Isidor Straus
Encyclopedia
Isidor Straus—a German Jewish American
—was co-owner of the Macy's
department store
with his brother Nathan
. He also served briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives
. He died with his wife, Ida
, as a result of the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Titanic.
county of Kaiserslautern
, Germany
. He was the first of five children of Lazarus Straus (1809–1898) and his second wife Sara (1823–1876). His siblings were Hermine (1846–1922), Nathan
(1848–1931),
Jakob Otto (1849–1851) and Oscar Solomon Straus
(1850–1926). In 1854, he and his family immigrated to the United States
and settled in Talbotton
, Georgia
where they opened a general store
.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War
Isidor volunteered for the Confederate States Army
but his solicitude was refused as he was only 16 years old at the time. He spent the rest of the war working as a clerk in the store in substitution of an employee that had joined the army, and later served as representative of the family business in England
.
Following the end of the war the Straus family moved to New York City
, where Isidor and his brother Nathan set up their family crockery and glassware
business in the R. H. Macy and Company department store.
(1849–1912). They were parents to seven children (one of whom died in infancy):
The couple were inseparable, writing to each other every day when they were apart. He served as a U.S. Congressman
from January 30, 1894, to March 3, 1895, as a Democrat
. By 1896, the Straus brothers had gained full ownership of R. H. Macy & Co.
Traveling from Germany
back to the United States, Isidor and his wife were passengers on the RMS Titanic when, on April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg
. Their baby grandson, Stuart Scheftel, had caught a cold and been left behind in England
with his nurse, or else he would have been on the ship with them. Ida reportedly would not leave Isidor and refused to get in a lifeboat
. The officer filling up the boat told Isidor that he could get into the boat with his wife, but he refused to before younger men but instead sent his wife's maid, Ellen Bird, into the boat. Ida refused to board the half-full boat, saying "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together". Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck sitting in deck chairs holding hands when a huge wave washed them into the sea. Both died on April 15 when the ship sank. Isidor Straus's body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and brought to Halifax, Nova Scotia
where it was identified before being shipped to New York. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
in the Bronx. Ida's body was not recovered. (Baby Stuart grew up to marry actress Geraldine Fitzgerald
.)
The couple are portrayed in the 1953 film Titanic
and the 1958 film A Night to Remember
, in scenes that are faithful to the accounts just cited. In the 1997 film Titanic
, the Strauses are briefly depicted comforting each other in their bed as their stateroom floods with water, along with a deleted scene showing Isidor (played by Lew Palter) attempting to persuade Ida (Elsa Raven
) to enter the lifeboat.
The remains of Isidor Straus were recovered by the Mackay-Bennett and interred at Woodlawn Cemetery
in the Bronx. His gravestone also serves as a cenotaph
for his wife.
There are four memorials to Isidor and Ida Straus in their adopted home of New York City:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
—was co-owner of the Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
with his brother Nathan
Nathan Straus
Nathan Straus was an American merchant and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's biggest department stores – R.H...
. He also served briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. He died with his wife, Ida
Ida Straus
Ida Straus, born Rosalie Ida Blun was an American homemaker and wife of the co-owner of the Macy's department store. She and her husband Isidor died on board the RMS Titanic.-Early life:...
, as a result of the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Titanic.
Early life
Isidor Straus was born in OtterbergOtterberg
Otterberg is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate with about 7,350 inhabitants. It is situated approx...
county of Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He was the first of five children of Lazarus Straus (1809–1898) and his second wife Sara (1823–1876). His siblings were Hermine (1846–1922), Nathan
Nathan Straus
Nathan Straus was an American merchant and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's biggest department stores – R.H...
(1848–1931),
Jakob Otto (1849–1851) and Oscar Solomon Straus
Oscar Straus (politician)
Oscar Solomon Straus was United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909. Straus was the first Jewish United States Cabinet Secretary. - Biography :...
(1850–1926). In 1854, he and his family immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and settled in Talbotton
Talbotton, Georgia
Talbotton is a city in Talbot County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,019 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Talbot County. Talbotton may be best known in history as the place where the immigrant Straus family got their start in retail sales in the 19th century....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
where they opened a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Isidor volunteered for the Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
but his solicitude was refused as he was only 16 years old at the time. He spent the rest of the war working as a clerk in the store in substitution of an employee that had joined the army, and later served as representative of the family business in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Following the end of the war the Straus family moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where Isidor and his brother Nathan set up their family crockery and glassware
Glassware
This list of glassware includes drinking vessels , tableware, such as dishes, and flatware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry whether made of glass or plastics such as polystyrene and...
business in the R. H. Macy and Company department store.
Later life
In 1871, Isidor Straus married Rosalie Ida BlunIda Straus
Ida Straus, born Rosalie Ida Blun was an American homemaker and wife of the co-owner of the Macy's department store. She and her husband Isidor died on board the RMS Titanic.-Early life:...
(1849–1912). They were parents to seven children (one of whom died in infancy):
- Jesse Isidor StrausJesse I. StrausJesse Isidor Straus served as the American ambassador to France from 1933 to 1936. He was the eldest son of Isidor Straus , who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, co-owner with his brother Nathan Straus of the department store R.H. Macy & Co...
(1872–1936) who married Irma Nathan (1877–1970), and served as U.S. Ambassador to France, 1933–1936 - Clarence Elias Straus (1874–1876) who died in infancy
- Percy Selden Straus (1876–1944) who married Edith Abraham (1882–1957)
- Sara Straus (1878–1960) who married Dr. Alfred Fabian HessAlfred Fabian HessAlfred Fabian Hess was an American physician known for his work on the role of nutrition in scurvy and rickets and for describing the Hess test.- Biography :...
(1875–1933) - Minnie Straus (1880–1940) who married Richard Weil (1876–1918)
- Herbert Nathan Straus (1881–1933) who married Therese Kuhn (1884–1977)
- Vivian Straus (1886–1974) first married Herbert Adolph Scheftel (1875–1914) and second, in 1917, married George A. Dixon, Jr. (1891–1956)
The couple were inseparable, writing to each other every day when they were apart. He served as a U.S. Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from January 30, 1894, to March 3, 1895, as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. By 1896, the Straus brothers had gained full ownership of R. H. Macy & Co.
Death on the Titanic
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
back to the United States, Isidor and his wife were passengers on the RMS Titanic when, on April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
. Their baby grandson, Stuart Scheftel, had caught a cold and been left behind in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with his nurse, or else he would have been on the ship with them. Ida reportedly would not leave Isidor and refused to get in a lifeboat
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
. The officer filling up the boat told Isidor that he could get into the boat with his wife, but he refused to before younger men but instead sent his wife's maid, Ellen Bird, into the boat. Ida refused to board the half-full boat, saying "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together". Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck sitting in deck chairs holding hands when a huge wave washed them into the sea. Both died on April 15 when the ship sank. Isidor Straus's body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett and brought to Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
where it was identified before being shipped to New York. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
in the Bronx. Ida's body was not recovered. (Baby Stuart grew up to marry actress Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
.)
The couple are portrayed in the 1953 film Titanic
Titanic (1953 film)
Titanic is a 1953 American drama film directed by Jean Negulesco. Its plot centers on an estranged couple sailing on the maiden voyage of the , which took place in April 1912.-Plot:...
and the 1958 film A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember is a 1955 non-fiction book by Walter Lord about the sinking of the ocean liner R.M.S. Titanic in 1912. The book was very successful, and is still considered a definitive resource about the R.M.S. Titanic. Lord authored a follow-up book, The Night Lives On, in 1986.A film...
, in scenes that are faithful to the accounts just cited. In the 1997 film Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
, the Strauses are briefly depicted comforting each other in their bed as their stateroom floods with water, along with a deleted scene showing Isidor (played by Lew Palter) attempting to persuade Ida (Elsa Raven
Elsa Raven
Elsa Raven, formerly Elsa Rabinowitz is an American character actress, perhaps best known for her two years on the sitcom Amen and playing the mother of Vincent Terranova on the TV series Wiseguy....
) to enter the lifeboat.
Memorials
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
in the Bronx. His gravestone also serves as a cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
for his wife.
There are four memorials to Isidor and Ida Straus in their adopted home of New York City:
- A memorial plaque can be seen on the main floor of Macy's Department Store in Manhattan.
- The Isidor and Ida Straus Memorial is located in Straus ParkStraus ParkStraus Park is a small landscaped park in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, at the intersection of Broadway, West End Avenue, and 106th Street....
, at the intersection of BroadwayBroadway (New York City)Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
and West End AvenueWest End AvenueWest End Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River.West End Avenue originates at West 59th Street; the continuation of the street below 59th Street is called Eleventh Avenue. It runs from 59th Street to its...
at W. 106th Street (Duke Ellington Boulevard) in ManhattanManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. The park is one block from 105th St. and West End Avenue, where they resided (now the site of the Cleburne BuildingCleburne BuildingCleburne Building is an apartment building located at West End Avenue and 105th Steet in Manhattan, New York City....
). An inscription reads, "Lovely and pleasant they were in their lives, and in death they were not divided." (2 Samuel 1:23) - New York City Public School P.S. 198, built in ManhattanManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in 1959, is named in memory of Isidor and Ida Straus. The building shares space with another school, P.S. 77. - Straus Hall, one of Harvard's freshman residence halls in Harvard YardHarvard YardHarvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
, was given in honor of the Strauses by their three sons.
External links
- Encyclopedia Titanica Biography of Isidor Strauss
- Straus article at JewishEncyclopedia.com
- Straus Historical Society