Jewish families -- Colorado

Overview The Shwayder family of Denver, Colorado, is best known for the luggage company Samsonite Corporation, which the family founded and operated. Isaac and Rachel Shwayder had migrated from Manchester, England to Colorado in 1881 and eventually settled in Denver. In 1910 their son, Jesse Shwayder, opened a small luggage factory in Denver with his father along with his brothers Mark, Maurice, Benjamin, and Solomon Shwayder. The company started as Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company, was later...

Overview Jessie Shwayder Harsham (named after her grandfather) is a descendant of the Shwayder family, one of the first Jewish families to settle in Colorado. The first member of the extended family, Abraham Rittmaster, arrived in Colorado in the early 1860s and encouraged other family members, including the Rachofskys, Kobeys, and Shwayders to join him in his successful dry goods enterprise in Central City, Colorado. Some family members migrated to other communities in the state, and the Kobeys...