John Moss (Philadelphia)

John Moss (1771, London, England[1] - 5 April 1847,[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Jewish merchant, shipping magnate, and civic leader. He emigrated to the United States as a glass engraver from London.[2]:184,236[3][4][5] Moss soon turned to other ventures after glass engraving proved insufficient to sustain a decent wage.[2]:186 He opened a dry goods store in 1807 and soon became a major importer, eventually owning a small merchant fleet.[2]:186 In 1823, he turned control of the business to his brothers and turned his attention to various civic enterprises. He was a founding member of the Musical Fund Society. He served as a steward of the Society of Sons of St. George a mutual-aid society for former Englishmen like himself and was a benefactor of the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum.[4] In 1825, he acted as judge of engraved glass during the Franklin Institute's second exposition of American craftsmanship.[2]:349,489 .In 1828 he entered into politics by being elected to the Philadelphia City Council's lower house, the Common Council, on the Jacksonian Democratic Party ticket. It was in this capacity that he played a role in the establishment of the Wills Eye Hospital.[2]:328 Later in life he became a supporter of Isaac Leeser's American Jewish Publication Society. In 1840, in the wake of the Damascus Affair Moss led a protest committee from the city of Philadelphia.[4]

Portrait of John Moss taken from Philadelphia and Her Merchants

Personal life

In his personal life, John Moss was an active member of the synagogue Congregation Mikveh Israel, and contributed heavily to its building fund of 1818.[4] He married Rebecca Lyons on February 15, 1797. He had nine children with her.[6] John Moss died at age 76 on April 5, 1847 and was buried in Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia.[1]:174

Lucien Moss

Of note amongst the descendants of John Moss is his grandson Lucien Moss. Lucien Moss was born in Philadelphia on May 25, 1831[7] and was educated in New Haven, Conn and in Philadelphia, PA. As a machinist for the Philadelphia based firm of Morris & Tawes, he supervised the construction of sugar mills in Puerto Rico.[7] In 1878, he founded the firm of Wiler & Moss, a brass working company. After this, he retired to Philadelphia, and much like his grandfather, engaged in charitable work.[7] He was member of the boards of both the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. After his death on April 19, 1895,[7] he left his fortune to the Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia to found the Lucien Moss Home for Incurables of the Jewish Faith, which would later be known as MossRehab[8] in the modern day.

References
  1. Moss, Lucien (1894). "Memoir of John Moss". Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. 4 (2): 171–174. JSTOR 43057422.
  2. Whiteman, Maxwell; Wolf, Edwin. II. The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson. The Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 0-8276-0075-5.
  3. Ritter, Abraham (1860). Philadelphia and Her Merchants. Philadelphia: Abraham Ritter. p. 162.
  4. Berenbaum, Michael (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit, USA: MacMillan Reference. p. 565.
  5. Two sources cited, Merchants and Encyclopaedia Judaica list conflicting dates, 1793 and 1796 for Moss' arrival into America.
  6. First American Jewish Families (2nd ed.). American Jewish Historical Society. 1978. p. 214. ISBN 0-87068-443-4.
  7. Adler, Cyrus; Haneman, Frederick T. "MOSS, LUCIEN - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  8. "History - MossRehab". www.mossrehab.com. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
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