Chapter 1
The Lelewer Stores
Long before I remember neon signs lighting up stores along Lincoln or Belmont, a Lelewer sign hung at the corner of these two Chicago streets. The letters in the Lelewer logo were black, except for a brilliant red E in the middle. The background was stark white. The sign tilted, swung the black letters to the left and to the right, paused, and repeated the process. The movement of the sign and the red E were eye-catchers and much admired when I was growing up. Business poured in.
It was my great-grandfather who began the Lelewer family business. David Lelewer arrived in New York City from Germany in 1861, just before the start of the Civil War, at the age of 18. He walked off the boat and, after waiting for his cousin who did not show up, began to search for the address written on the paper that he held tightly in his hand. He needed a place to stay and a job. Despite little education, no prior knowledge of English, and only $2.10 in his pocket, he managed to find his way in the immigrant-filled city. Two years later, he stopped just long enough to determine how far he had come.
"On March 21, 1863, my 20th birthday," Great-grandfather David wrote many years later, “I took inventory of my wealth, which consisted of $15 in the bank, $3.45 cash in pocket, totaling $18.45."
After two more years, Great-grandfather David knew he would have to leave the city to realize his long-held dream of owning his own business. In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Great-grandfather David moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded the Lelewer Fur Store. It was, it has always seemed to me,
an act of considerable courage. “To make the first step in business is the hardest. Same as it is with a child trying his first step to walk. It is scared for the fall, by instinct,” he wrote.
The store sold fur hats and coats for men. Women, in this period, did not wear furs, but popular among men of substance were long Cossack fur coats with little spiral fur hats. Times were hard after the Civil War, however, and there weren't many men who could afford them. Great-grandfather David's fur business only lasted three months. Undaunted, he tried the fur business again and then again. In time, he brought his brother over from Germany, changed the name of the store to D. Lelewer & Brother, and started the first fur factory in the state of Indiana. He even employed women, which was unheard of at the time.
In an effort to keep his business afloat when fur was not in demand, Great-grandfather David tried adding other kinds of hats to his stock, but the effort was not successful. For fifteen years, Great-grandfather David suffered repeated failures, but he never gave up. In 1880, when word got out that Chicago was booming, he left Indianapolis, the one place he had felt secure, and at the age of 37, moved to Chicago with his wife and five children. Once the family was settled, he opened a fur store on State Street, next to a well-known clothing store. It was an ideal location, but the furs Great-grandfather David brought from Indianapolis did not sell in Chicago. Once again he added hats to the inventory. "There is no use wasting time or thought about furs exclusively without ready funds," he wrote, “so I fell back on the hat business which goes without interruption most of the year." Fortunately, he also managed to sell just a few furs to wealthy customers.
As things began to look up, Great-grandfather David opened a second store. He advertised regularly in the newspapers. Fur repairs began to pour in and the sales, both retail and wholesale, of furs began to increase. "By January 1, 1886,” Great-grandfather David wrote, “everything we owed was paid off. We made a living and netted about $6,000. I patted myself on the shoulder and began to get a good opinion of myself to become the Napoleon of the fur trade. Who would not at the first success of a business venture?"
