Abram Morgan Frumberg, of the firm of Frumberg & Russell, attorneys at law of St. Louis, was born in Towanda, Bradford county, Pennsylvania. March 30, 1876, and traces his ancestry back through four generations to Isaac Frumberg, a native of Germany and of the Jewish race, who became the founder of the family in America and who was the great-grandfather of Abram M. Frumberg of this review. Crossing the Atlantic he settled in Pennsylvania, where several generations of his descendants have since been found. The grandfather, Isaac J. Frumberg, was a veteran of the Civil war. Simon Frumberg, father of Abram Frumberg, was also a native of the Keystone state, where he successfully engaged in general merchandising and coal mining. He became a prominent republican, taking a very active part in politics in Sullivan county. He was also identified with Masonic circles and was prominent in religious work and in various Jewish organizations. He took an active interest in civic matters, and his aid and support were at all times given to those projects which he deemed forceful elements in promoting the welfare and upbuilding of the community and the uplift of the individual. He passed away in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York city, August 23, 1919, when sixty-three years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rachel Hyman, was born in New York city and is a representative of one of the old families of the American metropolis of German lineage, while in the maternal lines she came of Portugese ancestry, the latter having settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, early in the nineteenth century. In business circles her father, Reuben Hyman, was widely known as a hair importer and manufacturer. He was one of the founders of Beth Midrash Agodel, one of the leading Jewish congregations of New York city. He was likewise one of the founders of Beth Israel Hospital of New York, and his kindliness and benevolence were expressed in many ways. Mrs. Rachel Frumberg still makes her home in New York, and by her marriage she became the mother of eight children, three sons and five daughters, all of whom are yet living.
Abram M. Frumberg was the second child of the family and was educated in the public schools of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and at the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda, thus laying a broad foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of professional knowledge. He later became a student in the law school of the Columbia University and the New York Law School in New York and was there graduated in 1897 with the LL.B. degree. The same year he entered upon practice in New York city, where he continued until 1900, when he came to the middle west and has since been a representative of the St. Louis bar, devoting his attention to general practice. His preliminary training was thorough, for aside from his university course he studied law in the office of Judge M. Van Hosen, at one time judge of the supreme court in New York city. Mr. Frumberg was for four years a student in his office at No. 33 Nassau street, New York, and gained much valuable practical experience through that association. He has always been most thorough and careful in the preparation of his cases, and his ability is demonstrated in the many favorable verdicts he has won. He was at one time provisional judge of the criminal correction in St. Louis, and he is now accorded an extensive clientage that connects him with much important litigation. He belongs to the Missouri State and also to the American Bar Associations.
In New York city in April, 1897, Mr. Frumberg was married to Miss Lillian Nebenzahl, a daughter of Isaac Nebenzahl, a resident of New York, who was a most prominent figure in mercantile and banking circles of that city. Isaac Nebenzahl married Jennie Foss, a member of one of the old families of New York, in which city his death occurred, while Mrs. Nebenzabl is still living. To Mr. and Mrs. Frumberg have been born two children: Blanche D., born In St. Louis, November 12, 1902, was graduated from Mary Institute with high honors in June, 1920, and is now a student in Wellesley College, at Wellesley, near Boston, Massachusetts. The younger daughter, Beatrice, born in April, 1908, in St. Louis, is now attending Mary Institute in this city.
During the World war Mr. Frumberg served as a member of the legal advisory board in various wards of St. Louis and was prominent in the Red Cross, Young Men’s Hebrew Association and Young Men’s Christian Association work, also in the bond sales and took a leading part in promoting all the Jewish drives. He is a very active and helpful member of B’nai B’rith, one of the Young Men’s Hebrew Associations of St. Louis. In politics he is a very active democrat and in 1896 spoke throughout the country in support of William Jennings Bryan. He has long taken a prominent part in political work, and his forceful and logical campaign utterances are not without result. He is a well known member of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis and is identified with various social organizations, belonging to the Sunset Hill Country Club and to the City Club of St. Louis, while his membership extends also to the Progress Club of New York city and to the City Athletic Club of the same place. He is recognized as a man of broad vision in public affairs and of marked capability in law practice, while his activities in behalf of progress and improvement along many lines have been far reaching and resultant.