Stern Memorial Fountain was given to the City of Jefferson by the
children (Eva, Leopold, Alfred and Fred) of Jacob and Ernestine Stern in
1913.
In the gift of this splendid piece of work lay the life time love of
Jefferson, a devotion of a little immigrant girl grown to womanhood, and
the gratitude of her children to a little city that had given Mother and
Father happiness.
The fountain is entirely of purest bronze and is 13½ feet high, with
bowls of 7½ feet broad, and has a statue six feet tall representing
“L’ducation,” the total cost being $4,000.
Engraved on the fountain is: “Dedicated in honor of Jacob & Ernestine
Stern, who lived in Jefferson for many years. Presented to the City of
Jefferson by their children as an expression of affection for their
native town”.
More than seventy-six years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Stern came to Jefferson
from Houston, in a two horse wagon. Mr. Stern was buried in Jefferson in
1872 and later the family went to New York to live.
The fountain is still used, as was originally intended, for the good of
man, stock and dogs, and the pure water that flows through it was given
the ladies of Jefferson by the late W. B. Ward in appreciation for work
done in the prohibition election many years ago.
As the people of Jefferson appreciated the noble qualities of the Stern
family, they too appreciate the gift of love from the children.
In connection with the foregoing article a little book has been written
by Mr. Stern’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Eva Stern, a most beautiful token of
the noble lives of Mr. and Mrs. Stern.
In the book is printed a bill-of-sale for a negro woman slave. When Mr.
Stern gave the bill-of-sale to his wife he said, “I felt like a mean
creature when I paid the money for that girl, but I knew that we needed
a nurse girl ... so what was to be done ... Where I was born, on the
Rhine, no one would believe for a moment that I would buy a human being.
They would hate me, as I hate myself, for bartering in human flesh.”
The exact bill of sales for Sarah read as follows:
“Received from Jacob Stern two thousand dollars for a negro woman, by
name Sarah, about thirty-four years of age, copper colored. Said woman I
promise to deliver to Jacob Stern, in course of six days. I hereby
guarantee the woman, Sarah, to be sound in body and mind. I also
guarantee said woman, Sarah, to be a good house woman. If not, I promise
to take her back and refund to said Jacob Stern $1000.”
Just before Mr. Stern’s death their old servant “Aunt Caroline” and he
were talking and he told her that he thanked God he had set the colored
people free, and she replied, “But thanks be to him mos’en fer giben me
my good marsar and misses, who gib me my close, my vittles and my
medicine.”