Falk Brody

He was a taxpayer in Kalvarija, Kalvarija, Suwalki (Russian Empire) in 1865:

• BRODE, Falko Tradesman Religious Tax Payees List 9-21 11 1865 Kalvarija Kalvarija Suwalki LVIA/1073/1/529 596 31

Children:

1. Jacob I Brody (1868 - 1932)
2. Harry Brody (1870 - 1959)
3. Abraham Brody (1875 - 1964)
4. Meyer Brody (1878 - 1955)
5. David I Brody (1880 - 1956)

Falk Brody was born in 1842 in Calvary in Poland/Russia.

He arrived in New York City, where he became a glazer, fixing broken windows in tenement houses. In 1881, he moved to Des Moines, starting out as a peddler.

Brody did well enough to open up a peddler’s wholesale supply business.

Brody’s company flourished, reaching a point where he was doing over a quarter-of-a-million dollars in business per year.

Brody is credited with changing customer’s habit of making their own clothes to purchasing ready-to-wear. He always closed his business on the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays.

He also owned and farmed 600 acres of good land.

Above from Jewish Pioneers of Des Moines, Iowa

From Glazer's The Jews of Iowa

Several families of that town have located themselves in Des Moines and are indeed sustaining the above statement for amongst them are many good members of the Orthodox Jews of Des Moines of whom Falk Brody and JR Cohen are foremost Mr Falk Brody was born in Calvary in 1842 and as his father was a man of means he remained there in business for a number of years But when the general persecution against the Jews broke out in its full rigor throughout Russia and Poland with the accession of Alexander III to the throne of the Czars like many other of his countrymen he resorted to emigration His adventures in this country date back to 1881 when some of his townsmen advised him to become a glazier in New York He resorted to carrying a box of glass up and down the steps of the large tenement houses of that great metropolis for but a short time and came to Iowa where his nephews the Blotckys were established in business But Mr Brody made a poor peddler he was not fit for a life of a constant wanderer Fortune however followed him up when he started up a little peddler's supply Mr Brody of all the Orthodox Jews of Iowa has became one of the leading wholesale merchants in this state He also holds the very rare distinction of being the only Jew in Iowa doing over a quarter of a million dollars worth of business annually who keeps his business closed on Sabbath and on all other Jewish holidays Three of his sons Harry Abraham and Meyer are now members of his firmi and another one JI Brody is a merchant of considerable wealth in Elliot Iowa where he also serves in the city council Besides his mercantile pursuits the latter owns about 600 acres of good Iowa land which gives him also an honorable place among the few Jewish formers of the state

• United States Jewry, 1776 - 1985 by Jacob Rader Marcus
• Find a Grave
• The Jews of Iowa by Simon Glazer. Koch Brothers Printing Co., 1904