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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and related to the wealthy Guggenheim family through Peggy Guggenheim's mother Florette.

Early life and education

Seligman was of Jewish heritage and born in

Baiersdorf Baiersdorf is a town in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt, in northern Bavaria, Germany. Geography Location The major part of Baiersdorf is idyllically situated on a terrace which preserves the town from being flooded by the close Regnitz river ...

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

. 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

. At fourteen Seligman attended the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. At seventeen he boarded a steamer at

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

and sailed to America.

Career

Arriving in the United States at age 18, Seligman initially settled in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, where he went to work as a cashier and clerk for

Asa Packer Asa Packer (December 29, 1805May 17, 1879) was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a conservative and religious man who ...

, who would later become a United States

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

. His salary was $400 a year. Using his savings from work, Seligman began selling goods door to door in rural

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, including jewelry, knives, and smaller goods that saved outlying farmers the trouble of coming into town to buy their goods. After saving $500, Seligman was able to send to Germany for his brothers William and James, who joined him in peddling. The Seligmans encountered some anti-Semitic abuse in their interactions with Americans, though they were not discouraged from continuing to sell. Seligman and his brothers owned and operated several stores in

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, but they became uncomfortable with the institution of slavery in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, and the rest of the family had already emigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, leading the brothers to move north and establish J. Seligman and Brothers. Jesse Seligman ran the store's branch in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, while Joseph managed the New York City store. Despite the economic booms and busts of the 1850s and 1860s, J. Seligman and Brothers remained prosperous. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, he was president of Temple Emanu-El in New York City, and would later become the first President of the Society for Ethical Culture. Along with Jacob H. Schiff, H. B. Claflin, Marcellus Hartley, and Robert L. Cutting, he was a founder of the Continental Bank of New York in August 1870.

Civil War

During the

, Seligman was responsible for aiding the Union by disposing of $200,000,000 in bonds "a feat which W. E. Dodd said was 'scarcely less important than the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...

. Later historians have suggested that Seligman's role in financing the war through bonds has been exaggerated. According to Stephen Birmingham, Seligman was obliged to accept " 7.30 bonds" from the government as payment for the uniforms his factory was delivering. Union defeats, combined with a suspiciously high interest rate, lowered confidence in the bonds, making them difficult to sell. In the post-Civil War

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, J. & W. Seligman & Co. invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould family, Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the Robber baron (industrialist), robber bar ...

. They underwrote the securities of a variety of companies, participating in stock and bond issues in the railroad and steel and wire industries, investments in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, the formation of the

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company was a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The ...

, and shipbuilding, bridges, bicycles, mining, and a variety of other industries. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanth ...

to create public utilities in New York. In 1877, Seligman was involved in the most publicized antisemitic incident in American history up to that point, being denied entry into the Grand Union Hotel in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the ...

, by Henry Hilton.

J. & W. Seligman & Co. and railroads

Seligman's firm made a number of investments in railroads. Among these were the

Missouri Pacific The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

, the

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was an American railroad that owned or operated two individual segments of track. One connected St. Louis, Missouri, with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connected Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Needles in Southe ...

(A&P), the South Pacific Coast Railroad, and the

Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Southern Branch, it came to serve an exten ...

. They also helped finance New York's first elevated railway. After the

, nothing generated as much financial excitement as rail transportation, and the Seligmans were, at that time, the country's leading financiers. Joseph started conservatively in this sector, selling railroad bonds, but this led them to owning and operating railroads in order to protect their investments. Joseph served as director of the A&P, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas, as well as the South Pacific railroads, and in 1872, claimed that they had made a fortune in the business of start-up railroads. However, he never felt comfortable here, and suspected that they were over-invested in the sector. After the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "L ...

he swore never to sell another railroad bond, but in 1874 was again selling A&P bonds, touted as the only snow-free route to the Pacific. In 1875, the A&P failed, and its franchise was taken over by the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, which was forced to sell half its A&P interest to the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

(AT&SF). Joseph unfortunately died, five years before being able to see the AT&SF reach Los Angeles. The Seligmans tended to generally lose money on their equity investment in railroad ventures. An example is the purchase of land in Arizona to be used for grazing cattle, which would then be transported to market on the A&P. The aridity of the desert made it unsuitable for the venture, but there remains a town by the name of

Seligman, Arizona Seligman () is a census-designated place (CDP) on the northern border of Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. The population was 446 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is one of the stops on Historic U.S. Route 66 (Arizona), hi ...

. President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, who befriended Jesse Seligman when he was a First Lieutenant near

Watertown, New York Watertown is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River, about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the t ...

, offered Joseph Seligman the post of

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

, which he declined, possibly due to shyness. George Sewall Boutwell accepted the position and eventually clashed with the Seligmans. In 1877, President

Rutherford Hayes Rutherford may refer to: Places Australia * Rutherford, New South Wales, a suburb of Maitland * Rutherford (Parish), New South Wales, a civil parish of Yungnulgra County Canada * Mount Rutherford, Jasper National Park * Rutherford, Edmon ...

asked Seligman,

August Belmont August Belmont Sr. (born Aron Belmont; December 8, 1813November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, and politician. He served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872. He was also a thoroughbred racehors ...

, and a number of other New York bankers to come to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, to plan a refinancing of the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

debt. Each banker submitted a plan, but Secretary of the Treasury Sherman accepted Seligman's plan as being the most practical. It involved retaining gold reserves totaling forty percent of circulating greenbacks through bond sales.

Seligman–Hilton affair

In 1877, Judge Henry Hilton, the owner of the Grand Union Hotel in

, denied entry to Seligman and his family because they were Jews, creating nationwide controversy. It was the first

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

incident of its kind in the United States to achieve widespread publicity.

Background

During the 1870s, several incidents made Alexander Stewart hostile towards Seligman, although the two men had served together on the board of the New York Railways Company, whose president was Judge Henry Hilton, a Tweed Ring associate. The first incident involved Seligman's declining the post of Secretary of the Treasury. Stewart, who was a friend of President Grant, was then offered the post. However, because he was associated with Henry Hilton, and Hilton with

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

, the Senate declined to confirm him. Seligman was invited to serve in the Committee of Seventy, a group of New Yorkers who banded together to fight the Tweed Ring. Stewart's company, in retaliation, stopped doing business with Seligman. Stewart died in 1876, having placed Hilton in charge of his estate, the largest American fortune recorded to that date. The estate included a two-million-dollar stake in the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, as well as A. T. Stewart's

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

Astor Place Astor Place is a street in NoHo/ East Village, in the lower part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is divided into two sections: One segment runs from Broadway in the west (just below East 8th Street) to Lafayette Street, an ...

. Hilton himself was unhappy with Seligman, as he was annoyed that Seligman had not invited him to a dinner given for Grant after he became president.

The incident

After helping refinance the war debt in

, Seligman decided to vacation with his family at the 834-room Grand Union Hotel in

, where he had stayed before. Saratoga at the time was a well-regarded resort area for wealthy New Yorkers, and the Grand Union Hotel itself was the best available. Nevertheless, by 1877 the hotel had suffered a drop in business. Stewart and, after his death, his manager Hilton believed that the cause of the decline was the presence of "Israelites" (that is, Jews) at the hotel; Christians, their theory went, did not wish to stay at a hotel that admitted Jews. Seligman was told he could not stay at the hotel. Historians disagree as to whether the Seligman family were physically turned away from the hotel, told not to come to the hotel, or advised that they could stay only one final time. However, it is clear that the Seligmans were made to feel that their presence at the hotel was not desired and would not be tolerated long, if at all.

Aftermath

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', on June 19, 1877, ran a headline set entirely in capital letters: ::::::::::A SENSATION AT SARATOGA. :::::::::::::_____ :::::::::: ::::::::::NEW RULES FOR THE GRAND UNION. ::::::::::NO JEWS TO BE ADMITTED--MR. SELIGMAN, ::::::::::THE BANKER, AND HIS FAMILY SENT AWAY-- ::::::::::HIS LETTER TO MR. HILTON-- ::::::::::GATHERING OF MR. SELIGMAN'S FRIENDS ::::::::::AN INDIGNATION MEETING TO BE HELD. A month later, ''The New York Times'' disclosed a letter in which Judge Hilton told a friend, "As etthe law ... permits a man to use his property as he pleases, and I propose exercising that blessed privilege, notwithstanding Moses and all his descendants object." The case became a national sensation. Seligman and Hilton both received death threats. A group of Seligman's friends started a boycott against A. T. Stewart's, eventually causing the business to fail; a sale to

John Wanamaker John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He served as United States Postmaster General ...

followed. This prompted Hilton to pledge a thousand dollars to Jewish charities, a gesture mocked by the satirical magazine '' Puck''. Hilton was also castigated by

Henry Ward Beecher Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the Abolitionism, abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery ...

(who knew Seligman) in a sermon entitled "Gentile and Jew". After praising Seligman's character, Beecher said, "When I heard of the unnecessary offense that has been cast upon Mr. Seligman, I felt no other person could have been singled out that would have brought home to me the injustice more sensibly than he." Whether or not Seligman meant to be turned away from the hotel to cast a light on growing antisemitism in America, the resulting publicity emboldened other hoteliers to exclude Jews, placing advertisements saying "Hebrews need not apply" and "Hebrews will knock vainly for admission".

Death

Seligman died on April 25, 1880, in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. His body was returned to

and he was buried in

Salem Fields Cemetery Salem Fields Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located at 775 Jamaica Avenue in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States, within the Cemetery Belt. It was founded in 1852 by Congregation Emanu-El of New York. Salem Fie ...

on May 4, 1880.

Family

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 Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman (1861–1939) was an American economist who spent his entire academic career at Columbia University in New York City. Seligman is best remembered for his pioneering work involving taxation and public finance. His pr ...

, 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).

Posthumous honors

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.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * *

External links

* "Jessie Seligman,"
Famous American Fortunes and the Men who Have Made Them
' by Laura Carter Holloway (1885)
Jewish Encyclopedia article
* "Seligman, Jesse," ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'' pub. J. T. White Company (1893
Vol.4
p. 226

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seligman, Joseph 1819 births 1880 deaths American bankers American financiers American railway entrepreneurs Businesspeople from Pennsylvania Bavarian emigrants to the United States 19th-century German Jews People from Erlangen-Höchstadt People from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Burials at Salem Fields Cemetery Ethical movement