Joseph B. Nones married Eveline De Leon in New York in 1823. Miriam,born the following year, was the second of their six children. In1849, at age twenty-five, she married Joseph I.Andrews with whom she had nine children together. And thoughlittle else is known that directly pertains to the life of MiriamNones Andrews, significant documentation exists concerning the Nonesfamily. Like the Andrews family into which she married, the Nonesenjoyed a place of prominence in the Jewish community ofPhiladelphia. Miriam’s paternal grandfather, BenjaminNones, a Sephardi merchant trader from Bordeaux, had settledthere sometime prior to 1775.
Duringthe war, he served in General Pulaski’s regiment, under CaptainVerdier, who said of Nones that, “his behavior under fire in allthe bloody actions we fought, have been marked by the bravery andcourage which a military man is expected to show for the liberties ofhis country.” It has often been repeated, erroneously so, thatBenjamin Nones achieved the rank of major and served with Washington.Still, under Pulaski he “fought in almost every action which tookplace in Carolina, and in the disastrous affair of Savannah sharedthe hardships of that sanguinary day.”
Afterthe war, Nones partnered with Myer M. Cohen in finance; together theyperformed “every Kind of Business as Brokers, such as buying andselling Bills of Exchange on France, Spain, Holland and other Parts.”Nones also traded in a variety of goods, both wholesale andretail—furniture, books and nearly anything else. However,financial success eluded him. In 1781, in the midst of his economicstruggles, Nones became embroiled in a very public dispute withAbraham Levy over a sum of money. Their quarrel escalated toaccusations of financial impropriety in the pages of the IndependentGazetteer and reached its apogee in a furious letter from Nonesthreatening, “Were it not for this consideration [Levy’s age], Ishould certainly shave that beard, which induces many people falselyto imagine him a distinguished member of our congregation, in whichhis ignorance disqualifies him from holding the humblest office.”
Evenas he struggled to make it in business, Nones became increasinglyengaged in the heated political climate that gripped the UnitedStates during the early years of the Republic. He was a vocalrepublican who opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and found himselfthe object of nasty Federalist taunts. Philadelphia’s leadingFederalist paper reported on a July 30, 1800 meeting of theDemocratic Society of Philadelphia attended by the “very refuse andfilth of society,” and Nones was singled out as “Citizen N— theJew.” Mocked for his accent and disparaged as a Jew, a republican,and for being poor. Nones published an eloquent rebuttal in theAurora, the city’s leading anti-Federalist paper, one of theearliest attempts to link the fate of the Jews with America’sdestiny. It is worth quoting here at length:
I am accused of being a Jew of being a Republican, andof being Poor. I am a Jew. I glory in belonging to thatpersuasion, which even its opponents, whether Christian, orMahomedan, allow to be of divine origin — of that persuasion onwhich Christianity itself was originally founded, and must ultimatelyrest — which has preserved its faith secure and undefiled, for nearthree thousand years, whose votaries have never murdered each otherin religious wars, or cherished the theological hatred so general, soinextinguishable among those who revile them….
I am a Republican! Thank God, I have not been so heedless andso ignorant of what has passed, and is now passing in the politicalworld. I have not been so proud or so prejudiced as to renounce thecause for which I have fought, as an American throughout thewhole of the revolutionary war….
I am a Jew, and if for no other reason, for that reason am I arepublican. Among the pious priesthood of church establishments, weare compassionately ranked with Turks, Infidels and Heretics. In themonarchies of Europe we are hunted from society, stigmatized asunworthy of common civility… In republics we have rights, inmonarchies we live but to experience wrongs…. How then can aJew but be a Republican? in America particularly. Unfeeling andungrateful would he be if he were callous to the glorious andbenevolent cause of the difference between his situation in this landof freedom and among the proud and privileged law-givers of Europe.
But I am poor, I am so, my family also is large, but soberlyand decently brought up. They have not been taught to revile aChristian because his religion is not so old as theirs….”
Nonesmarried Miriam Marks in 1782 and hadthirteen children. In 1801, he was appointed notary public by thegovernor of Pennsylvania, and became an official translator of statedocuments in Spanish, French and Portuguese. He died in Philadelphiaon February 9, 1826. From Nones his children inherited a passion forpolitics, and three sons followed careers in the foreign service:Solomon was appointed by Jefferson consul-general in Portugal; Aaronserved as consul at Aux Cayes, Haiti, from 1820- 1822; and Abrahamwas consul-general to Zulia, Venezuela.
However, it was younger brother Joseph—Miriam’s father—who setoff on a series adventures exciting and strange enough to constitutea life rivaling their father’s for spectacular detail. Filled withwanderlust, the seventeen-year-old Joseph joined the Navy asmidshipman in 1814 and soon saw action in the Second Barbary War.
He told the fantastical story that he was descended from one Raphaelde Nones of Genoa, a seventeenth century physician, knighted for his“discovery of simulating parts of the body in life-like wax,”although no evidence exists to suggest that such a person ever lived.
Joseph Nones kept extensive journals of his travels and adventures.One night he dined with the American consul at Malaga, WilliamKirkpatrick. During the long meal, young Nones found himselfparticularly impressed by the beauty of one of Kirkpatrick’sgranddaughters, whom he described as “some pumpkin.” The“pumpkin” would, in turn, marry Napoleon III and become theEmpress Eugenie. Nones resigned from the Navy in 1821 but continuedhis world tour. In Russia he witnessed a ceremony with Czar AlexanderI. He continued on to Norway, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Calcutta,Carthage, Cadiz, and the Orkney Islands. When he finally returned tothe United States, he began to experiment with food concentration andpreservation. He marketed to the Navy a product called, “Nones’Life Preservation and Antiseptic-Nutritive Compound,” aconcentrated food ration which would also help prevent scurvy, makinghim—in addition to everything else—a pioneer in foodpreservation.
