Nagler Family
It was January,1912, when H.N.Sereth, who had returned to Zbaras, Austria to mourn the death of his mother, took his nephew Herman Nagler back to Calgary. Herman has been attending business college in Vienna, but went willingly and soon sent back glowing letters of the “New World.”
His mother Esther persuaded her husband Meir Nagler that their family’s fortune lay in Canada, so he closed the doors of his hardware store and crossed the Atlantic, reaching Calgary in 1912. After working briefly at Riverside Lumber, Meir borrowed some money from his brother-in-law (H.N.Sereth) and opened a grocery store in the Riverside district.
The next year (1913) he sent for two sons, Saul and Emil, who were followed by his wife Esther, and children Marjorie, Sabine, Sam and Leo. They lived in a home in the Bridgeland district. Herman opened a feed store in Riverside, while Saul married Molly (Shankman) and moved to Winnipeg for a time.
In 1929 Herman married Fanny Malkin in a ceremony performed by Rabbi Smolensky, the first Jewish wedding held at the Palliser Hotel. The affair was strictly kosher and Mrs. Malkin was allowed to prepare and bring turkeys for the wedding feast. A much-exaggerated account of that affair appeared in the January 7, 1929, Calgary Albertan. The young couple were so embarrassed that they registered at their Banff “honeymoon” hotel under an assumed name.
Herman and his father had by this time gone into partnership (groceries) in the City Hall Market. They eventually rented space in a building on 2nd Street E. between 6th and 7th Avenues. The upper storey was said to house a “house of ill-repute” and one night a fire broke out on that floor. At 2:00 a.m., while watching the building burn, Meir negotiated to buy the property.
For some years, many family members worked at Nagler’s Ltd. Herman Nagler took over the store in the 1950’s and continued in business with his sons Mel and George until 1967, when the store was purchased by the City of Calgary for urban renewal. It is now the site of main branch of the Calgary public Library.
The children of Meir and Esther Nagler were Herman (Fanny Malkin), Sol (Molly Shankman), Marjorie (Jack Cristall), Emil (who had several wives), Sam (Vitty Kesnick) and Leo (Ann Yakness).
Esther Nagler, born in 1866, passed away in 1942. Meir Nagler died in 1959 at the age of 90.
