John Sengfelder
Birth: Pennsylvania, December 14th, 1859
Death: Glendale, California, December 24th, 1946
John Sengfelder was born in Pennsylvania on December 14, 1859 [1] to John and Elizabeth Sengfelder. He began to study candy making and the art of baking and remained in the Pennsylvania area, specifically the Philadelphia area, until reportedly making his way to Leadville in 1879 at the age of nineteen. [2]
Upon arriving in Leadville, John secured work as a clerk at the J. A. Smith bakery, located at 424 Harrison Avenue. He resided here with several other store employees including Charlie Pfeiffer [3] who would soon become John’s business partner. Curiously, the storefront listed J. A. Smith as the proprietor but the 1880 United States census named J. Adamson [4] as the store’s proprietor. Also, neither Smith nor Adamson are listed in Leadville’s 1880 city directory.
By the autumn of 1880, John and Charlie acquired the shop and renamed it the Carbonate Bakery. The pair sold kosher sausages and other assorted kosher food from the storefront bakery. The earliest documentation of the Pfeiffer/Sengfelder partnership is found in the November 25, 1880 edition of the Leadville Daily Herald:
Advertisement for the Carbonate Bakery owned and operated by Charlie Pfeiffer and John Sengfelder. The Hebrew lettering at the top of this ad spells “Kosher”.
Kosher Sausages!. (Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald). December 12, 1880. Page 2.
John and Charlie operated this enterprise together for only a few months before Sengfelder departed the company sometime in March of 1881. The last listing for Pfeiffer & Sengfelder is a grocery store, which appears in the March 3 edition of the Leadville Democrat:
The last listing for Pfeiffer & Sengfelder as a grocery store appearing in the March 3 edition of the Leadville Democrat.
Grocers. (Leadville, CO: Leadville Democrat). March 3, 1881. Page 2.
By the time Leadville’s 1881 city directory was published, the storefront had been renamed for the new partnership between Charlie Pfeiffer and John Andrus. [5] John Sengfelder had moved on to the now defunct mining camp of Chloride, Colorado, located about ten miles south of Aspen, by April of 1881. There he opened the Chloride Bakery with partner H. J. Mayham. [6] Sengfelder either closed or divested himself of that enterprise by summer’s end. [7]
John resurfaced in Leadville during 1882, when he is shown to be employed as a baker for Joseph Hall. Joseph and his brother Thomas had acquired the Carbonate Bakery and operated it at 434 Harrison Avenue. [8] John attended the annual ball for the Knights of Robert Emmett on October 10 [9] and on October 17, John was present at the surprise thirtieth birthday celebration [10] for Professor Henry Simon. [11] During 1883, John moved his residence to 111 East 5th Street and remained in his position as a baker with the Hall brothers. [12]
John left Leadville in 1883 for Eagle, Idaho, where he briefly remained before moving on to Spokane, Washington, in 1884. He remained in that city, organizing a successful local bakery store chain, a real estate enterprise, and paving companies [13] before moving on to southern California sometime in the late 1920s. [14] In addition to his membership in the Knights of Robert Emmit, he was also a member of the Elks, Oddfellows, the Spokane Club, The Inland Club, and varying factions of the Masonic Temple. [15]
John married Elizabeth Melvin sometime during 1888, and the couple settled in Spokane, Washington where they are found in 1900 living with their two daughters Vera and Ellen. John continued working as a baker [16] and lived to be 87 years old. He died in Los Angeles of unknown causes on December 24, 1946. [17]
1 United States Census, 1880. [database with images]. FamilySearch. John Sengfielder in Household of I J Adamson. (Leadville, Lake, Colorado, United States; citing enumeration district ED 82, sheet 451C, NARA microfilm publication T9. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)..
2 Nelson Wayne Durham. History of the Spokane and Spokane County, Washington: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Volume 2. (Spokane, WA: S.J. Publishing Company). 1912. Pp 399-400.
3 For more information on Charlie Pfeiffer, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/pfieffer.html
4 United States Census, 1880. (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)
5 TB Corbett and JH Ballenger. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Second Annual City Directory: Containing A Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms etc. in The City Of Leadville for 1881. (Leadville, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1881). P66.
6 Chloride Bakery. (Aspen, CO: The Aspen Weekly Times). April 23, 1881. P3.
7 The Chloride. (Aspen, CO: The Rocky Mountain Sun). July 16, 1881. P1.
8 TB Corbett and JH Ballenger. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Third Annual City Directory: Containing a Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms etc. in The City Of Leadville for 1882. (Leadville, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1882). P148 & 254.
9 Knights of Robert Emmet. (Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald). October 15, 1881. P4.
10 Sweet Thirty. (Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald). October 22, 1882. P4.
11 For more information on Professor Henry Simon, please visit: http://jewishleadville.org/simon.html
12 TB Corbett and JH Ballenger. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Fourth Annual City Directory: Containing a Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms Etc. in The City Of Leadville for 1883. (Denver, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1883). Page ?
13 Durham. (S.J. Publishing Company: Spokane, 1912) Pages 399-400.
14 1930 United States Federal Census. Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 136; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0106; Image: 553.0; FHL microfilm: 2339871.
15 Durham. (S.J. Publishing Company: Spokane, 1912) Pages 399-400.
16 1900 United States Federal Census. Year: 1900; Census Place: Spokane Ward 3, Spokane, Washington; Roll: 1751; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0068; FHL microfilm: 1241751
17 California Death Index, 1940-1997. [database]. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQ2-R2R : 26 November 2014). John Sengfelder, 24 Sep 1946; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
Bibliography
1900 United States Federal Census. Year: 1900; Census Place: Spokane Ward 3, Spokane, Washington; Roll: 1751; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 0068; FHL microfilm: 1241751.
1930 United States Federal Census. Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 136; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0106; Image: 553.0; FHL microfilm: 2339871.
California Death Index, 1940-1997. [database]. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPQ2-R2R : 26 November 2014). John Sengfelder, 24 Sep 1946; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
Chloride Bakery. Aspen, CO: The Aspen Weekly Times. April 23, 1881.
Corbett, TB and Ballenger, JH. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Second Annual City Directory: Containing a Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms etc. in The City Of Leadville for 1881. Leadville, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1881.
Corbett, TB and Ballenger, JH. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Third Annual City Directory: Containing A Complete List Of The Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms Etc. In The City Of Leadville For 1882. Leadville, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1882.
Corbett, TB and Ballenger, JH. Corbett, and Ballenger’s Fourth Annual City Directory: Containing a Complete List of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms etc. in The City Of Leadville for 1883. Leadville, CO: Corbett and Ballenger Publishers.1883.
Durham, Nelson Wayne. History of the Spokane and Spokane County, Washington: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Volume 2. (Spokane, WA: S.J. Publishing Company). 1912. Pp. 399-400.
Grocers. Leadville, CO: Leadville Democrat. March 3, 1881.
Kosher Sausages!. Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald. November 25, 1880.
Knights of Robert Emmet. Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald. October 15, 1881.
Sweet Thirty. Leadville, CO: Leadville Daily Herald. October 22, 1882.
The Chloride. Aspen, CO: The Rocky Mountain Sun. July 16, 1881.
United States Census, 1880. [database with images]. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFDJ-L6M : 19 February 2021). John Sengfielder in Household of I J Adamson. Leadville, Lake, Colorado, United States; citing enumeration district ED 82, sheet 451C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,091.
To cite any of the information in this biography, please use the following reference.
AUTHOR: Jeffrey P. Grant
CONTRIBUTOR: Crystal Turpin
EDITOR: William Korn
SOURCE: Jewish Surnames/Sengfelder
PUBLISHED BY: Temple Israel Foundation. Leadville, CO; USA. 2021.
STABLE URL: http://www.jewishledville.org/sengfelder.html
