Samuel Friedman, 28, was a United States national from Brooklyn, New York, United States. He was one of the co-owners of Friedman and Co., Importers. Samuel was lost in the Lusitania disaster. He was on the Monday, 10 May 1915 list of missing Americans. His body was either never recovered or never identified.
Life
Samuel was in business with his father Solomon and brother Louis at Friedman and Co., Importers, 491 Broadway, New York City. Samuel’s brother was Louis of Borough Park, Brooklyn. Samuel had another brother, Philip, and a sister, Rachel, and a stepmother, Etta. Samuel lived at 1521 51st Street, New York City.
Samuel’s father Solomon Friedman was a native of the Austrian Empire and was by occupation a cloakmaker. Solomon emigrated to the United States in January 1900, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 20 July 1906. His oldest child, a daughter named Paulina, never became an American national and died in 1919.
The three sons, Louis, Samuel, and Philip, then minors, and Solomon’s second wife, Etta Friedman, a native of Poland, all became American citizens through Solomon’s naturalization. Rachel, Solomon’s daughter by Etta, was born an American national.
The importing firm of Friedman & Company started in New York City in early 1910. At that time Solomon Friedman was 49 or 50, Louis 24, and Samuel between 22 and 23 years of age. Louis stated in his Mixed Claims Commission docket that Louis contributed about two-thirds and his father and brother Samuel about one-sixth each, and that the business was owned equally by Louis and Samuel. While the father apparently assisted in the business and contributed about one-sixth of the original capital.
Samuel devoted his entire time to the firm’s business. Louis and Samuel were brothers, members of the same household, equal partners in business, and in daily contact, yet Louis did not know whether or not Samuel ever had a personal bank account or whether, like Louis, he left his shares of the firm’s net earnings with the firm’s funds in The State Bank, or where, how, or when he invested them, or how he converted his investments, if any, into cash before embarking on the Lusitania.
Apparently Samuel was aboard Lusitania on his way to Austria-Hungary (later Czechoslovakia) on a matter of rhinestone manufacturing, the value of which was later grossly inflated by Louis. Samuel was lost in the Lusitania disaster. His body was either never recovered or never identified.
Related pages
Samuel Friedman at the Mixed Claims Commission
Contributors
Judith Tavares
References
Mixed Claims Commission, Docket 2049, page 607.
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