Sterne Fountain

The Sternes came to Jefferson in 1855. Jacob ran a store and worked in the county clerk's office before becoming postmaster. In 1862 he and Isaac Pinksi helped organize the Hebrew Benevolent Association, which founded Mt. Sinai Cemetery in 1866 beside Oakwood. After Jacob died in 1872, Ernestine succeeded him as postmistress. In 1873 the town's Jews formed Hebrew Sinai, a Reform congregation, and in 1875 it bought a building at Market and Henderson that became Jefferson's first synagogue. The last Jewish resident, Lille Lipman, moved to Dallas in 1980.

What the plaque says

Sterne Fountain Settling in Jefferson prior to the Civil War, Jacob and Ernestine Sterne became prominent leaders of the community. Their early management of the post office here and their involvement in civic and cultural activities reflected the dramatic influence Jewish families had on the development of Jefferson. In 1913 the Sternes' children gave this fountain to the city in honor of their parents. Designed for use by people and animals, it was cast by the J. L.. Mott Foundry of New York. The work of Guiseppe Moretti, it features a statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jefferson Historical Museum — steps away
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Excelsior House Hotel — steps away
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Caddo Lake State Park — 11 mi
  A Civilian Conservation Corps park on the Texas shore of Caddo Lake, where the Caddo told of a lake made by wind-driven water and visitors now paddle Big Cypress Bayou past moss-hung bald cypress.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• First Texas Artificial Gas Plant — steps away
• Captain William Perry — steps away
• Immaculate Conception Catholic Church — steps away
• George Webster Smith — steps away