David G. Seixas^{[1, 2]}

1788 - 1864  (76 years)

• Name	David G. Seixas  [3, 4, 5]
  Born	1788	New York   [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1811	Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  	by
  Military	1812-1815  [4]
  	Served in the War of 1812
  Census	6 Aug 1850	New York, New York (Manhattan), New York   [7]
  	1850 US
  	Age 61, b. NY in home of his Brother Theodore J. Seixas
  Census	12 Jun 1860	South Bend, St. Joseph, Indiana   [5]
  	1860 US
  	Merchant
  Name	David D. Seixas  [7]
  Reference Number	3926
  Residence	1864	South Bend, St. Joseph, Indiana   [4]
  _UID	57D52DC6C9DD4278833FA08733EF0AA73BAE
  Died	19 Mar 1864	South Bend, St. Joseph, Indiana   [3, 4, 6]
  Person ID	I3926	aojd-demo
  Last Modified	11 Nov 2011

  
  

  Father	Hazan Gershom Mendes Seixas,   b. 14 Jan 1746, New York ,   d. 2 Jul 1816, New York  (Age 70 years)
  Mother	Hannah Manuel,   b. Oct 1766, London, Middlesex, England ,   d. 8-16 Mar 1856, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  (Age ~ 89 years)
  Married	1 Nov 1786	2ND W/O Gersham Seixas   [6, 8, 9]
  Alt. Marriage	1 Nov 1786
  Alt. Marriage	1 Nov 1789  [10]
  Alt. Marriage	1 Nov 1789  [6, 11, 12]
  	2nd w/o Gersham Seixas
  Family ID	F426	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  David G. Seixas, 1788-March 19, 1864. Son of Gershom Mendes Seixas. Born in New York, David G. Seixas moved to Philadelphia where by 1811 he owned a small crockery store. When English imports of crockery were banned during the War of 1812, David G. Seixas manufactured crockery and has been credited as father of this art in the U.S. He also served in the military during the War of 1812. In 1819, he began bringing deaf children into his home to care and teach them. In May 1820, he established the Deaf and Dumb Institute in Philadelphia and served as the Principal until he retired in 1821. He established a brewery in New York in 1834, and in 1840 he was among the first to introduce daguerreotypes in the United States. He also discovered ways of burning anthracite coal, and manufactured sealing wax, printer's ink, and enamel-surfaced visiting cards. He joined his brother Theodore J. Seixas in South Bend, Indiana, where he died unmarried. Anne Joseph: David Seixas, the oldest son of Hannah Judah Manuel and Gershom Mendes Seixas, was a pioneer educator of the deaf. He founded the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, which still serves the public. Seixas was driven from the school after accusations of child abuse that seem contrived. Instead of marrying and having a family, David devoted his energies as a merchant, manufacturer, and inventor to improving the quality of life around him. In 1811, David Seixas became an agent in Philadelphia for Harmon Hendricks (a pioneer in the American copper business), then served in the War of 1812. Seixas was a successful pioneer manufacturer of English-style crockery and is credited with producing a better sealing wax, inexpensive printer's ink, and laminated visiting cards. John Carlin, painter of Seixas's portrait, was himself a graduate of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Source: Loeb Portrait Database - painting and bio [4] (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011 The life of David Seixas, according to Isaac Leeser, "was as varied as the figures of a kaleidoscope, shadow and sunshine alternating with him ceaselessly, and could his biography be written by a faithful pen, it would exhibit a picture remarkable for variety and strange vicissitudes. Seixas was the oldest of twelve born to Shearith Israel hazzan and leader of American Jewish religious life Gershom Mendes Seixas and his second wife, Hannah Judah Manuel. He grew He grew up in New York, and rather than start a family of his own, he threw himself into a string of projects and the restless life of a manufacturer, merchant, and innovator. In 1804 he went down to New Orleans to manage a store with his brother-in-law Israel Baer Kursheedt. Not satisfied with the results, Seixas returned to the city of his birth. In 1811 he went to work as an agent for early American industrialist Harmon Hendricks in Philadelphia. With the outbreak of war with England, Seixas began a venture selling English style crockery when imports from England were impossible to come by. Among his other business ventures were manufacturing ink, laminated visiting cards, and sealing wax. He opened a brewery and a daguerreotype parlor. In 1816 Seixas inaugurated the project for which he would be best remembered, and it was not a business venture. It was the Pennsylvania Institution for the Dumb and the Deaf, today called the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Operating out of his home, it was only the third institution of its kind opened in the United States. By the end of the year the school had moved into its own building. In 1821 he took six of his students and traveled to Harrisburg where they demonstrated lip reading and sign language before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Governor Joseph Heister. An act was passed incorporating the institution and endowing it with funds to support fifty children a year. Among the students who studied there was Albert Newsam, who became the greatest lithographer of his day in America. The same year as the Seixas' victory in Harrisburg also saw an unfortunate affair that would tarnish his reputation for the remainder of his life. Two students accused Seixas of molesting them, and while there is cogent evidence to suggest the charges were invented, he was nevertheless dismissed. Rebecca Gratz called his dismissal unpardonable." And though numerous other Jewish and non-Jewish defenders spoke out in support of the horrified and heartbroken Seixas, he would never return to the school he had founded. Although he established another institution, the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, it closed its doors after only a few years. Seixas shrunk from public view after the incident and did little else that has been recorded before his death in South Bend, Indiana— a dark and quiet end to such an active and colorful life. [13]

  
  

• Sources

  [S81] Joseph, Anne - Research Database, Anne [Goulding] Joseph, (Shared with David M. Kleiman in Montreal, Quebec, Canada 18 March 2009). [S285] AOJD & Heritage Muse, Inc., David M. Kleiman, (AOJD-online.net. Heritage Muse, Inc. 165 West End Ave. New York, NY 10023 [email protected]). [S4] FAJF-Stern, Rabbi Malcolm Stern, (3rd edition updated and revised. n.c.: Genealogical Publishing Company for the American Jewish Archives, 1991.), PG. 264 SEIXAS (2) (Reliability: 3). [S376] Guide to Seixas Family Papers, American Jewish Historic Society, (*P-60 Processed by Alisa M. Flatow, updated by Adina Anflic American Jewish Historical Society Center for Jewish History Papers of the Seixas family, P-60; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Newton Centre, MA and New York, NY.), BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES OF THE SEIXAS FAMILY - DAVID G. SEIXAS (Reliability: 3). [S250] 1860 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004), YEAR: 1860; CENSUS PLACE: SOUTH BEND, ST JOSEPH, INDIANA; ROLL: M653_295; PAGE: 32; IMAGE: 33. (Reliability: 3). [S38] Stern, Malcolm: American Jewish Genealogy Trees. [S40] 1850 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005 United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Seventh Cen sus of the United States, 1850, Washington, D.C.: Nationa l Archives and Records Administration, 1850), YEAR: 1850; CENSUS PLACE: NEW YORK WARD 9 DISTRICT 3, NEW YORK, NEW YORK; ROLL: M432_544; PAGE: 374; IMAGE: 255. (Reliability: 3). [S4] FAJF-Stern, Rabbi Malcolm Stern, (3rd edition updated and revised. n.c.: Genealogical Publishing Company for the American Jewish Archives, 1991.), PG. 263 SEIXAS (1) (Reliability: 3). [S3] AMLAJA, Judith E. Endelman, (unpublished manuscript), SECTION III, CH 5 PG 10 (Reliability: 3). [S4] FAJF-Stern, Rabbi Malcolm Stern, (3rd edition updated and revised. n.c.: Genealogical Publishing Company for the American Jewish Archives, 1991.), PG. 141 JUDAH III (1) (NEW YORK, MONTREAL, INDIANA) (Reliability: 3). [S59] Green-Aryeh Family Tree, EMAIL 6 AUG 2010 ARYEH GREEN TO DAVID M. KLEIMAN (Reliability: 3). [S634] Green-Aryeh Family Tree, EMAIL 6 AUG 2010 ARYEH GREEN TO DAVID M. KLEIMAN (Reliability: 3). [S294] Loeb Jewish Portraits Database, (http://www.loebjewishportraits.com/home.html), SEIXAS, DAVID G. (Reliability: 3).