Kaplon Family

Thank you to the Stowell family, friends, and other historians for sharing information and photos. The Stowell family is proud to be a NPS family. Kip and Nena Stowell spoke to Frances Kaplon and met with her several times, before and after they bought the house from her. Frances was one of the three Kaplon daughters who grew up at their house in Harpers Ferry with their parents Abe and Bessie.

Walton Stowell was able to interview various people who knew the Kaplons, record and collect documents about the Kaplons, and find photos. Some photos were found in the basement. One photo of Frances is kept by her former care-taker. The photos the Stowell family printed, framed, and displayed in the front hall of the house were from a Kaplon family webpage on a 'Jewish History in West Virginia' website, via other members of the Odd Fellows. Special thanks to Brian King, Mike Musick, and Phil Folk for working with Kip and Walton at Lodge meetings to preserve local history.

*

The Kaplon Family House

The 1908 Kaplon-Stowell House was built by Abraham Kaplon for his bride, Bessie at the top of the hill in Harpers Ferry, WV. This was one of the earliest modern, concrete-block houses in the area. The design and materials were mostly supplied by Sears & Roebuck, local resources, and the blocks were made on site using the Miracle Block Machine. The foundation was poured concrete, a relatively new process in the early 1900's.

Mr. Kaplon was proprietor of a sawmill, a department store, and other businesses in and around town. Floor joists came from his sawmill, but he ordered an oak staircase, double pocket doors, trim, tin ceilings, plumbing, and lighting fixtures from the latest 1908 Sears & Roebuck Catalog. This house was one of the first to have electricity, indoor plumbing, and steam heat.

The house embodied late Victorian design with the modern Arts & Crafts Movement of the early 20th Century; even while the Stowells owned it, because Kip Stowell was an historic preservationist. The Kaplon family rented the house for decades as apartment rooms, until the Stowell family bought it in 1973. The Stowell family continued renting apartments, but also opened a Montessori Preschool in the back yard, an architectural business, art gallery, and bed & breakfast. Eventually the property was officially recognized as the 'Museum of the American Middle Class'.

Frances, the oldest daughter became a High school business teacher at HF high school down the street. Frances married and became Frances Spindel (see her signature on Stowell notes). [Annie Bella?? the other two daughters will be added here]

Innovative crafts were used for renovations; including: ragged walls, stenciling revival patterns, lighting adaptations, and shifting interior walls. The entire house became an art and antique gallery. The house reflected the spirit of the traditional American Four-Square House for over a hundred years. At their height the gardens include Italianate sculptures, urns, iron gates, herbs, flowers, and follies all surveyed by a wrap-around porch. Refreshments were often served to visiting guests and neighbors. There is no list of Kaplon pets, but they had horses and mules. The Stowells had several pets; their cat Tyra lived there the longest. Animals who died on the property were buried in the yard. The Kaplon family did not have grave markers locally, but the Stowell's plot is in Harper Cemetery.

Nearby is the historic building of the 'Independent Order of Odd Fellows' (IOOF), Virginia Lodge #1. Originally constructed in the early 1830's as a house for the Master Armorer of the Federal Armory, in times when his quarters downtown were flooded by the Rivers. The building was given to the Odd Fellows in 1869 after their previous meeting place had been used as a stable by Union forces during the Civil War. Abe Kaplon was a member of the Odd Fellow Lodge, and had a brick sidewalk through his yard for meetings from the main sidewalk, with special IOOF stairs.

Abe Kaplon also served on Town Council. Abe paved his own concrete side-walk with decorative patterns. However he sued the Town for lowering main street in front of his house, because it made deliveries harder. He won and got money to put in concrete stairs. Abe was known by locals for "penny-pinching" or saving money in small ways; such as charging patrons for store bags used.

There were many stories about Abe and his beasts of burden pulling wagons of supplies up and down the hills, and over water; one time a bridge broke under the weight; but details of such adventures are not told here. Abe got the first Cadillac in town, but it was too long for the garage so he added a small bay extension on the garage by a few feet. The garage was demolished in the 1980s for the Stowell log school-studio.

*

*

Kaplon Family History

"Abe Kaplon was born in (Lithuanian) Russia in 1875. He and his family moved to America during a large 1880s Jewish-Russian immigration. As a 10 year old, Abe Kaplon arrived in 1885 with a support system in tow; his family. He spoke Hebrew and Russian, had not attended school, but could read and write. He soon added another language; English.

As an adult, Abe married another Jewish-Russian, Bessie Raflo. The two went into the department store and groceries business in a tall wide building on Shenandoah Street, Harpers Ferry. Their early 20th century store had an elevator, featured used clothing fixtures, counter tops, umbrella and shoe displays, and a cash register; a number 92 nickle floor model. His sisters were “salesladies.” Abe constructed one of the town's largest homes at the top of High street, made of on-site machine-made cement block. He and Bessie raised 3 independent and intelligent daughters. He moved forward, creating his American dream, against a sea change that historians refer to as “The Progressive Era” of American history.

In that era, social activism, political reforms and major world events, like WWI, the 1918 flu pandemic, and later the 1929-1933 Great Depression, crippled Abe's dream. The year of 1917 would not be a year Abe would look back on favorably. He sued the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for transit damage to new store stock that arrived in the Ferry. Abe won the case and recovered the value of the lost goods. A couple of months later, Abe was arrested for mail fraud and later acquitted. The August 17th 1917 Farmers Advocate newspaper reported...

“CASES IN FEDERAL COURT. Abe Kaplon, a prominent merchant of Harpers Ferry was acquitted in the U. S. District Court in Martinsburg on Thursday. He was charged with using the mails to defraud in connection with an alleged false claim for damages for goods supposed to have been lost in transit. The charge against him for the alleged offense was made two years ago.”

For the next 20 years, the town's citizens, and Abe's family, struggled through a series of financial setbacks. The local economy suffered during the 1918 flu pandemic and WW1. Prohibition, 1920 to 1933, was a further blow to the economy, as lost tax revenue. The 1924 flood hit the lower town. Shortly after, came the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression. Abe and his family fell on hard times. For a couple of years, 1934-1936, the local papers ran notices that the Kaplons had not paid back taxes on many of their properties including their store and home. By 1936, Abe Kaplon’s properties were advertised to auctioned off on the Jefferson County Court House steps. The final blow came that same year, the highest flood waters to ever hit Harpers Ferry, entered the second floor of lower town homes and businesses. It was time for change. Abe's dream was under water. Abe sold his stock, and rented one of his properties to Polan Katz & Company, a manufacturer of umbrellas from Baltimore.

Abe diversified. Prior to WWII, he ran a lumber yard and sold coal with his firm partner named Gorker. During the war, 1942, the Kaplons moved out of their home on high street. After a half century, Abe was about to dismantle his dream. On May 17th 1946, Abe advertised that his former store and all its building materials, was only good for its four walls as salvage. All the building materials, iron support girders, the elevator, bricks, a barrel of roof paint, the flooring, windows, wainscoting, steam pipes, a 1936 Chevrolet Truck, and a horse were for sale. With his dream gone, Abe turned his attention to others; his family. He brought his entire family to the United States from Europe. He helped his father start a business in Keyser, West Virginia, his sister in Romney, West Virginia and his brother, Victor, to run a store in Brunswick, Maryland.

After a lifetime of success and failures, Bessie and Abe gave up their dream in Harpers Ferry; they moved away to Washington, DC. Abe passed in 1955 and later, Bessie in 1978. (Photo of Kaplon's Department Store, from Open Parks Network.) ~mday." 

- Melinda Day NPS, HAFE NPS Facebook Page

*

[ more history and photos exist ]