California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 LOUIS SELIGMAN. The Seligman family is of German extraction and has been identified with the history of Rhenish Bavaria from a very early period. During the meteoric career of the first Napoleon the regimental commissary of his army was Aaron Seligman, a stock dealer, who delivered meat and provisions to the soldiers on contract. Among the children of this ancestor was S. Seligman, who became a commission merchant in his native Rhenish Bavaria, and who married Helen Frank, a native of the same vicinity, her father, Lipman Frank, having been en- gaged in business there. Both S. Seligman and his wife passed away, but several of their chil- dren survive, the sons being Louis and Emil, of Dinuba, Cal., and Ferdinand, a prosperous lum- ber dealer at Bingen on the Rhine. The daughters are: Miss Carrie Seligman; Mrs. Hauchen Phillips; Mrs. Sanchen Gutenberg, of Coblentz, Germany; and Mrs. Regina Borg, of Albisheim, Germany. Mrs. Phillips formerly resided in Hanford, Kings county, Cal., where her husband con- ducted a general merchandise establishment ; they now reside in Bingen, Germany, at the home of Ferdinand Seligman. The second son, Louis Seligman, was born in Albisheim on the Pfrim, eighteen miles from Mainz, in Rhenish Hesse, Germany, July 24, 1851, and as a boy lived with his parents in Al- bisheim. about twelve miles from Worms. He served an apprenticeship of three years in the lumber trade in Bingen. While he liked his native home he was fond of learning the ways of the world, and in October of 1868 landed in New York City, where he secured employment as a clerk with L. Dreyfuss & Co., at Nos. 292-336 Broadway. Later he held a clerkship with E. Loeb & Co., at No. 9 Charter street, New Orleans. In 1 87 1 he came to California and be- came clerk with Levis, Sweet & Co., in Kingston, Fresno county, later clerking for Jacob Einstein & Co., in Centerville and Kingston. During the years 1876 and 1877 he managed the clothing department for S. Sweet & Co., at Visalia. In the latter year he embarked in business for him- self at Visalia. where he kept the finest goods of that day and town, making a specialty of fine jewelry, fine cigars, musical instruments, sewing machines and fancy goods. February 3, 1897, ne brought his stock of goods to Dinuba and with his brother formed the firm of L. & E. Seligman, proprietors of the largest department store in the town. In addition he has stock in the Bank of Dinuba and owns several farms. In politics he has always been independent. When twenty-one years of age he was made a Mason in Visalia Lodge No. 128, F. & A. M. Since 1873 he has been associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been initiated during that year into King's River Lodge at Centerville, and since 1875 he has been a member of Four Creek Lodge No. 94. Public spirited and capable, he has done much to promote the progress of the various communities where he has resided.