the Presentations section of the JGSBC’s website, jgsbc.ca.
David Scriven is a long-time member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of British Columbia and sits on its board.