Max Pink (Pinchosowitz) emigrated from Russia to Wadena and started peddling. He grew his business, Northwestern Hide and Fur with great marketing.
Joseph Ullmann, an original settler in St. Paul in the 1850's, built a large business from hides and furs… it was the largest in the country with headquarters in Germany and offices in major cities around the world.
Max Pink (Pinchosowitz) emigrated from Russia to Wadena and started peddling. He grew his business, Northwestern Hide and Fur with great marketing.
BigFrom the Pale to the Midwest -
many Jewish immigrants started in scrap.
The Jewish Historical Society
of the Upper Midwest (JHSUM)
recently introduced an ambitious
project to document and publicize
the role of Jews in the Upper
Midwest’s scrap business. Scrap,
consisting of barrels, boxes, bottles,
cartons, used tires, rags and, of
course metals were collected from
farms and city alleys by the “Jew
Junk Peddler” and then resold
or re-purposed. Jews dominated
the business in most areas of the
country for over a century.
During this project members of the
JHSUM combed archival deposits
for accounts and photos, trolled
the internet, interviewed people in
the state, and collected artifacts.