Solomon Karpen

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Solomon Karpen (born January 7, 1858 in Wągrowiec , West Prussia ; † October 24, 1936 in Chicago ) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the furniture company S. Karpen & Bros. in Chicago.

Life

Solomon Karpen was the eldest of nine sons. When he was 14 years old, his parents [Moritz (1823–1886) and Johanna, née Cohen (1835–1902)] decided to emigrate to the USA. From Berlin they traveled to London, on to Glasgow, and from there to the United States.

They settled in Chicago in 1872 . In 1880 Solomon founded the furniture company S. Karpen & Bros with his brother Oscar. In 1899 the company was the world's largest producer of leather-upholstered seating furniture. About 700 workers were hired at this point. Furniture by S. Karpen & Bros. can be found in the US Senate, the US Capitol.

In 1926, the company produced in three factories and employed 1,800 people with sales of more than US $ 10 million (equivalent to US $ 123 million in 2010)

Karpen died in Chicago on October 24, 1936 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery there, where his parents had been buried. The company remained in the ownership of the Karpen family until it was taken over by International Furniture Co. in 1951 for $ 3.5 million (almost $ 30 million based on today's calculations).

Solomon Karpen's wife, Ernestine Schwalbe, was born in La Crosse , Wisconsin , in 1862 . They married on February 17, 1884. Ernestine outlived her husband by 20 years and died on March 26, 1956 in Chicago.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Solomon Karpen (1858-1936) on immigrantentrepreneurship.org
  2. ↑ Chicago Journal, June 5, 2011 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chicagojournal.com
  3. ↑ Solomon Karpen on findagrave.com
  4. ↑ a b Ernestine "Teny" Schwalbe Karpen on findagrave.com
personal data
SURNAME Karpen, Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Wągrowiec , West Prussia
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1936
Place of death Chicago