Erasmus Jerzmanowski

Vocation

Polish industrialist, philanthropist and patron of art. At age 20 in 1864, he went to Paris and studied at the Polish School in Montparnasse. Later he moved to Metz to study at the School of Engineering and Artillery. In 1870 he participated in the Franco-Prussian War as an officer of the French Army. After the war he began working as an engineer. In 1873 a French company, which had been exploiting lighting-gas in America, sent him to the United States. Shortly after going to America Jerzmanowski married Anna Koester, and in 1879 he received American citizenship. He worked on production of the calcium carbide, in the meantime patenting 17 inventions in the field of mining and investing money. In 1882 he was a co-founder of Equitable Gas Light Company in New York, as a vice-chairman and later chairman he led this company for 13 years. He was a founder of gas companies in Chicago and Baltimore and owned gas factories in Indianapolis. Jerzmanowski's fortune has been growing fast, he became the richest Polish in the United States and one of the richest Americans. Being one of the most influential directors in gas industry he has been supporting financially other people of American Polonia. In 1889 pope Leo XIII decorated him with Knight Commander of Order of St. Sylvester. In 1896 Jerzmanowski bought ground with a palace in Galicia and settled in Prokocim, near Kraków, where he died on 7 February 1909 at age 64. Link to Wikipedia biography