Straus, Isidor (1845–1912)

German-born US merchant who came to the USA in 1854. In New York he and his father formed L Straus & Sons, a crockery and glassware firm that in 1874 bought into R H Macy and Company. In 1888 Isidor and brother Nathan became partners of Macy's and in 1896 its sole owners. They also developed Abraham & Straus, another department store.

He was born in Otterberg, Germany. His mother, Sara, brought the family to join her husband, Lazarus, in Georgia in 1854. Isidor clerked in his father's Atlanta store, and then travelled to Europe in 1863 on commission to purchase supplies for the Confederacy. Stranded in Liverpool, England, with southern ports blockaded, he sold cotton shares and Confederate bonds. He served in the US House of Representatives (Democrat, New York; 1894–95) but declined renomination. Active in civic affairs, Isidor was an influential friend of President Grover Cleveland on whom he prevailed to pursuade Congress to adopt a gold standard. His philanthropies included the Montefiore Home and the American Jewish Committee, and he was president of the Educational Alliance (1893–1912), a settlement house on New York City's Lower East Side. He and his wife, Ida Blun, were aboard the S S Titanic; both drowned when Ida refused to be separated from her husband of 40 years, and he refused a seat on a life boat while women remained aboard the ship.