Mayer Arnold

From Württemberg to America by Stefan Rohrbacher

Mayer Arnold,the eñldest son of a cattle dealer,left for America as early as 1798 . Since he was then only a lad of thirteen, we may assume either that he was a runaway, or that he had set out from Jebenhausen in the company of others, or perhaps that he was to be taken care of by compatriots who already had arrived in the New World.

Mayer Arnold , who had come to the United States in 1798 at the tender age of thirteen, spent his early years in America at Kurztown, Pennsylvania, where he was apprenticed in a dry goods store. He soon established a store of his own, but it must have taken a while for him to feel economically secure, since he did not marry until 1822. Around 1835 he moved to Philadelphia, where he later joined his brother-in-law, Abraham S. Wolf, once his clerk, in the dry goods and clothing business. "He amassed wealth and freely gave of his means to Congregational, charitable, and educational works". He soon became one of the most distinguished members of Philadelphia's Congregation Mikveh Israel, of which he was an officer, but he was also prominent in the German-Jewish congregation,Rodelph Shalom. Arnold took an active interest in the work of the Hebrew Education Society and the first Jewish Publication Society. He died in 1868, a highly revered patriach and millionaire.

Married Fannie Wolf 09/05/1822 in Greenwich.