Samuel P. Frumkin; Early Developer of Mojave

Samuel P. Frumkin, who in 1914 was given 160 acres of the Mojave Desert under the Homestead Act, making him one of the first to develop that barren land, has died at the age of 102.

His daughter, Dr. Pauline Furth, said he was at home in Los Angeles when he died Sunday.

His title to the land under the Homestead Act of 1862 was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. Frumkin then established himself as a teamster, hauling supplies by horse and wagon from Los Angeles to his fellow settlers. The journey then took 2 1/2 days.

Frumkin, a pre-Bolshevik Socialist, fled his native Russia in 1905 after the abortive anti-Czarist revolution and, using a false passport, managed to get to the United States.

He met his wife in the desert and became involved with the Llano Socialist Colony, an early Jewish political group.

Near the end of World War I the Frumkins moved to Porterville, where they became fruit growers, and then to East Los Angeles, where they lived across from the old Mount Sinai Hospital.

Frumkin started an auxiliary support group for the hospital and remained active in hospital activities for years, said his physician daughter, who operates a medical clinic near the family’s old home.

Over the years Frumkin also worked as a wholesale poulterer and owned apartment houses.

He was a founder of Workmen’s Circle, a Jewish fraternal group, and was long active in the Los Angeles Chess Club.

In addition to Furth, survivors include a son, another daughter, two brothers, eight grandchildren (one of whom is Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein) and seven great-grandchildren.