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Henry Siegel (March 17, 1852 – August 25, 1930) was an American businessman and co-founder of the
Siegel-Cooper Company The Siegel-Cooper Company was a department store that opened in Chicago in 1887 and expanded into New York City in 1896. At the time of its opening, the New York store was the largest in the world. First store in Chicago Siegel-Cooper began ...
.


Early life

Siegel was born on March 17, 1852, to a
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
family in Eubigheim,
Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...
. In 1867, he immigrated to the United States where he worked as a clerk by in
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 ...
,
Parkersburg, West Virginia Parkersburg is a city in Wood County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Little Kanawha River, Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's List of municipalities in West Virginia ...
, and Lawrenceburg,
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 ...
.


Career

In 1876, he co-founded Siegel, Hartsfield & Company in Chicago. In 1887, he co-founded the
Siegel-Cooper Company The Siegel-Cooper Company was a department store that opened in Chicago in 1887 and expanded into New York City in 1896. At the time of its opening, the New York store was the largest in the world. First store in Chicago Siegel-Cooper began ...
, also in Chicago, with Frank H. Cooper and Isaac Keim. In 1896, Siegel-Cooper opened a store in
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 ...
in the
Ladies' Mile Historic District The Ladies' Mile Historic District was a prime shopping district in Manhattan, New York City, at the end of the 19th century, serving the well-to-do " carriage trade" of the city. It was designated in May 1989, by the New York City Landmark Pres ...
. In 1902, Henry Siegel sold the company to one of his major stockholders, Captain Joseph B. Greenhut and his son Benedict J. Greenhut, who merged the store with B. Altman across the street in New York City creating a mega-store. In the same year, Siegel bought the Simpson Crawford Company (with one store in New York across the street from Siegel-Cooper) and the Schlesinger and Mayer Company (with one store in Chicago and one store in New York) and moved to New York City. In 1905, Siegel founded The Henry Siegel Company and opened a large store in Boston at 600 Washington Street; he also created a holding company, the Siegel Stores Corporation, as the parent for his retail investments in New York, Chicago, and Boston. In 1913, Siegel-founded banks which had over 15,000 depositors and were operated in conjunction with his stores collapsed. Siegel was convicted and served a short jail sentence for using false financial statements to obtain credit. After he served his sentence, he re-opened a
haberdashery __NOTOC__ In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a men's clothing store ...
with one employee.


Personal life

Siegel married three times. In 1885, he married his first wife, Julia Rosenbaum. Before her death in December 1886, they had one daughter: * Julia Florence Siegel (1886–1963), who married Tyrell William Cavendish (1875–1912), son of Charles Tyrell Cavendish and grandson of Hon. Richard Cavendish of the British noble
Cavendish family The Cavendish (or de Cavendish) family ( ; ) is a British noble family, of Anglo-Norman origins (though with an Anglo-Saxon name, originally from a place-name in Suffolk). They rose to their highest prominence as Duke of Devonshire and Duke of ...
; she survived the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' while her husband perished. In 1898, he married his second wife, Marie Vaughan Wilde. Marie was the mother of Georgine Wilde, the first wife of Count Carlo Dentice di Frasso. They divorced in 1918. Also in 1918, he married his third wife, Henrietta Struble, a 40-year-old telephone operator from
Geneseo, New York Geneseo is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Livingston County, New York, Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, United States. It is at the south end of the five-county Rochester metropo ...
. They divorced in 1927. Henry Siegel died at Paul Kimball Hospital in
Lakewood Township, New Jersey Lakewood Township is the most populous township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A rapidly growing community, as of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 135,158, its highest decennial count ever and a ...
, on August 25, 1930.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegel, Henry 1852 births 1930 deaths Württemberger emigrants to the United States American Jews American company founders American retail chief executives