What may be considered as an overflow of the Jewish immigration to California reached Oregon about a decade before it attained statehood in 1859. Most of the first Jewish settlers, who originally came from various parts of Southern Germany, arrived in Oregon from New York and other eastern states by way of Panama and California, and settled principally in Portland. Its first congregation, Bet Israel, was organized in 1858, the founders being Leopold Mayer, M. Mansfield, B. Simon, Abraham Frank, Jacob Mayer, H. F. Bloch, Samuel Levy and others. Rev. H. Bories was the first Hazan and Rev. Dr. Julius Eckman the first rabbi and preacher. He was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Isaac Schwab, who later went to St. Joseph, Mo. A burial society, or cemetery association, was organized some time before and the first benevolent society about a year later. The Jewish community of Portland has practically remained the only one in the state to this day, and though not large numerically, it has been from the beginning one of the most influential and important of the Jewish communities of the country. A proportionately larger number of Portland Jews have been elevated to high positions in the service of the city, state and nation than those of any other community. But they mostly belong to a later period which will be treated in a subsequent part of this work. CHAPTER XX. THE JEWS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF TEXAS. THE MEXICAN WAR. The first settler in 1821――Adolphus Sterne, who fought against Mexico and later served in the Texan Congress――David S. Kaufman――Surgeon-General Levy in the army of Sam Houston――A Jew as the first meat “packer” in America――Major Leon Dyer and his brother Isadore――Mayor Seeligsohn of Galveston (1853)――One Jew laid out Waco; Castro County is named after another――Belated communal and religious activities――The War with Mexico, in which only a small number of Jews served――David Camden de Leon and his brother Edwin, U. S. Consul-General in Egypt. The history of the Jews of Texas begins at the time when the largest state of the American Union was still a part of Mexico. The first Jewish settler of whom any record is preserved was Samuel Isaacs, who came there from the United States in 1821 with Austin’s first colony of three hundred. He received a Spanish grant of land as a colonist, and is later mentioned once more as the recipient of a bounty warrant for 320 acres of land, located in Polk county, for services in the army of Texas in 1836–37. When Abraham Cohen Labatt (b. in Charleston, S. C., in 1802; d. in Texas after 1894), who has been mentioned in the preceding chapter, visited Velasco, Texas, in 1831, he found there two Jews――Jacob Henry from England and Jacob Lyons from Charleston――who had been there for some years engaged in business. When the former of the two died without issue he left his fortune for the building of a hospital at that seaport.