Seligman, Jesse, 1827-1894

Jesse Seligman of J & W Seligman, NY and London, died April 24 1984, Coronado, CA; one of 7 brothers who started banking institution; born in Bavaria; came to US as a boy; relocated to CA during gold rush; invested in railroad;

The firm was founded by Joseph Seligman and his brother James Seligman in New York in 1846 as an importing house, with their younger brothers, William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold, also participating in the venture. Later, two other brothers, Abraham and Isaac, would also join the firm. The brothers were all born in Baiersdorf, Bavaria, to David Seligman and Fannie Steinhart. In 1850, William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold moved to San Francisco, where they set up a store in 1851. After eight years, Jesse and William returned to New York and opened a dry goods store in the city. Through William's efforts, the store received government contracts to supply soldier's uniforms for the Union Army in the American Civil War. These contracts amounted to several millions of dollars. A portion of the payment for the uniforms was in the form of federally issued government debt which the Seligmans had to find buyers for to get immediate cash for operations.

After the American Civil War ended, the eight Seligman brothers decided to go into the banking business and a year later, Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau, to open a bank, where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe. The firm became fiscal agent for the conversion of existing war bonds to new ones and acted for years as fiscal agents for the Department of State and Department of the Navy. Soon after, Abraham Seligman opened a bank in New York City, followed by the London branch, established by Isaac and Leopold Seligman, and the Paris branch, established by William Seligman.

In the post-Civil War robber baron era, the firm invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould. Among the companies in the Seligman portfolio were The Missouri Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas railroad companies. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the Vanderbilt family to create public utilities in New York.[1]