Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 4 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 7

The name of Adler has long been associated with commercial activity in Milwaukee and has ever been a synonym of enterprise, integrity and progressiveness. For more than fifty years David Adler was active in the control of one of the leading mercantile houses of the city and his life illustrated clearly what could be accomplished through individual effort and indefatigable energy intelligently directed. He richly merited the proud American title of a self-made man, rising from an obscure beginning to the head of one of the largest clothing manufacturing establishments in the northwest. A native of Austria, he was born in Neustadt, province of Bohemia, October 9, 1821, his parents being Isaac and Bertha Adler. They were small traders in Neustadt, where the father lived for fifty-eight years.

David Adler acquired his education in the schools of his native city and afterward served a three years' apprenticeship to the baker's trade. Later he spent a year in travel in Europe for the purpose of observing the different methods of conducting the bakery business and then returned to Neustadt, where he resided again for two years ere coming to the new world. Attracted by the opportunities offered in America and hoping to greatly improve his fortunes by sojourning in this land, he made the long voyage to New York, where he arrived on the 15th of August, 1846. He at once began work in connection with the bakery business and two years later established a business of his own in New York, meeting with success and carrying on the undertaking for three years. In 1851, with a belief in the coming greatness of the west, he disposed of his interests in the eastern metropolis and removed to Milwaukee, bringing with him a cash capital of twelve hundred dollars. Here he established a small retail clothing store on East Water street and this constituted the nucleus of the present mammoth business which is synonymous with commercial activity in Milwaukee and which is now carried on under the style of the David Adler & Sons Company. In 1857 he broadened the scope of his activities to include the wholesale clothing trade and admitted his nephew, Jacob Adler, to a partnership under the firm name of D. & J. Adler. Jacob Adler. who retired at the end of two years, was succeeded by Solomon Adler, brother of David Adler. In 1870 Solomon Adler was succeeded by the eldest son and the son-in-law of David Adler. H. M. Mendel, the firm name becoming Adler, Mendel & Company. Eight years later Mr. Mendel retired and the firm style of David Adler & Sons was assumed, the business later being incorporated as the David Adler & Sons Company. The three sons, Isaac, Emanuel and Samuel, have long been identified with the firm. The father continued as president of the company to the time of his demise and his progressive methods left their impress upon the steady growth and development of the house. He closely studied the desires of his patrons, kept a stock that displayed the latest goods to be found in the clothing markets of the country, while the trustworthiness of his business methods featured strongly as a factor in his continually developing success. In recent years the company has employed as many as nine hundred hands in the manufacture of clothing. Their annual sales have for some time aggregated one million five hundred thousand dollars, their trade extending throughout the entire northwest to the Pacific coast. In 1889 the seven-story brick store building was erected by the company at the southwest corner of East Water and Huron streets, replacing an old building in which they had been housed for many years. As the years passed Mr. Adler became interested in other business projects and was one of the organizers of the Wisconsin National Bank, of which he was a director from its inception. He was also one of the founders and vice president of the National Straw Works.

Mr. Adler was married in 1848 to Miss Fannie Newbouer of New York city, and they became the parents of seven sons and three daughters. In religious belief he held to the faith of his fathers and was noted for his intense loyalty and devotion to the teachings of the Jewish religion. For a number of years he was president of the Congregation of Temple Emanu-El. He was for twenty-five years identified with the Jewish Orphan Asylum at Cleveland, Ohio, and filled the office of vice president of that association for fifteen years. Later he was unanimously elected its president. He was constantly extending a helping hand to those who needed assistance and was widely known for his charity. For thirty years he filled the position of grand treasurer of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Wisconsin, an office he resigned only a year or two prior to his death because of advancing years. Twice he represented the grand encampment and once the grand lodge in the sovereign grand lodge of America. He was a generous contributor toward the building of the Odd Fellows' home at Green Bay and for many years he was one of the directors of the Wisconsin Odd Fellows' Mutual Life Insurance Company. He likewise belonged to the Old Settlers Club of Milwaukee, of which he became vice president. He passed away January 23, 1905, at the venerable age of eighty-four years, and for fifty-three years he had been a resident of Milwaukee, closely associated throughout the entire period with its commercial interests and at all times active in support of those matters of citizenship which feature in public upbuilding and prosperity.