Morris Gass, the third child of Pesach Goos and Chana Schwartz, was born in Turiysk in 1885. He was the last of the four Goos brothers to leave Russia, remaining behind because one sibling needed to serve in the Russian army in order for the others to emigrate. Morris wanted to spare his parents the burden of paying the costly fine they would have incurred if all their sons had escaped military service. So Morris volunteered.

Morris Gass came to America on the SS Pennsylvania, which sailed from Hamburg, Germany on 18 January 1907 and docked in New York on 1 February 1907. He was listed on the manifest under the name “Meische Guss” as he was probably called Moishe at that time. According to the manifest, Morris was age 21 years and single. He last resided in Wohlyiena. [This is Volhynia, a guberniya (province) in what is now the western Ukraine.] Morris was a peddler and he was planning to join his brother, Schloime Guss at 192 2d Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Morris’s birthplace was listed on the manifest as “Kresk” [sic]. [This was likely a misspelling of Turiysk.]

The 1920 U.S. Census[1] shows that Morris immigrated in 1907, making him 21 or so when he left Russia. When he reached America he became a peddler and junk dealer in Vermont, collecting paper supplies, iron, and steel. His daughter Rebecca (Rae) Budnitz speculates on why her father settled in what was then an extremely remote area:
 

"There was a small contingent of Jewish people who settled in the small Vermont towns of Newport, Bellows Falls, and Brattleboro. There were these famous Zionists who traveled all though New England. They used to go to the small towns and try to talk to the Jewish people there to get them together. These Zionists were all very well known at the time when Israel was trying to become a country—Theodore Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, people like that. They may have in­fluenced Jews to get out of the big cities and go to the smaller towns where they could make a better living. My mother's brother settled in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, right off the boat; he also didn't stay in the city."

On January 24, 1911, Morris Gass married Sarah Haefitz, the immigrant daughter of Abraham Haefitz and Reve Hophstein.[3] Even though Morris made his home in Brattleboro, and Sarah lived in Hinsdale, the marriage took place in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the home of many other Gass family members.

Morris and Sarah Gass	Marriage record for Morris Gass and Sarah Heafitz [sic]

Sarah Haefitz Gass, described her childhood:

"My mother died in the old country and left three children. I was the youngest at home—about eleven years old—and I took care of my sick brothers. I was already grown up when I was young. I had to help myself from the start. At age 14, I immigrated to the United States to join my oldest brother.[4] I traveled with his sweetheart. For a short time I went to school, then in 1911, I married Morris Gass. He was twenty-four and I was sixteen. I was not anxious to marry right away, but circumstances were such that before I knew it I was engaged to be married."

The newlyweds settled in Brattleboro, where their first child, Samuel (Sam) A. Gass, was born one year to the date after they were mar­ried. Their daughter, Rebecca, was born in 1913, and their youngest son, Harvey, in 1915.[5]

Morris and Sarah became natural­ized citizens in Brattleboro on March 24, 1914.[6] By 1920 Morris Gass and his family had moved to 58 Canal Street in the town of Bellows Falls Village, Vermont. The family left Vermont in 1924 when they moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, so Morris could join his brothers as a partner in Lion Shoe Company. The 1925 Lynn City Direc­tory shows the family's home address as Ocean [Avenue?].[7]

	(left) Sarah Haefitz Gass (above & below) left to right: Sam, Harvey, and Rebecca Gass

Connecticut River and Great Falls at Bellow Falls, Vermont, near the time Morris saw it for the first time Credit: ©between 1905 – 1910. Detroit Publishing Company. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction numbers LC-D4-71178 and  LC-D4-70091.

Did the family make use of the Bellow Falls Library? Credit: ©between 1905 – 1910. Detroit Publishing Company. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number LC-D4-70097].	This photo of a band concert at Barber Park in Bellow Falls was taken a few years before the Gasses moved to the town. Did they attend similar concerts once they were residents? Credit: ©between 1905 – 1910. Detroit Publishing Company. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number LC-D4-70092].

      
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