According to his various voter registrations, Tobias Seelig was born in Germany around 1850. The passenger list of the ship Humboldt shows that he arrived at New York’s Castle Garden on August 18, 1865. Except for that, his entire life prior to 1878 is a blank.
Late in 1878, he appears to have opened a dry goods store in Modesto, California. The Mechanics Cash Store carried clothing, boots and other fancy goods on a cash-only basis. The local newspaper listed some of the items available.
By 1880, Tobias’s younger brother Gabriel joined him in the Modesto dry goods store. Perhaps Gabriel took over the management of the Modesto store, for Tobias was in Phoenix by June 1882. He must have been naturalized, because he registered to vote in that year . After a stint as a clerk for the dry goods firm of Rosenthal & Kutner, he opened a cigar store in or near the Capitol Saloon. The cigar store burned down in 1886.
The Seeligs were Jewish. Jewish stores were essential to life in early Phoenix, and most were subsidiaries of stores founded in California during the Gold Rush days. Their proprietors could therefore count on financial backing from bankers in San Francisco as well as established sources of supply from the West Coast. Phoenix’s merchants were usually ‘Reform’ Jews with German surnames who kept their religious affiliations low-key and practiced them behind closed doors.
A Freemason, Seelig also participated in the Fire Brigade and joined the Knights of Pythias. He was generally well-liked and is said to have dressed stylishly. By 1891, he was even investing in local mining operations.
Misfortune caught up with him early in 1892, when the Knights of Pythias charged him with defalcation in his use of their funds. Deeply affected by the charge, Seelig took to drinking and apparently made plans to commit suicide. He told a friend that, when he died, he wanted to be laid out in his Prince Albert suit. On March 8, 1892, he carried out his plan in his rooming house, where he donned his suit and shot himself in the temple.
Compounding the tragedy was that his fellow Pythians had already taken up a collection of $600 to cover his debts and restore his good name.
Seelig was buried in a Phoenix cemetery. Since he owned some property, it is likely that he was interred somewhere in the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park. There is no marker.
-By Donna Carr
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