Mayer Lehman (January 9, 1830 – June 21, 1897) was a German-born American businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He was one of the three founding brothers of the investment bank

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

Early life

Mayer Lehman was born in 1830 to a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

family in the small

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

n town of

Rimpar Rimpar is a market town in the district of Würzburg in the German state of Bavaria. It is located about 10 km (6 mi) north of the City of Würzburg. The municipality includes the villages of Gramschatz and Maidbronn, incorporated in 19 ...

near

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

. He was the son of Eva (Rosenheim) and a cattle merchant, Abraham Löw Lehmann.Bernhard, William, L., Birge, June Rossbach Bingham, Loeb, John L., Jr.. '' Lots of Lehmans – The Family of Mayer Lehman of Lehman Brothers, Remembered by His Descendants''.

Center For Jewish History The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museum, ...

, 2007, page 1Hall, Henr
''America's successful men of affairs. An encyclopedia of contemporaneous biography''
(1895), pp. 390–392

Career and life in the United States

In 1850, Mayer emigrated to the United States, joining his brothers,

Henry Lehman Henry Lehman (born Hayum Lehmann; September 29, 1822 – November 17, 1855) was a German-born American businessman and the founder of Lehman Brothers, which grew from a cotton and fabrics shop during his life to become a large finance firm under ...

(b. 1822) and

Emanuel Lehman Emanuel Lehman (born Mendel Lehmann; February 15, 1827 – January 10, 1907) was a German-born American banker. The younger brother of Henry Lehman, he was a co-founder of Lehman Brothers. Biography Emanuel Lehman was born in Rimpar, Bavaria on ...

in Montgomery,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. His brother Henry had left Germany in 1844 and opened a dry goods store named "H. Lehman".Lehman Brothers.com
/ref> His brother Emanuel left Germany in 1847 and joined Henry in his business endeavor, which they renamed "H. Lehman and Bro." With the arrival of Mayer in 1850, it became

.Birmingham, Stephen. '' Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York''. Harper and Row, 1967, page 47 As

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

was the most important crop of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

and global demand led to profitable business, the Lehman brothers became

cotton factor In the antebellum and Reconstruction era South, most cotton planters relied on cotton factors (also known as cotton brokers) to sell their crops for them. Description The cotton factor was usually located in an urban center of commerce, such as ...

s, accepting cotton bales from customers as payment for their merchandise. Cotton trading eventually became the main thrust of their business. Mayer Lehman supported the Southern cause during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Mayer was listed as the owner of seven slaves ("three males and four females ranging in age from 5 to 50") in the U.S. Census of 1860. In 1864, the

Governor of Alabama A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

Thomas H. Watts Thomas Hill Watts Sr. (January 3, 1819September 16, 1892) was the 18th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1863 to 1865, during the Civil War. Early life Watts was born at Pine Flat in the Alabama Territory on January 3, 1819, the olde ...

, appointed Mayer as a Commissioner to visit and look after the interests of Alabama

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers being held as prisoners of war in the North. Other offers of public position were made to him but he declined. In 1855, his brother Henry died from

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

while travelling in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. In 1867, Mayer and Emanuel moved the company's headquarters to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, leaving their New Orleans cotton operation (renamed ''Lehman, Newgass & Co'') in the hands of their brother-in-law Benjamin Newgass (father of British war hero

Harold Newgass Harold Reginald Newgass, GC (3 August 1896 – 17 November 1984) was a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officer of the Second World War who was awarded the George Cross for the "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" he showed in defusing ...

). They eventually built their New York operation into an important American

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

, which was in operation until its September 2008 collapse. Mayer Lehman was one of the organizers of the

New York Cotton Exchange The New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) is a commodities exchange founded in 1870 by a group of one hundred cotton brokers and merchants in New York City. In 1998, the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) became the parent company of the New York Cotton ...

, the oldest commodities exchange in New York City, and served as its director. Mayer Lehman concentrated on the railroad, land, industrial and mining enterprises of the business. He served as the director of The Hamilton Bank, The American Cotton Oil Company, The Union Oil Company of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, and The N.K. Fairbank Company of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Philanthropy

Mayer Lehman took an active interest in philanthropic work and was a trustee of Temple Emanu-El as well as a generous giver to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was also a member of the

Harmonie Club The Harmonie Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded in 1852, the club is the second oldest social club in New York. It is located at 4 East 60th Street, in a building designed by Stanford White. History Originally named the ...

Personal life

In 1858, Mayer Lehman married Babetta Newgass, the daughter of Isaac Newgass. Her sister, Esther, was married to banker Isaias W. Hellman. Together they had eight children of which seven survived childhood: *Sigmund M. Lehmann (1859–1930) - Was one of the founders of Montefiore Hospital. *Hattie Lehman Goodhart; married Philip Julius Goodhart; parents of

Arthur Lehman Goodhart Arthur Lehman Goodhart (1 March 1891 in New York City – 10 November 1978 in Oxford) was an American-born academic jurist and lawyer; he was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, 1931–51, when he was also a Fellow of Un ...

*Lisette "Settie" (1864–1936); married Morris Fatman (1858–1930); parents of

Elinor Morgenthau Elinor Lehman Morgenthau (née Fatman; February 19, 1892 – September 21, 1949) was an American Democratic party activist, member of the Lehman family, and spouse of Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Biography Born to a Jewish family in New York City, the ...

, the wife of

Henry Morgenthau Jr. Henry Morgenthau Jr. (; May 11, 1891February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while ...

, and grandparents of

Robert M. Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau ( ; July 31, 1919July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Atto ...

*Clara Lehman Limburg *Arthur Lehmann - Co-founder of the

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣ Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...

and the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

and father of philanthropists

Dorothy Lehman Bernhard Dorothy Lehman Bernhard (April 22, 1903 – March 6, 1969) was a civic leader and philanthropist.Helen Lehman Buttenwieser Helen Lehman Buttenwieser (October 8, 1905 – November 22, 1989) was a 20th-century American lawyer, philanthropist, and later-life legal counselor of Alger Hiss. Background Helen Lehman was born on October 8, 1905, to Arthur Lehman and ...

. *

Irving Lehman Irving Lehman (January 28, 1876 – September 22, 1945) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1940 until his death in 1945. Biography He was born on January 28, 1876, in New ...

- Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1940 to 1945; Longtime president of the

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

and Temple Emanu-El. * Herbert H. Lehman - the 45th

Governor of New York The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has ...

(1933–1942) and

US Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from New York (1949–1956). The couple were

Reform Jews Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

who, although they always observed the religious holidays, frowned on many other religious traditions and practices, instead focusing on educating their children in language, history and culture. The one tradition that Mayer emphasized was the Jewish tradition of

tsedaka ''Tzedakah'' or ''Ṣedaqah'' ( he, צדקה ) is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify ''charity''. This concept of "charity" differs from the modern Western understanding of "charity". The latter is typically un ...

or the joy of giving. In order to instill the importance of charity into his children, Mayer would take his three youngest — Arthur, Irving and Herbert — to Mount Sinai Hospital every Sunday to see the great needs of the less fortunate. Mayer Lehman died at his home in New York on June 21, 1897.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehman, Mayer 1830 births 1897 deaths People from Würzburg (district) German Ashkenazi Jews German emigrants to the United States American financiers American investment bankers American merchants American people of German-Jewish descent American philanthropists Businesspeople from Alabama German bankers German merchants German philanthropists Lehman Brothers people People from Montgomery, Alabama Lehman family Jewish Confederates Jewish-American slave owners Jewish philanthropists