Joseph Seligman

Joseph Seligman
Joseph Seligman
Born	Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age; Baiersdorf, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died	April 25, 1880 (aged 60); New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Financier, entrepreneur
Known for	Founder of J. & W. Seligman & Co., Civil War bond sales, involvement in railroad financing, Seligman–Hilton controversy

Joseph Seligman (November 22, 1819 – April 25, 1880) was a prominent American financier and entrepreneur who established J. & W. Seligman & Co. He served as the head of the Seligman family in the United States and was linked to the affluent Guggenheim family through Florette, mother of Peggy Guggenheim.

Early life and education

Born into a Jewish family in Baiersdorf, Kingdom of Bavaria, Seligman spent his youth assisting in his mother's dry goods store and gained early experience by exchanging various local currencies for travelers. Although his father wished for him to enter the family wool trade, economic downturns in Baiersdorf limited such prospects. At age fourteen, he enrolled at the University of Erlangen, and by seventeen, he emigrated to America.

Career

Upon arriving in the United States at eighteen, Seligman settled in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a cashier and clerk under Asa Packer with an annual wage of $400. He utilized his savings to start selling merchandise door-to-door throughout rural Pennsylvania. After accumulating $500, he invited his brothers William and James to join him in peddling goods.

Despite encountering anti-Semitic obstacles, the brothers persevered. They operated multiple stores in Alabama but, due to discomfort with slavery and family relocating to New York City, they moved northward to found J. Seligman and Brothers. Jesse Seligman oversaw the San Francisco branch while Joseph managed operations in New York. The company remained successful despite economic challenges during the 1850s and 1860s.

Throughout the American Civil War, Joseph held the presidency of New York City's Temple Emanu-El and later became the inaugural President of the Society for Ethical Culture. Together with Jacob H. Schiff and others, he co-established the Continental Bank of New York in August 1870.

Civil War

During the conflict of the American Civil War, Seligman supported the Union by facilitating the sale of $200 million in bonds—a contribution regarded as nearly as pivotal as the Battle of Gettysburg. However, some later historians argue that his involvement in war financing has been exaggerated, noting that he accepted "7.30 bonds" as payment for uniforms; these bonds were hard to market due to their high interest rates coupled with Union military setbacks.

In the subsequent Gilded Age, J. & W. Seligman & Co. heavily engaged in railroad financing, underwriting deals orchestrated by Jay Gould. Their investments spanned railroads, steel production, wire manufacturing, and extended internationally into Russia and Peru. The firm also contributed to establishing the Standard Oil Company and expanded into industries including shipbuilding, bridge construction, bicycles, and mining. In 1876, they collaborated with the Vanderbilt family on developing public utilities in New York City. In 1877, Joseph encountered a notable incident of antisemitism when denied admission to the Grand Union Hotel by proprietor Henry Hilton.

J. & W. Seligman & Co. and railroads

The firm invested extensively in railroads such as the Missouri Pacific, Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (A&P), South Pacific Coast Railroad, and Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, additionally financing New York's inaugural elevated railway.

Following the Civil War, enthusiasm for rail transport surged financially, positioning the Seligmans as leading financiers in this sector. Joseph initially sold railroad bonds but soon acquired ownership stakes and operated railroads to safeguard these investments. He held directorships at A&P, Missouri–Kansas–Texas, and South Pacific railroads. By 1872, he reported significant profits from these ventures but acknowledged overexposure within railroad investments. After the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1873, he pledged never again to sell railroad bonds but resumed issuing A&P bonds in 1874. The A&P ultimately failed in 1875; its franchise was taken over by the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, which then sold half its holdings to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). Joseph passed away before AT&SF extended service to Los Angeles.

The Seligmans frequently incurred losses on railroad equity investments—for instance, acquiring land in Arizona intended for cattle grazing tied to A&P transport proved unviable due to desert conditions; nevertheless, the town of Seligman, Arizona endures.

President Ulysses S. Grant, a longtime acquaintance of Jesse Seligman from military service, offered Joseph Seligman the position of United States Secretary of the Treasury, which he declined. Subsequently, President Rutherford Hayes summoned Seligman along with other New York financiers to Washington in 1877 to assist with refinancing Civil War debt. Secretary of the Treasury Sherman endorsed Seligman's proposal as most feasible; it called for maintaining gold reserves equal to forty percent of circulating greenbacks through bond sales.

Seligman–Hilton controversy

In 1877, Judge Henry Hilton, proprietor of the Grand Union Hotel located in Saratoga Springs, New York, refused lodging to Seligman and his family solely because of their Jewish background, igniting a nationwide uproar. This event marked the first extensively reported antisemitic episode in the United States.

Context

During the 1870s, friction developed between Alexander Stewart and Seligman, even though both held positions on the board of the New York Railways Company, which was overseen by Hilton, an affiliate of the Tweed Ring.

The dispute originated when Seligman turned down the role of Secretary of the Treasury, a position subsequently offered to Stewart. However, Stewart’s ties to Hilton and Tammany Hall led to his rejection by the Senate.

Seligman became involved with the Committee of Seventy, opposing the Tweed Ring’s corruption, which caused Stewart’s company to terminate business relations with Seligman.

Upon Stewart’s death in 1876, Hilton was entrusted with managing Stewart’s extensive holdings, including a two-million-dollar interest in the Grand Union Hotel and Stewart’s department store on Astor Place. Hilton harbored resentment toward Seligman for not inviting him to a presidential dinner honoring Grant.

The event

Following his participation in refinancing war debt in Washington, D.C., Seligman planned a family retreat at the Grand Union Hotel, an 834-room luxury resort in Saratoga popular among wealthy New Yorkers.

By 1877, the hotel experienced a downturn in business. Stewart and Hilton attributed this decline to Jewish patrons, believing that Christian customers avoided establishments frequented by Jews. As a result, Seligman was denied accommodation.

Reports differ on whether the Seligmans were physically barred or merely informed they could stay only one more night. In any case, it was evident they were not welcome and were discouraged from remaining.

Consequences

On June 19, 1877, The New York Times featured a headline in uppercase 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 published a letter from Judge Hilton declaring, "As [yet] the 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 incident sparked national debate. Both Seligman and Hilton received threats against their lives. Supporters of Seligman organized a boycott against A. T. Stewart's business, which contributed to its decline and eventual sale to John Wanamaker. In response, Hilton donated $1,000 to Jewish charities—a gesture mocked by Puck.

Public condemnation came from Henry Ward Beecher, who lauded Seligman’s integrity during a sermon entitled "Gentile and Jew" while denouncing the unfair treatment.

Whether deliberate or accidental, this publicity exposed growing antisemitism in America and inspired other hotel owners to exclude Jewish guests by posting signs such as "Hebrews need not apply" or "Hebrews will knock vainly for admission."

Death

Joseph Seligman passed away on April 25, 1880, in New Orleans. His remains were transported back to New York City, where he was laid to rest at Salem Fields Cemetery on May 4, 1880.

Family

Seligman had several siblings: William (originally named Wolf), James (Jacob), Jesse (Isaias), Henry (Hermann), Leopold (Lippmann), Abraham, Isaac, Babette, Rosalie, and Sarah.

In 1848, he wed his cousin Babet (Babette) Steinhardt in Baiersdorf. Together, they had five sons—David, George Washington, Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Isaac Newton Seligman, and Alfred Lincoln—and four daughters: Frances ("Fanny," who married Theodore Hellman), Helen (wife of Emanuel Spiegelberg), Sophia (married to Moritz Walter), and Isabella (who married Philip N. Lilienthal).

Posthumous honors

On September 27, 1880, the community of Roller's Ridge (also known as Herdsville) in Missouri was renamed Seligman as a tribute to Joseph Seligman and in recognition of the railroad's significance to the town. In appreciation, Babet Seligman contributed one acre of land along with $500 for the establishment of a church near the center of Seligman.

References

External links

"Jessie Seligman," in Famous American Fortunes and the Men who Have Made Them by Laura Carter Holloway (1885)
Entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia
The Seligman Family in the Civil War and After
"Seligman, Jesse," from The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography published by J. T. White Company (1893) Vol.4 p. 226
Overview of The Seligman Legacy