Background
Barnard Gratz was born in Langensdorf, Upper Silesia. He was the son of Solomon Gratz.
Barnard Gratz was born in Langensdorf, Upper Silesia. He was the son of Solomon Gratz.
Gratz emigrated to Philadelphia in 1754, from London, England, where he had served in the counting-house of his cousin, Solomon Henry.
Upon his arrival in Philadelphia he entered the employ of David Franks, a leading fur-trader. After four years, he determined to venture into business for himself as a merchant. Relinquishing his position to his brother Michael, he formed a partnership with Benjamin M. Clava which lasted for a year.
Thereafter, he conducted the business alone until, some time later, he associated himself with his brother in an enterprise conducted at Fourth and Market Streets, and became one of the so-called “merchant venturers” who did great pioneer service in opening up to settlement and trade that territory which became the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
Barnard Gratz and his brother Michael were among the signers of the Non-Importation resolutions adopted on October 2, 1765, by “the merchants and other citizens of Philadelphia” as a remonstrance against the Stamp Act.
When the definite break with the mother country came, the Gratz brothers cast their lot with the revolutionists. Barnard took the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to the United States as a free nation on November 5, 1777.
He laid the corner-stone of the first synagogue erected in Philadelphia, June 16, 1782, and participated in its dedication on September 13 of that year.
Gratz was the first recorded president or “parnas” of the Mickveh Israel congregation, the third Jewish congregation to be organized in the United States. Within a few years he and his brother Michael Gratz established a firm that acquired tracts of land in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois for pioneer settlement and ran boats on the Ohio River. Later, Barnard helped to amend Pennsylvania's and Maryland's constitutions so that Jews could hold office.
In 1783, Gratz was one of a committee who entered a protest against the clause in the constitution of Pennsylvania which required that every member of the Assembly should take the oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania, declaring that “The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by divine inspiration. ”
This requirement debarred Jews from serving as members of the Assembly, and the clause was later amended. Similarly, while residing in Baltimore he joined in the agitation to repeal the constitutional requirement that all office-holders in the state of Maryland must declare their allegiance “upon the true faith of a Christian. ”
This agitation continued for twenty-nine years and in 1825, the clause was finally changed.
Gratz married on December 10, 1760, Richea, the daughter of Samson Mears or Myers. She died less than five years later, leaving two daughters, one of whom did not live to grow up.
