![]() ![]() The Hammerslough-Rosenwald businesses prospered. “Ready-to-wear” off-the-shelf clothing became a reality, first in menswear and much later for women. The onset of the Civil War created the need for military uniforms, and with it, the requirement for standardized sizes and mass production. Young Julius worked in his father’s store, doing odd jobs and selling menswear. He was followed by five surviving children: three brothers and two sisters. On August 12, 1862, Sam and Augusta welcomed their first child, Julius. In 1861, the Hammersloughs sent Sam to Springfield, Illinois, where he and Augusta bought a home a block from Abraham Lincoln’s house. Sam and Augusta were soon assigned to Peoria, Illinois, then Talladega, Alabama, and finally in 1860 to Evansville, Indiana, where Sam managed the Oak Hall Clothing House. The Hammersloughs operated both retail and wholesale menswear businesses in various cities. In August 1857, Sam married their sister, Augusta Hammerslough. Within two years he had joined fellow German Jewish immigrants the Hammerslough brothers in their successful Baltimore menswear manufacturing business. Julius’s father, Samuel Rosenwald, emigrated from Germany in 1854 at the age of twenty-six, landing in Baltimore. We hope you find this unique man as inspiring as we do. This recognition of the great Julius Rosenwald is long overdue. His most famous effort was his program to build over five thousand school houses and other buildings to educate black citizens in the American South, nicknamed “The Rosenwald Schools.” Today there is a movement to create a national historical park in his honor. Today Julius Rosenwald is largely forgotten, despite his munificence, because he believed in spending his money now rather than leaving a permanent foundation. He found ways to stretch his dollars, and almost always required others to pony up alongside his generous gifts, pioneering new approaches to philanthropy. ![]() In every project, Rosenwald took an active interest, usually leading others to follow in his steps. But Rosenwald’s contributions were not limited to cash. No individual we have studied had as much impact on their community: Rosenwald gave away his wealth as fast as he could, supporting cause after cause in Chicago, including the great Museum of Science and Industry. Yet Julius Rosenwald was not satisfied with this achievement. Rosenwald topped this performance by selecting as his successor the equally talented Robert Wood, the man who changed Sears from being a mail-order company into the world’s largest bricks-and-mortar retail chain. Over the thirty years of Rosenwald’s daily involvement, from 1897 to 1927, Sears’s annual sales grew one-hundred fold from $2.8 million to $277 million, and profits rose from $141,000 to $25 million. By 1900, Rosenwald had become a partner in Sears, eventually taking control of the company. A high school dropout, Rosenwald became a supplier to Chicago mail-order catalog company Sears, Roebuck. None of them had more energy and drive than the shy Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish menswear merchant from Springfield, Illinois. In this American Originals series, we’ve recounted the life stories of men and women who created great inventions and enterprises. ![]()
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