Guggenheim Family

Abstract Meyer Guggenheim (1828-?) came to Philadelphia from Lagnau, Switzerland when he was nine years old. Meyer married his wife Barbara and began working as a peddler, but soon left the streets and opened a store. The couple had eleven children. Guggenheim went west to Leadville, Colorado, in the late 1850s to take care of the A.Y. Mine, which he had received as payment from a buyer. After mining proved to be less profitable than he had expected, Meyer went into the business of smelting. With...