Simon Guckenheimer
German businessman (1830–1900)
Simon Guckenheimer (6 April 1830 – 27 February 1900) was a German-American businessman based in Savannah, Georgia, where he was a "mega-merchant" and a noted citizen. His career has been described as "rags to riches."
Early life
Guckenheimer was born in Burghaslach, Bavaria, Germany, in 1830. After attending school in Nuremberg, he was apprenticed, at the age of 13, to a merchant weaver in his hometown. He emigrated to New York City in 1851, before moving south to Georgia in 1855, firstly to Centerville, Charlton County, then to Savannah, Chatham County.
Career
A wholesale merchant, Guckenheimer sold tobacco, groceries and flour. He was in partnership to begin with, as Guckenheimer & Selig. Marcus Selig died in 1870, aged 40, but the name of the business remained for two more years. The business was then run under Guckenheimer's name and, later, under S. Guckenheimer & Co. In 1882, he admitted his son, Samuel, into the business, with the business becoming S. Guckenheimer & Son. Samuel's brother, Abraham, joined in 1890, making it S. Guckenheimer & Sons.
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This entry incorporates text from “Simon Guckenheimer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.