Joseph Seligman
Joseph Seligman (November 22, 1819 – April 25, 1880) was an American banker and businessman who founded J. & W. Seligman & Co. He was the patriarch of what became known as the Seligman family in the United States and related to the wealthy Guggenheim family through Peggy Guggenheim's mother Florette.[1]
Joseph Seligman
November 22, 1819
Baiersdorf, Bavaria, German Confederation
April 25, 1880 (aged 60)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Babet Steinhardt
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$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#0__call_to_action.textDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$Early life and education[edit]
Seligman was of Jewish heritage[2] and born in Baiersdorf, Kingdom of Bavaria. As a small child, he worked in his mother's dry goods shop. In the early 19th century Germany consisted of many independent states, most of which issued their own, differing coinages; young Joseph made a profit at his mother's shop changing money for travelers for a small fee. Joseph's father wanted him to enter the family wool business, but circumstances made this difficult. In particular, migration of the peasant class (Seligman's father's customers) from rural to urban areas meant a loss of job opportunities and a shrinking economic base in Baiersdorf. At fourteen Seligman attended the University of Erlangen. At seventeen he boarded a steamer at Bremen and sailed to America.
Death[edit]
Seligman died on April 25, 1880, in New Orleans. His body was returned to New York City and he was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery on May 4, 1880.[17]
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Family[edit]
Joseph Seligman's siblings were, in order of birth, William (born Wolf), James (born Jacob), Jesse (born Isaias), Henry (born Hermann), Leopold (born Lippmann), Abraham, Isaac, Babette, Rosalie, and Sarah.
He married his cousin Babet (or Babette) Steinhardt in a ceremony in Baiersdorf in 1848. Together, they had five sons, David Seligman, George Washington Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Isaac Newton Seligman, and Alfred Lincoln Seligman, as well as four daughters, Frances (or "Fanny", married to Theodore Hellman), Helen (married to Emanuel Spiegelberg), Sophia (married to Moritz Walter), and Isabella (or Isabelle, married to Philip N. Lilienthal).[18]
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Posthumous honors[edit]
On September 27, 1880, the town of Roller's Ridge (or Herdsville), Missouri, was renamed Seligman, in honor of Joseph Seligman and in recognition of the benefits the railroad had brought to the community. In gratitude, Babet Seligman donated one acre of land and $500 towards the building of a church which still stands near downtown Seligman.[19]
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