Glazier family papers, 1852-1957

Brothers Isaac and Simon Glazier, who were both born in Austria, immigrated to the United States and settled in Marysville, California (1851). There, they opened the Old Corner Cigar Store, a business made profitable by supplying tobacco to miners. Simon married Clara May (1859) and, soon after, Isaac married Bertha Kohn. In 1862, the Glaziers relocated to San Francisco, where they joined William Seligsberg in a partnership on the San Francisco Stock Exchange. In 1874, the firm was renamed I. Glazier and Company. Shortly thereafter, the Glaziers sent for Phillip and Jacob Barth, nephews of theirs living in Europe. The firm was then renamed J. Barth and Company, and it developed into one of the most successful brokerage houses on the West Coast. Isaac and Bertha Glazier moved to New York and Isaac and Simon Glazier died in 1906 and 1908. Henry S. Glazier, Isaac’s nephew, and Henry’s son Henry S. Glazier, Jr. assumed responsibility for the family’s Elmira Ranch in Solano County. The ranch, proving unprofitable, was sold in 1935. Isaac and Bertha Glazier retained close contact with their European relatives and endeavored through bequests and trusts to assist their family. For the first thirty years of the twentieth century, the American Glaziers sent small amounts of money to relatives in Germany and Austria as they exchanged information about family affairs, deaths, and births. As the Nazi threat grew more ominous, the European Glaziers wrote asking for assistance to come to the United States. Henry Glazier attempted to provide assistance, but the Glazier relatives still had difficulty leaving Europe. Henry Glazier and his brother William received news of which family members perished in the Holocaust accompanied by requests for food, clothing, and medical supplies from those who had survived.

The collection consists of Glazier family genealogy; family history materials, including materials on the history of J. Barth and Co.; family documents, including naturalization papers, Isaac and Simon Glaziers’ birth certificates from 1829 and 1831, and Simon Glazier’s Masonic certificate from the Yuba Lodge; documents relating to the Glaziers’ involvement in the San Francisco Jewish community, including a certificate from the First Hebrew Benevolent Society granting Simon Glazier lifetime membership (1877), seat deeds for Temple Emanu-El (1866 and 1878), receipts from The First Hebrew Benevolent Society (1877), Temple Emanu-El (1867), and the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum (1871), and mortgage documents for the sale of land by Aaron Fleishhacker to The Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum (1879); general correspondence (1879-1910); correspondence with Adolph and Ida Frank (1919-1939), Rudolf Allner (1938-1950), Oscar Benesch (1939-1959), Ignaz and Regina Abeles (1930s), and Seymour and Rose Marcuse (1916-1930); family wills and estate and trust documents; correspondence and materials (mostly in German) on the Isaac and Bertha Glazier Stiffung (foundation); materials on the estate of M.A. Jacobi; business documents from Isaac Glazier & Co. and Glazier and Seligsberg (1855-1904); documents relating to the Glazier mining interests (1860s); deeds and real estate papers (1867-1885); property tax records (1875-1904); pages from a memorial book for Simon Glazier from Mount Zion Hospital (1908); and photographs, including family portraits, photographs of the family’s Elmira Ranch in Solano, California, a photograph of Henry S. Glazier (with male friends) at Harvard University in 1889, a photograph of an Alaskan tour group on Muir Glacier (1897), a photograph of the Glazier home in Marysville, California (411 Fourth Street), and a photograph of the home of Lillie and Albert Seligman in Helena, Montana showing the Seligman’s on horseback, Isaac Glazier on the porch, and Clara and Bella Glazier in a carriage (1890). The collection also includes a photograph album with family portraits (circa 1870-1890).