Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Isador Molk Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

ISADOR MOLK

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

The career of Isador Molk, oil producer, president of the Cosmic Oil and Gas Company, and owner of the Molk Pipe and Supply Company, proves that the days of romance are not dead yet. Like Kit Carson, who ran away from home when a boy to lead a life of his own choosing in the wild West, Mr. Molk also left home and mapped out for himself a career as amazing as that of the redoubtable Kit, although in a different field.

Isador Molk was born March 5, 1893, in Poneviz, Lithania, then a province of Russia. In that country a lad of Isador’s race had little chance, but the Jewish boy did not worry about lack of opportunity. At the age of nine he left home against the wishes of his parents to enter the Slabotky Yeshivah, the Harvard of the ghetto.

After the Kissenev programs and other massacres against Jews, he migrated to the United States. He landed in New York City I 1907 and entered Yeshivah College of Isaac Elchanon to resume his studies. He graduated—the youngest student—and was ordained rabbi. At the same time he obtained his high school education.

Mr. Molk was not, however, inclined to the rabbinical profession. In 1911-1912 he studied forestry in the Ohio State University, earning his way by pruning trees at seventeen cents an hour and doing other menial labor, even selling shoe laces.

His youth, industry and studious habits attracted the attention of Vice President Sherman who served in the same administration with President Taft. Through the aid of Sherman, Mr. Molk entered Hamilton College, New York, earning part of his way by teaching semities to members of the faculty. In 1914, he attended Connecticut Weslyan University and tutored biblical students in Berkley Divinity College. The following year he took his senior work in Valporaiso University from which he graduated in 1916.

The youngster who came to America as a refugee immigrant found opportunity as he had hoped. He graduated N. Y. High School in 1910; graduated rabbinical seminary as rabbi at the age of eighteen in 1911, and now, four years later, he won his college degree.

After leaving the University he returned to New York City, but didn’t stay long. When he left his parents it was to acquire an education. He got it. He wanted adventure. He turned toward the West. The oil boom was stirring in El Dorado, and he came in with the tide. Without capital he worked with his two hands and brain in the supply business. In 1930 he organized the Cosmic Oil and Gas Company of which he is manager.

That restless spirit and insatiable thirst for knowledge he inherited from his ancestors. His grandfather, David Molk, was a rabbi. So devoted was he to his faith that he left his family to banish worldliness and live in the Holy land. There he died while pouring over the Talmud, and was buried on the Mount of Olives,Jerusalem. Isador’s father, Abe Molk, also aspired to the rabbinate, but marrying Ida, the daughter of a miller, he joined his father-in-law in the milling business. The Molk family tree can be traced back to the Molak, the renowned teacher and the inspirer of Sabbati Sevi, the pseudo-messiah of the seventeenth century. The musical vein obvious in the family descended from Isador’s maternal great grandmother, Anna Couzin, who sang for the czar.

Mr. Molk was married June 29, 1924, to Sophie Berman, in New York. Her grandfather, Chanan Berman, was a deacon and spent much time pondering over Hebraic volumes. Her father, David Berman, likewise was a student in the synagogue. Upon coming to the United States he engaged in the furniture business and later in farming in Westchester County,New York. Mrs. Molk’s maternal grandfather, Daniel Hurwitz, was a trader in timber land. Her mother, Sarah Hurwitz Berman was sharp-witted and alert. In her native town of Novoalexandrovsky,Lithuania, she frequently served as mediator between her co-religionists and the officers of the czar, and even pleaded their cases in court.

Mr. Molk’s hobby, so his friends say, is pacing up and down the floor in the evening after a hard day’s work, planning for the next day.

He is an outstanding member of the Hebrew Synagogue,Wichita; member of Patmos Lodge, No. 97; Wichita Consistory; Midian Shrine; B’nai Brith Lodge, No. 857. In politics he is a Brown-Derby Democrat.