Morris Lowenstein

 

SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

SURNAMES: LOWENSTEIN

MORRIS LOWENSTEIN. Mr. Lowenstein, one of the most successful merchants of Urbana, was born in Hanover, Germany, July 15th, 1836. Attending the public schools until he was fourteen, he became for three years an apprentice in a dry goods store at Gottingen, and afterwards was a clerk in the same business in Hamburg till he was twenty-one.

Emigrating to America, he landed in New York, May 2d, 1857; from there went to Chicago; walked to St. Louis, and worked his way down the Mississippi to New Orleans as a deck hand; and finally in the fall of 1859 obtained a situation as clerk in a store near Louisville, Ky., at six dollars a month.

In 1863, in company with Mr. Sale, he opened a dry goods store in Stanford, Ky. They moved to Urbana in September, 1864, and the following spring bought half of the large building on the corner of Main and Race Sts. where he is still doing business. Mr. Lowenstein, by his genial manners and strict business integrity, has won the confidence of a large circle of friends in Urbana and the surrounding country. He has recently added a large stock of clothing in an adjoining room, and with this double store, we are safe in saying that he is doing the largest business in his line in that city.