Spiegelberg Brothers

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Spiegelberg Brothers, also known as the House of Spiegelberg Brothers, Santa Fe Traders, was started in 1848 by Soloman Jacob Spiegelberg and Levi Spiegelberg. It was Santa Fe’s first Jewish mercantile company, a thriving wholesale business with a grocery and dry goods store opposite the Governor’s Palace. The brothers expanded the firm with Elias, Emmanuel, Lehman, and Willi, turning it into a family empire that also sutled for the U.S. Army, traded with Native Americans, and later helped run the Second National Bank of Santa Fe. Their investments spread across mining, insurance, and real estate throughout the Southwest.

Soloman Jacob, the oldest, came from Germany along the Santa Fe Trail. He worked for local trading firms and joined the Doniphan expedition to Chihuahua, using his savings to move goods and gain southern trade. After the war he served as sutler for the U.S. Army at Fort Marcy. Levi arrived in 1848, followed by Elias (1850), Emmanuel (1853), Lehman (1857), and Willi (1861). By 1852 Soloman Jacob helped fund salaries for the territorial lawmakers.

The Spiegelbergs traded with Native Americans and received trading licenses, with Lehman at Fort Defiance in 1868 and Willi at Fort Wingate in the same year; Willi later became sutler to the Navajo Agency. The brothers joined the Masons, with Soloman among the early members.

Mining interests began in the 1860s. In 1861 Soloman Jacob and Levi helped form the Montezuma Copper Mining Company, and Lehman served on the Willison Silver Mining Company board in 1872. Lehman may have bought the San Marcos Pueblo grant. During the Civil War, Levi was captured by Confederate forces near Socorro but released after recognition by a former New Mexico official. The family suffered losses in 1862 but stayed prosperous through contracts, insurance, mining, and banking. They served as sutlers to the New Mexico Volunteers from 1861 to 1864, and over $50,000 in merchandise passed to Confederate hands during the occupation.

In 1863 the Spiegelbergs issued their own scrip as a substitute for money when the Bank of New Mexico’s charter stalled. The First National Bank of New Mexico got its charter in 1870, and in 1872 the Second National Bank of New Mexico was formed, with Lehman and Willi in Santa Fe and Soloman and Levi in New York. By the late 1860s and early 1870s most brothers moved to New York. Lehman wrote Commerce of Sta Fe, Levi started L. Spiegelberg & Sons in New York, and Willi became Santa Fe’s first mayor (1884–1886). Flora Spiegelberg kept a diary about Santa Fe’s culture and helped start the town’s first nonsectarian girls’ school and a Hebrew school. Willi moved his family to New York in 1888.