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Promissory Note -Item 3 of 3 from a group of Max Klein... Allegheny PA Distiller ...all entered seperately. 3 of 3 is a promissory note w/revenue stamps..06/12/1899..... KEEP AS A GROUP...one of leading Jewish citizens of Pittsburgh Mr. Klein was listed in the Industries and Wealth of Pittsburgh and Environs of 1890. He was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1843, came to the United States in 1859 settling in Cincinnati, Ohio then moving to Vicksburg, Mississippi six months later. Klein remained in Vicksburg until the start of the Civil War and "came up the Mississippi on the streamer 'Emma' which was the last vessel to pass through the blockade." After stopping in Keokuk, Iowa, he enlisted in Company F, First Iowa Cavalry as a private having only been in the United States a year and a half. This three year Union Cavalry unit was like the cavalry of the Confederacy - you had to provide your own horse and equipment. The First Iowa Cavalry served mainly in the western theater with service in the Battle of Prairie Grove December 1862 in northwest Arkansas. He reenlisted in the field and was promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to duty in Texas during reconstruction. He was discharged out of Austin, Texas after serving under General George Armstrong Custer in the Seventh Cavalry in 1866. Returning to Keokuk, he married Henrietta Stern and moved in 1870 to the Pittsburgh area. After a few years learning the retail and wholesale liquor business he opened "Max Klein, Distiller and Importer" on Wood Street. Early in the 1880s he moved his business to 82 Federal Street, a four-story building opposite the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad depot. The warehouse for the business was at the corner of Sandusky and Lacock St. where he distilled "Klein's Silver Age Pure Rye" and housed his superb selection of the finest vintage wines from France, Germany and Italy - and all kinds of cordials and liqueurs. Klein was the sole producer and distributor of the "Silver Age" label which stated it never was sold until it Mrs. Klein donated to the Gusky Jewish Orphanage in the North End of Allegheny. In 1898 Max became the Vice President of the Concordia Club, founded in 1874 by a group of mainly German-American Reformed Jews. The purpose of the club was to promote social and literary entertainment among its members. The Klein family used the Club for their daughter's wedding reception. Rodef Shalom was the family's religious home which they supported and where they were very involved. The Jewish Criterion, a Jewish weekly newspaper published in the interest of Reformed Judaism, told that Mr. Max Klein was elected guardian of Sar Shalem, which was a lodge of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in 1903. Max Klein was also involved with GAR Post 128 being chosen to be the "Commander of the Day" for the military procession celebrating Grand Army Day in Pittsburgh and Allegheny in 1886. Many of his GAR comrades address him as "Major," an honorific given to him out of respect for his lengthy service in the war and his work in the organization. Some other members of his post were Hugh S. Fleming, elected multiple years to be the Mayor of Allegheny City and Thomas G. Sample, a superintendent of Public Printing of Pennsylvania. On October 20, 1907 Max Klein suddenly died of apoplexy (stroke) at his home on South Atlantic Avenue at the age 67. West View Cemetery on Cemetery Lane is the final resting place of the Klein family.

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