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Jacob Furth (November 15, 1840 – June 1914) was an Austrian Empire-born American entrepreneur and prominent Seattle banker. He played a key role in consolidating Seattle's electric power and public transportation infrastructure, and was a member of Ohaveth Sholum Congregation, Seattle's first synagogue.〔Lee Micklin, (Furth, Jacob (1840-1914) ), HistoryLink, October 30, 1998. Accessed online 2009-10-06.〕 Bill Speidel called him "the city's leading citizen for thirty years," adding that Furth "may even have been the most important citizen Seattle ever had."〔, p. 39.〕 Clarence Bagley wrote shortly after Furth's death: ==Early life== Furth was born in Schwihau, Bohemia (now Švihov, Czech Republic) November 15, 1840, the son of Lazar and Anna (Popper) Furth,〔 Jewish〔 natives of Bohemia.〔 Of their ten sons and two daughters, eight eventually came to America.〔 He attended school to the age of thirteen years, then began a career as a confectioner in Budapest. He decided at sixteen (so says Bagley; other sources say 18) to try his fortune in America and made his way to San Francisco, arriving in 1856.〔〔Micklin says "In 1858, at the age of 16," but given Furth's 1840 birth date that is self-contradictory. William Farrand Prosser, Volume 2 of ''A History of the Puget Sound Country, Its Resources, Its Commerce and Its People'', The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903, p. 569 says he was eighteen and gives the year as 1858; he doesn't mention leaving school early and becoming a confectioner. Bill Speidel, ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', p. 39, says simply "He had come to this country when he was eighteen" without giving a year.〕 He had with him letters of introduction to the Schwabacher Brothers,〔Bill Speidel, ''Through the Eye of the Needle'', p. 40〕 a prominent Jewish pioneer merchant family firm.〔Jean Roth, (The Schwabacher Family ), Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State. Originally in ''The Seattle Genealogical Society Bulletin'', Summer 1997. Accessed online 2009-10-07.〕 After his arrival, he used his last ten dollars to get to Nevada City, California, where the Schwabachers had secured him a position.〔 He clerked mornings and evenings in a clothing store, while attending public schools for about six months to improve his English.〔 When the Schwabachers checked on him after six months, his English was already better than theirs.〔 He was rapidly promoted, and at the end of three years he was receiving a salary of $US300 per month. He lived frugally, and invested some of his money in a quicksilver mine. By the time the Nevada City store burned in 1862, he had saved enough to open his own clothing and dry-goods store in Shingle Springs, California. Eight years later, in 1870, he moved Colusa, California, where he bought into a general mercantile store. The Schwabachers offered him financing, but he told them he had already saved enough to do this on his own.〔〔 Shortly after his arrival in Colusa, he became Freemason and eventually became master of his lodge. (He would remain a Mason in Seattle.)〔 In 1878, he was able to buy out the older partners in the store,〔 which he owned and operated until 1882.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jacob Furth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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